Dirt spilled over the glossy ballroom floor. In the centre of the mess, Marigold was now on her back with herfeet in the air. Her arms thrashed wildly as she fought with the wide hoop of her skirt, trying to haul herself up, only to flop back onto the floor over and over again.
“Help me up, you fools!” she snarled to her two guards. The two men jumped into action, their faces turning beetroot-red while they struggled to return her to her feet. Sheepish laughter rippled through those in the queue close enough to watch the display.
“What did you do?” My lips parted.
Arenn chuckled darkly. “Sent a root out from that plant pot to trip her,” he purred. “Do not fear though, sweet princess. Anyone can see the clumsy queen just fell, and she’ll be alright.” He chuckled again. “Or at least she will be when her guards manage to get her back on her feet.”
I held back a smile at the sight of her struggle. She wasn’t injured, except for maybe a bruised ego. With a shake of my head, I caught the attention of the nearest guard. “Will you please send in the next patient?”
He nodded before marching off towards the queue while I carried on to my booth.
“Wait.” Arenn caught my arm.
I met his gaze with a scowl. “What?”
“Let me help you.”
“No.”
“But I can be useful.” A grin pulled at his cheeks. Releasing my arm, he leaned against a sandstone column. “I can sort through your patients and compel those who are lying to leave, or,” his eyes glinted, “I can glamour away all the dirt from their clothes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very useful.”
“Just give me something, human,” he pleaded, “something I can do to prove to you how much I care. Because I do.” His voice deepened, sending unwanted tingles down my spine. “I care incredibly so.”
Exhaling, I turned away to fetch something from my booth. “Wait there,” I called over my shoulder. When I returned, I shoved an old leather book into his waiting hands.
“That’s my medicinal plant book,” I told him plainly. “If you want to help, go into the woods and fetch me one of everything.” It was a pointless task. There were hundreds of plants in that book, and half of those herbs couldn’t even be found in Ryntook, but Arenn didn’t seem to know that – or at least he didn’t mind travelling.
With a wide grin, he clutched the book to his chest. “Anything for you, my dear princess.” And before I could roll my eyes again, he hurried out of the ballroom.
Patients poured into my booth like a steady trickle after that. Each one, I diagnosed, wrote them a slip, then sent them to Ivy if they needed medicine. The minutes passed in a blur, the repetitive nature of it all finally sending my heart back into a steady rhythm. Another patient. Another problem solved. Another intense wave of satisfaction.
Until my latest patient walked out and a waft of herbs hit my nose. I glanced up just in time to see Arenn waltzing in with a huge green bouquet in his hands.
The parchment I was holding fell to the floor.
“I have done as requested, dear princess,” he announced, extending out the bouquet as if he were a lover presenting me with a gift.
“H-how?” I stammered. “It hasn’t even been an hour.”The bouquet was bursting with different herbs, plants, and rare flowers. Some of them could only be found hundreds of miles away, far up into the goblin mountains, and some—“These are supposed to be extinct!” I gasped at a small cluster of blue flowers.
Arenn’s grin only widened. “That would explain why they took so much power to conjure. I almost collapsed into the grass.”
“You made these? With your magic?” I gasped.
“Of course.” He smirked, shrugging as if it were no effort at all. “And if I’d known smelly plants were the way to your heart, I’d have filled your bedchamber with bouquets of them.”
So many words caught in my throat as I struggled to process just what this meant for our clinic. More than our clinic. The realm!
Eventually, running my fingers through my hair, I blurted, “Arenn this is so wonderful! There are plants in your hands that can help treat so many different conditions – plants that we haven’t been able to find for decades!” My wide-eyed gaze caught on a rare, wine-coloured herb as I gasped. “This one is endlewire! It’s even better at mending wounds than nightbriar.” Arenn watched me with a smile as all my words poured out. “This will help so many people. We have to show Ivy, she’ll be ecstatic. And I need to tell the others too. Oh, Marius and Terr will scream!”
With a satisfied smirk, Arenn dropped the plants into my hands. “Go.” He gestured to the exit. “Show your friends your flowers and I will remain here.” Taking a seat across from my desk, he leaned back in the wooden chair. “Once you’velet out all your excitement, you can come back and thank me properly.” He shot me a wink that, for once, I didn’t scowl at.
My Corlixin friends were just as thrilled when I presented them with Arenn’s bouquet of plants. All three of them paused their work to marvel over the different herbs that the faery prince had somehow conjured. Of course, they had many questions, too. Why was there a faery in the castle? Why was he willing to help me? Thankfully, my friends were too focused on the endlewire and all the other rare plants to worry about the vague answers I gave. I also chose not to mention the fact that I was somehow engaged to two different princes.
That discussion would require far more wine.
Once Ivy had taken the bouquet to her medicine counter, I left Marius and Terr to return to my booth, ready to ask the guards to send in the last few patients for the night. Though my distracted mind had made it barely a few steps before I slammed into a wall of dark cotton and firm arms.
