Essential and Feathering looked confused.
‘Why, what’s happened?’ asked Essential.
Willow sighed. She’d been hoping that maybe they knew something. ‘It’s really bad. Nolin Sometimes was captured!’
Essential gasped.
The dragon’s eye swivelled to Willow, his reservations about Sprig momentarily forgotten. ‘CAPTURED? By whom?’ he breathed.
‘I don’t know! He asked me to help him – and I’ve been trying – but m-my magic has failed. I came here because he asked me to look in on Harold and I’ve—’
‘So that’s why you’re here!’ gasped Essential. ‘Everyone was worried about you.’
‘About me?’ asked Willow. It was her turn to be surprised.
Essential nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose. ‘Yes, it’s been mad – your mother sent a message to Rubix, asking her to keep an eye out for you as you’d run away. So I persuaded Rubix to go and see them, as I was worried. But it was so strange – because of the missing day, none of them remembered that you and I had met before. They were asking all kinds of questions. Panicking, I think. That’s why I’m so relieved you’re here. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Brothers of Wol?’
Willow blinked, then looked from Sprig to Essential. ‘Heard what?’ She felt uneasy. They may have succeeded in restoring the stolen day, but she was sure that the trouble in Wolkana was not over. Silas, the Brother who had stolen the day, was still out there, and she was sure he must be furious. She didn’t know what he was planning now …
‘There’s some new edict they signed,’ said Essential. ‘It’s horrible – now they can lock up any witch or wizard they believe may be a threat. It was meant to be only if they were acting dangerously, but the Brothers of Wol have taken it to mean all powerful magical people. Magic folk are saying that they’ve broken the treaty – things are not looking good.’
Willow gasped. ‘No! That’s horrible! I had no idea.’
Essential nodded. ‘I’m so glad they didn’t take you! Your mother was worried that you might have been captured. That’s why I came – and I met Feathering on the way. I thought if you’d run away there was probably a good reason.’ She pushed up her glasses again and gave her a grin, which Willow returned. She couldn’t help feeling so grateful for her friends.
‘Thank you,’ said Willow, who felt a stab of guilt at making them all worry, especially her family. ‘You were right. I had to leave – they wouldn’t believe me. They didn’t trust that Sometimes was missing. See, I got this note from him.’ She showed them the leaf-scroll that had recently reappeared.
‘Oh no!’ cried Essential. ‘This is terrible!’
Feathering’s golden eye widened as he read it. He shook his head. ‘I had a feeling something was wrong. I came across one of the rock dragons – they stay dormant for years in the Cloud Mountains, but one of them woke up when a pepper tree kept calling for me and making the rock dragon sneeze. By the time I got there, though, the pepper tree had long since walked off.’ He sighed, then added, ‘It was a bit bruised. Rock dragons, you know … not exactly gentle beasts.’
Willow did not know. She hadn’t even known there were such things as rock dragons. But what Feathering said made sense. ‘Sometimes mentioned in the letter that he tried to contact you.’ She read the bit about ‘pepper-tree communication’ again.
Feathering nodded. ‘Yes, he planted it a few weeks ago when he came for a visit. It was a nice gesture, as he knows how fond I am of pepper tea. He mentioned something about being able to stay in touch, but I didn’t think anything of it. I assumed he meant he’d just be coming round more often – I didn’t realise he had the skill to communicate with the tree’s spirit.’
Essential’s eyes widened. ‘Well, it is pretty rare …’
Willow nodded, thinking about the oak tree in her garden that Sometimes had used to contact her in the same way.
Feathering looked sad. ‘What a pity the tree missed me. Perhaps this could have been prevented if I’d been home. Was it them, the Brothers of Wol? Did they come for him because he’s a danger?’
Willow shook her head. ‘I don’t know. But how is he a danger, out here away from everyone?’
They shrugged. It didn’t make sense – Sometimes was more of a danger around others, blurting out their memories and secrets. There was more reason to leave him miles away from people than to capture him …
Then Willow smacked her forehead. In the excitement of Feathering’s arrival, she’d almost forgotten. ‘Hang on, there’s something else. I found it before you came,’ she said, then raced back inside the stilt house to fetch the plant that had been addressed to her. She skipped back again over the suspended rocks and showed them the strange iris in the jam jar.
‘MP?’ asked Essential, her eyes scanning the label. ‘What does that mean?’
Willow shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Most of the plants inside have labels saying what they are, except for a few, so it looks like maybe he hadn’t got round to filling them all out. Do you think it means something?’
‘It might just have been something he cultivated for you, something that reminded him of you,’ said Feathering. ‘He planted the pepper tree on the mountain for me because he knew I liked the tea.’
Willow’s heart sank at the dragon’s words.
Sprig ran a hand through his dark hair. He looked thin and solemn next to the dragon, who still clearly didn’t trust him. ‘I think it’s a clue,’ he said to their surprise. ‘He is smart, from all you’ve said. Also, I agree it’s unlikely to have been the Brothers.’
Willow frowned, then looked back at the jam jar in the palm of her hand. The plant seemed to flicker in the light for a moment. ‘Maybe Sprig is right. Like you said, Feathering, not much grows on the Cloud Mountains, and Sometimes knew that if he planted that tree he could use it to try and get in touch with you. So maybe it was a bit of both – something you liked, but also something he could use to contact you if needed …’
‘That’s true,’ the dragon acknowledged. ‘It did bring me here.’
Essential peered at the note from Sometimes that was still in her hands, then frowned. Her fingers touched the little splodge at the end that looked like a plant doodle. ‘It’s an iris!’ she breathed. Then she showed it to Willow and the others. ‘He wanted you to find this, look!’
They stared at the note in Essential’s hands. ‘You’re right!’ cried Willow.
‘Maybe he couldn’t tell you what he’d left for you in case whoever had taken him saw it – but he knows that you understand his connection with plants. Maybe he trusted that you’d work out what this means?’ suggested Essential.
Feathering nodded. ‘I think so too.’
‘But how will we find out what it is?’ asked Sprig. ‘Is there another forgotten teller we can ask?
‘No, they’re really rare,’ sighed Essential.
Willow nodded. ‘And extremely hard to find.’