Toby and the Secrets of the Tree Read online

  Following the fire at Tumble, Gus Alzan had left the prison where he had been governor and applied himself instead to raising glowworms. He had become Master Worm Rearer in the Treetop, but he still had one obsession: marrying his daughter off to someone respectable.

  Gus had dozens of employees to look after his glowworms. But out of all these workers, only one had put themselves forward as a prospective marriage candidate. His name was Tony Sireno, the very same assistant who had betrayed Sim Lolness. Sireno had worked for a while for Joe Mitch but was thrown out when he failed to get the professor to divulge Balina’s Secret. That was when he was taken on by Alzan Lighting.

  It was impossible not to be dazzled by the farm at first sight. The eggs, the larvae, the adults . . . when it comes to glowworms, everything is shiny. Visitors entered an incandescent warehouse that prompted them to coo with admiration, but these coos quickly became shouts of terror.

  Glowworms paralyze their prey with poison, and all the worm workers came under regular attack. Little by little, they got weaker.

  Tony Sireno became a shadow of his former self, as floppy and sleepy as Bernie, who had also teased the glowworms rather too much for her own good. Their engagement had only lasted one and a half days.

  “Well?” asked Gus Alzan.

  Leo didn’t react.

  So Gus bumbled on, “You’re not going to get yourself worked up like this for three Grass people and a girl with a shaved head!”

  Gus was sniggering now. In a few months, ever since people had heard about Leo’s misfortunes, this had become a common expression. Three Grass people and a shaved head: they were all Leo thought about.

  Leo walked over to Gus Alzan; his body was perfectly still, but his head swayed from left to right, as if to get rid of the rising tension. He whispered something in Gus’s ear.

  “What? I can’t hear you!” inquired Gus, delighted by the familiarity struck up between them.

  Closing his eyes, Leo repeated his message in Gus’s ear. The latter smiled, thinking he’d heard, “Thank you, my dear.”

  “That’s quite all right. Delighted to be of assistance.”

  “I said, get out of here!”

  Stupefied, Gus let go of his daughter, who had been tilting dangerously in the direction of the floor for a while now. She collapsed in a heap.

  Arbayan could see that his boss was on the verge of doing something that couldn’t be undone. But Bernie was Joe Mitch’s goddaughter, and an “incident” was to be avoided at all costs. Arbayan gave a warning signal to Leo, who suddenly managed to restrain himself from giving the head butt that the back of his neck was itching to give and instead walked slowly out of the Egg.

  Poor Bernie stared at her swollen feet.

  Dumbstruck, Gus Alzan pointed at the door through which Leo Blue had just disappeared.

  “Where’s he going?” asked Gus.

  “This is very emotional for him,” Arbayan explained. “Mr. Blue is overwhelmed by your proposal. He just needs a little time. . . .”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “We’ll keep you informed.”

  “My daughter had that effect on him?”

  “The greatest effect.”

  “Has he fallen for her?” Gus inquired with an impertinent wink.

  “He’s fallen, all right, Mr. Alzan. Allow me to accompany you.”

  Gus caught hold of his daughter’s hand. “Come on, my little rag doll.”

  He dragged her to the door, said his farewells to Arbayan, and bumped into somebody who was entering in a great rush.

  The person, who had just appeared out of nowhere, apologized flatly.

  Gus’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

  “Clot?”

  Clot froze. He couldn’t even speak. The only man he’d vowed never to cross paths with again was standing before him. Gus Alzan turned toward Arbayan.

  “Don’t tell me you trust this scoundrel,” said Gus.

  Clot’s arrival at the prison at Tumble and his educational services to little Bernie . . . All these memories brought back a terrible period in the Alzans’ life. Bernie had never been the same since those misadventures.

  “You’re dealing with the worst riffraff here,” said Gus, pointing to Clot. “Beware of his grand words. I’m warning you now that if my little chick is to marry and make her home in this Egg, I don’t want a rogue like that on the scene.”

  Gus clicked his heels and headed off, dragging Bernie by the hem of her dress.

