The Feiyan comes out of the grass easily enough—roots and all—and after it’s safely nestled in my flower basket, I enchant it to retain enough water to last the journey home, where I can pot it and spend dedicated time working my magic to keep it fresh. Not that I think it needs much magical assistance from me—I can already feel that the flower is powerful enough to survive much longer than the common flora I usually work with.
Willoh floats us back to the forest floor, and I dust off my dress before quietly following him back through the trees. How am I supposed to thank him for this? Worse, how am I supposed tonot talkabout this to anyone else? The mention of his name sends bothQueen Fern and Bash into a spiral, and if I tell Card, Bash will be able to sense that he’s hiding something. With six weeks until their wedding, I would hate to cause any extra stress.
“Here you are, Princess,” Willoh says, startling me back into reality.
I trip on a branch and he catches my elbow, helping me out of the tree line and onto the graveled path. When I’m stable, his hands disappear into his jacket pockets.
“Um,” I mumble as we face each other on the path. I should thank him. I should say something…
From seemingly nowhere, the white cat I saw before I fainted scampers toward us.
“It’s that cat!” I say.
Willoh groans as the cat paws at his leg.
“What?” he says to the cat, who changes tactics to butt its head against his boot. “I told you not to come this far out. Ugh,really?”
Willoh gives in and lifts the cat into his arms.
“That’syourcat?” I ask as it puts its front paws on his shoulder and snuggles a fluffy head under his chin.
“Yeah, he’s so needy.Gill,my guy,really?”
The cat tries to clamber onto his shoulders and I cover my laugh.
“Don’t let him get attached; he’ll never leave you alone,” Willoh says.
“Gill?”
“Yeah,” he says, and the cat continues to wriggle around his neck. “I found him in a stream nearby when he was just a kitten, so I called him Gill. He must have held his breath a long time—Gill,oh my gods.”
Gill rests around Willoh’s neck like a scarf and finally decides he’s comfortable.
“Cute,” I say with a smile.
Willoh rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, until you want to breathe,” he says, but there’s something different about his tone, a fondness I’ve never heard before. One thatcertainly hasn’t come out anytime I’ve heard him talking to Bash. “Anyway,this path takes you back to the citadel. Just keep going in a straight line.”
“Thank you.”
Willoh’s eyes flick to the flower in my hair. He spins on his heels and waves a hand.
“Sure. Later, Princess.” As he walks away, he lifts Gill from his shoulders and scolds him. “Seriously, bud, we’ve talked about this.”
With a soft chuckle, I turn in the direction of the citadel, having completed my customer’s requestandsurvived the company of formidable sorcerer Willoh Vane. The success is a sunlit fiery buzz in my chest that has me glowing all the way home. ASAP, the request said. I thought it would be impossible, but I’ve delivered in a day. Reliable to a fault.
When I’m home, I choose a pot for the Feiyan, douse it with my usual flower feed, and use the rest of the sunlight hours inspecting it in every way possible. When exhaustion reminds me to eat and sleep, and my journal is full of new sketches and annotations, I finally wrap the Feiyan in protective paper and place it in the collection box, sad to see it go. The flower disappears overnight without any clues as to who the customer could be, and the surprising sum of ten gold is left behind in payment. No amount had been specified, but I charge five gold for my most expensive bouquets with all additional enchantments and accessories, so ten is a more than generous payment for a single flower.
I hope that whoever the customer is, whatever they use it for, they take good care of it. It’s what beauty like that deserves. And if any more requests for unique flowers come in, I’ll find them. I’ll never fail to deliver. Perhaps then people will trust me, and I’ll be safe from an outcast’s fate. I won’t end up like Willoh Vane, alone in a forest with only a cat for company. Although, he didn’t seem to mind it…
No. I can’t allow myself to think that way. I have to pretend our meeting never happened. There are already far too many reasons for people to be wary of me. I’ll keep my mouth shut and words locked tight and pray I never have reason to meet him again.
Chapter Four
A week later, when I get home from stocking up on marigolds, I check the anonymous request box out of habit and am surprised to find another form there from the same customer who ordered the Feiyan. This one, likewise penned in unusual calligraphy, names another flower I’ve never heard of, the Odyssa, alongside—again—only two other words:Collection. ASAP.However, this time they haven’t included a helpful map—not even ahint—meaning I have nothing to go on and no way of delivering with the same speed as last time.
Hmm. I wonder why it’s so urgent. Have they already used the Feiyan for something? It can’t have wilted already, not with that much power inside. And if they know more about rare flowers than I do, why would they ask me to collect them instead of going themselves? Whatever the reason, knowing the customer was willing to part with ten gold for the first flower shows they are serious about their requests.
