Chapter One
Oscar Knows Things
Lily eyed the piece of bark up close and compared it to the picture in her book. They didn't match. They never matched. She scowled.
Dark shadows drifted across Ebb's bright green lawn. A breeze kicked up, carrying with it the ringing sound of Mr. Clippers' shears, snipping and snapping at errant strands of grass. The vast network of branches above Lily's head sighed, and a great shifting sea of bright amber leaves waved at her . . . mockingly, she thought.
Lily slammed the book shut, tucked it under her arm, and slowly turned to face her brother, who was inspecting leaves on the same tree. "You wanna go in the house?"
"Of course I want to go into the house. But Dad told us to wait." Jasper glanced at his sister. "You heard him. He's in a mood." Jasper opened his own book and held it close to his face. None of the pictures matched the leaf in his hand. They never matched.
"What kind of tree," complained Lily, "has a broad amber leaf, never changes color, and never sheds a leaf all year?"
"Ebb's amazing mysterious never-evergreen?" said Jasper. They'd been over this before.
"Maybe it's a mutant," said Lily. "Like a unicorn."
"It wouldn't be like Ebb to give us a problem that couldn't be solved."
"Agreed," Lily sighed. "But . . . but did he really give us this task?"
"Of course he . . ." Jasper stared off into the branches above. "I mean . . . he gave us that feltleaf willow. And . . . that Tasmanian mountain ash . . . a couple years ago. And that juniper thingy out back beside the . . . pool . . ." Jasper turned to Lily, shock dawning on his face.
Lily crossed her arms and nodded. "We did this to ourselves," she confirmed.
"No!" said Jasper.
Jasper shot a glance at the many-windowed, sun-drenched brick of his uncle's mansion. The house, its gardens, and the lone tree in front, stood on a curious hill known as "The Egg." A large, geographical oddity, the hill was shaped exactly like an egg with one notable exception: after a steep twenty-foot rise, it was tabletop flat.
"Why's Mom so worried?" asked Lily.
"I wish I knew, Lil." Jasper sighed.
"I mean, it's not like Ebb hasn't been on long trips before."
Jasper got down on his hands and knees and combed the grass with his fingers, looking for anything that might have dropped from the tree. "No cones, no flowers, no catkins, not so much as a grain of pollen! How does this tree ever bear fruit?"
"She's freaking out. Why is she freaking out?"
Jasper thought for a moment. "He vanished."
"He's vanished before," said Lily.
"Never for this long."
"He's a grown man," countered Lily.
Jasper raised his eyebrows. "Time of year? We move a ton of trees and shrubs in the spring. She wants him at Treling."
Lily tilted her head, rolling this idea around. "I like it. He's needed here, he hasn't checked in, and she hasn't been able to reach him."
Jasper gazed past the tree's enormous trunk to the narrow end of the egg, across the long, oval-shaped swath of green, to where the trail vanished over the edge. "Mom and Dad should be here by now."
YOU ARE READING
The Moon Coin
Fantasy"Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one?" --Lord Autumn When Lily's Uncle Ebb disappears, she must search for him in the most un...
