The Enchanted Greenhouse(52)
“He was private with his magic,” the orchid, Amina, said.
“Admit it: he was paranoid,” Risa said. They slithered around the orchid. “Even early on. But Dendy was with him for some of it. He might recognize a spell or two.”
“I can tryyy,” Dendy said. “Thaaat’s all I promise.”
“Same,” Terlu said fervently.
“That’s all I ask,” Yarrow said, his eyes on Terlu.
* * *
Shivering, Dendy curled his leaves as he wormed his way over the snow outside the greenhouse. He left a trail like a snake. He kept his root ball up off the ground, held by a mass of vine-like leaves.
“You look cold,” Terlu said. “Do you want me to carry you inside my coat?”
He lifted his tendrils like a toddler asking to be carried. “Yes, please. Plaaants aren’t made for extreme temperature chaaanges. Alsooo, I lack feet.”
She scooped up his root ball, and he tucked his tendrils around her within her coat.
“Thank youuu,” he said. “Laaaiken used to transport us in a wheelbaaarrow. At least until he wearied of our companyyy.”
“I can find you a wheelbarrow.”
“This is fine, if you dooon’t mind.”
“You aren’t heavy, and you don’t wiggle.” He was roughly the same size as her first plant friend, but Caz hadn’t liked to be picked up—he’d preferred to use his tendrils to swing between the library shelves. She wondered what it was like to suddenly realize you could move on your own and weren’t bound to a pot or flower bed. “Did you leave the greenhouse often? You know, before?”
“In the beginning, I went with Laiken everyyywhere, like Lottiiii. Later … he didn’t like thaaat I had opinions. It’s been a looong time since I’ve seeeen his tower. He performed maaany spells withoout meee. I dooon’t know how much help I’ll beee, but I’ll tryyy.”
Reaching the tower, Terlu opened the door and carried Dendy inside. He unwound from her torso and hopped himself in, propelling his root ball forward with his leafy tendrils.
“It’s cleaner now than it was,” Terlu said.
Since she’d arrived, Yarrow had dusted and scrubbed every surface, and Terlu and Lotti had sorted all the papers and organized the books and notebooks, but there was still a sad, abandoned feel to it. It’s the smell, she decided. Even after all the intensive cleaning, the workroom still smelled like decayed plants and dusty books, mixed with the smoke of the fire in the stove. It doesn’t smell like life. No one had cooked soup or baked bread here. The only freshness was the citrusy tang of the soap that Yarrow had used to clean the jars and pots.
Maybe she could fix it. Add a few flowers in jars. Hang herbs to dry from the rafters. Add some curtains. There had been curtains in several of the other cottages. If she was going to keep spending time here … I’d rather stay in Yarrow’s cottage than make this home. She especially couldn’t imagine ever using the upstairs room. She hadn’t even set foot up there since the first day, when she’d taken the only book in the room, Laiken’s final notebook. It was, well, creepy at best. At worst … It feels haunted. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was, at least by the residue of despair. Sadness clung to the upstairs room, as if the walls themselves remembered a lonely, paranoid man had lived and died there. She couldn’t see herself voluntarily spending any time up there.
At least downstairs had none of that same miasma.
And thanks to Yarrow, it wasn’t even dusty anymore.
Hoisting himself up with his leaves, Dendy climbed onto the worktable. He tucked his root ball under his tendrils, as if he were sitting. “Hooow can I help?”
Terlu waved at the papers and the books that filled the shelves, the desk, and the worktable. “I’ve worked out his code, using the codebook he left with the dragons in the maze, but there are over a hundred notebooks, as well as countless papers. It’ll take a lifetime to go through it all, especially since I don’t really know what I’m looking for. I’m hoping you can narrow that down.”
“I caaan look through them. Seeee if I recognize anyyy.”
“Perfect!” Terlu carried over a stack of them and piled them in front of the philodendron. “You’re the oldest of them, aren’t you? After Lotti?”
“Whaaat gave it awayyy? Am I wilting?” He twisted his viny stems, as if examining himself from various angles.
She didn’t know why she’d guessed that. Perhaps because he was so much calmer than the others, or perhaps because Lotti had chosen him to wake first. Maybe it was the way he talked about Laiken, as if he had known him for decades. “What was it like here? Before Laiken sent everyone away. Did you know Yarrow when he was younger?”
“I expected yooou to ask about the sorcerer, not the gaaardener.”
She shrugged, exactly like Yarrow always did. She didn’t think it was that unexpected. “I’m never going to meet the sorcerer. But Yarrow is here.” And he’s a much kinder person than it sounds like Laiken was.
“Huh.”
“What?” It was natural to be curious about the only other human on the island. She refused to be embarrassed. It wasn’t as if she was asking him to gossip. Just … to share his opinion, as well as any revealing anecdotes. Extra bonus if they featured an adorable young Yarrow, learning to garden for the first time. She could picture him, caring for plants even though he was barely old enough to lift a watering can.