A Tale of Magic... (36 page)

Brystal gasped and sat straight up as her full memory returned. She recalled running from the trolls and goblins with her classmates, she recalled Xanthous dropping his Muter Medal as they crossed the rope bridge, and worst of all, she recalled plunging toward the canyon’s rocky floor. However, she hadn’t landed on the hard ground as she had feared—Brystal’s fall had been broken by an enormous yellow rose.

As Brystal got to her feet and peeked over the massive petals, she discovered she was in the middle of an enchanted garden. Everywhere she turned, Brystal saw flowers, mushrooms, shrubbery, and other plants that were the size of houses. Her classmates were scattered around the garden, and thankfully their falls had been broken by giant flowers, too—and just like Brystal, the impact had knocked all of them unconscious. Emerelda was nested inside a towering purple tulip, and Lucy was draped over the side of a gigantic pink lily. Xanthous was lying in a huge red carnation that was partially singed now, thanks to the boy’s flames. Tangerina and Skylene were still tangled in the trolls’ net, but the girls had landed safely on a sunflower.

“Is everyone alive?” Brystal called to them.

One by one, her classmates started to groan and slowly came to. They rubbed their heads, stretched their limbs, and looked around the garden in amazement.

“Well, this isn’t the
worst
place I’ve woken up in,” Lucy said.

“Where are we?” Emerelda asked.

“A big garden of some kind,” Brystal said.

“But how’d we get here?” Xanthous asked.

Everyone looked up and saw that the canyon was still above them. But strangely, the garden was
underneath
the canyon’s rocky floor, and it covered them like a transparent roof.

“The bottom of the canyon must have been a magic barrier,” Tangerina speculated. “It’s just like the hedge around our academy! We must have fallen into another magical residence!”

The classmates carefully climbed down from their giant flowers and took in their bizarre surroundings. Xanthous found his Muter Medal dangling off a daisy and immediately put it back around his neck. Brystal searched the garden for her wand and found it at the base of a milkweed plant. She waved the wand at Tangerina and Skylene, the net around them dissolved into thin air, and the girls joined the others on the ground.

“You could have done that
before
you dragged us through the woods,” Skylene said.

“Sorry,” Brystal said. “I’m still getting used to these
life-and-death
situations.”

The students and apprentices searched for a way out of the garden, but they couldn’t find an exit anywhere. They followed a dirt path snaking through the enchanted plants, but the property seemed endless. As they walked, Tangerina’s bumblebees buzzed with excitement about all the giant flowers around them. They merrily made trips to and from the enlarged blossoms, returning to Tangerina’s beehive with more nectar than they knew what to do with.

Eventually, the classmates heard someone humming in the garden nearby. They rounded the corner and found a six-year-old girl watering normal-size poppies. The girl had ringlets of bright red hair and she wore a sundress made from large red rose petals. She hummed a cheerful tune to the poppies while she watered them, and after she was finished, she set her pail aside and twirled her fingers through the air above the flowers. The poppies started to grow, stretching to the height of a tree.

“Nice trick,” Lucy called to her. “Do you do parties?”

The little girl wasn’t expecting the classmates, and screamed. She dashed behind the giant poppies and hid from the visitors. Brystal felt terrible for frightening the little girl and approached her with an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to scare you,” she said. “You have nothing to be afraid of—we’re fairies just like you. We’re a little lost and were hoping someone could show us a way out of… well,
wherever
we are.”

“I’m not allowed to talk to strangers,” the little girl said.

“Then let’s fix that,” she said. “My name is Brystal Evergreen. These are my friends Lucy Goose, Emerelda Stone, Xanthous Hayfield, Tangerina Turkin, and Skylene Lavenders. What’s your name?”

Brystal’s friendly charm won the little girl over and she stepped out from behind the poppies.

“My name is Rosette,” she said. “Rosette Meadows.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rosette,” Brystal said. “Now that we’re better acquainted, can you please tell us where we are?”

“You’re in Greenhouse Canyon,” she said. “It’s the world’s largest botanical garden and nursery for magically enhanced plants.”

“Do you grow all the plants yourself?” Brystal asked.

“It’s my family’s specialty,” Rosette said. “The Meadowses have the greenest thumbs in the magical community. Our thumbs aren’t actually green, of course—that’s just a figure of speech. Although my uncle’s thumb
did
turn green once, but that was just a bad infection.
Boy, I sure miss him.
Wait. If you didn’t know about Greenhouse Canyon before, how’d you end up here?”

“Me and my friends were chased off the cliff by trolls and goblins,” Brystal said. “We fell into the canyon, but luckily your flowers saved our lives.”

“You were chased by real trolls and goblins?” Rosette asked with large eyes. “That’s amazing! I’ve never seen a troll or goblin in real life before. This one time, I thought I saw one, but it was just an anteater. Wait.
Did you say our flowers saved your life?
Wow, that’s incredible! My family should use that for marketing. I can picture the advertisements now.
‘Meadows Flowers—not only are they beautiful, they’re lifesaving.’
It’s tough getting new customers when your location is a secret.”

“Oh, I imagine that’s a tough way to sell—”

“Our usual customers are all old and smell like cheese.
Why do you think that is?
You guys are the youngest people I’ve ever seen in the canyon! I rarely have anyone my own age to talk to. Gosh, this is nice. Is this nice for you, too?
I spend a LOT of time with plants!
They say talking to plants helps them grow. I’m not sure it’s the healthiest thing for me, though. Plants are good listeners, I guess, but it’s not the same as talking to people. Sometimes you just need to hear something besides your own voice, you know what I mean?
Hey, do you guys want a tour of the gardens while you’re here?
”

Obviously Rosette was very excited to have company, but she talked so fast the others were having a hard time understanding her.