  Arbayan gave his soldier a questioning look. Clot, who was in no fit state to answer, turned red and stammered.

  “I — I promise you that . . . I don’t know what he’s talking about. . . .”

  Arbayan put his hand on Clot’s shoulder and said indulgently, “Of course not. I have no reason to listen to what that man says, dear Clot.”

  Clot started breathing again.

  “Thank you. I was scared that —”

  “You’ve been irreproachable,” Arbayan interrupted him. “You guard our prisoner with the greatest dedication. But there’s something I recall you saying. . . .”

  “Ah?”

  “You’ve always said we can never be too careful. And you’re absolutely right.”

  Clot smiled and shook his hand.

  “You’re very greasily with me, Mr. Arbayan.”

  His hard work was at last being recognized. His eyes brimmed with tears. He took a step toward the footbridge, but Arbayan went on, “And seeing as we can never be too careful . . . I must ask you to leave the Nest before tomorrow evening.”

  Clot stopped dead. He didn’t turn around, or he would have thrown himself into the void.

  Elisha didn’t hear Clot come in. She was crouching down, holding a message that she had just received. The Shadow had sent it to her, on the tip of a second ice dagger.

  Say yes to Leo.

  That was all the message said.

  Say yes to Leo.

  These words had made her feel profoundly sad. Was this the route she had to take in order to regain her freedom? Of course, she’d been toying with the idea for a long time. Give in to Leo, marry him, and then escape; leave and never come back.

  But her pride had always banished this idea from her mind.

  “Ah . . . It’s you. . . .” she said in a small voice.

  “Yes,” answered Clot. “I’ve come to bid you farewell.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  Clot couldn’t manage an answer. He hadn’t realized how attached he’d become to this girl. . . . He wiped his sleeve across his eyes.

  “When are you leaving?” Elisha asked gently.

  “Tomorrow.”

  They stayed there in silence for several minutes. Clot’s sniffing was the only sound. Elisha fiddled with her message in the sad, gray light.

  “It’s not fair,” said Clot.

  The prisoner and her guard looked like two old branches growing far apart.

  Elisha called out in a feeble voice, “Clot . . .”

  He took a step toward her.

  “Can I ask one last favor of you?”

  The rumor landed on the Nest like a flock of birds.

  “No . . .”

  “Oh, yes!”

  “No . . .”

  “I’ve just heard.”

  “Her?”

  “Yes, her.”

  “With him?”

  It was a most unexpected piece of news, and the inhabitants of the Treetop had to keep repeating it to convince themselves that it was actually true.

  “No . . .”

  “I’m telling you, yes!”

  The prisoner had relented. Elisha was going to marry Leo Blue.

  Within a matter of hours, nobody could escape the frenzy of preparations. The marriage ceremony would take place the very next morning, on March 15. It had to be conducted promptly, since there was some concern about the bride changing her mind.

  She had requested to marry wearing green, in the purest tradition of t
he Tree.

  “As for everything else, do whatever you like,” she told Arbayan, who had decided to make it a grand event. That same day he launched a campaign to renovate the Third Egg, which was being used to store leaves.

  He had the interior repainted in a golden powder. He hung an enormous round chandelier that shone with a dozen glowworms. And last of all, he summoned the guests for the next day. Arbayan took it upon himself to persuade the Great Candle Bearer himself to conduct the ceremony.

  The Great Candle Bearer was still bitter about the way he had suffered at Elisha’s hands. But he eventually accepted, once he realized that he would be stripped of his position if he refused.

  The only person who wasn’t caught up in these feverish preparations was Leo Blue. He didn’t leave his bedroom, choosing instead to nurse his melancholy to the rhythm of his swinging hammock. The momentous news had made him turn even paler. Arbayan watched Leo bury himself in his silence. He didn’t understand this despondency on the eve of such a happy day.

  But Leo Blue knew: he knew why Elisha had finally agreed.

