She couldn't do anything about her mother's garden, but what about this one? At the very least, it would be good practice for when she went home.
"And this garden, here? Was it attacked too?"
"I am sorry, Mi'Lady, I can't tell. I will need more study."
"Well, I know someone who likely has the answers, if there are any answers." She took a deep breath, crossed the hallway to the door, and pressed her hands against the wood. Merrigan only flinched a little when she thought she felt a heartbeat. That had to be a good sign. The garden was alive, likely deeply asleep, rather than dead and dry and hopeless.
Elli came back inside to look for her. The other four girls lived close enough to the palace they chose to walk home, rather than wait for the carriage. Merrigan sighed for the days when she had been strong enough, energetic enough to be able to walk anywhere. She remembered long walks across the countryside when Prince Bryan had visited. They had spent entire days adventuring, riding and hiking and climbing trees and wading across streams and telling each other stories they had discovered in their fathers' libraries. When had she changed so that she disdained adventures and hikes? While she knew her body was still the same as when she looked like a young and beautiful queen, and Clara's curse only made her appear old and fragile and dried up, it also affected her spirit. So she felt old and shriveled and wrinkled and tired easily.
Merrigan and Elli found Chancellor Morton in his office, sorting through a carved wooden box that looked rather old. The carvings were worn smooth in some places, the details hard to see through the patina of age. Merrigan thought she could make out frogs and swans and ravens and vines.
"How may I help you, ladies?" he said, standing to give them a polite bow, and flipped the hinged lid of the box closed.
"I would like to know about the queen's garden. Specifically, how long it has been locked up, and how long the door has been invisible," Merrigan said.
That's rather cruel, Mi'Lady, Bib said, when Morton goggled at her a moment, then seemed to lose a little color. Still, there was a touch of laughter in the book's voice.
Queen Adele's great-grandmother was to blame for the door vanishing. Morton told them the story as he escorted Merrigan and Elli back to the royal family's apartments. When she was young, pale skin and fragile voices and tiny waists were all the rage. She refused to learn how to tend the garden from her mother, because she claimed the sun would darken her skin and weeding and watering and transplanting would give her a farmer's appetite and muscles. When she became queen, she locked the door. When her daughters expressed interest in the garden, she told them the plants inside were dangerous, and a terrible curse had been placed on all the women of their family, so they got spots and their noses ran and they sneezed uncontrollably if they did any garden work. By the time her granddaughter had the good luck of falling for a semi-reasonable man who laughed at the story, the door was only visible at the full moon. It vanished entirely from all sight and memory, other than the kingdom records, soon after she died.
The queen and king looked blank when Morton bowed and announced to the royal family that the queen's garden had awakened. Adele knew nothing about the magical healing plants that needed to be tended, the pool of water that connected with other magical pools spread across the continent, or the sanctuary such a garden provided for rare magical creatures such as swans or white ravens. Even talking frogs.
Dulcibella, however, knew a few things, thanks to all the educational books she had been devouring for years, to combat the silliness curse. She insisted she had to see the door immediately. Was it possible to have the garden open, and perhaps have the wedding ceremony take place there? Wouldn't a royal wedding give the garden an infusion of magic that would benefit the entire kingdom?
Merrigan had no idea. She remembered so little of what her mother had taught her, during those idyllic days of her childhood. When Queen Daylily had died, her garden had shut itself off from the world. However, the garden here in Seafoam proved to be awake enough to hear Dulcibella's squeal of delight and her nonstop chatter, and reacted to the princess's emotions. The door shimmered, the light coming from it visible before Dulcibella, Merrigan and Elli turned the last corner. As they approached, the door swung open, sending pieces of old rotted boards flying, and chunks of rusty lock falling to the paving stones. Perhaps that was the garden's response to the old woman who had shirked her duties and then lied, to keep others from fulfilling theirs.
