He looked down at me with surprise. “May I help you, human?”
“My name is Noelle. I’m the baker from the human realm.” I offered a small curtsy. Not sure what else to do.
“Names Jel.” Jel offered a kind smile and a small bow. “But I am very, very busy at the moment getting ready for winter and other such things I needn’t bore you with, so if you’ll excuse me?—”
The door about shut closed behind him, but I stuck my foot out to stop it. Guest or not, my neck was on the line here. I was desperate for ingredients. “Jel, I need to talk to you about some herbs I need for my baking.”
No one stopped me as I followed Jel into his rather spacious cabin. It was impossibly bigger on the inside with wooden tables and paintings lining the tall walls. Every available space held an open book, bauble or steaming cauldron. Glass jars with various ingredients, plants in terracotta pots, and bits of animal bone collections filled shelves from floor to ceiling. Thick leather-bound books of every color lined the west wall from top to bottom.
In the center of it all, fiddling with a strange metal contraption, sat the Elf King. Dirt covered a work apron, the black stuff caked under his usually immaculate fingernails. A basket of freshly picked flowers and vegetables lay on the table. The king looked up with surprise then stood, knocking back the chair he’d been sitting on with a crash. “Baker.”
“Highness.” I barely curtsied, a hot flush in my cheeks.
We both spoke in a rush.
“I wouldn’t have burst in if I knew you were here?—”
“I was not aware you had come?—”
Jel looked us both over with a curious expression, then smiled kindly. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Noelle?”
“Well, I—” words left me as I stared at anything and everything but the king. For as much as I hated him, I couldn’t help the wave of curiosity that plagued me. What was he doing here with a lowly gardener? Why was he covered in dirt?
After the longest and most excruciating stretch of silence, the king cleared his throat. “I was just leaving.”
As if I, alone, bore a contagious disease, the king strode through the hut and disappeared through the front door as it shut loudly behind him. Rafia and I both jumped.
“Well, that was nice,” I winced.
“Oh, don’t mind him. He has a lot on his mind.” Jel waved dismissively in the king’s direction, then fixed me with his be-speckled eyes. “What brings you in, my dear?”
But I was staring at the strange metal contraption the king had been looking into. It was in the shape of a cylindrical tube with glass circles fixed on either side. What could that possibly be?
“Working on these eggs, you see?” Jel gestured for me to join him at his large table. On it sat a nest with three brilliant blue robin’s eggs. “Here.”
Jel waved me to look through one end of the cylinder, the other end pointing at an egg. As I looked through the glass, I noticed with excitement that the egg had been magnified. Incredible. On closer inspection, a dark black shadow laced the egg on one side.
“Only one is like that so far. I left two other eggs with it as an experiment.” Jel pointed to the other end of the table wherethree pristine eggs lay. “These were with the others. So, I will see how this shadow spreads and what will come of it.”
Science here in a land of magic?
“What is happening to them?” I asked.
“A blight is spreading.” Jel prodded the small egg with some metal tweezers. “And I must find out why, and how to stop it.”
“But I thought you were the gardener.”
“Of course I am. Fifth generation gardener.” Jel huffed. “A gardener’s only as good as his magic. Not only do I craft the potions to preserve the plants for every season, but this blight is spreading to the tulips on the north side. I need to get to the bottom of this before it reaches the king’s gardens.”
Maybe this is what danger Rafia had been hinting at. This blight.
Jel rolled on his wheeled stool from one end of the room to the other collecting ingredients from his jars and bowls. A book lay out, leather bound and of the deepest green. By the way the runes were written, it seemed to be a recipe book.
“I’ve been working on this potion for weeks, but can’t seem to stop the darkness from spreading. I can only contain it.” Jel peered into a magnifying glass attached to a spring.
“That sounds useful,” I offered.
“Useful for some, completely useless to most.” Jel shrugged and leaned into his magnifying glass. “What can I help you with?”
