Chapter Three #2
“This is the part where you’ll be requiring my assistance,” he says, and with his other hand, twirls a thin spiral of magical wind around his fingers.
“Oh.”
I realize he can fly us up to the top in seconds, or I can try to climb.
It’s an easy decision to make. I’ve come this far, and despite Bastion’s voice yelling in the back of my mind, I am getting the Feiyan.
I am taking it home and delivering it; there’s no other outcome I can accept.
It’s more than a flower. It’s my path to a good reputation, to reliability.
And, above all, to being trusted. If that means letting Willoh Vane use magic around me, on me, for me, then so be it.
I stare at him, determined.
“Go for it,” I say, and swallow away the nerves. “Get us up there.”
Willoh surveys me for a second. He runs his eyes over my face, over the cinquefoil flower behind my ear and the rose-pink ends of my black hair, then he smiles. I tighten my jaw. He must have found something about me amusing.
Without warning, he sweeps up my free hand in his, gently, so my fingers are barely resting in his palm, and brushes his other against my lower back.
A summoned flurry of wind sails us through the air like the yank of a fishing pole.
I squeeze my eyes shut as the world blurs, a bellow in my ears and a rush in my stomach.
A moment later, my feet hit something solid and the warmth of Willoh’s hands disappears.
I open my eyes and gasp. Ahead is a clearing, wider and more open to the sun than I could ever imagine.
It’s a vast stretch of grass on top of the trees, supported by the tangled thicket below.
Blue sky spills endlessly in all directions.
I twist around to the south and my throat catches.
The stone walls of the citadel are a distant gray shadow past the sea of forest. To the west lies a sparkling ocean, and to the northeast, the snowcapped peak of the Spinal Steppe Mountain stands at the forefront of the mountain range that curves north to Senred and farther east to Dreah where Bash’s younger brother, Prince Merit, lives.
I turn to Willoh.
“H-How…?” I stammer. How could something like this exist? How could I not know this was here? How can I be standing above the trees and walking on fresh grass?
He shrugs.
“Magic,” is all he says, then sets off.
I hurry to keep up, captivated by the squish under my feet, and it isn’t until I tear my eyes from the ground that I realize where he’s heading—what he’s walking toward.
In the center of the magical meadow, a singular flower grows.
Its tall saffron-yellow stem supports leaves that bleed into a magnificent fiery red and, gods, the petals…
Long thin triangles burst out like the sun itself in rich gradients of pink and coral.
It’s the sunset, the sunrise, and all the light between.
The fully bloomed afternoon sun. A golden, shimmering daylight, aflame with light and life and an intense brilliance that has me falling to my knees beside it.
I lift a trembling finger to the petals.
The raw magic greets me with a burning smile, but there’s no discernible emotion or meaning contained within.
It soaks into my skin like basking on a summer’s day, and I would absolutely be telling the truth if I said I’d never felt a flower containing this much power before.
It’s impressive.
And dangerous.
I pull my finger away and stare up at Willoh, speechless.
“Satisfied, Princess?”
“I’m…I…” I truly do not know what to say, what the truth is. This is the greatest flower I’ve ever seen and I’m going to hand it over to a complete stranger.
“I think I’m jealous,” I say, and Willoh snorts a laugh.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t get to keep this. I have to give it away. Actually, I’d rather let it be. I’d rather let it grow and thrive here, but…” I trail off.
“Then do that,” Willoh says, with a shrug. “Just say you couldn’t find it.”
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
I realize what I’ve just said. I can’t do as he suggested because I can’t lie.
But he doesn’t know that. As I scramble for an excuse, for something of the truth to cover my tracks, Willoh simply crouches down beside me.
A wave of hair falls over his eyes as he studies the Feiyan.
From the pinch between his eyebrows, I’m sure he can feel the magic pouring from it.
“Well,” he muses, “at least make sure they pay you generously, then.”
I don’t mention that the request hadn’t provided a price range for my services, or that I was so curious about this flower that I would have come regardless of payment or not. I simply watch him examine the Feiyan a little longer until he drags his eyes to mine and grins.