“We’d love to stay, but we’re in a bit of a hurry,” Brystal said. “Would you mind showing us how to get back to the In-Between?”

Rosette looked around the gardens curiously and scratched her head.

“Actually, I’m not sure how to get out of here,” she said. “Believe it or not, I’ve never been outside the canyon before. My family is very protective.
Did you know the world is full of people who want to harm us?
It was news to me. My family also says I’m a
lot
for other people to handle. They say I’m best in
small doses
—whatever that means. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, though. Everyone expresses love in a different language. Do you guys know what your love languages are? Mine is
quality time
. It used to be
physical touch
—but
that
wasn’t working very well, so I had to change it. People are so picky about personal space and—”

“Is there someone
else
we could talk to?” Lucy interrupted.

“You’ll have to speak to the Sorceress,” Rosette said. “She’ll know a way out.”

“Did you say the
Sorceress
?” Emerelda asked.

“Yeah, she’s my aunt,” Rosette said. “Come with me—I’ll show you where she is.”

The classmates followed the little girl through the gardens, and along the way, Rosette gave them the tour they didn’t want. She spoke in great detail about every flower and plant they passed. Brystal suspected she was purposely taking the long way through the garden so she had more time to talk to them. Soon they passed a bundle of bushes with colorful berries that caught Xanthous’s eye.

“I recognize those,” he said. “Madame Weatherberry had them in her golden carriage.”

“Those are our
Meal Berries
,” Rosette said. “They’re one of our bestsellers. They grow different types of food depending on what time of day it is.”

“What’s that over there?” Skylene asked.

“Oh, that’s our
Orchard of Objects
,” she said. “Come on! You’ll definitely want to see it!”

Rosette skipped toward the orchard and gestured for the others to follow her. Lucy shot her classmates a scathing look as they went.

“Stop asking her questions!”
she whispered.
“She’s slow enough as it is!”

The little girl showed them an acre of trees planted in very straight rows. All the trees in the orchard were identical, but instead of fruit or flowers, each tree grew a different household object. There were trees with bars of soap, buckets and mops, pillows and blankets, candles and candlesticks, tables and chairs, spatulas and frying pans, brushes and combs, shoes and socks, and even trees that sprouted stuffed animals.

“My family can grow just about anything on trees,” Rosette boasted. “We get requests from witches and fairies all over the world.
Money
is always what people want the most. That probably isn’t a surprise, though. Before you ask, the answer is
no
—we don’t grow money trees. At least, not
anymore
. The last time we sold one, the Western Kingdom had an economic crisis. They still haven’t recovered from the—”

“Rosette, how much farther until we reach the Sorceress?” Lucy asked. “We’re in a bit of a crisis of our own.”

“We’re almost there,” Rosette said. “Our house is just beyond the Vineyard of Vices and the Farm of Fragrances. I can’t wait to show you those!”

Eventually, the tour ended at a large four-story manor. The home was constructed entirely out of vines, and it had a spiral roof of twisted thornbush. Inside, the manor had a thatched floor and walls made from colorful shrubbery. As Rosette escorted her guests through the home, the classmates heard the sounds of several different creatures coming from somewhere inside the house. When they stepped into the great room, Brystal and her friends discovered a zoo of potted plants that looked, moved, and roared like animals. There were barking dogwood blossoms, meowing catnip plants, screeching monkey-face orchids, and flapping bird-of-paradise flowers.

In the very back of the great room, an old woman was feeding a crate of live chickens to a massive bouquet of Venus flytraps. The plants caught the birds with their snapping jaws and swallowed them whole. It was an unnerving scene to walk in on, and the classmates froze halfway through the room, but Rosette happily skipped up to the old woman without hesitation.

“Auntie Floraline, we have visitors!” she announced.

Floraline Meadows was a very short woman with a wide mouth and abnormally long earlobes. She had two braids of silver hair and wore a smock made from autumn leaves. To the Venus flytraps’ dismay, the old woman put a lid over the chicken crate and took a break from the feeding to meet her guests.

“Auntie Floraline, these are my new friends Brystal, Lucy, Emerelda, Xanthous, Tangerina, and Skylene,” Rosette introduced. “New friends, this is my aunt, Sorceress Floraline Meadows.”

The Sorceress studied the classmates with very untrusting eyes.

“Are you
customers
?” she asked them.

“No,” Brystal said.

“Are you
solicitors
?”

“No.”

“Then what are you doing in my canyon?”

“We’re here by accident,” Brystal explained. “A tribe of trolls and a colony of goblins chased us off the cliff. We don’t want to disturb you, but we’d really appreciate it if you could tell us how to get out of here.”

The Sorceress was still suspicious and raised an eyebrow at the classmates.

“You’re awfully young to be in the In-Between by yourselves,” she said. “Where are you coming from?”

“Madame Weatherberry’s Academy of Magic,” Skylene said.

“Huh, sounds fancy,” the old woman said. “I didn’t know there
were
academies for people like us.”

“It’s the first of its kind,” Skylene said, and beamed with pride.

“Well,
la-di-da
,” the Sorceress sang. “To leave the canyon, go to the northwest corner of the gardens and make a left turn at the Grove of Glassware. You’ll find a ladder that leads back to the In-Between.”

“Thank you,” Brystal said. “We’ll be on our way. It was nice meeting you.”

“Thanks for dropping by,” Rosette said. “No pun intended!”

The classmates headed for the door, but when Brystal turned back to wave good-bye, she noticed that Tangerina hadn’t moved. The apprentice was inquisitively looking back and forth between the Sorceress and the bouquet of Venus flytraps.

“Just out of curiosity,” Tangerina said, “when you said
people like us
, what were you referring to? Do Sorceresses practice magic or witchcraft?”