Merrigan crept into the garden, when Dulcibella and Elli nearly danced over the threshold with excitement. She staggered to the closest stone bench and sank down on it, half-expecting it to collapse under her. She looked around, at all the dry twigs poking up from the ground in circles, showing the hedge circles that once created sanctuaries for pixies and winkies and other tiny magical creatures. The plots of bare ground where magical healing herbs had once grown. The dry husks of trees lifting bare arms to the sky. The tangles of dry rose vines still clinging tenaciously to the inner walls of the garden.
The depression in the ground where the pond had once been, silver in the moonlight, blue under the sun, providing water for the whole garden and a hiding place for frogs. Merrigan remembered when a horde of desperate princesses invaded her father's palace, looking for a prince enchanted into a frog. She laughed, and wept a little as she told Elli and Dulcibella about the odd incident.
"It's not dry," Elli said. "I'm better with sea water, of course, but I can feel the water, waiting to come back." She gestured at the dry, dusty bowl of the pond.
"How?" Dulcibella said.
There's no harm in simply asking, Bib said. All anyone can do is say no. Unless of course they're frightened or angered by the request. Then they might get angry, but I doubt that is the case here. However, it might be wise to start out by apologizing for the silliness of her great-great-grandmother, and then ask.
Merrigan repeated the advice aloud, and Dulcibella showed her good sense by stopping to think before acting. She stepped into the depression and found the center point, knelt, pressed both hands into the spot, and very prettily apologized for the neglect and lies of her ancestors, and promised she would do the best she could to rectify matters.
"If you could help me fight the silliness curse, I would appreciate it very much," she added. "I want to do my duty as queen. You will help me, won't you? The people of our kingdom certainly don’t deserve all the trouble they've had to suffer because of my family."
She waited in silence for a few moments. A rustling sound in the doorway of the garden got everyone's attention, and Merrigan turned to see the king and queen and Morton standing in the doorway, looking tearfully proud.
Queen Adele let out a little gasp when Dulcibella got up and walked back to the edge of the dry pond. She couldn't speak, and had to point. Everyone gasped, and then laughed, when they saw the streaks of mud on Dulcibella's dress, where she had been kneeling. Sure enough, water bubbled up in the center of all the dust and dry dirt.
Dulcibella sent for Warden, and they spent the evening searching the king's library for everything they could learn about the queen's garden in Seafoam, and queens' gardens in general. Merrigan spent the evening trying to recall everything she could of her mother's garden. When she returned to the palace in the morning, her duties changed from overseeing the final details of the wedding dress to revitalizing the garden. While the pond was halfway filled with water, and the trees had the first buds of leaves popping out in a soft green haze by morning, the other parts of the garden didn't seem to be awakening. Merrigan and Morton consulted together for only an hour, determining the plants that could be found in Seafoam to be transplanted into the garden. The more rare and necessary plants that weren't native would have to be sent for.
Twilight softly fell in gray and lavender shadows, by the time Merrigan was willing to give in to the aches in her legs and back, and limped to the door of the garden. Large patches of green had replaced the abundance of twigs and sticks and dust. The pond wa
s full, reflecting the first curve of the moon as it peered over the gables of the palace. Merrigan thought she saw a few flickers of fireflies. They could have been other magical creatures, sparkling as they ventured into the garden. She was quite happy with ordinary fireflies.
In the doorway, Merrigan looked around one last time. Her eyes blurred as she couldn't fight off the bittersweet memories of her own childhood. How different would her life be if her mother hadn't died, if the garden hadn't closed its doors, if she and Nanny Tulip hadn't been used by evil majjians to attack the garden?
Plop. The sound was unusually wet and small. Several more plops followed. Merrigan shivered and turned to face the pond. Several small, dark forms hopped up the path toward her. She retreated over the threshold, a thick sensation aching in her throat. Was she about to scream, or perhaps vomit? For a moment, she could taste all the frogs' legs she had eaten, during that awful, shameful, regretful time in Carlion, when she and Leffisand had been battling that wretched, cursed, magical apple tree.
