Wildwood Imperium (Wildwood Chronicles 3)

We are of the same mind. Come to the Tree.

Tonight.

Prue flipped it around and showed it to her partners in sleuthery, who each squinted to read the writing. “Lots of trees around here,” Neil said.

“Who did you say had come here this morning?” Prue called out to the tortoise. “The one who asked for this same file?”

“Couldn’t tell,” responded the turtle, bent over his work. “He was hooded. One of them Caliphs.”

“Ah,” said Neil, sitting back in his chair. “I know which tree it means.”

Rachel and Elsie sat together on the bench, watching the activity that was unfolding across the room. A gang of Chapeaux Noirs were attending to the harried form of Joffrey Unthank like he was the subject of some trashy reality show in which a poor, downtrodden soul gets the makeover of a lifetime and they were the disdainful, metropolitan hairdressers tasked to bring off this impossible feat. Clippers whirred, scissors clacked, and Joffrey’s dirt-smeared skin was toweled off bit by bit, revealing the bright whiteness below.

Elsie felt at her own scalp. “I could use a haircut,” she said. “You could use one too,” she said to her sister.

Rachel scoffed. “I’m growing it out.”

“What, to the floor?” The long, thin black strands were already touching the middle of her back.

“I don’t know,” said Rachel. “Whatever.”

Elsie thought for a moment. “I’m growing mine out, too.”

Looking at her sister sideways, Rachel said, “You’ll just get a Jewfro.”

“That’s what I want. A Jewfro.” Elsie wasn’t sure what that was.

Rachel smiled. It was the first time Elsie had seen her smile all week, it felt like. She chalked it up to this recent turn of events. They were closer now to getting Carol and Martha back than they’d ever been, and all of them, the Unadoptables here in the Chapeaux Noirs’ lair, shared a kind of surge of excitement at the prospect, Rachel in particular. Elsie didn’t quite know why, but Rachel was the one most bent on getting the two of them back safely. She thought maybe it was because she’d been there when the stevedores captured them, with the Unthank Home burning in the background. At Martha’s urging, Rachel had abandoned Carol’s side and let the stevedores capture her instead. And why? Because Rachel had a gift: She could pass through the boundary of the Impassable Wilderness without getting caught in the magic. Martha had wanted to protect her from falling into the stevedores’ hands. Elsie had this gift too. She didn’t know what it meant or why she and her sister were blessed with this ability but not the other kids. It was all so confusing.

“Clippy clippy, snippy snippy, tra la, tra lee,” came the voice from inside the huddle of black-clad men. It was Unthank’s chirpy singing voice. He’d been singing all afternoon, providing the soundtrack to his dramatic makeover. Rachel glowered.

“I don’t know how this is going to work,” she said. “He’s so obviously lost it completely.”

“What happened to him?” asked Elsie, smoothing Intrepid Tina’s hair.

“I guess he saw his life kind of fall apart. I suppose that’s what happens,” said her sister. “People just go crazy.”

“What about Miss Mudrak?”

“Who knows? Maybe she’s gone crazy, too, somewhere.”

Elsie thought for a moment before saying, “Do you think I’m crazy?”

Rachel looked down at her sister. “No,” she said. “I don’t think so. Why would you be crazy?”

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“Well, my life is really weird and is sort of falling apart.”

“Yeah, well, you’re tough. You can take it.”

“I can?”

“Of course you can, Els.” Rachel paused before saying, “Do you think I’m crazy?”

“No,” said Elsie. “You’re just crazy in the normal ways.”

Rachel made a face at her sister. “I take that back. I think you’re totally crazy.”