It was a woman’s voice I’d never heard before, and judging by the look on the others’ faces, neither had they.
“Well, they’re herenow.If they were smart, they’d go back, but I’m willing to bet a whole petal they aren’t.”
Time’s Teeth, had I finally lost my mind for real? Because I could have sworn I heardanothervoice, this one male.
“Don’t be rude, Tulip. You’reso judgmental!”
Laughter.
I was still frozen in place, my arms to the sides, just waiting for something to jump at me, but Anika was a few feet to my right, laughing her heart out as she looked…down.As she looked at the edge of a branch as wide as my shoulders extending from the floor, that could have very well been a tree on its own.
I looked, too.
That’s when I saw the flowers. Three of them, moving. Talking.Arguing.
Two tulips with a daffodil between them.
“No way,” someone said, and they could have taken the words right out of my mouth, becauseno way,indeed. Therewas no way my eyes weren’t lying to me when they insisted that these flowers had leaves for arms, and eyes and mouths between their petals, too.
Absolutely no way inanytimeline.
Except…they were.
“Oh, you’re one to talk, Daffy!” said the tulip on the left with the bright magenta petals. His voice was deeper, darker.
“You’rethe one who’s judgmental, I say!” The other tulip sounded female, and its petals were white, with the same magenta bleeding down the edges toward the stem.
Meanwhile the daffodil opened her mouth—the daffodil has a mouth.
“Oh, hush, you two! You’re distracting the Hands!” she said, moving her white petals and the two leaves on her stem like she was indeed waving them off.
“They’re talking!” Anika said, standing up as we approached, pointing at them. “You guys—the flowers are talking!”
“Well, of course we’re talking—how else would we communicate? We’re flowers,notanimals,” said the pink tulip.
“Never mind the tulips—they’re outrageous,” the daffodil said. “But quick—youmustgo back. You can’t be here, children. Go back while you still can!”
“Hello,” Anika said, waving her hand. “We’re the Hands of the Turning T?—”
“Yes, we know who you are, you thistle-brain,” the white tulip spit.
Anika gasped before she started laughing again. I was close enough to see now that they indeed had eyes on those flowerheads. Eyes and mouths to speak with. It was all real.
“Time’s Teacups—they’re socute!” said Levana.
“Fake,” said Silas. “They’re fake.”
“Who’re you calling fake, you half-grown weed?!” the pink tulip raged.
Even Silas cracked a smile. “Part of the Labyrinth, that’s all,” he muttered almost to himself.
“Why don’t you come closer, and I’ll show you what I’m part of, stemwit?!”
Holy Hour, the tulip meant business.
Most of the Hands laughed out loud as Silas shook his head. He was trying to hold back his laughter, too.
“Why did you say that, though?” I asked the daffodil a moment later. “Why did you tell us to go back?”