Five frogs. All a dark greeny-brown, none of them longer than her thumb. They stopped halfway up the path, where the dust of years of neglect had been swept away to uncover lovely painted green and blue and lavender tiles. They reared up on their hind legs, and Merrigan braced herself against the doorframe. She regretted advising Morton that, to avoid further problems in the future, the door to the garden should be completely removed and taken far away. She wished for the option to slam that door closed. Those frogs were going to jump on her, she just knew it, and she feared she couldn't take another step to flee.
Staying up on their hind legs for a good four heartbeats, the frogs extended their right front legs, crossed their chests ... and bowed low to her. More tears filled her eyes.
"Tell—" Her voice cracked. She coughed. "Please, tell Veridian—tell him—I'm sorry."
The frogs croaked in unison three times, then dropped into normal froggy crouches, turned somersaults over each other, and hopped back to the pond.
"Why did you never mention that you were friends with the prince of frogs when you were a child, Mi'Lady?" Bib asked.
"I suppose ..." She sighed, found her handkerchief tucked up her sleeve, and dabbed at her eyes. "I suppose I was ashamed and tried to forget. And then there was the whole ... oh, it's so shameful. I ate frogs' legs for so long, demanded them, just to make sure I never ran into a frog while I was living in Carlion."
"If it's any comfort, Mi'Lady, I think what we saw just now means you're forgiven."
"Yes, I think it is some comfort."
She had some doubts about that, however, when her dreams that night and several nights until the wedding, were of misty, twisted, indecipherable memories from childhood. Merrigan woke to the sounds of brassy honking overhead, and at first thought it came from her dreams. Her ugly little gray, awkward duck, whom she had named Honk, had made the same sound. He had followed her everywhere, waddling around the palace, sticking his long neck and oversized bill and feet into everything. She had adored him. Or rather, she had adored him until her world changed, her mother died, and she listened too well when Nanny Tulip told her how to be a proper princess.
Bib flipped open to offer her a lace-edge handkerchief that smelled of the spicy leaves of her favorite bush in her mother's garden. Merrigan couldn't remember the name of the bush, but she did love the sweetly delicate, slightly peppery aroma. She blotted her eyes and told Bib about Honk, how she had been so cruel until finally he flew away, never to return.
"Veridian, and Bryan, and the children I used to play with among the palace servants and the nobles and ..." She sighed one last time. "I'm afraid, Bib, I have a dreadful, cruel habit of driving people away. If I have no friends, it is my own wretched fault."
"Forgive me, Mi'Lady, but you are sadly mistaken."
"Hmm?" She blotted her eyes one last time and sat up, sniffing delicately.
"You will never drive me away."
Bib had to produce a second sweetly spicy handkerchief, and Merrigan had to resort to dousing her face in water until she came near drowning, to soothe her red, tear-swollen eyes.
She felt better when she learned that the honking hadn't been entirely in her dreams. A pair of swans had arrived on the dawn breezes from the sea, and settled in the queen's garden. A sure sign of blessing and the return of healing magic to Seafoam. She had helped to do that. She had done something good.
THE DAY OF THE WEDDING, Chancellor Morton presented Merrigan with Elli's knife. All the jewels encrusting it had indeed been removed. The money had to come from somewhere, after all, to pay for the festivities that included the entire town. Merrigan tried not to feel a few flickers of resentment, because didn't she deserve a few jewels for helping to resolve several sticky problems for the kingdom? Then Bib pointed out that she had no idea how to remove the jewels without damaging the knife. Besides, he suspected the jewels had been put there to help stunt the magical powers of the knife.
"Do you mean to tell me if it was still covered with jewels, it wouldn't help Elli?" Merrigan dropped the knife on the table next to Bib and scrubbed her hands on her skirts.
They had returned to their room at the inn. Elli, Miles, Rosa and Quincy were still out dancing and enjoying the wedding festivities. Merrigan felt rather tired, maybe a little sad, and had decided to go upstairs and rest.
