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Perilous Plants 3


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#1 Laufey

Posted 10 January 2005 - 06:34 PM

Chapter 3

I've given you sunshine
I've given you dirt.
You've given me nothing
But heartache and hurt.
I'm beggin' you sweetly.
I'm down on my knees.
Oh, please-grow for me!

‘Grow For Me’, Little Shop of Horrors


Once he got home, Edwin retreated to his room, determined to pay some serious attention to his new toy. The frog proved to be just as entertaining as he had thought, and he amused himself for a good while with letting it hop about the room. Eventually he got tired of the game and stuck the frog in his pocket, planning to hide it in some amusing place later where an unsuspecting grownup might stumble across it. And then he felt his fingers touch something small, cold and round, something that definitely hadn’t been there when he left home. “What have I got in my pocket?” he said out loud, hauling the object out. It was a ring. A plain gold ring, with no stone and no markings on it. It felt heavy in his hand, heavier than it ought to have done. Edwin watched it in some puzzlement, wondering where the thing had come from. Then he understood. The ring must have been in that barrel in the museum shop, and it must have dropped into his pocket when the barrel felt over.

I suppose I stole it, in a way, he thought. But that doesn’t really count, I didn’t even know it was there, so it’s not really stealing. If it was a magical ring I bet it was meant to come to me. I bet it did it on purpose, since it’s soon my birthday and everything. He nodded to himself, content with this reasoning. Yes, the ring was obviously meant to be his birthday present. True, it wasn’t his birthday just yet, but that was just a minor detail, really. Besides, what was the alternative? Walking all the way back to the shop to return the thing? Shouldn’t bother Teacher Dekaras with that, he has lots of important thing to do I’m sure. Anyway, he only said that he wouldn’t steal any toys for me, not that I couldn’t do it myself, so it’s not the same thing. Not that I did steal it. It came to me, so it’s my own. Edwin smiled, watching the light glitter in the ring. True, it wasn’t as pretty as the one with the large purple stone, but it was still very nice and sparkly. My own…my prec…pressi…precu…sparkly. Yessss…my sparkly.


While Edwin was carrying out this conversation with himself, his teacher had other things on his mind. Dekaras hadn’t wanted to show it in front of Rory Ravonar, but he was seriously concerned about what the wizard had said about a ‘gardening show’ in connection with his employer. Galen Odesseiron might be the son of a powerful Red Wizard, but he himself only just barely managed to qualify as a wizard, since he was such a scatterbrain, with a regrettable tendency to engage in different hobbies with maniacal glee. The hobbies always burned out fairly quick, but they could be incredibly damaging while they lasted. Still, Dekaras thought, gardening sounds relatively peaceful and harmless. Then he thought of the different poisons and drugs that could be made from certain plants that he knew of. Well, maybe not entirely harmless. But surely he wouldn’t be able to manufacture any such things. All the same, I had better look into this.

The gardens around the Odesseiron Mansion were large, considering that it was situated inside the city of Pyarados, and rather labyrinthine in their layout. There were luscious trees and beautiful flowerbeds, laid out so that there would always be colorful flowers blooming, except during the coldest season. Of course, in Thay winter was brief and not particularly cold at all, which meant that there were flowers for almost every time of the year. At the moment, the magnolia trees were swelling with heavy, pink and white blooms, and their scent hung sweet in the air. The gardens also contained several statues, sparkling fountains, gazebos and a hedge maze. At the center of the maze there was a small pond, its surface almost entirely covered with water lilies. Perfect for frogs, Dekaras mused. Edwin could probably catch some live ones if he tried, but if he prefers that ghastly rubber thing, then that’s his choice I suppose. It was then that he heard sobs, miserable heart-rending sobs, as if somebody’s heart had just been shattered into a million pieces. He nodded to himself, and headed in the direction of the sound. It wasn’t long before he came across one of the gardeners, an elderly man with snowy white hair and skin as brown as a nut from being exposed to all sorts of weather, all year round. He was sitting despondently on a small stone bench, his shoulders shaking violently as he wept into his hands. Dekaras recognized the signs.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “I presume Master Galen is close by?”

At the mention of the wizard’s name the gardener’s sobs rose into a new crescendo, and he pointed with a trembling hand towards the direction of the maze, babbling something incoherent about orchids.

Poor man, the assassin thought as he left the broken man behind. Dealing with Master Galen simply isn’t for everybody, I suppose. He progressed into the maze, relieved that he had memorized the possible paths to the center long ago and was in no danger of getting lost. As he approached the center he could hear his employer’s cheerful voice coming towards him from behind the dense hedges. It seemed that he was talking to somebody, but there was no other voice to be heard.

“Oh yes, aren’t you the loveliest little thing in the world!” the wizard said. “Such a pretty little one…and you’ll grow up big and strong and do Daddy proud, won’t you? Yes, of course you will!”

Dekaras raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t exactly what he’d been expecting. As he turned the corner, the first thing he spotted was the orchids. Beautiful white orchids, with delicate stems and curled petals. He recognized them too, they were apparently hideously expensive and Elvira had mentioned that she had been forced to order them specially, since they were so rare. They were moon orchids, and only opened up their petals entirely in moonlight, which was also the only occasion when their heady scent was apparent. Somebody had torn them out of the ground, and thrown them carelessly in a heap. The flowerbed next to the pond where they had grown was bare and empty, only black earth displayed.

