Chapter 19 #2
“It’s calm in here,” I say, looking around. There’s a lot of flowers, so many that I don’t recognize them all. There’s even plants. Some are hanging and others are on the floor so big that the pots are large enough for me to sit inside comfortably.
I walk close to a long-stemmed flower. It’s purple with white blossoms in the middle.
“This is beautiful.” I run my finger along the purple buds and almost jerk my hand back.
It doesn’t feel like a flower at all, it feels like paper.
I step closer and see there’s white buds in each long-stemmed purple bundle.
“I’ve never seen this before,” I tell Jaak, leaning forward to see if it has any smell but there’s nothing.
I pick up a bloom for a better look. “I wonder what it is.”
“Purple Statice,” a woman says as she pops out from behind the purple flowers and I throw the flower I’m holding at her.
“Where did you come from?”
She catches the flower easily and calmly places it back in the barrel it was in.
“I’m the florist, darling. I come from everywhere and nowhere.
” She winks at me with a toothy smile. She's older, short, just barely to my shoulder. Silver-haired and wiry in the kind of way that makes me completely unsure how old she really is. The lines in her face tell me she’s in her seventies but the way she moves around the flower display to come towards us suggests otherwise.
There’s a sureness in her steps that looks like she’s my age.
She tosses her long, silver braid over her shoulder and holds out her hand to us.
“How do you do? I’m Eleanor.”
There’s what looks like a dozen silver rings on her hand, some with gemstones and some without. When I take her hand the silver is cool against my skin. “I’m Meadow.”
“Pleased to meet you, Meadow.” She leans to the side and looks Jaak up and down. “And who might this tall drink of water be? A boyfriend of yours?”
“No,” I shake my head and I hear Jaak start to protest but he stops the second I say, “he’s my husband.”
“I am Jaak, husband of Meadow,” he says, holding out his hand to take Eleanor’s.
The woman cackles and shakes his hand. “You sure are. That’s quite a promotion from boyfriend, isn’t it?”
I don’t think Jaak gets her joke when he says. “Indeed. I work very hard.”
“You really do. There’s no better husband in the land,” I tell him and watch as the big demon preens under my praise. It’s an interesting thing watching the Lord of Chaos and War blush when you compliment him.
“Well now, you two are very newly married, aren’t you?” Eleanor asks and taps the bucket of Purple Statice by her side. “This is the perfect flower for you two then.”
“It is? Why?” I ask.
“It symbolizes success and beauty.” She plucks out a stem and holds it out to me. I hesitate for a second but take it. “It even means mystery. It’s good to have a little something mysterious when you’re in your early days, so don’t give all your secrets away, darling. A man loves a mystery.”
I’ve never been a mystery to anyone, least of all the demon that’s been in my head for years but I don’t say that. Instead, I nod. “Okay. I won’t.”
“Now, speaking of mysteries. You two are quite the mystery.”
“We are?”
She nods. “Oh yes, a new couple like you in town with a new house that none of us knew sold. Quite the mystery, indeed. One wonders where did you come from? Why did you choose here? Why the old Sarande House at the edge of town when no one’s lived there for years. Why now?”
Mulberries. This is bad. One minute around Eleanor and she’s tearing our story to shreds. I swallow and look towards Jaak. His eyes are narrowed. He doesn’t like Eleanor’s line of questioning.
I clear my throat and make a show of inspecting the flower I’m holding. It is interesting so it’s not that hard to pull off. I run my finger along one paper-like ridge of a petal as I ask, “How did you know we just bought a house? We just got there last night. Didn’t think anyone saw us.”
“Oh well, Clyde told me. Naturally. Said his cousin saw you two walking into town from that way on their morning run. They assumed you were at the Sarande house because there’s nothing else that way, just a dead-end road so where else would you be coming from?
” She laughs and shakes her head. “The forest? Silly. Anyways, Clyde’s cousin told him and he told me over our morning coffee. ”
Damn you blabbermouth Clyde’s cousin and Clyde.
“Clyde from the diner?”
“The one and the same. He’s a good one, the giving kind to be helping poor old Dina out while her vagrant husband is off doing gods knows what in the woods with those other fools.
