Three figures left ry's house and got into the carriage.
Inside the carriage, ry told Anna and Lu Li what had happened after they left.
It had happened early that morning, or perhaps soti during the night. When ry arrived at the estate an hour after dawn, as usual, the old gatekeeper rushed to tell her that sothing was wrong with the elm. ry hurried to the tree and discovered the ground beneath it littered with fallen branches.
Enni was losing her branches.
ry had tried to contact Lu Li and Anna, but at the ti, they were in the Elm Forest with old man Barton. So she had turned to old Henry for help.
The old man, who had just received the shocking news of his son's death the day before, was ill, yet he had still agreed to help. After examining the tree, old Henry's diagnosis was grim: "The elm is withering away."
Old Henry explained that this had been happening quite often lately and was almost inevitable. He couldn't stop the tree from dying.
By the ti ry finished her account, the carriage had reached the estate, pulling to a stop before its dark, unlit gates.
A gatekeeper erged from his lodge, holding an oil lamp, and swung the gates open for them.
They approached Enni. Her damp trunk glead in the lamp's dim light. Just as ry had described, the ground was strewn with sodden branches, while the trunk itself was nearly bare, looking like a tree in the dead of winter.
Standing before the tree, Lu Li turned his gaze to Anna.
She floated up from the ground and, in the faint glow of the oil lamp, pressed her forehead against the cold trunk.
A mont of silence passed, and then, cutting through the sound of the rain, ca her soft whisper. "I can feel her... It’s very faint... like a candle fla flickering in the wind... She’s answering ..."
Anna's voice faded. As Lu Li and ry watched, she gently stroked the rough trunk and murmured, "I’m sorry. I can’t help you."
"Take her," Lu Li said abruptly.
Two startled gazes snapped toward him. Lu Li continued, "Take her back to the Elm Forest."
Anna imdiately understood what Lu Li had in mind.
"You want to..."
Lu Li gave a slight nod and turned to ry. "ry, please send for old Henry."
"He doesn't have a telephone," ry replied. She didn't understand their conversation, but it was obvious they had a plan. "I'll go get him."
Anna opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated before whispering, "Please, be careful..."
ry offered her a gentle smile, the kind an older sister gives a younger one, and headed toward the gate.
After watching the small point of light disappear, Anna turned back to Lu Li, her voice laced with anxiety. "Will it work?... They’re all just waiting for death in despair."
"It's better than staying here."
"Yes..."
Nearly half an hour later, a noise ca from the gate, and the small bobbing light drew near again.
ry was back, accompanied by old Henry and a few young gardeners.
"They'll help us dig Enni up," ry explained to Lu Li. Anna had already vanished at the sight of the strangers.
Lu Li nodded and t old Henry's gaze. The old gardener was watching him with a complicated expression, clearly burdened with questions. Lu Li knew what he wanted to ask. "I'll tell you later," he said. "First, we have to move the elm. We need to make sure it survives the journey to Belfast."
"I can't guarantee that," old Henry replied, setting his own questions aside for the mont. "She’s already withering and could pass at any ti."
"Then just make sure the journey isn't what kills her."
"Alright."
Old Henry called the young gardeners over and instructed them where to dig so as not to damage the roots. He then sent two of them to the long carriage waiting outside the gate to fetch a large wooden box.
The light from a few oil lamps barely pushed back the darkness as the gardeners began their work with their spades. Standing next to Lu Li, old Henry watched them for a mont before speaking. "Can you tell
now... what killed my son?"
"He was most likely killed by a vengeful spirit."
Old Henry fell silent. He looked frail and solitary under the falling rain. "The police said he died helping people..."
In a sense, the police weren't wrong.
This seed to be the mont to offer comfort to the grieving old man, but Lu Li offered none. He remained silent.
Fortunately, ry was nearby to comfort the old man in his grief.
A wide trench was dug around the elm. The gardeners brought over the large wooden box from the carriage—it was big enough to hold several people with ease. They carefully lifted the elm's root ball and surrounding earth, placing it inside the box before covering it with a perforated lid.
Just as they were about to load the boxed elm onto the carriage, old Henry stopped them. He had them pack the remaining space in the box with soil to protect the roots from the jolts of the journey.
Once that was done, the gardeners lifted the box again and were surprised to find it was sohow lighter. They couldn't figure out why, but they quickly loaded it onto the long carriage and braced it securely.
Only a small portion of its canopy peeked out from the carriage bed. Thanks to her modest size, Enni was easy to transport. Had she been larger and more sprawling, they would have needed to prune her branches.
With the work done, old Henry and the gardeners departed. When Lu Li asked about paynt, ry smiled. "I'll take care of it. Consider it a small contribution to help Anna."
They were in a hurry, so ry didn't keep them. She held on to the carriage Lu Li had arrived in, explaining that Khimfast had a branch of the sa rental company where she could return it the next day.
As they were preparing to leave, Lu Li turned to ry. After a mont's thought, he asked her, "Do you have any friends who are exorcists?"
ry nodded. "Yes. In fact, she’s the one who told
about the Investigators and the Night's Watch."
"Is she trustworthy?"
"She's a good friend of mine," ry replied, puzzled by Lu Li's line of questioning.
Lu Li nodded. "Spend the next few days with her. If you can, you should stay at her ho. If anything happens, she can get you out of the city quickly."
A flicker of understanding crossed ry's face. "Is sothing about to happen?"
"Not yet."
"Yet? What do you an by 'yet'?"
"Exactly what it ans."
"The anomalies are spreading," Anna explained for Lu Li. "More than a hundred thousand people have already died in Zenster. Sothing terrible is happening."
ry froze, her lips parted slightly. She found it hard to believe, but she knew in her gut that Anna and Lu Li wouldn't lie to her.
"And you two..."
"We've already found a safe place. Don't worry about us," Anna said, forcing a smile to mask the sadness in her eyes.
A sorrow for the state of the world.
ry asked hesitantly, "Can I tell my family and friends?"
"Yes," Lu Li answered.
News like this couldn't be kept secret for long. Soon, everyone would know. It was better for ry and her loved ones to find out early and begin to prepare.
"I understand," ry nodded, her eyes fixed on Anna and Lu Li in the carriage.
"Travel safely. I'll see you again."
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