“Don’t worry, I won’t charge you for my help.”
Even in the brightest of meadows, Willoh Vane manages to infuriate.
The Feiyan comes out of the grass easily enough—roots and all—and after it’s safely nestled in my flower basket, I enchant it to retain enough water to last the journey home, where I can pot it and spend dedicated time working my magic to keep it fresh.
Not that I think it needs much magical assistance from me—I can already feel that the flower is powerful enough to survive much longer than the common flora I usually work with.
Willoh floats us back to the forest floor, and I dust off my dress before quietly following him back through the trees.
How am I supposed to thank him for this?
Worse, how am I supposed to not talk about this to anyone else?
The mention of his name sends both Queen Fern and Bash into a spiral, and if I tell Card, Bash will be able to sense that he’s hiding something.
With six weeks until their wedding, I would hate to cause any extra stress.
“Here you are, Princess,” Willoh says, startling me back into reality.
I trip on a branch and he catches my elbow, helping me out of the tree line and onto the graveled path. When I’m stable, his hands disappear into his jacket pockets.
“Um,” I mumble as we face each other on the path. I should thank him. I should say something…
From seemingly nowhere, the white cat I saw before I fainted scampers toward us.
“It’s that cat!” I say.
Willoh groans as the cat paws at his leg.
“What?” he says to the cat, who changes tactics to butt its head against his boot. “I told you not to come this far out. Ugh, really?”
Willoh gives in and lifts the cat into his arms.
“That’s your cat?” I ask as it puts its front paws on his shoulder and snuggles a fluffy head under his chin.
“Yeah, he’s so needy. Gill, my guy, really?”
The cat tries to clamber onto his shoulders and I cover my laugh.
“Don’t let him get attached; he’ll never leave you alone,” Willoh says.
“Gill?”
“Yeah,” he says, and the cat continues to wriggle around his neck. “I found him in a stream nearby when he was just a kitten, so I called him Gill. He must have held his breath a long time—Gill, oh my gods.”
Gill rests around Willoh’s neck like a scarf and finally decides he’s comfortable.
“Cute,” I say with a smile.
Willoh rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, until you want to breathe,” he says, but there’s something different about his tone, a fondness I’ve never heard before. One that certainly hasn’t come out anytime I’ve heard him talking to Bash. “Anyway, this path takes you back to the citadel. Just keep going in a straight line.”
“Thank you.”
Willoh’s eyes flick to the flower in my hair. He spins on his heels and waves a hand.
“Sure. Later, Princess.” As he walks away, he lifts Gill from his shoulders and scolds him. “Seriously, bud, we’ve talked about this.”
With a soft chuckle, I turn in the direction of the citadel, having completed my customer’s request and survived the company of formidable sorcerer Willoh Vane.
The success is a sunlit fiery buzz in my chest that has me glowing all the way home.
ASAP, the request said. I thought it would be impossible, but I’ve delivered in a day. Reliable to a fault.
When I’m home, I choose a pot for the Feiyan, douse it with my usual flower feed, and use the rest of the sunlight hours inspecting it in every way possible.
When exhaustion reminds me to eat and sleep, and my journal is full of new sketches and annotations, I finally wrap the Feiyan in protective paper and place it in the collection box, sad to see it go.
The flower disappears overnight without any clues as to who the customer could be, and the surprising sum of ten gold is left behind in payment.
No amount had been specified, but I charge five gold for my most expensive bouquets with all additional enchantments and accessories, so ten is a more than generous payment for a single flower.
I hope that whoever the customer is, whatever they use it for, they take good care of it.
It’s what beauty like that deserves. And if any more requests for unique flowers come in, I’ll find them.
I’ll never fail to deliver. Perhaps then people will trust me, and I’ll be safe from an outcast’s fate.
I won’t end up like Willoh Vane, alone in a forest with only a cat for company. Although, he didn’t seem to mind it…
No. I can’t allow myself to think that way. I have to pretend our meeting never happened. There are already far too many reasons for people to be wary of me. I’ll keep my mouth shut and words locked tight and pray I never have reason to meet him again.