Copernica tapped the glass with her fingernail and said, ‘Grumbling Gertrudes.’
The clock started to whirl round, then paused. The ink that had said Information before dissolved and formed the words Peddling Palatable Potions, Chapter Nine, Trade Secrets, by Festival Moss, and the clock hand pointed to shelf eleven.
‘Moss!’ exclaimed Willow. ‘That’s interesting – that’s the same surname as me.’
‘Well, magical abilities do run in families. Did anyone in yours have the ability to make potions?’ asked Copernica.
Willow swallowed. ‘Yes,’ she said as sadness filled her chest. She pushed it back down. She didn’t have time for that now. ‘But what do we do if we don’t know what we’re looking for?’
Copernica frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, we’re looking for the name of a plant we’ve seen. We don’t know much about it, though, except that it belonged to a forgotten teller.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Copernica. ‘Sometimes you can describe it to the dial and it sort of cross-references things. Otherwise, I’m afraid you might have to look at all of these.’ She waved a hand to indicate all the shelves filled with books on magical botany. ‘What does it look like, the plant?’
Willow opened the hairy green carpetbag and fished out the jam jar with the small purple iris inside, which then began to shift and swirl into smoke. ‘Like this,’ she said, showing it to her.
Copernica looked at the jam jar for a moment, then handed it back to Willow. She cleared her throat, then tapped the glass on the library dial and said, ‘Magical irises, purple, smoke-like properties?’
The dial whirled round and round, then the clock hand kept moving back and forth between shelves twenty-three and twenty-four.
There were two loud clock chimes, signifying the hour, and Copernica jumped. ‘Oh, Great Starfell, I’m late for my meeting with the council – I completely forgot about it. I was so enjoying meeting all of you!’
‘Us too!’ said Essential.
Copernica beamed. ‘What a pity. Next time you’re in Library, please do come and visit – I make a really good carrot cake!’
‘We’d love that! Thank you so much for all your help!’ said Willow, who had really enjoyed meeting the Secret Keeper and her tour of Library.
Oswin was the only one who didn’t seem all that impressed. ‘Carrots is not CAKE,’ he muttered from the bag. ‘Lib-brains.’
There were hundreds of books to choose from on shelves twenty-three and twenty-four.
Willow sighed. ‘Well, we’d better get started then,’ she said, opening a book that spoke of purple irises that were used in blood curses. ‘Gosh, this is a bit dodgy,’ she added, scanning it. The pictures, however, weren’t like the plant in her jar. She stared at it. The petals shimmered, then shuddered.
‘This one isn’t especially helpful either,’ said Sprig, showing them one that spoke about using irises in a garden border to protect against magical pests.
‘Or these,’ said Essential, who was paging through a historical book that described the changing climate of Starfell and how it affected the plants.
Then Essential spotted a thin blue book that looked handwritten. She picked it up and gasped. ‘The Lost Art of Forgotten Telling: A Year in the Garden,’ she breathed, ‘by Nolin Sometimes!’
They all shared a look.
‘This must have it!’ breathed Willow, sitting forward excitedly.
They paged through it. There were hundreds of detailed botanical drawings, including the magical memory flower and the bliss flower. There was also the rather creepy carvery, which she’d seen in a jar just the night before.
On the page next to each botanical print was a small history of the plant’s origins, properties and how it helped in the art of forgotten telling. The text outlined each plant’s propagation history, along with the observations of past oubliers.
Willow started going through the pages with more speed, until she caught sight of a purple plant and gasped.
There it was – a simple plant that looked like a purple iris with long, thin, dark blue roots suspended in the air. There were two drawings, one of the plant in its natural state and another of what looked like a house made of purple-and-blue glittery smoke. She read the text aloud.
‘Mimic plant. While referred to in the singular form, the plant is a set – a pair of twins that can be planted in different locations. When the iris-like flower has been watered, the plant forms a smoke-like substance and mimics its surroundings.’
Willow gasped. ‘I did that! I watered it and then it turned smoky and strange – and turned into … well … me! It was mimicking me. This must be the mimic plant!’
‘That’s incredible,’ breathed Essential.
‘What else does it say? How will it help us?’ cried Feathering, and Willow read the rest aloud.
‘However, if one dies, the other will not live. It is believed that they can communicate their locations to one another if they are separated. These effects were discovered when the plants were potted in separate locations by renowned oublier, Ready Sometimes. When she submerged the roots of one plant in water at midnight (midnight and the moon having transformative effects on many magical plants), it transformed not into a smoke-like shadow of herself, but displayed instead a replica of the garden where its twin was planted. The plants were used as a means of communicating the secret locations of magicians during the Long War as a way to keep families safe, but this has long gone out of common usage now. See page 73 for more plants that were used during the war …’
Willow touched the jam jar plant, but it didn’t transform into the smoky substance. ‘It needs to be watered! Then it’ll change into me again.’
There was a fountain nearby and Essential dashed to get the plant some water. They watched as the smoke seemed to judder slightly in the glass jar, then it transformed into a girl with very curly hair and large glasses, her face beaming. ‘If this is part of a pair,then—’
‘He must have the other plant!’ cried Willow.
‘They are used to tell the location of one another,’ breathed Feathering. ‘Remarkable.’
‘Does that mean he can see us now?’ exclaimed Essential, pushing up her glasses.
‘No,’ said Sprig. He leant forward to reread the passage aloud. ‘When she submerged the roots of one plant in water at midnight … it … displayed … a replica of the garden where its twin was planted.’
‘We have to wait till midnight to submerge the roots. Then we’ll know where he is!’ said Willow with a wide grin.
Finally!
18
The Ghost Tree
They approached the fountain in the centre of the Old Library Gardens a second time just before midnight.
Though they’d been impatient for night to fall, hope had buoyed them, and they had passed the afternoon strolling along the Library streets. In the evening, they had eaten dinner at a bookish café, which had served Feathering whole baked pumpkins out of one of their windows, to his delight.
As they crept near the fountain now, the topiary children gathered round them at a safe distance from the dragon, curious as to what they were doing. Willow’s foot stepped on a paving stone, and it began to glow, like candlelight. Dozens followed as they neared the fountain.