” She turns and makes a clucking sound. “Some men are good and some are bad, and then there’s just the worthless ones like Dina’s husband.
” She looks over her shoulder at me with a wink.
“He’s not at all like your husband. You found yourself the real devoted kind, didn’t you?
A soul like that loves for an eternity. Trust me, I can tell these things. ”
Jaak steps up beside me and puts an arm around me.
“You’re very…wise.” I can hear the hesitation in his words, like he’s carefully picking them.
He doesn’t trust Eleanor, I can tell and so can she.
Then again, neither do I so I get it. I almost reach for the bond that I can feel between us but I don’t trust that Eleanor won’t be able to see it.
How the hells would I explain the fact that I’ve got a golden thread running from me to him? Nope, better not chance it at all.
“I am. I’ve lived a very, very long time. So have you.”
Jaak shrugs. “I have an old soul. One of those faces.”
“It’s the eyes.” She leans in to peer at him and after a second she nods like she sees something there she was looking for. “I knew it.” She winks at him.
“Knew what?”
“Never you mind, dearie,” Eleanor trills and then just as suddenly as she appeared she scuttles off into the back of the shop and vanishes from sight. Jaak and I both watch her with open mouths.
“Did she just…” my voice trails off and I turn sideways to mimic the way Eleanor just ran, no, not ran. Scuttled. That’s the only way to describe it.
“She did.” Jaak cranes his neck to get a better look at Eleanor’s figure but there’s nothing to see.
She’s there one second and gone the next.
Why would she walk like that? It was barely a walk at all.
“She’s the head mage. I’ll destroy her now,” he says and turns to look around him, presumably for a weapon.
At least I think that’s what he’s doing when he picks up a heavy glass vase like he’s testing the weight of it.
“What? No, she can’t be.” I put a hand on his arm to stop him when he moves on from the vase to a wooden candlestick. “She’s nosey, sure, but it’s a small town. That’s just how these places are. What are you doing? Stop swinging that!”
Jaak ignores me and gives the candlestick another swing before he shakes his head.
“Too light. This will break on impact. I need something heavy…heavy…ah, there.” He snaps his fingers and strides over to a table where someone was putting together a bouquet.
At first, I don’t see what has Jaak’s attention.
There’s only flowers, a few boxes and a spool of twine.
All of it seems innocent enough until he turns and motions for me to go back up to the front.
He gives whatever he’s holding a nod of approval. “This will do. For now.”
“What will do? What are you going to do?”
“This will only take a moment. Wait for me outside. I do not wish for you to see me like this.” In his hand is a heavy metal disk covered in spikes. It looks medieval almost. What the hells is anyone using that for in a floral shop?
“Woah, hey, put whatever that is down,” I tell him. “You can’t use that on Eleanor. She’s a harmless gossip. Just a little old lady.”
Jaak gives me a come on look. “Did you not see the way she left us? The evidence could not be any more damning, witchling.”
“What? The weird shuffle thing?” I rub the back of my neck and shrug. “I don’t know, it was weird but that doesn’t mean she’s the head mage.”
“That was a cursed crustacean crawl if I’ve ever seen one. In fact it was the cursed crustacean crawl. Everyone knows you do not trust crustaceans. They are treacherous, foul beings.”
“Crustaceans? You mean crabs? You-I mean, you’re saying crabs are evil?”
“This is known, Meadow.” Jaak turns and looks in the direction Eleanor crab-walked. “I’m going after her. This ends now. We will return victorious to your friends before nightfall.” He’s off and moving before I can snatch the spikey metal thing out of his hands.
“Jaak, wait, really, just hold on.” I rush after him but there’s no getting the demon to stop, so I do the only thing I can think of.
I yank on the bond as hard as I can. Jaak stops the second I pull and I let out a relieved breath.
Jaak looks back at me. “Yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“Vanquishing the head mage, of course.”
I point at the spiky metal object he has in his hand. “By doing what? Turning her into a pin cushion?”
“Of course not. I see the confusion now,” Jaak says and holds up his hands like he’s soothing a startled animal, “I’m not going to stab her with this. Rest assured.”
I slump against a display table with a relieved laugh. “Oh, thank the gods. I thought you were going to stab her with that thing. By the way, what even is that?”
