An elf with the wrong ears, wrong magic, and a flying squirrel he wasn't supposed to bring along.
There's one problem with Alfie Green: he shouldn't exist.
For eight hundred years, the Anchor Tree has chosen only a few to carry its power, and that power burns blue in their veins. Only ever blue.
Then it chooses twelve-year-old Alfie, a laundry boy and the only elf anyone has ever seen with round ears.
His veins burn white.
His dad might have known why, but he left on a work trip ten years ago and never came back. His mom says he was an accountant. The note hidden in his dad's old jacket talks about a mission. Alfie isn't an expert on accountants, but he's pretty sure they don't go on missions.
He barely has time to ask her about it before Molesap Hall collects him. Five minutes to pack. One flying squirrel smuggled into his bag.
It turns out the chosen don't get a school. They get a job. And no promise they'll ever come home.
At Molesap, the mail arrives by rabbit, a bubble-blowing sword picks your future, and a box full of moss gives you a weapon. Underneath it all, someone is quietly bleeding the Anchor Tree's power dry.
The leak is drawing draugots up from the dark. They're starving. They drain your magic, and your memories come with it. To stop them, Alfie and his friends have to find the thief, and the trail runs straight to whatever took his dad.
But here's the second problem: nothing in the dark is easier for a draugot to find than a boy who glows white.
Behind the moss box and the bubble-blowing sword is a story about being chosen when you don't feel like you deserve it, a mom who has kept one secret for ten years, and a Hall that has a signed waiver for every danger except the ones it won't admit to. The Anchor Tree keeps a ring for every year it has lived, and it remembers all of them, including the day Alfie's dad disappeared.
Perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and Percy Jackson.
Book One of the Rootfire series. Written for readers 9 to 13, and for any adult who never stopped reading books like this.
