“Come on, Feathergrass. You don’t think I could have grown some plants with special abilities in all the time I’ve been here?”
Feathergrass stiffened, and Wendy looked between the two men. “Why should we trust your elixir? You could have adjusted it to do any number of things.”
“Ah, that. Well, I guess you’re just going to have to take my word for it. The elixir has an interesting mechanism of action. At midnight, if it deems you disloyal to the academy, you will have fifteen minutes to leave before the roots of the walking palm escort you off the campus grounds.”
Wendy paled.
Professor East looked at his watch. “Any second now.” He poured himself a glass from the open bottle and took a drink, making it clear that he was including himself in the test.
A deep rumbling came from the ground, but it was different from the earthquake-like motion that had occurred when I reset the shield. The leaves at the tree line rustled, then the giant, stilted roots of the three walking palms began to creep forward.
I’d known the interesting trees with above-ground roots existed at Evergreen Academy, but I had never seen them move before. It must have taken an incredible amount of magic to trigger the trees to move so much. From the gasps and murmurs coming from the rest of the partygoers, I assumed it was a first-time event for them too.
I glanced at Callan again and saw a gleam in his eye as he nodded at Professor Bowellia. The tree affinity instructor must have helped Professor East set everything up.
The palms moved toward Feathergrass and Wendy, their massive stilt-like roots creeping in mesmerizing motion, until they cut the two board members off from the rest of the group and formed a cage around them.
Feathergrass used his grass affinity powers to make bamboo shoots rapidly sprout from the earth in an attempt to push back the walking palms. But the bamboo was easily broken, and the walking palms trampled the sprouts with their roots in a slow, methodical fashion.
Nearby, the few other members of the board who were visiting stiffened. Primrose Marsh put her hand to her mouth.
“All right,” Wendy said firmly. “That’s enough. We’ll go.”
The walking palms retreated, their roots moving backward, but still stood by.
“Do both of you hereby submit your resignations from the Board of Regents, by reason of deliberate harm to the school in the poisoning of the verdant shield last year?” Professor East asked.
Gasps came from the gathered crowd.
“I’m sure the council members at each of the botanicalconservatories will be disappointed to hear this news,” Meadow’s mom said, stepping forward and crossing her arms.
The pair of former board members looked like they didn’t want to agree, but when the walking palms crept closer once more, Wendy gave a stiff nod.
“Excellent,” Professor East said. “Then please see yourselves out.”
Wendy cast one look back at her two sons then straightened her shoulders and began to walk toward the academy’s gates.
As I watched her go, a knot of concern formed in my stomach as I wondered how the two Rhodes brothers were feeling. Would they always be in opposition to their mother, or would she come around to understanding why they disagreed with her? And where did their dad stand on all this? I was glad that Wyatt and Callan seemed to have each other, at least.
At Wendy’s departure, the group emitted a collective exhalation. My shoulders relaxed, hopeful this might end quickly.
But Feathergrass didn’t move.
“Your interests are not in line with those of the students and the academy, Frederick,” Professor East said. He nodded toward Wendy’s retreating figure, the instruction clear.
“You’re going to let students dictate how you run this place?” Feathergrass scoffed. “I thought you had more cactus spine than that.”
“My students happen to be right. But even if they weren’t, dramatic changes to the school or to the society shouldn’t be implemented on the whims of a handful of people. Founders’ descendants don’t define our students here at the school, and affinity powers don’t define botanists in the wider community.We are all magical botanists, and we all have a purpose in this world.”
“Then why don’t we settle this right now with a battle of the plants. The strongest botanist will be the director of Evergreen Academy,” Feathergrass said. One of the walking palms edged closer to him, but he sidestepped it.
“Strength is only one aspect of leadership, Frederick,” Professor East said. “We do not teach our students to fight at this school. That is not the purpose of our relationship with plants.”
“And that is precisely the problem. Our botanists need to be more aggressive if we want to have the upper hand against humans,” Feathergrass said.
A few gasps came from the assembled students. We had known those were his intentions, but he had never said it so bluntly.
When Professor East didn’t respond, Feathergrass put up his hands and said a Floracantus, and sandhill rosemary sprang from the ground around him. Immediately, the enhanced allelopathy from the grasses began to choke out other plants in a circle around him, spreading outward. The roots of any plants the rosemary met shriveled and died on the spot. Feathergrass was clearing a path. I remembered Ravenna saying he was famous for that move.
