His stone-cut face morphed from bewildered to determined, and he crackled somewhere further through the branches.
“I see them up ahead,” he called back, then crackled once more. “Keep resisting nomad!”
There was an increase in sound, creaking wood and muffled grunts. Mercury had engaged the intruder in a precarious fight. My moment of relief was shot to pieces as the branches themselves began to move and shake, knocking me back into the grass. Mercury shouted, cursed, and grew silent.
I scrambled back up. The altered trees cleared my line of sight, and I saw a branch wrapped tightly around Mercury like a snake. Willow and his captor were gone.
“What is happening out here!?” Marrow's hollow voice was accompanied by many sets of footsteps.
“Thank the Reaper!” I exclaimed, fighting through the twisted branches. “Please help! Someone's taken Willow! Mercury’s trapped!”
Ivory expanded her orange aura further than I'd ever seen it. My fear dissipated and morphed into intense focus. “Marrow, Piranha, Sharp: pursue them,” she ordered. “Doctors, help me with Mercury. Badger, give us all the details. Now.”
I pointed westward. “They went that way! It was just one person, but they were able to do all this to the tree.”
Piranha’s eyes were sharp daggers, and they jumped on all fours to lead the pursuers through the treetops. Olivine and Ivory forced through the branches to Mercury, wrapped in the python-like limbs of the Ghost Tree. At first glance, his situation was almost comical, but as I got a closer look, I saw both arms were twisted and broken in multiple places. My spine shivered.
Gold-and-Silver touched the bent-up branches. “Looks like Oil’s work, one of Melodia’s cronies. We need to remove him immediately.”
Remaining calm was a trait amongst all City-trained doctors, even in times of greatest stress. Olivine raised a hand, wiggled her fingers, and closed her eyes. The tree unwound with ease, and I helped them take his unconscious body to the gentle meadow floor.
“Badger, there’s something I need you to do.” Spirals twisted from Gold-and-Silver’s eyes. “Go into the Unseen Dimension. Tell Mercury to stay calm as we treat his injuries.” Noting my hesitation, he added, “He will survive, even if you fail. See if your power can be used to help others.”
I swallowed my fear and dissolved. Mercury’s soul was silvery blue, the shape of it abstract but almost human. I touched my hand to the edge of the light.
“Uh, hi. It's me. Badger. Your cousin.” I recalled the breakfast we shared when he first told me this, holding the scene in my mind. “Will you let me touch your soul? I want to make sure you’re okay.”
The temperature lowered. I inched closer to the center, biting like a frosty winter. Breathe and stay calm so the doctor can treat you, I thought. You are going to be fine.
A feeling of relief washed over me. I saw an image of Mercury, a memory of an isolated patch of grass in the dark undergrowth, where he used to meditate.
“Yes! Good! You understand! Just keep it up!” I reappeared to see Ivory’s face scrunched in pain. I offered the gentlest smile I could muster. “Don’t worry, he heard me. He’ll be okay.”
She put a hand on my mine. Without a word, her gratitude permeated the air.
Olivine continued setting the breaks. Gold’s neutral expression was cut with a relieved smile. “His heart rate is stabilizing. He'll regain consciousness in a few hours. Sorry if my urgency worried you Badger, but I’m grateful for the help.”
This compliment did not calm me down, but instead reminded me about the other predicament still in action. Willow. I jumped up and began to clamor through the unwieldy canopy. “I’m going after them.”
Ivory tugged the sleeve of my shirt. “You aren’t going to catch up. Maybe you should stay in case Mercury needs your help…” She could not hide her fear for her son, despite the doctor’s reassurance.
“Doesn’t matter.” I pulled away. She had the decency not to compel me to stay. I was slow, but I knew the others were just as determined. It was my fault Willow was up here in the first place.
Moving through the branches was tough, but I only wrestled with them for about ten minutes before running into Piranha, fangs clenched tight. Being raised in the Jungle, they could move through the trees like a fish in water.
“Did you find him?” I breathed.
Piranha gulped. “N-no Badge, we lost them. Marrow is certain he was taken to an underground passage leading to the palace. We need Olivine to find it.”
I held my arms to my chest, unable to catch my breath. Piranha put a hand under my chin and forced me to look into their eyes. “Fight it. For Willow’s sake, you need to keep yourself steady. No matter what it takes, we’ll get him back.”
Inhale. Exhale. Nod.
We returned to the Meadow Blue, Sharp and Marrow five minutes behind us. My undead uncle was as unreadable as ever, unlike my City friend, who wore the same look of horror from the night of the Wild Fruit.
The ATMOSPHERE tensed like a tight, mortal coil. An expressionless Ivory listened, and in the silence closed her eyes. When they opened, the hollows glowed, and her thick orange light engulfed us. It was like staring into the sun.
“Saving the nomad takes priority.” Her voice was soft, captivating. “It aligns with our original objective.”
Marrow and Olivine didn't gawk at this like I expected them to. Ivory's influence was so strong, no one in the room could speak. “How fast can we get to the palace?” she asked.
“Less than an hour, if we can find one of the passageways,” explained Marrow. “The only benefit from this situation is that we discovered the general area where one of these paths is located.”
“All right. We will need some time to discuss the strategy and gather resources—"
The doctor found his voice somehow. “It will be days before we're prepared, especially if we're going to wait for Mercury to recover. Are you trying to suggest…?”
She climbed to her seat swinging in the branches, using both her space and power to control the room. “Today,” she said. “Today we will begin the operation to infiltrate the palace and save Willow Of- the-Mountains.”
Chapter Thirteen
Into the Palace
An overcast sky did not let the sun shine on the Meadow. We sat with the Topaz Clan in an intense semi-circle, allowing Ivory’s influence to fully take hold. My friends sat on either side of me, our shoulders touching, feeling the chasm of Willow’s absence.
Ivory led us through the plan, the power of Charm holding all of us together. “The first thing is finding the pathway. It's certain to be in this radius.” Her hands hovered over a map of the Deep Dark. A circle was drawn on the southeast side, near the hideout. “After that, we’ll split up. The palace is vast, but the layout of the base floor is simple.”
