“I'd rather choose the supplies myself. Especially if they're plants.”
“Then go yourself and have the bill sent to the castle. I'll have a letter of credit sent to you along with the garden plans.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” I bowed. “It will be my honor to tend to this special place for you.”
The Dragon King looked across the wild garden as if searching for something. His expression remained neutral. Finally, he nodded. “Do you know the way back to your guest room?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then I will leave you to get settled and see you at dinner tonight.”
“I think I'll look around here a bit more before I head back.”
“Very well.” He turned, went a few steps, then stopped and looked at me over his shoulder. “Master Dahl?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Do not disappoint me.”
“I wouldn't dream of it, Sire.”
Chapter Five
I waded through the garden for a while, just getting the lay of the land. Literally. It was a testament to my talent that I'd been hired to do this job alone. I had no magic to help me. No Earth to move trees with a motion of my hand. No Water to wet the soil. No Fire to burn the dead branches and leaves. No Air to blow things into tidy piles. It was just me. And yet the King trusted me to handle it.
“Shit,” I muttered as I looked at the mess. “This is going to take months. Maybe a year.” Then the King's face popped into my head, and I grinned. “I guess that's not such a bad thing.”
I picked my way carefully back to the colonnade, then surveyed the garden from there. After being in the middle of it, I could see things clearer and easily picked out the stone paths that radiated from the fountain. But I couldn't see the shape of the fountain. It was covered in overgrowth.
I really wanted to know what that fountain looked like.
“Hopefully, those plans will be in my room by now,” I said as I hurried off toward my guest room.
Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting on the floor in the front room, leaning over a low table to peer at the age-stainedplans of the Duchess's Garden. I ran my finger over the title and swallowed past the lump in my throat.
What had I been thinking? Shaleros was a Dragon, a king, and a heterosexual. Oh, and let's not forget that his mate had died, and he survived. Unheard of. Dragons mated for life. They never strayed from their mates, and if one of them died, the other followed. No question. Except for him. This man was beyond out of reach for me. He was utterly untouchable. Unattainable. Had I truly thought that I could weed his soul like a garden? Just cut off the dead branches and let him flourish? And that such a flourishing would lead him to my bed? What an idiot I could be.
“Oh, well,” I sighed. “There will be lots of men here to take my mind off the King. Or who I can fuck while I fantasize about the King. I'll be all right.”
Still, it stung to see that the garden had belonged to Shaleros's mate. Hisfemalemate. As if I hadn't known that as soon as he said it had belonged to someone special to him. Who else could it have been? Then I looked closer at the plans.
“It's a star,” I whispered.
Latur's symbol was, of all things, an elephant. I'd seen representations of that animal in artwork and carvings several times in the castle already. Just as the royal castle of Sken had roses everywhere, so this castle had elephants. It's the thing to do, throw your symbol about. So that fountain should have featured an elephant. It didn't. The eight-pointed star formed the base of the fountain—the walls of the basin. But there was no statue rising from the center. Not an elephant or anything else. Just that star, low to the ground, as if it had fallen, with a pumpto bubble up water in the center. The walking paths radiated out from the star's points to divide the garden into eight sections.
“This was either the Duchess' symbol or something she loved,” I murmured as I traced the lines going out from the star fountain.
They were like the spokes of a wheel, intersected by other paths that connected each main path to its neighbors in more straight lines, forming octagons. Again, like a wheel. The layout was so rigid, but that was the architectural feel of the castle so it wasn't surprising. If the garden was done right, the plants would add the necessary softness and give the garden a flow that would turn something rigid into something glorious.
I don't know how long I sat there, going over the garden plans and making notes in my little book, but it had gotten dark enough to make me get up and pull the cord for the overhead lanterns. I stretched while I was up, and mid-stretch, someone knocked on my door.
I opened the door to find a human servant standing outside. She was dark-skinned and slender, and her brown eyes widened when she saw me. She held a pile of fabric.
“Yes?” I prompted.
“Oh! Sorry, Sir. Um, I wasn't expecting a, um, a—”
“Human?” I asked.