  After the visit from Bernie and Gus, Leo had rushed over to Elisha’s Egg. He had climbed up onto the top and abused the young woman’s trust by giving her the signal to say yes: a simple message on the tip of a blade of ice.

  Elisha had followed the Shadow’s advice, believing the Shadow to be a friend of Nils Amen.

  Leo knew that she was only hoping for her freedom; there wasn’t even the tiniest space for a speck of love between the three letters of her YES.

  Elisha was just slipping this YES through the gap in her cage, to force it open and then fly away.

  Leo was paralyzed with shame. He had acted in this way in order to show a modicum of pride to his people and himself. Gus Alzan had said that he was a laughingstock, and this was something that Leo couldn’t stomach. His whole life had been a battle to protect his honor, as well as that of his father.

  But this marriage was just an illusion, like a trompe l’oeil painting. Leo was fully aware that he would be forced to keep his wife a prisoner until the end of her days. He had even quietly given Arbayan the order to position the entire guard from the Nest around the Third Egg, in case Elisha tried to escape during the ceremony.

  Nightfall. Elisha could hear the sound of preparations. The footbridges between the Eggs were being reinforced. Spring was just a few days away, but it was snowing again. Men were exchanging orders.

  Elisha looked up at her great green veil, which was hanging from a string above her head. They had brought it to her in the evening, freshly dyed; she had rinsed it herself and now it was drying. She was drinking a bowl of hot water as she listened to the snow sliding down the Egg.

  Where did this sense of peace come from that seemed to wash her clean of worry? Her hair now formed bangs just above her eyes. She had tied two ribbons to the back of her head, like braids.

  One thing was sure: she would be free tomorrow.

  It began as the finest wedding of the century. The bride’s veil was magnificent, covering her entirely. She left the Egg alone. Dozens of soldiers formed a guard of honor as she made her way through their midst, over snow that had barely been swept. Her emotional state was visible from the way her dress trembled from time to time.

  The Egg was filled with guests: poor people whom Arbayan had brought in from the different regions of the Treetop. In exchange for a meager bowl of soup, there were plenty of people willing to say “bravo” on command. They were sad-looking men, women, and children forced out of the worm-eaten branches where they lived in cramped conditions. They were stunned by the beauty of the chandelier and by how handsome Leo Blue looked in their midst.

  Leo stood like a sleepwalker, in his dark jacket of bumblebee fur. Deep down, he knew it was impossible to feel any joy in the course of this great day. Everything was fake, including the guests. And yet . . . Elisha would have to take his hand. It would only be natural for him to tremble: he had never been allowed to touch her before. Perhaps this young woman didn’t really exist at all? Perhaps his fingers would go straight through her as he tried to put his hand on her shoulders?

  Leo no longer held out any hopes of taming this ghost. His only goal was to keep her close to him. Might she love him one day? He didn’t really think so, not now.

  The Great Candle Bearer crossed the crowd to collect the bride from the door. He greeted her with a little grimace before positioning himself beside her and guiding her through the public, toward Leo Blue.

  For Leo, the whole ceremony happened in a shroud of mist. He couldn’t hear a word the Great Candle Bearer was muttering as he shook a cube of peppery-smelling incense. The words became distorted as they reached Leo’s consciousness. He couldn’t quite believe she was there at last. The ceremony went on for some time.

  “Do you, Leo Blue, take Elisha Lee for your wife?”

  The Great Candle Bearer’s voice was like a distant hum. Leo didn’t reply. In the last row, right at the back, Arbayan never took his eyes off his boss. He sensed that something was going on. Perhaps Leo was just overwhelmed by the emotion of it all. . . .

  But Leo wasn’t so much overwhelmed as thoroughly distracted. He had a doubt. A major doubt. Leo was staring at the bride who was right beside him, but he didn’t feel anything.

  The Great Candle Bearer coughed.

  “Do you, Leo Blue, take Elisha Lee . . . ?”

  The crowd dared to let out a murmur of astonishment. Leo Blue still wasn’t reacting.

  “Mr. Blue? Mr. Blue?” inquired the Great Candle Bearer.

