The first week of March brought Evergreen Academy’s annual Capture the Roses game. I’d been anticipating the game ever since hearing about it and hoped I would get at least Yasmin, Coral, or Aurielle on my team.
When the day of the event arrived, we all gathered in and around the front gardens. Professor Tenella lifted her hands and magically clipped two enormous red roses from their bushes. She dropped them into two large jars, where they appeared to float in midair, petals outstretched in every direction.
“Welcome to our annual Capture the Roses competition. The area in play includes the entire academy grounds, outside only. No hiding your roses in the academy building itself. You will work with your team members to devise a plan to try to retrieve the other team’s rose while protecting your own. All powers are allowed, but any that will result in an injury above basic bruises or scrapes are not permitted. Instructors will be monitoring andwillremove botanists from the game if they areusing affinities to injure others. We trust that you all will be more creative than that. As a reminder, the winners get easy entry to the vernal equinox celebration.”
Excitement thrummed through the crowd of gathered students like bees flitting through the flower gardens.
“Now, for your teams.” She began to call out names into Xylem and Phloem teams, and the group began to sort itself into two sides. Yasmin was called to Team Xylem and Coral to Team Phloem. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I’d have at least one of them on my team. Aurielle was added to Yasmin’s team.
“Callan Rhodes.” I looked up at the sound of his name. “Team Phloem.” I heard a few groans from Team Xylem. Eli Quinn had been sorted into Team Phloem a few moments earlier. But then Professor Tenella announced that Nevah was on Team Xylem, and there were loud cheers from that side that they had snagged one of the three founders’ descendants.
With a last name starting withW, I was one of the last students called. Finally, Professor Tenella read my name, and I stood up straight.
“Briar Whelan… Team Phloem!” A few people high-fived me, and then I locked eyes with Coral and grinned as she moved to link her arm with mine.
“Thank spores you’re on my team. I was worried you, Yas, and Aurielle were going to have all the fun without me.”
“Circle up,” Eli Quinn called, and suddenly we were all business. Team Xylem was dispersing into the woods, presumably to do its huddle out of earshot.
“We’re going to break up into offensive and defensive teams. Defensive teams protect our rose at all costs. The offensegoes for the other team’s rose. If you have a preference, sort yourselves. Everyone else, stay here, and Rhodes and I will sort.” I raised my eyebrows a little at Callan’s name, realizing I shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course, he and Eli were the unofficial team captains.
A handful of students split into offensive and defensive groups, but Coral and I remained in the middle with the others. Eli and Callan walked around the middle group, asking each person for their affinity powers and sorting them. When they reached Coral, she said, “Fern girly here.”
“Defensive. Ferns are notoriously good at hiding things,” Eli said, and Callan nodded. Coral wiggled her eyebrows at me and walked to the defensive team. “Where to put you?” Eli inclined his head toward me.
“Whelan’s with me,” Callan’s decisive answer sent a pleasant jolt through me.
Eli nodded then said, “Defensive team, with me. Offense, with Rhodes.”
Callan gave me a curt nod then shifted his attention to the group on our right. I glanced back at Coral, who gave me a wave of farewell as she disappeared into the forest.
“We’re on offense, which means if we can’t detect and capture their rose, we lose,” Callan said, raising his voice so that everyone in the vicinity could hear.
“No pressure,” a fellow first-year murmured from my side.
“As you can imagine, Eli Quinn isn’t too keen on losing his last Capture the Roses game at Evergreen Academy, and I’m sure none of you are either. Let’s hear your plans.”
Callan allowed various individuals to share their ideas, nodding and asking direct follow-up questions. I got a glimpseof how sharp his strategic mind was, how he took a proposal and examined it from angles I hadn’t even considered.
Finally, he turned to me. “And what’s your strategy, Whelan?” I tried to suppress a smile at his use of my last name, assuming it was part of histeam captainpersona. Why did I enjoy every side that I saw of him?
“Well,” I began slowly, “we can’t win if we can’t locate their rose. All the tree roots are interconnected across the grounds. Would the trees be able to communicate the location to us? Once we have that, we could put together a plan of attack.”
A faint smile graced Callan’s lips. “That’s the best detection suggestion I’ve heard so far. Tree affinities, gather up.”
I opened my senses as we gathered, reaching out to neighboring trees. Like me, most of the tree affinities used a few common Floracantus for communication, asking the trees to seek out the location of the rose and pass it back to us through their network of roots.
Callan used a complicated Floracantus that I couldn’t understand, something to do with chemical secretions in the soil.
We waited a few moments, and then a shiver passed over me as, with a jolt of excitement, I sensed it. A tugging toward the eastern border of the campus. All of us with tree affinities turned our heads in that direction.
“It’s over there?” one of the students with a lead aquatic affinity asked us.
“Seems like it. We can’t pinpoint the exact location because they’re shielding it with something, but that’s enough to get us started. What do we know about the eastern edge of campus?” Callan prompted.
“A river runs through it,” the same girl said again, rubbing her hands in anticipation.
“Exactly. Aquatics, you’re gonna be the heavy hitters for this one.”
