The Enchanted Greenhouse(62)
Terlu gave her Yarrow’s pouch. He’d said to offer half—the other half was for if she decided to send her own letter as well to another destination. But she offered the full amount. “Will this cover taking a letter to Alyssium, as well as taking on and training a new crewmate?” She nodded at the shrub.
With leaves quivering, Ree whimpered, “Please?”
The sailor peeked into the pouch and whistled through her teeth. “Okay, I take it back. I’ll sail wherever with whomever for this. Label says these are summer squash from Rivoc. My ma has been wanting to plant them for seasons, but you can’t get them anywhere anymore. You tell Yarrow thanks from both of us and that I’ll bring an extra bag of flour when I come back around for the monthly delivery.” She grinned at Ree. “When we come back around.”
“Gah,” Ree said, so excited that he’d been rendered speechless.
“Thank you,” Terlu said.
Shedding leaves, Ree cried, “My captain!”
“Call me Marin. It’s short for Mariner, but I always thought that was a bit too on the nose. Also, risky of my parents—what if I hadn’t liked to sail?”
“Who wouldn’t like to sail?” Ree asked.
“My feelings exactly.”
“Thanks, Marin. I’m Terlu.” Belatedly, she wondered if she should have given a false name. She had no idea if she was a fugitive in Alyssium or not, especially given the news from the capital. Swiftly, she changed the subject. “Have you known Yarrow a long time?” The sailor seemed to care about Yarrow. How well did she know him? Had she known his family?
“Yarrow. Didn’t even know his name.” She shook her head. “Only talked with him a couple times—first time to ask when he’d need supplies, second time to ask about payment. Quiet guy. Polite. Didn’t try to haggle, which was refreshing. Some people see a supply runner coming, and they assume we want to cheat you so they try to cheat me first. It’s a game to some of them.” She nodded toward the forest. “Your guy never played games. I respect that.”
My guy. Terlu felt herself blush and changed the subject again. “Did you see the serpent earlier? It was singing like a trumpet. I’ve never seen one in person before. I always imagined the trumpet description was just people being poetic, but it really did sound like music.”
“That was Perri. He’s my buddy.”
She had a sea serpent for a friend? Wow! “I have so many questions.”
Tucking the pouch of seeds alongside the letter, Marin grinned. “I’ll tell you someday. Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll make up a few fabulous stories, and you can decide which one is true. Everyone always expects sailors to have incredible adventures to faraway lands … And yes. Yes, we do.”
Terlu opened her mouth to ask more.
Marin held up a finger. “Another time. I’ve only so much daylight to ride the wind and a lot of islands in my path. I’ll deliver your gardener’s letter. And then someday I want to hear about that story, how you befriended the Reclusive Gardener of Belde. I will be disappointed if there isn’t at least one passionate kiss involved.”
Terlu sputtered.
Laughing, Marin untied the sailboat from the dock. “Come on, new deckhand. The waves wait for no man, woman, or shrubbery.”
Ree scurried onto the boat. “Tell the others I’ll be back with stories too!”
Still laughing, Marin shoved off the dock with her foot. She pulled on a line until the sail caught the wind. Crossing to the mast, Ree wrapped his branches around it and climbed.
“Happy sailing! And thank you!” Terlu called after them.
Marin waved and then she tilted her head back and sang a cascade of notes. Out toward the open sea, an iridescent serpent leaped out of the waves, trumpeting the notes back to her.
On the dock, Terlu watched until the sailor, the shrub, and the serpent disappeared from view.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After two weeks of research, with the frequent assistance of Dendy, Terlu had amassed a stack of spells that she didn’t think would cause anyone or anything to blow up or transform unpleasantly. She was sorting through them when Yarrow poked his head into the sorcerer’s workroom. “Lunch?” he offered.
He was carrying a plate covered with a tea towel. She smelled the herbs as soon as he stepped inside. “That smells amazing,” she said. “What it is?”
“Carrot and zucchini bread. My own recipe.” He looked sheepish as he said it, as if it were of lower quality because he’d invented it. “It tastes better than it sounds. Inspired by my aunt Rin’s carrot muffin recipe.”
“It sounds wonderful.” She wondered if Aunt Rin was one of his relatives in Alyssium. After she’d told him Marin’s news about the revolution, his face had squinched up in a worried kind of way, but he, of course, hadn’t wanted to talk about it. He had, though, started baking more recipes that he said were theirs, so she knew he was thinking about them.
She cleared a spot on the worktable, and he set down the plate. The aroma of baked bread wafted up. It smelled like a fall harvest. Or like a farmer’s market when the sun has been shining and the rain’s been falling and everything has grown so tremendously well that no one will be hungry all winter. “When did you have time to bake this?” He, with Lotti and the other sentient plants, had been working to replant the rescued plants from the dead tropical greenhouse. They had managed to save more than Yarrow would have been able to transplant on his own, but it was still only a fraction of what the sun-drenched room had held.