There were twelve of them, and they were not like theother flowers. These were huge, the stems so long the flowers themselves reached up to my chest, and they were all planted in a perfect line, each one a different color. Blue and pink and red and yellow, and the petals were all closed at first.
But as we went closer, they began to slowly pull open, like they couldseeus. Like they’d been waiting for us all along.
Their scent was intoxicating. My mouth watered. They smelled absolutely delicious enough to eat—and inside each flower, surrounded by those velvety petals, there was a handful of what looked like small rocks at first. But then…
“The helping hand,” said one Hand or the other—and they were right. This must have been the help that Johnny the speaker had talked about before we entered.
“They’re seeds,” said Silas as he approached the first flower and took one between his fingers. We all did the same, too—and indeed, they looked exactly like seeds.
“A handful for all of us,” said Anika. “Should we take them?”
“I think so. The flowers opened for us,” said Russ as he gathered all the seeds from a flower with bright purple petals. I gathered mine from a blue one, the color so pale it looked almost white. Absolutely gorgeous.
Seven seeds were in my fist, and I leaned in to sniff the petal, too, just out of curiosity.
Yes, I’d believe it. This was exactly what the Everstill would smell like.
“So, what now? I don’t see stairs or anything like that,” said Reggie. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“What are we supposed to do withseeds, though?” March wondered as he looked down at his own secured in his fist.
“We save them for now. Let’s just keep moving and see what else we can find. This place is massive.” I put the seedsin the pocket of my suit for safekeeping, certain that when the time came to use them, we’d know.
Together, we made our way deeper into the tree.
“What do you think those rings are?” asked Russ.
“Magic. They buzz,” said Erith.
“Yes, but what kind of magic?”
Nobody had an answer—not even Silas.
The scenery didn’t change much the farther we went. And whichever way we turned, it all looked identical. Same colors—all shades of brown and green dotted with the bright colors of the flowers here and there. There were lanterns mounted on smaller branches here and there, too, and the glowing blue light of the rings was more than enough for us to see everything.
I stopped walking, and March stopped with me.
“There’s no way out.” There was no wayanywhereby the looks of it.
The others slowed down and stopped a few feet away, too, looking around, disoriented. No longer smiling.
“Up,” Mimi said, her eyes up on the never-ending network of branches. “We need to go up, don’t we?”
“How, though? Are we supposed to climbthese?” Reggie had gone to touch some of the threaded ropes that fell from the branches like decorations—but they were too weak. “Or just climb the trees themselves?”
“It would take us days to get up there—look how they’re connected. None go straight up,” Silas said.
He was right, too. The branches twisted and turned sideways most of the time, and we’d need averylong time to get to the top of this tree like that. Judging by how tall it had been from the outside, I doubted that was the right way.
“The seeds, then,” Reggie said. “We plant the seeds.” And he showed us the seeds he’d held in his fist.
“Could be,” Silas said, wrapping a hand around his chin as he thought it through.
“Do you guys…notice something?”
We all turned to Cook.
He was standing there, looking at his hands.
