Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(46)

Once I finished breaking the glass, I jerked my head at Deah. “Let’s go.”

Not understanding why I’d bothered to smash the glass if we weren’t actually going inside, she frowned in confusion but shrugged it off and followed me anyway.

I started to sprint over to the walkway that led out of the far side of the square, but I spotted a guy wearing a red cloak, checking his phone, heading in this direction. Another Draconi guard who’d been summoned by Blake. Before he could spot me, I changed direction, instead racing over to a blood persimmon tree that was close to the bubbling fountain in the center of the square.

“Now what are you doing?” Deah muttered.

“Up the tree!” I hissed. “Now! Start climbing!”

She gave me a look that said she thought I was totally crazy, but she took hold of the tree and started climbing.

“Faster! Faster!” I hissed again, climbing up right below her.

“Give me a second!” she sniped back. “I’m not as good at this as you are, remember?”

But Deah made it up the tree, with me following her. She wanted to stop after a few feet, but I made her climb higher and higher, until we were about thirty feet up in the tree, right in the center of all the thick green leaves. Hopefully, they would be enough to hide us from sight. If they weren’t . . . I swallowed. I didn’t want to think about that until I absolutely had to.

We’d barely settled ourselves back against the branches when the slap-slap-slap-slap of footsteps sounded, getting louder and closer with every passing second. Deah heard them too, and we both leaned forward and peered through the screen of leaves.

A few seconds later, Blake ran into the square, with his guards right behind him. When he didn’t immediately see us, he stared across the square at the Draconi guard who had finally put his phone away and entered from the far side.

“Did you see them?” he called out. “Did they get past you?”

The guard shook his head, and Blake whipped around to face the other men.

“Search everywhere!” he barked out. “They have to be here somewhere. I want them found. Now!”

About half the guards spread out around the square, peering into first one storefront, then another, while a couple of men went down to the street, scanning the sidewalks to see if we’d left that way. But what worried me the most were the three men who hurried over to search around the fountain, less than twenty feet from where we were hiding.

If one of them had sight magic and looked up into the tree . . . if one of them had a hearing Talent and noticed our harsh, raspy breaths . . . well, we were caught, simple as that.

Deah knew it too and she gave me a worried look, but I shrugged back. We were stuck up here, and there was nothing either one of us could do to change that—

Cheep.

For a moment, Deah and I both froze at the sound, our eyes wide as we stared at each other. Then we both slowly turned our heads and looked up.

A large nest made out of twigs, leaves, grasses, and colorful candy bar wrappers was perched in the crook of a branch a few feet above my head. I’d been so focused on climbing up the tree that I hadn’t even thought to check whether any birds or monsters might be up here. But I didn’t need my sight magic to see the tree troll standing on the branch right beside its nest.

As far as monsters went, tree trolls were pretty harmless, since they were only about a foot tall with charcoal-gray fur, long, bushy tails, and black webbing under their arms that let them catch wind currents and hop from one branch or tree to another. But this troll’s emerald-green eyes were narrowed to slits, and it clutched a ripe blood persimmon in its long, curved black claws, ready to throw the fruit and drive us away from its nest. It could easily make enough noise to attract the attention of the Draconi guards still searching for us in the square below.

Cheep.

The troll chattered again, a little louder this time, although the noise sounded more questioning than angry. I stared at the creature and realized that three jagged scars slashed down its face. Relief flooded my body. I’d dealt with this particular troll before, so I knew that he was only protecting his family, hidden down in the bottom of the nest. Even better, I knew exactly what I could bribe him with.

Staring at the troll the whole time, I slowly reached into my shorts pocket and drew out a dark chocolate candy bar. It was all melted, mushed, and squished from the heat and all the running around I’d done, but the troll’s eyes still brightened at the sight of it. I put my finger to my lips, asking the troll to be quiet, then held the chocolate bar up over my head.

The troll darted down the branch, snatched the candy out of my hand, and disappeared back into the bottom of its nest, out of my line of sight. A few seconds later, a couple of soft, crinkle-crinkles sounded as the troll ripped into the candy bar and passed it out to the mama and baby in the nest.

After that . . . silence. The trolls weren’t going to make any noise to give us away.

Deah let out a sigh of relief. Yeah, me too—

“Hey! These doors are busted!” A shout drifted up from the square below.

Deah and I peered through the screen of leaves again. Blake raced over to the Razzle Dazzle, with all the guards hurrying to follow him, including the ones that had been close to our hiding spot. They didn’t waste any time wrenching the locked doors open and storming inside.

Deah moved, like she was going to start climbing back down the tree, but I stopped her.