  Suddenly, Leo took a step toward Elisha. Pushing the Great Candle Bearer roughly aside, he caught hold of a corner of the bride’s veil and pulled it off in a single tug. The public let out a gasp.

  It was Clot.

  Elisha was running barefoot between the white feathers. She threw herself from branch to branch, and her arms rose like wings as she leaped through the air. She felt drunk on freedom.

  Elisha had left the South Egg just after the solemn departure of the fake bride. There was nobody in the Nest alleyways, because everybody was at the wedding. She had run through the White Forest.

  When the Shadow had asked her to say yes to Leo, she had instantly realized that this piece of advice didn’t come from a friend, but she had decided to turn the situation to her advantage.

  Elisha was amazed by Clot’s courage. “I’ve got nothing left to lose. Tomorrow they’re throwing me out.” He had blushed a bit and added coyly, “Anyway, I’ve always dreamed of a big wedding.”

  And sure enough, while she was dressing him up in his veil, Clot didn’t look like a man who was down on his luck. Instead, he was almost meditative. All he asked for was to be allowed to wear his slippers.

  “I just want to end up in my slipperties,” he had said, brave and upright to the last.

  As she bounded down the pathways of the Nest, Elisha recalled the expression on her friend’s face as he had pulled the veil over it.

  With this memory fresh in her mind, Elisha noticed two figures at the bend in the path; they were heading her way.

  She jumped to the side and hid behind a bush of white down.

  Elisha was stupefied by what she saw. A bride passed by who was absolutely identical to the one in the Third Egg at that precise moment. And behind her, a man Elisha immediately recognized: Gus Alzan.

  “Hurry up, Bernie-wernie. Your husband is expecting you.”

  The bride was Bernice.

  On hearing that a marriage was to be celebrated with Leo Blue, Gus Alzan had convinced himself that his own daughter was the betrothed. He was therefore leading her proudly toward the ceremonial venue.

  His final advice to his daughter was clearly audible: “You just have to say yes.”

  “Yes,” said Bernie automatically.

  “Not now, you know that. We’ve rehearsed it all. When you’re asked if you’ll marry him, you’ll say yes.”

  “Yes.”

  “Not now, no.”


  “No,” Bernie repeated after him.

  “No! Whatever you do, don’t say no!”

  “No.”

  “Yes!”

  “No.”

  Elisha waited for them to disappear before continuing on her way.

  Clearly, nobody was expecting poor Bernie. But Gus Alzan’s unfortunate mistake won Elisha some precious time. Shortly afterward, when the first men who’d been sent out to find the escapee discovered this young bride lost in the White Forest, they naturally mistook her for Elisha. They didn’t hesitate to take her prisoner, despite her father’s protestations.

  The three or four unlucky men who triumphantly delivered Bernie to Leo Blue immediately saw from the look in their boss’s eye that they would regret their mistake.

  Elisha stared at the black hole that gaped in front of her. Clot had told her to slide down it. At the exit to the White Forest, the Nest was crisscrossed with long pieces of straw that formed tunnels. This straw tube would lead her toward the Branches.

  Elisha launched herself down the slope.

  Lying on her back, with her arms around her knees, she shot down the tunnel at top speed.

  At last, she could let herself go. . . .

  At last, she could stop fighting and resisting.

  Happiness might just be at the end of this long golden tunnel.

  And despite the strongest desire to find Toby alive one day, Elisha’s first thought was of her mother’s arms.

  The noise was so loud that Sim thought the dormitory had collapsed. Someone had just broken down the door.

  In the darkness, Maya gripped her husband’s arm.

  “Don’t move,” Sim whispered.

  The sound of boots was rattling around. Guards had entered carrying torches and proceeded to fling off the blankets to see the prisoners’ faces. They were searching for somebody.

  A flame was brought dangerously close to Sim’s face.

  “Here he is!” the torchbearer called out. “Hurry up and follow me. Things are sizzling for you this time, Sim Lolness.”