“Stabbing her with this wouldn’t stop a head mage. Everyone knows to stop magic like that you have to behead them.”
My mouth drops open. “What?” I point at the metal spike mystery item. “With that?”
He shrugs and looks down at it thoughtfully. “I’ll have to be creative but I can manage it. My power is returning at a decent rate. I should be strong enough to figure it out.”
I lunge for him. “No, no figuring it out. You can’t just-”
“Hi, I’m Jen, can I help the two of you?” It’s not Eleanor surprising us this time but a perky sales associate with a bright smile.
I shake my head. “No, we were um, we were just leaving,” I say, abandoning the plan to question the business owner.
There’s no way we’re going to get around to that with the way Jaak wants to attack Eleanor.
“Weren’t we, darling?” I say as I grab Jaak’s arm to drag him back to the front.
I’m relieved when he comes with me willingly.
For all his talk about going after Eleanor, he lets me lead him towards the door with no resistance.
“Oh, okay, I hope you-oh, you found it!” she exclaims and holds out her hands to us.
I blink in confusion. “Found what?”
“My flower frog, of course.”
I look around for a frog but don’t see anything. “Your what?”
“My flower frog, my kenzan,” she says and then points at the thing Jaak has been plotting to commit homicide with, “the metal spikey thing.”
Jaak and I look down at the metal spikey thing together. “Ohhhhh,” we say in unison.
“Yeah, I thought I had it with me but I guess I set it up here somewhere. Thanks for finding it.”
Jaak hands it to her with a dip of his chin. “I apologize. I was not aware it had an owner or I would have never taken it to use.”
She tilts her head and gives him a funny look. “Use for what?” she asks.
“For you know, flower stuff,” I say, gesturing around the shop we’re in. “Obviously.”
Jen nods. “Yeah, that makes sense. Well, thanks for finding it. Is there anything you’re looking for other than this? We sell a few of them sometimes up front. I can check and see if we have any extras.”
“No, no, we’re okay,” I say before Jaak can place an order for twelve. “But I have a question about the lady that was helping us earlier. She was older and…chatty.”
“There’s no one working but me today.”
“What? No, there was a woman that worked here. Eleanor is what she said her name was,” I tell her and look around the shop but the older woman is well and truly gone.
At the mention of Eleanor, Jen sighs. “Oh golly gosh, she’s doing it again. I’m so sorry about that. Eleanor doesn’t work here.”
“She doesn’t?”
“No, she’s just a regular that gets super enthusiastic about flowers and, well,” she motions for us to come closer to her.
When we do, she starts talking again in a hushed tone, “we had to ban her for awhile last year because of how much she was scaring off the tourists. They thought she was like a witch or something. I’m really sorry if she scared you. ”
“She crab-walked. That is not something a normal human does,” Jaak tells her.
The worker winces. “Yeah, she does that. No idea where she picked it up. That scuttle is scary.”
“So you’re saying that she’s just a harmless old woman that likes to mess with tourists?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what she is. Again, I’m so sorry I wasn’t up here.
I had to take a delivery in the back and she must have come in when I wasn’t looking.
” She looks back over her shoulder with a frown.
“I bet she slipped out the back too. She really likes the whole vanishing into thin air act. People fall for it all the time…” her voice trails off and she gives us a tight smile, “not that I’m saying you fell for anything, but Eleanor is really convincing when she wants to be.
It’s hard not to believe her when she starts talking like she knows you.
That’s why we had to ban her. Tourists were coming back looking for the lady that was telling their fortunes. It was causing such a crowd.”
“No, it’s all right. We understand sometimes small towns are like that. Can’t have a community without some colorful people, right?” I take Jaak’s arm and give the shop worker a smile. “We’ll get out of your hair now. Thanks for solving our Eleanor mystery.”
“Anytime and make sure you come back again, okay? We have a two for one special on tulips on Wednesdays and that’s the best deal you’ll find on flowers in town. Just ask for me if you don’t see me up front.”
“You bet, Jen. We’ll be back on Wednesday,” I promise. It’s only Monday, we can make sure to come back on Wednesday if the world is still in one piece, right?