Chapter 4

Iheaded back toward the conference center. Not far from the stately building, on the same street actually, was Glen's Garden, a small shop blanketed in flowering vines. A slim strip of uncommonly green grass bordered the shop on the left side. A tree, massive and ancient, dominated the right side. It leaned precariously toward the tall wooden fence that separated the florist from its neighbor, a squat building that looked like a very large metallic mushroom.

Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, both about my age, stood in the tree's shadow, whispering.

"Run away with me," the boy pleaded. He had the brightest turquoise eyes I'd ever seen. "Your parents don't appreciate you like I do. We can start a life together somewhere else, far from here."

"I can't leave," the girl replied, her fingers twitching as she interlaced them with his. "No chance. My parents are always watching."

I pushed the front door open, stepping inside the shop. An aroma of roses and lilacs greeted me, and so did the man behind the counter.

"I am Glen. How may I help you?" he asked.

He wore a pair of green work overalls over a white t-shirt. Both were sprinkled with dirt. But his long, pale hair was neatly braided.

"I am an Apprentice Knight," I told him. "Ms. Featherdale, the event planner in charge of organizing the upcoming Summit, sent me to check on the flower arrangements."

"Fear not. They will be ready on time."

"Great, but could I, well, see how you're progressing?"

"My wife is the one overseeing the Summit's flower arrangements. You are in good hands."

"That's great. So do you mind if I talk to her?"

If he minded, he didn't show it. All he said was, "Come with me. I'll bring you to her."

He led me into the greenhouse at the back. There, under the glass dome, we found a woman with smudged cheeks and dirt under her fingernails. She wore the exact same green overalls and white t-shirt as her husband.

"You've been goofing off with that foolish boy again," she was scolding the teenage girl I'd seen outside.

The girl had since changed into a pair of work overalls. And tucked her tiny blonde pigtails under a big sun hat.

"He has a name, you know." The girl pouted out her lips.

"Trouble is the only name you should know him by," her mother replied. "I caught him stalking around outside the shop late last night. I had to chase him off with a shovel."

A look of total horror consumed the girl's face. "You didn't hurt him, did you?"

"You should be worrying less about that boy and more about your family. Tell him to leave you be."

"But I love him!"

"You are too foolish to even know what love is." Her mother pushed a bucket of gardening tools into her hands. "You have chores. Get to them. Before you mess up something else."

The girl ran off deeper into the greenhouse, and her mother turned to face us.

"This is my wife, Sena," Glen told me. "Sena, this Apprentice Knight is here to check on the floral arrangements for the Summit."

Sena looked at me. "They will be ready on time."

"So I've heard. But could I see the flowers?"

"Look behind you."

I turned and stared down at the large flower bed behind me.

"Those are your flowers."

"But it's just a bunch of dirt!" I protested. "There aren't any flowers at all!"

"They will be ready on time," she said again, serenely folding her hands together.

"I'm finding that hard to believe."

She let out a heavy sigh. At first, I thought the sigh was meant for me, but it wasn't for me at all. It was for the flowers. They responded to her sigh. Green stalks burst out of the dirt, quickly growing into a large bush, laden with delicate white flowers.

"Wow," I gasped.

"As I said, your flowers will be ready on time."

I couldn't take my eyes off the flowers she'd coaxed out of the ground with magic. "I believe you. That was pretty impressive."

Sena dipped her chin.

"Then you're satisfied?" Glen asked me.

"Yes."

Though when I told Ms. Featherdale how these Nymphs could make flowers shoot out of the ground, she probably wouldn't believe it.

Glen and Sena nodded and then headed back into the shop. I probably should have followed them, but their daughter called out to me.

"You're Savannah Winters, the Apprentice Knight." She was standing there in front of a vegetable patch, staring at me.

"You've heard of me?"

"We have a mutual friend," she told me. "Violetta told me how you helped her find her little sister. That's how I know you can help me." She turned, took a few steps deeper into the greenhouse, then pivoted around to say, "Follow me."

I trailed her past the cucumbers, toward the tomato plants.

"I'm Rane, by the way."

It turned out Rane was seventeen, just a year older than I was. It took us only a few seconds to climb into the tomato plants, which was more than enough conversation to convince me that she was kind, fun, and knew basically everything there was to know about growing fruits and vegetables.

She started operating on the withered limb of a tomato plant that was rotting away. I smelled the bitter aroma even before I saw the decay.

"Will the plant survive?" I asked.

She glanced my way, sighing. "It will survive." She cut away the infected limb. "I have to cut away the rot to save it." Her sigh was heavy, pained. "But at least I can fix it."

"Is there something you can't fix?"

"You saw the big tree outside the shop?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"It's dead." She stuck her hand shovel into the dirt. "And my parents blame me. The tree is an Emerald Elm. Do you know what that is?"

"A kind of tree?"

"A kind of magical tree. They grow fast and are pretty much indestructible. That's why my parents are so mad. It looks really bad if a flower nursery can't keep an un-killable tree alive."

"Bad for business, you mean?"

She nodded. "They say it's all my fault. They say it died because I neglected my chores. But I have been taking care of it. My magic isn't as impressive as theirs, but I know how to keep a tree alive." Her eyes glistened. "I love plants. I'd never let one die if I could help it."

"Did you tell your parents that?"

"Yes, but they're too busy being mad at me to listen to a word I say. They're so mad that…that they're threatening to kick me out. To disown me. They say no daughter of theirs would ever murder a tree. They drive me crazy sometimes, but they're still my parents. I can't imagine life without them in it. That's why I need your help, Savannah. I didn't kill that tree, but someone else did."

"And you want me to figure out who did it?"

"Oh, I know who did it." She clenched her jaw so hard that it cracked. "Our neighbors killed the Emerald Elm. I just need you to help me prove it."