“This magic isn’t really different, is it?” asked Amma, nibbling on a nail and eyeing a cluster of teal mushrooms that seemed suspect.
“What do you mean?” Em was almost dancing as she went, tapping her staff and humming.
“All of it. Whether the gods have blessed someone or if they have demon blood or if it’s the elves talking to the trees, it’s all the same, right?”
“You know, that’s a theory,” said Em. “And when you come right down to it, you’re either making something or destroying something, and there might not be a whole lot of difference between those two acts either.”
Amma screwed up her face. “Are you really arguing that if I make a tree sprout out of an acorn, it’s the same as if I chop one down?”
“The tree you make won’t last forever—maybe it was better off as an acorn? And if you do fell one, then you’re left with the space to make something new, not to mention the fallen tree to create from.” She hummed a little more. “But it’s not that simple, is it?”
“Most people think it is,” Amma said with a sigh. “They believe certain kinds of arcana are evil and others are good, and that’s it.”
Em chuckled. “Well, they’re probably not right. I’d reckon you’ve seen some evil magics do at least a little good—I know I have. And it’s not like the arcana knows what it’s doing, just that it wants todo. It’s mostly neutral.”
“Neutral,” Amma repeated, kicking at the ground, and then falling still. There, where her boot had just mussed the tendrils of a fern, was a leaf she recognized. A pink one.
Amma grabbed it up from the floor of the Innomina Wildwood, feeling every inch of it carefully, running fingers over the veins, tracing its shape, and breathing in its citrusy, floral smell. “It’s real,” she said, whipping toward Em and holding the leaf out. “You have to take me to it.”
“To what, dear?”
“The wild liathau!” Amma’s heart sprang at hearing herself say the words, the impossible idea solidifying in her mind. It had seemed ludicrous when Laurel suggested the others would go searching for the trees somewhere else in the realm, but now Amma was standing with the evidence in her hands. “Thisis why I’m here. The help you said I was coming for? It’s not forme, it’s for my people, in Faebarrow. We grow liathau there, our whole survival is based around its cultivation, and our orchard was decimated. They don’t grow anywhere else, that’s what we’ve always thought, but I need seeds, and this one,”—she shook the leaf—“this one will have them!”
Em took the leaf from her with weathered hands, easing fingers over it. “Liathau, you called it?”
“From Sestoth.” Amma was nodding and grinning ferociously.
“This tree is here, and you are right, but there is only one, and it’s so old.” She twisted her lips. “It no longer bears fruit.”
“I don’t care, I have to see it!” Amma wound her hands over one another. “Please, take me there.”
Em cackled, dropping the leaf and hustling ahead. “Well, can’t say no to that, and now I’m excited too.”
With taps of her staff and wobbles through the wildwood, they came to a new part of the jungle, one that was really just like the rest of it, but felt fresh and new. Amma’s heart hadn’t slowed, and when she finally laid eyes on the rich, twisting bark, it nearly exploded from her chest. The wild liathau tree was real.
At its base was a ring of darkening leaves, pink and red, spattered over the greenery like beautiful droplets of blood. Everything else was as the Innomina Wildwood normally existed, but this space felt like home.
The liathau was tall, much taller than everything around it, and the rest of the trees were already four and five stories off the ground, the canopy dark and clustered. Em stepped right up to it, a hand on her hip, head tilted back. “Oh, boy.”
“What?” Amma was broken from her long look up the trunk by the woman’s sigh.
“No, no, nothing, dear, just…go on.”
Amma pressed a hand to the trunk of the tree, eyes closing, heart fluttering. Holy gods, it was like standing in the orchard, the sharp, sweet smell sweeping over her, and for a moment, she could hear the gentle thunk of harvested seeds, the chirping of sparrows, Laurel’s laughter.
What do you want?
Amma’s eyes almost popped open.E-excuse me?
What. Do. You. Want.
Amma swallowed.Uh, hi? You’re the…the liathau, right?
Yeah, sure, what else would I be?The voice in Amma’s head was not distinct, but it was there, like the words were projected onto her mind, though it was clear they were irritated, to say the least, which was rather unbecoming of an ancient, blessed tree.
Luckily, Amma had a lot of practice dealing with the easily irritated. She cleared her throat despite that she wasn’t speaking aloud, and smiled despite that she wasn’t sure the tree could really see her.Of course, so sorry to bother you, but I had to come when I saw one of your leaves in the wildwood. I was only wondering if maybe I could trouble you for just a few of your lovely seeds?
Seeds?The word was like being struck right up against her head, and Amma actually staggered.I’m over fifty thousand years old, and you want seeds?
