small of my back a cue to get moving.
“So then why hasn’t he gotten rid of the gnomes?”
“Likely the same reason none of you have—he’s had a big job to do. Let’s hope he at least saw that through.”
“None of… you have?” I crinkled my nose at him as we walked. “You’re not planning to help with the gnomes?”
“Absolutely not, no.”
I laughed and shook my head. “He did manage his tasks, though,” I said. “The non-gnome ones.”
“We shall see,” he said darkly.
Since the flower show incident, which he’d had to help clean up along with the rest of us, Austin didn’t have much faith in poor Edgar. And while I saw his point, he also hadn’t seen what Edgar had come up with in these last few weeks. I, however, had been monitoring his operation closely.
“The new healer has been a godsend,” I said as we crossed the grass and I ignored the doll sentries. I might not like them, but they fulfilled an important duty in ensuring the gnomes didn’t make it to the back door. Now if they could just watch the side yard as well… “She and the basajaunak have really helped Edgar with those flowers. I think it’s one of the main reasons she agreed to stay.”
The new healer, who called herself Indigo because she didn’t like her birth name Skye, had answered the accidental summons I’d placed in the basajaunak lands. She’d been understandably hesitant about joining our strange team of mythical creatures.
In the beginning, she’d bonded most with the basajaunak, walking through the wood with them and discussing the plants used in natural remedies and salves. Then she’d surprised us all by glomming on to Edgar. She was enraptured with his magical flowers, and I suspected she’d only agreed to go to Kingsley’s territory with us because she wanted to see them at work.
The path through the flower display at the edge of the grass was wider than usual, and gaping holes now existed in what had been a stranglehold of flora. Edgar was letting the basajaunak eat at will so they could eventually redo this area. The yard was not at its finest.
At the moment, none of us cared, not even Edgar.
“I’m coming, Jessie. Here I come!”
Speaking of, he ran up behind us, bleeding out of a few gashes and missing half a pant leg.
“Don’t bother healing me.” He waved at me as he loped by. “Indigo can handle that. Save your strength.”
“Save my strength for what?” I asked in a wispy voice.
After walking through the trees a ways, we emerged into a decently large clearing. Black plastic tubs covered the space. In each grew a seedling, the bright green stalks anywhere from six inches to two feet tall, with leaves and little branches starting to emerge from the sides. None of them swayed like killer plants 2.0 through 2.5 had. They didn’t grow diagonally, either, like 2.6 through 2.8. In fact, they didn’t seem to move at all, despite the soft breeze blowing through the clearing.
Edgar stood in the very middle of the group with his hands clasped in front of him. Indigo stood a little behind him, her hand on his shoulder, looking at us quietly. She needed touch as a means to heal, using plants and natural remedies to sometimes aid her magical process.
Basajaunak drifted toward us within the wood. Those closest stopped at the tree line to watch and listen.
I started the same way I always did. “What’ve we got?”
Edgar gave the same reply he always delivered out of the gate. “Yes, Jessie, thanks for coming.”
He then bowed. “Alpha Steele, lovely to have you.” He spread out his hand, accidentally bumping
Indigo. “Meet the Violator.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “What?”
“This is the new generation of assault flower,” he replied. “Attack flower 3.0, so perfect I want to weep at the mastery of it. I am calling it the Violator.”
“They each have names, though,” Indigo said, her voice high and childlike, matching her small frame and somewhat mousy appearance. A smattering of freckles dusted her button nose, on which sat large, black-framed, rectangular glasses. Thick bangs covered her forehead, and her brown hair was loosely pulled up into a messy bun. “They aren’t all called the Violator. That’s just their group name.”
“Oh yes, correct.” Edgar nodded dramatically. “Indigo is correct—how silly of me to forget. We have given each flower a name, as befits a friend. So here is…” He hesitated as he hovered over the seedling near his blood-crusted leg.