The guard sighed wearily. “Please be careful of the plants.”
Valen was already opening the door and escorting me out. “Of course.”
The door closed behind us, and my eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. Golden lights shone from the windows of a different wing of the palace across the gardens, but it almost felt as if I’d stepped into a primeval forest. The air hung heavy with the damp scent of decaying leaves and fertile earth. A chill settled on my skin, a prickling sensation that spoke of age and secrets held within the trees. A symphony of unseen creatures chirped and rustled, and the closest flowers bent toward us like sentient animals. I stepped back, bumping into Valen.
“Would you care to tell me why we’re here?” he asked.
“I chucked the jewel over the balcony. We need to find it.”
I started down the cobblestone path, darting aside to avoid the flowers. Their stems curved toward me, the petals stretching like fingers.
Valen stomped past them, and they brushed harmlessly off his boots. “Why?”
“Don’t give me that look. It’s your fault, you know. You said the jewel wasn’t magical anymore.”
“Because every scholar who’s ever written about it said—” He shook his head. “What happened?”
I described the buzzing magic and the way it had nullified my shapeshifting abilities. He nodded thoughtfully, and some tension in the back of my neck unwound. I’d half expected him to berate me for hurling the jewel down here.
“Do you remember where it landed?” he asked.
I looked up at the balcony to get my bearings. “By the trees over there, I think.”
I made to cut through the flowers, but Valen grabbed my arm.
“Don’t. We need to stay on the path as much as possible.”
The skin on the back of my neck prickled. “Why?”
“You heard the guard warn us to be careful of the plants.”
“We’re stealing a magic jewel from a literal princess, and you’re worried about damaging some flowers?”
“I’m worried about the flowers damaging you. Those are Moonshatter Orchids. When disturbed, they release crystalline pollen that temporarily blinds anyone caught in it.”
I looked down at the pale blue flowers that emitted a soft glow like moonlight. “Oh.”
Throwing the jewel down here suddenly felt like an even worse mistake. I’d thought the gardens looked small before, but now they seemed massive. How long would it take to find the jewel?
We followed the path, scanning the shadowy bushes and trees for any sign of the Selenian Jewel. Helpfully—and a little disturbingly—Valen pointed out the lethal flora we passed.
“Sapphire ice lilies.” He gestured at a patch of deep blue flowers. “Contact causes instant frostbite.”
I shivered, feeling the chill as we moved past them.
“Starfall vines.” He guided me away from black vines with tiny white flowers that looked like distant stars. “They can wrap around a limb in seconds.”
“No wonder nobody else is here. It’s a total deathtrap. Who plants a garden like this?”
“The head gardener was also the head torturer during the reign of Queen Magnissa the Mad,” Valen said in a flat voice.
“I hate him.”
Valen smiled bitterly. “You and me both.” Then he pointed to our left.
The jewel! It had landed in the middle of a humongous rose thicket, the necklace dangling off a thorny stem. The huge blooms had petals of deep crimson that seemed to glow from within, and they filled the air with a heady floral scent, sweet anda little musky. The blue jewel seemed out of place among them, twinkling at us almost mockingly.
“That’s a perfectly normal rose bush, right?” I asked with little hope.