No. Not quite empty. There was one plant growing there, an extremely ugly one. It had thick and meaty leaves, the grayish-green color of mold, and a single, bulbous flesh-colored flower. The petals were mostly closed, and something about the way they pressed together reminded the assassin of a mouth, with thick and pouting lips. It bobbed gently on its stem, almost as if it was listening. Galen Odesseiron was kneeling in the dirt in front of the flower; heedless of the stains he was getting onto his robe, and was cooing delightedly to it. He was a skinny man, with constantly messy brown hair, and a permanent expression of friendly witlessness on his face. Right now, he was petting and stroking he flower. “Yes, you are a beauty!” he crooned. “Daddy’s own little girl, yes you are…”

Dekaras cleared his throat. He didn’t really want to know what was going on, he suspected he would regret asking. Still, he felt he ought to find out, out of self-preservation if nothing else. “Master Galen? Would that have something to do with a certain Gardening Fair I’ve heard mentioned?”

The wizard startled, then turned around, a cheerful grin on his face. “Why, there you are, old boy! The very person I wanted to see.”

This is bad. “How so, sir?”

“Why, to give me your impression on Elvira of course! And if you can find something for her to eat, so much the better, I think she’s hungry, and that puts her in a bad mood.”

Dekaras tried to look at this sentence from a few different angles. It made a certain outward sense, and yet… Then he took a closer look at the plant, rubbing itself against Galen’s leg. It seemed to be growling quietly. “Sir?” he asked, somehow managing to keep his voice neutral. “Am I correct in presuming that you named that plant after your lady wife?” She’ll tear his head off, if he is lucky. I’d better warn her to keep her temper.

“Why yes, my dear chap! I certainly did.” Galen beamed up at him, with the proud expression of a small puppy that has just left a steaming heap of poop on an expensive carpet and expects to be praised for its cleverness. “Though I suppose I really ought to call her ‘Elvira 2’, to avoid confusion. Isn’t she wonderful?” The plant hissed, and a few small tentacles emerged from between the petals, trying to reach the wizard’s fingers.

“I have never seen anything like it, sir,” Dekaras said. “Truly. And would this by any chance have anything to do with a certain Garden Fair?”

The wizard nodded happily. “Absolutely-dutely! The competition for Rare Magical Plants, you see. Since I’ve decided to make gardening my new hobby, I thought it would be the perfect way to show off my skills.” He smiled at Elvira 2 and stroked her petals, then yanked his fingers hastily out of the way as the flower snapped after them. “Gardening is such a perfect hobby, don’t you think? Growing pretty flowers that spread joy and happiness to everybody who sees them?”

Dekaras looked at Elvira 2. The plant was pulsating slowly, and as the petals opened a little, he could see that there was an inner circle of smaller, white and sharp petals, that had a definite element of toothiness about them. “Quite so, Master,” he said. “And where, if I may be so bold to ask, did you come across this particular little bundle of joy?”

“Oh, I bought her! And you’ll never guess who from!”

Dekaras sighed inwardly. “I would presume that it was from Rory Ravonar, much as I would like to think myself mistaken,” he said. “Am I correct?”

Galen’s mouth dropped slowly open, and his eyes went as wide as those of a small child watching a sleight of hand trick. “Why…you are a marvel!” he admiringly exclaimed. “How ever did you guess?”

“Considering that he mentioned ‘utterly crushing’ you, it seemed a likely deduction to make, Master.” Dekaras gave Elvira 2 a skeptical look. The plant was snarling once again, and he took a step back to prevent it from reaching his feet. “You really shouldn’t trust him, you know. Hasn’t he proven time and again that he is an enemy?”

“Oh, that,” Galen said, making a little dismissive wave with his hand. “Forgive and forget, that’s what I always say. I’m sure he isn’t such a bad chap deep down. I mean, he couldn’t be, not if he let me buy such a treasure as this, could he? I mean, we have to reach out a forgiving hand and trust our fellow humans, don’t you think?”

Dekaras mulled this over for a few seconds. The words of the last sentence made sense taken one at a time, but putting them together in the suggested order turned them into utter incomprehensible gibberish. “Yes, Master,” he said. “I do, in fact, think. That is why I do not trust in people who have tried to counter me at every turn, not to mention have threatened myself or people I care about. It is your decision of course…but I hope you will not mind me keeping an eye on the proceedings, just in case?”

“No, no, of course not! Whatever makes you happy!” Galen focused on Elvira 2 again, giving the ugly plant a worshipful look. “And now I must return to my work…I’ve heard that talking to flowers makes them grow bigger…would you mind getting those white flowers out of here? Elvira 2 doesn’t like them, they put her in a bad mood so I had to remove them…”

Once the assassin had left, carrying away the sadly evicted orchids from their former home, Galen chatted amiably with his precious plant, not paying much attention to anything else. For a few seconds he wondered if he should have brought up the other matter he had discussed with Rory Ravonar. Then he dismissed his concerns. It wouldn’t matter, he was going to win the competition anyway, and so it wasn’t as if it could do any harm. Whistling happily, he went on with his gardening.
Rogues do it from behind.




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