The Enchanted Greenhouse(112)

He laughed. “What? Why?”

“They know mazes, and they know treasure.”

“You think they’d understand what we wanted?”

“I think they’d be happy to exchange treasure for honey, and I think they’d see shells hidden in a cave as treasure. I don’t know if they’ll want to leave their sunflowers, but we could ask.” You never knew who was willing to help if you didn’t ask.

“You always surprise me,” Yarrow said.

Basking in the praise, she grinned at him.

He grinned back.

“All right, it’s a plan,” Terlu said. “We’ll bring snacks, water, lanterns, string, and dragons. And we won’t stop until we’ve saved Belde.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Yarrow didn’t stride off to the caves on his own to prove that he needed no one but himself, which was a pleasant surprise. Instead, after accepting the spool of thread from his father with a grunt that resembled a thank-you, he followed Terlu to the sunflower maze.

He unlocked the puzzle door with ease. “After you.”

Stepping inside, Terlu held up the pot of honey butter. “Hello, little dragons?” she called.

Overhead, the false aurora rippled over the glass, while the tiny dragons flew like honeybees between the sunflowers. A shining red dragon chirped a greeting or an alert—she wasn’t sure which, but it sounded friendly enough.

Lifting the pot higher, she asked, “Want to come help us find a treasure?”

Yarrow began, “I don’t know that they can understand—”

Three dragons—the red one, a gold-and-black one, and an iridescent emerald one—darted toward her. Flapping their butterfly-like wings, they settled on her: one on each shoulder and the red one on her head, curled in her hair. “See?” Terlu said. “They want to come.”

With a touch of exasperation, Yarrow asked, “Does everyone like you?”

She laughed. “I can give you a list of people who don’t.”

“Then it’s a list of fools.”

She grinned at him again.

Together, they walked out of the greenhouse toward the dock. Overhead, the snow had stopped, and the sky was now a cloudless blue that made the fresh-fallen snow sparkle like diamonds. As they walked, she explained to the dragons where they were going and why, as well as what they hoped to find. She couldn’t be certain they understood her, but they didn’t disappear into the woods in search of all the sparkles they could find, so perhaps they did understand. Or maybe they just liked the ride.

A half mile from the greenhouse, after the last cottage but before the sorcerer’s tower, Yarrow veered off the road in between the pine trees. The snow had iced into a crust. Yarrow broke through it with each step, and Terlu followed behind, stretching her stride to fit into his footsteps. It was colder than the day before, and everything was coated in ice that sparkled piercingly bright in the sunlight. Unaffected by the cold, the dragons chirped happily from her shoulders and the top of her head. Birds called back at them, a medley of songs that sounded like an unpracticed orchestra.

Yarrow led them to the shore. “Careful.” He held out his hand so she could steady herself as she followed him down onto the beach.

The emerald dragon cooed in her ears.

The waves crashed onto the sand in foamy kisses, and she followed Yarrow along the shore to the entrance to the caves. It looked like a doorway into shadows, which she supposed that’s exactly what it was. There was no reason for the caves to be lit. She didn’t know why that should make them frightening. After all, she didn’t have any traumatic event from her childhood here, unlike Yarrow.

It’s just darkness, she told herself. And I’m not going into it alone. Neither is he. In case he needed to hear it out loud, she said, “You aren’t alone this time.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“I am. It’s all dark and cave-like.”

He grinned. “Do you want to hold hands?”

“Always, but that’s unrelated.” She took his hand, and they walked into the shadows. He released her to light the lantern as the daylight diminished around them, and then he reached for her hand again, holding the lantern in his other hand. The dragons chirped as the lantern light spilled into the shadows. The red dragon flew from her head and circled the lantern.

“These caves are a maze,” Yarrow told the circling dragon, “and we’re looking for treasure in them. Do you want to help us? You can have all the honey you want.”

“We’re looking for shells.” Terlu picked up a stray shell from the bit of sand that had flowed into the cave. She’d explained this to them on the walk, but she repeated it now, hoping they understood. “Like this, but a lot of them and all different kinds. Bird shells, turtle shells, nutshells, and seashells.” She held out the honey butter again.

The red dragon grasped the pot in its tiny talons and then, with a squawk, flew into the darkness.

“Do we follow?” Yarrow asked.

She didn’t speak dragon. “I don’t know. Yes?”

He unwound the string and tied one end to a rock. “All right. Let’s do this.” They walked into the darkness. A few steps in, Terlu felt the dragon on her right shoulder lift off. It flew forward, its scales sparkling in the lantern light, and soon it disappeared.