The Enchanted Greenhouse(39)

Ahead, the row of sunflowers lifted their roots out of the soil and tiptoed into a new position before piercing the soil again.

Terlu gasped. “It moves.”

Yarrow trotted past her at a near jog. “Plants in here can do that.”

“Yes, but…” She knew the evergreens at the entrance had shifted, but she’d thought the maze itself would be stationary, though she supposed there was no reason it had to be, except for the fact that plants normally didn’t uproot themselves and wander about. She kept pace with Yarrow, keeping the flowers to their left, but the effort felt pointless—if the maze was continually shifting, that made it unbeatable. “It’s cheating.”

“I never solved it, remember? This is why.”

“It can’t be solved if it rearranges itself.” If the walls were constantly moving, it was impossible. The sunflowers could keep presenting them with dead ends until they were too exhausted to continue. “It could take years.” They could die of old age before the maze let them through. It could hide Lotti from them for an infinite amount of time. “I’m sorry. This won’t work.”

Stopping, he eyed the stalks. “We could break through.”

“But the dragons…” A cramp squeezed her side, and she leaned over her knees to pant.

“If we’re quick…” He withdrew clippers from within his coat. “I hate to do this. It’s not the plants’ fault they’ve been spelled to behave this way.” With his free hand, he touched one of the sunflower leaves, as if in apology. “But we can’t abandon Lotti.”

She saw in his eyes how much he didn’t want to do it. “There has to be another way.”

“Any ideas?”

“If it’s endlessly shifting, Laiken would have had to solve it anew every time he wanted to visit his treasure,” Terlu said. “I think it’s likely he had his own secret path through the maze.” He’d liked both puzzles and secrets.

Above, she heard a yowl and then Emeral streaked by, chased by a flock of dragons. They flew like a swarm of bees, clustered together, their wings making a whooshing sound.

The key isn’t the sunflowers; it’s the dragons.

Maybe they could be tamed.

“Do you have anything to eat?” Terlu asked.

Yarrow grunted. “I don’t think now is the time—”

“Not for me. Do you have anything that a dragon might like?”

His face lit up. “Ahh!” Quickly, he began to unload items from his pocket: an egg with a blue shell, a chunk of cheese wrapped in a handkerchief, a handful of nuts in a little pouch, dried seeds, and nuggets of honeycomb. “This,” he said, as he unveiled the honeycomb. “Little dragons are pollinators. Perhaps they’ll be drawn to honey?”

Terlu had many questions about how he had all these items—the nuts and seeds made sense, given the variety of plants in the greenhouse, but the cheese? Where had it come from? She had similar questions about the flour he’d used to make the honey cake. Did he trade for all of it? If he did, who facilitated the trades? Was it the sailor who could be summoned with a raised flag? Had that same sailor brought Terlu in statue form, or had it been another supply runner? What had they thought of such a delivery? Had they known that Yarrow intended to revive her? How many knew Terlu was here? Did anyone know besides Rijes Velk and the supply runner? So many questions, but this wasn’t the time to ask any of them. Lotti was somewhere in the heart of the maze, likely scared, certain she’d been abandoned again. Terlu wondered if anyone ever recovered from that—did you ever stop being afraid you’d be alone again? “All right, how do we draw their attention so they notice the honeycomb?”

Yarrow moved with purpose toward the sunflowers. He opened the clippers and positioned the blades around one of the stalks, lightly touching the green—and he waited.

Above, the dragons howled.

They broke off pursuit of the winged cat and pivoted midair. In arrow formation, they flew at Yarrow and Terlu. Lowering the clippers, he held up the honeycomb in the palm of his hand. Terlu tensed. She didn’t know what she’d do if the dragons attacked him. Pull him to safety? Try to hit them away and hope they didn’t shoot flame? Throw egg and cheese at them?

The first dragon, a golden queen, swooped down and delicately broke off a bit of honeycomb with her talons. Another, a green-and-black scaled one, grabbed another chunk. A third. A fourth. Until the honeycomb was all gone.

“Pollinators,” Yarrow said.

The other dragons wheeled off toward the sky, searching for the cat, but the half dozen who had secured their treasure began to fly between the sunflowers with purpose.

“Hurry,” Terlu said. She ran after them, and Yarrow jogged beside her.

In front of the dragons, the sunflowers shifted out of the way, forming a straight path. Terlu and Yarrow followed the little dragons with the honeycomb to the center of the maze.

On top of a pile of watering cans, gloves, hats, pine cones, and various glittering rocks—the dragons’ treasure—was the little resurrection rose.

“Took you long enough,” Lotti complained.

* * *

While the dragons munched on the bits of honeycomb, Terlu and Yarrow sorted through the treasure hoard. It was an unusual assortment: an uncut ruby the size of Terlu’s fist, a single left-hand gardening glove, a stick shaped like a heart, a solid-gold brick …