“But you’re the one who fixed it,” Yarrow said.
“Together?” Terlu said.
“Together,” he agreed.
They threw the ashes into the waves. A moment later, they threw the turtle shell. It floated for a moment and then gradually, as the waves hit it, it filled with water and began to sink.
“It’ll probably wash onto shore,” Yarrow said.
“It’s okay. This was kind of symbolic at this point. The fire was thorough.”
“Good.”
They both watched the turtle shell as it disappeared beneath the waves.
Rejoining the others, they walked back through the snow.
As they reached the sorcerer’s tower, Lotti asked Rowan to help her inside. She wanted to let Laiken know what they’d done and that his plants were safe, but she couldn’t work Laiken’s door handle. After transferring the little dragon from Rowan’s shoulder back to Terlu’s, Rowan and Ambrel peeled away to let the little rose into the sorcerer’s home.
The two remaining humans, Birch and Rorick, excused themselves when they reached the cottages to join the work on the roofs, windows, and chimneys. The blue cottage was livable now, as was the one in sunrise colors. They were working on a third now. A lot remained to be done, but at least the family wasn’t sleeping all piled together in the workroom anymore.
The other plants stayed with Terlu, Yarrow, and the dragons until they reached the greenhouse, and then they said goodbye and left to continue their work fixing the cracks. Terlu and Yarrow brought the dragons back to the sunflower maze together.
Once the chrysanthemum puzzle door was opened, the three little dragons took to the air and flew back inside with happy trills and coos. They were greeted with calls from the other dragons. Above, the aurora rippled in green-and-yellow ribbons.
“Thank you for your help,” Yarrow called after them.
Terlu placed the jars inside the door, where the dragons could easily reach them. “We’ll leave the door open from now on.” She glanced at Yarrow to make sure he agreed, and he nodded. Just because Laiken had treated the inhabitants of Belde a certain way didn’t mean they had to do the same. Like Lotti and the other sentient plants, the dragons had proven they were more than what they’d been allowed to be.It’s time for things to change.“Let us know when you want more honey.”
All three dragons flew back into the maze. She watched them for a moment as they cavorted above the flowers. She wondered if they were telling their story to the other dragons and decided that yes, they were.
“Do you think they’ll leave the maze, if we leave the door open?” Yarrow worried.
“Yes,” Terlu said. “But then they’ll come back. Their family and friends are all here.”
“Mmm. Also, their treasure hoard.”
“Sure, that too.”
Side by side, they watched the dragons fly for another few minutes before Yarrow said, “I wonder if they’d like honey cakes. I could bake smaller portions so they could lift them…”
“I think they’d love that.”
Leaving the dragons, they strolled back through the greenhouses. She expected him to hurry off to weed or prune or re-pot, but perhaps he didn’t need to, now that it wasn’t just him caring for the hundreds of thousands of plants. She wondered how he was feeling about the fact that his father had come into the caves for him. Granted, he wasn’t a child anymore, and he hadn’t been lost, but maybe it would at least be the beginning of something? She wasn’t going to ask, though. That was up to Yarrow to work through.
“So, I guess we just wait?” Yarrow said. “See if any other greenhouses fail?”
“I think so.” Only time would show if they’d succeeded. But she was certain they’d done it. She trusted her translation of Laiken’s final notebook.
“Hmm.”
As they strolled through the rose room, beneath the many shades of pink and red and white, Yarrow asked, “Now that you’ve saved everything I’ve ever cared about, what do you want to do for an encore?” He wrapped his arm around her waist and shortened his strides to match hers. Leaning against him, she breathed in his scent—honey and sea and sweat and sweetness—with the roses.
She thought about what came next. “I think… I want to write a letter.”
“Huh. Okay.”
The more she considered it, the more certain she was.
