The Enchanted Greenhouse(114)

“I wanted to see this again with you,” Yarrow said. “To see if you being here would change it. And it did. You change everything.”

“Wow,” she said. She winced at herself. That was her response? The man she loved just said the most romantic, the most— Loved? This was the second time that the word had popped into her head, as naturally as if it belonged. Do I love him? She’d known him for a handful of weeks. Not even a full season. But she already felt entwined with him and his life. He felt as much a part of her as breathing.

She heard a flapping sound.

“I think that’s…”

“Either bats or dragons.”

“Bats are quieter.” Terlu followed the sound back into the great hall. Up by the stalactites, the red dragon was flying in figure eights. It had something clutched in its talons.

She waited with Yarrow for the dragon to spot them and fly toward them, toward the lantern that Yarrow held aloft.

The dragon dropped the object into Terlu’s palms.

It was a seashell.

Her heart beat faster. Yarrow gripped her shoulder, squeezing. “Is that—”

“Show us where you found it?” Terlu asked the little dragon.

The dragon led the way, back into the darkness. Yarrow kept the lantern steady, and they continued to unspool the thread. After about an hour of walking, Terlu noticed they were running low on the thread. Maybe they could mark the walls? That should work.

When the thread ran out, she used her charcoal pencil to make arrow marks on the cave walls. “How deep does it go?”

“Endless,” Yarrow said.

“That’s unlikely.”

“I don’t know. Beneath every part of the island?”

“Much more likely. Are you okay?” she asked.

He paused before he said, “The charcoal is a good idea.”

“It won’t last forever.”

“We stop when it does,” Yarrow said. He lifted the lantern higher, and the light danced on the limestone. Shadows writhed at their feet. She noticed she could no longer smell the sea, only a damp, coppery sourness. “We’re not becoming lost down here. It’s not worth it.”

“But she found a shell.”

“Not worth it,” Yarrow repeated.

“If we don’t destroy the ingredients…”

He stopped walking. She noticed his hand was sticky with sweat, and he was squeezing her fingers tighter. “Then so be it. We let the enchanted greenhouse die, and we build our own, saving as many plants as we can. I’m not going to risk you for the dream of a dead sorcerer.”

“But you love the greenhouse.”

“I love you more,” he said.

“Oh.” Her voice was a squeak.

Yarrow’s eyes widened as he looked beyond her. “I don’t think we’ll have to do that, though. Look.” He gestured with the lantern, and she turned to see what he was seeing: in the center of the next cave, the three dragons circling what looked like an altar of stone.

At the center was a tortoise shell, filled with hundreds of other shells.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

In exchange for all the jars of honey, the three little dragons relinquished their new hoard. It was arranged beautifully: each shell lined like shingles, overlapping one another, in a spiral within the upturned sea turtle shell. As Yarrow held the lantern over it, Terlu saw the mother-of-pearl insides of the shells sparkle. After all this time, the spell ingredients were perfectly intact and displayed.

No wonder the spell hadn’t ended.

If it weren’t stopped, it would keep destroying greenhouse after greenhouse until every flower, every tree, every vine was dead.

He laid the lantern down and pulled a batch of dried grasses from one of his pockets. “From one of the failed greenhouses,” he said. “Seemed appropriate.” He laid the kindling between the shells.

“I feel as if we should say something profound,” Terlu said.

Yarrow grunted, and then he took out his fire-starter and lit the kindling on fire. He continued to feed the flames as smoke rose to the top of the cave.

The dragons chirped, and they all retreated to the doorway. Yarrow carried the lantern with him. The shells within the turtle shell continued to flame and smoke. Every time they dimmed, Yarrow would step back into the room and add more fuel to the fire.

At last, the flames dwindled low, and he didn’t add more.

Breathing through her sleeve to avoid the worst of the smoke, Terlu checked the turtle shell. Within, the nutshells were gone, and the seashells had crumbled into ash.

He picked up the turtle shell as it smoldered. “I think it’s destroyed.”

“We can throw the ashes into the sea,” Terlu said. “Let the tides take them away.”

They followed the charcoal markings on the wall back to the start of the string. Terlu picked up the end of the string and began winding it as they walked. The three dragons settled again onto her shoulders and head. One of them munched on honeycomb next to her ear with sweet slurping sounds.

“Do you think the greenhouse is truly safe now?” Yarrow asked.

“I don’t know,” Terlu said. “But I think so?” It occurred to her that this was the same as her own situation. Now that she knew the empire had fallen, she thought she was safe, but would she ever truly know? She supposed it was close enough. To the best of her knowledge, the plants were safe. And to the best of her knowledge, she was safe too. Maybe that was all anyone ever got, a hope and a belief. Maybe that’s enough.