“Oh, Jessie. This is not ideal,” he said, on the edge of the heart forest. “No, indeed. I see now why you called me. Don’t worry, I can handle this! I’ll distract them so you can get across.” He trudged into the fray, working hard to stomp down the sticks holding the hearts. “Here we go.”
Knives and tiny swords rose above the hearts in three different locations. The hearts bumped forward as the little bodies pushed through them. Occasionally a pointed red hat appeared in an empty space. They beelined for Edgar, now trudging to the northeast corner with a determined expression, allowing us plenty of room to cross.
“Come on,” I told Austin, not waiting to see if he’d follow as I kicked and stomped into the heart forest.
A high-pitched laugh rose from my right side. I barely caught a glimpse of the red hat before the white of a beard came into view. A tiny machete swung above two paper hearts, cutting through the air at me.
“Crap!” I reacted without thinking, spraying it with the spell for elemental fire.
Unfortunately, that spell took a lot of concentration -- concentration I didn’t have at that moment.
Something like magical acid manifested instead. It glopped down on top of the creature and the hearts around it.
Its laugh turned into a horrible wail. Paper hearts waved and shook as the creature ran for the edge, exploding out and then running for the back of the house. Up ahead, dolls jumped out of seemingly nowhere and the chase was on.
Sighing, I said, “Kingsley’s territory is going to be a nice reprieve from the absolute weird that has become this house—”
I cut off as Austin grabbed me and swung me up over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. He started jogging through the hearts.
“That has become this house?” he asked incredulously, kicking at a little body that popped up. His toe connected with its bearded face. The gnome made a little weeeee sound as it flew five feet and crashed into a few of the hearts. “The house has always been weird. This is downright insanity. How the hell are they hiding in the densely packed heart stick…things? It’s like they have some sort of magical space-shifting ability…”
Edgar made an “aaiiiiiii” sound as Austin reached the other side of the maze, breathing harder than a tough alpha shifter really should have after a spat with gnomes. I couldn’t help laughing as he put me down, out of breath as well, turning to check on Edgar.
“No, no, no,” he said as he picked up a miniature weapon that one of the gnomes had clearly dropped. He had blood dripping down from a cut on his thigh. “That is no way to treat Uncle Edgar.”
“Uncle Edgar?” Austin whispered.
Edgar turned into a swarm of insects and hovered across a patch of hearts before materializing again and slashing. His blade clanged into one of the gnomes, eliciting another little howl. Edgar chopped down at it a second time, turned, and chopped at another one that was trying to crowd him from behind.
“Looks like he’s figured out how to deal with the gnomes,” Austin said, his firm pressure on the
small of my back a cue to get moving.
“So then why hasn’t he gotten rid of the gnomes?”
“Likely the same reason none of you have—he’s had a big job to do. Let’s hope he at least saw that through.”
“None of… you have?” I crinkled my nose at him as we walked. “You’re not planning to help with the gnomes?”
“Absolutely not, no.”
I laughed and shook my head. “He did manage his tasks, though,” I said. “The non-gnome ones.”
“We shall see,” he said darkly.
Since the flower show incident, which he’d had to help clean up along with the rest of us, Austin didn’t have much faith in poor Edgar. And while I saw his point, he also hadn’t seen what Edgar had come up with in these last few weeks. I, however, had been monitoring his operation closely.
“The new healer has been a godsend,” I said as we crossed the grass and I ignored the doll sentries. I might not like them, but they fulfilled an important duty in ensuring the gnomes didn’t make it to the back door. Now if they could just watch the side yard as well… “She and the basajaunak have really helped Edgar with those flowers. I think it’s one of the main reasons she agreed to stay.”
The new healer, who called herself Indigo because she didn’t like her birth name Skye, had answered the accidental summons I’d placed in the basajaunak lands. She’d been understandably hesitant about joining our strange team of mythical creatures.
In the beginning, she’d bonded most with the basajaunak, walking through the wood with them and discussing the plants used in natural remedies and salves. Then she’d surprised us all by glomming on to Edgar. She was enraptured with his magical flowers, and I suspected she’d only agreed to go to Kingsley’s territory with us because she wanted to see them at work.
The path through the flower display at the edge of the grass was wider than usual, and gaping holes now existed in what had been a stranglehold of flora. Edgar was letting the basajaunak eat at will so they could eventually redo this area. The yard was not at its finest.
At the moment, none of us cared, not even Edgar.
“I’m coming, Jessie. Here I come!”
Speaking of, he ran up behind us, bleeding out of a few gashes and missing half a pant leg.
“Don’t bother healing me.” He waved at me as he loped by. “Indigo can handle that. Save your strength.”
“Save my strength for what?” I asked in a wispy voice.
After walking through the trees a ways, we emerged into a decently large clearing. Black plastic tubs covered the space. In each grew a seedling, the bright green stalks anywhere from six inches to two feet tall, with leaves and little branches starting to emerge from the sides. None of them swayed like killer plants 2.0 through 2.5 had. They didn’t grow diagonally, either, like 2.6 through 2.8. In fact, they didn’t seem to move at all, despite the soft breeze blowing through the clearing.
Edgar stood in the very middle of the group with his hands clasped in front of him. Indigo stood a little behind him, her hand on his shoulder, looking at us quietly. She needed touch as a means to heal, using plants and natural remedies to sometimes aid her magical process.
Basajaunak drifted toward us within the wood. Those closest stopped at the tree line to watch and listen.
I started the same way I always did. “What’ve we got?”
Edgar gave the same reply he always delivered out of the gate. “Yes, Jessie, thanks for coming.”
He then bowed. “Alpha Steele, lovely to have you.” He spread out his hand, accidentally bumping
Indigo. “Meet the Violator.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “What?”
“This is the new generation of assault flower,” he replied. “Attack flower 3.0, so perfect I want to weep at the mastery of it. I am calling it the Violator.”