"It is possible." Bib flipped his pages open. "I think if I'm touching it, I can study it better and be absolutely sure."
"That villain. That wretch. That ... snot!" Merrigan picked up the knife by the end of the handle, with two fingers, and placed it in the center of Bib's open page. "I hope Arabella's portion of the curse is so large, his entire kingdom lacks the sense to come in out of the rain."
In short order, Bib confirmed the scheming prince had tried to limit the magic inherent in the knife used to cut the mermaid's hair. However, whoever he hired to do the job had bungled. The most he and the jeweler and the minor enchanter had managed was to cast an unsteady I'm-not-really-here spell on the knife. Merrigan elected not to tell Elli about that part of the prince's nasty schemes. After all, she had started to fall in love with him, and might still have a few tender feelings.
"The world would be a much better place if men weren't such useless, childish fools and women didn't fall in love with them," Merrigan mused.
Then Elli and Miles burst into the room with flowers and a skin of wine and an enormous meat pie to share. Merrigan's eyes got misty when they declared they didn't think it right she should be alone while all the kingdom was celebrating. After all, without her cleverness and hard work, this day never would have happened.
The marriage of Dulcibella and Warden seemed to have opened a door, because betrothals were happening all over the town of Windward. Quincy and Rosa were downstairs right that moment, obtaining her parents' blessing.
"But I thought Rosa was going to run the inn. How can she do that if her husband is traveling the high seas most of the year? She isn't going to abandon the inn to travel with him, is she?" Merrigan cried. The odd, dropping sensation, she decided later, was from fear that Rosa and Quincy's marriage was doomed from the start.
"No." Miles chuckled and caught Elli up in his arms, spinning her around before putting her back on her feet and planting a kiss on her tiny, upturned nose. "Quincy is giving up the sea to stay here and run the inn with Rosa. I'm going to become his partner and take over the Fleetwind." He dropped to one knee, startling a squeak out of Elli and a groan from Merrigan. "And I hope you'll be willing to sail with me all the rest of my days, my love, my seafoam maiden." He kissed her hand, front and back.
Honestly, Merrigan thought to Bib, where do commoners learn such courtly gestures?
Still, she rather admired Miles for his gallantry. Then she pitied him when Elli just stood there, staring at him, her eyes getting bigger in proportion to the dimming of Miles' smile.
"But—I'm—Miles, you should know—Mara, what do I do?" Elli wailed, turning to Merrigan. She didn
't free her hand of Miles' grip, and that had to be a good sign.
Bib flipped his pages open and revealed the knife lying there. It glistened. Merrigan did not want to know how the book had managed to shine the knife. It boggled her mind.
"Is that it?" Elli asked.
In unison with Miles.
She turned to stare at him.
"Yes, I know about the knife." He stood and kept her facing him. "I know you need it to regrow your hair and get your tail back. I know you're a mermaid."
"Well, you're one of the few observant, sensible people in this town," Merrigan muttered.
"Not really." He grinned and nodded to her. "Quincy told me, when he guessed I was—that we were—he told me if I broke your heart, he'd use my guts for bait. I could never make you stay on dry land. All my life, I've dreamed of going to sea, to hear the song of the waves. How can I take that away from you? But if I'm on the sea, if I'm a captain with my own ship ... well, we can be together whenever you come up into the air. Even if it's only one day in ten years, it'll be worth it."
"I take back what I said." Merrigan sighed but couldn't fight her grin. "You're a ninny just as much as she is. That is an entirely different curse and has nothing to do with mermaids."
"Elli, what I'm trying to say—"
"Yes," she squeaked, sounding more like a dolphin than ever. She grabbed hold of his collar, pulled herself up to his height, and kissed him until the gill slits opened in the sides of her neck.
Miles was red-faced and slightly dizzy-looking when Elli released him. Then he whooped and spun her around four times, until he ran into the side of Merrigan's bed and stumbled. He nearly dropped her and they both ended up giggling and clutching at each other, struggling to regain their balance.
The Kindness Curse Page 18