“Just doing a quick check of the soil,” he said, looking up from the microscope and closing his notebook.
“What happened on Friday?” I blurted. I’d had homework and my Saturday shift at the café to distract me over the weekend, but my mind was never far from the question of what had occurred with the verdant shield after our game of Capture the Roses.
“Let’s go off campus for a bit.”
“You’re really going to drag this out, aren’t you?”
A tiny smile grazed his lips, but I noticed a slight twitch in his forehead, just above his left eyebrow. What did that mean? Was he stressed? Nervous?
“I think a history lesson is in order today.”
I sighed but couldn’t squelch the little thrill of anticipation I felt at the idea of spending more time with just him.
We went to Callan’s truck, and he navigated off campus, out of the woods, and onto the road that led toward a popular send-off point for hiking the mountain.
A nervous clenching of my stomach formed as we approached the bends that would wind up the mountain. I didn’t know exactly where it had happened, but my mom’s car accident had taken place somewhere along this road on that horrible winter night. I gripped my seat belt and closed my eyes for a few moments until I thought we had passed it.
“You okay?” Callan asked when I opened my eyes again and inhaled a deep breath.
“Car sickness,” I lied, not wanting to explain. Not wanting to dampen whatever he had planned with the memory of the worst day of my life. I threw out a joking line instead, ready to shift the atmosphere in the truck.
“Please tell me we’re not hiking Mount Shasta today. I’m not in that good of shape.”
Callan smiled, and my chest relaxed. The moment of dread had passed, just like every other time I’d forced myself up this highway. And this time, I let myself get lost in Callan’s smile, in the woodsy smell of his truck, in the way there was a loose wave on the top of his chestnut-brown hair that flopped to the side with the mild breeze that rushed through the open window. I was okay. I was safe.
“Not today. But now that you gave me the idea…”
I groaned. “Just rewind the last minute and pretend I neversaid anything.” We reached the parking lot, which wasn’t full on a Monday morning.
Callan parked then led me to a trail that I knew led to a base camp of sorts. We’d taken field trips to do this hike in high school, and back then, I’d squeezed my eyes closed and held my breath on the bus as I’d done in Callan’s truck, not letting the emotion overwhelm my entire experience of the day.
“Don’t worry, we’re just walking a ways. I wanted to tell you more about the history of the academy. You know that it was founded by several powerful botanist families, one for each of the nine lead affinities. One of the reasons this region was selected for the academy was the ecology of the area. The remoteness was an important factor, too, but the natural conditions were primary. This area is at the top of the water table for the state.”
I nodded, having known that people traveled to our tiny town from all over the world just to try its pure mountain spring water.
“The quality of the water is an amazing source of life for the plants in this area, and the conditions of the soil here were perfect for embedding the verdant shield that protects the school. Over time, the conditions of the soil around the school have changed due to periods of drought, contamination from fires, and other factors. You can think of it like the verdant shield no longer having as firm of a grasp on the soil as it once did.”
“But what about when the founders’ descendants recharge the shield on the solstices and equinoxes?”
“That has always helped, but our families’ powers have not maintained their potency. Many of our affinity powers haveweakened since the founders originally created the shield. Between that and the weakening soil, it’s been difficult to keep the verdant shield operating at full capacity.”
“Why do you think it went down for so much longer last night? It doesn’t seem like the steady trend downward we’d expect from something like this.”
Callan’s shoulders tightened. “We’re looking into some leads.”
“Is that what you were doing at the tree house? What kind of leads?”
“Based on what happened last night, we’re looking to see if the levels of soil contamination have increased substantially. Professor East should have results soon.”
“Soil contamination? Like, if there was a chemical spill near the property?”
“Something like that.”
“So what happens now? Aside from running the tests, I mean. Is there a plan for getting the shield up to operational power?”
“At the spring equinox, a handful of other founders’ descendants are going to come to the school and join us for recharging the shields. Professor East did not want to get the Magical Botanical Board of Regents involved unless as a last resort, but after Friday, we’ve reached the last-resort stage.”
“The Board of Regents?” I asked, feeling a spike of anxiety based on what Callan had told me about their interest in me. “Why can’t alumni or upcoming founders’ descendants come to recharge it, like they do in years when no founders’ descendants are attending?”
