Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 15, Final Part

"I feel fine," the little girl continued.

"You're not fine," Vis said, wading through piles of blankets, clothing, crates of food, and other supplies scattered across the salutatio hall. "Night-side plants are often poisonous." Or, more often, inedible, but she did not trust anything that glowed. She wasn't going to take chances. Vis shook her head, tugging the girl past white marble columns toward the far side aisle. There, row after row of groaning, sleeping, and quietly-talking patients--most Pullati, but some commoners and a handful of middle-class folk as well--rested. "I can't believe you ate that stuff."

"I was hungry," the little girl said, sniffling. She rubbed a dirty hand over her cheek, brushing away a tear. "There was nothing to eat after Ma and Pa died."

Vis's heart lurched as she recalled the sight that had greeted her when she'd peeked in the girl's tiny shack. Since Trellis Descent, Vis had been trying to gather together all of the city's Pullati homeless children and elderly people and relocate them to the Collegium Pullatorum. The process had already been underway before Trellis Descent, but now far more children lacked roofs over their heads, and temperatures continued to plunge.

Every day, she and the others searched the slums for people they'd overlooked. She'd come upon the half-collapsed shack where the little girl lived. Vis's people had been monitoring the shack for days to assess the new Pullatus's needs and begin integrating her into their community. The girl's parents had died in a clivia attack at the textile farm, orphaning their young daughter but at least leaving her with shelter--however paltry--over her head.

For a moment as Vis had passed the shack, she'd considered not going inside; the child there lived in dire poverty but at least had a roof over her head. Vis needed to prioritize her time and Pullati resources based on need.

But then something very strange caught her eye and drew her within the shack. Flowers. Flowers everywhere. The blossoms glowed ghostly white in the dim crimson sunlight filtering through the shack's drab windows. They spread over every surface, their thin, hairlike roots digging into the bare dirt floor, blanketing the filthy, hay-stuffed mattresses, and even crawling up the walls.

And sitting in the middle of the indoor flower field, stuffing her face with the tough white petals, had sat the little girl. Vis remembered screaming for her to stop--everyone knew night-side plants were inedible at best and toxic at worst--but she'd known it was too late. If the glowing petals were poisonous, the girl's only hope now was a chirurgeon.

The old man wiped his forehead as they approached, leaving behind a smear of garlic-and-honey paste Vis could smell from across the hall. "Welcome back, Rex." He squinted in the dim torchlight. "And who is this?"

Vis pushed the girl into his hands, ignoring her attempt to dig in her heels. Stubborn brat. "Please help her. She ate night-side flowers."

The Pullati street chirurgeon frowned from her to the child and back. "Where did she find such a thing?" He patted the blanket he'd spread on the ground to examine incoming patients. "Come here, dearie. Let me have a look at you."

"They were growing all over her house," Vis said, narrowing her eyes at the kid until the girl finally slumped with a huff. "Floor, walls, table, bed, everything."

The chirurgeon blinked as he guided the girl to lie back. "Strange. Reminds me of the clivia farms. I hear the creatures have been spreading some kind of web." The little girl's lip wobbled at that; her parents had not lived long enough to witness the strange phenomenon. The chirurgeon patted her hand soothingly, then curled his fingers about her wrist. "Dearie, may I listen to your tummy?"

"I heard they're filaments," Vis murmured as the old man leaned forward to press an ear to the scowling girl's abdomen. "Thank the Eternal Radiance they're not toxic. Bunias cut his hand gathering some, the fool, but it didn't do anything to him."

The chirurgeon snorted. "What did he think he was going to do with that stuff?" He straightened and smiled down at the girl. "Your tummy sounds good, and your pulse is just right. Can I listen to your lungs?" The girl shrugged, and he guided her to sit upright.

Vis rolled her eyes. "He said he wanted to turn it into yarn and throw it on the loom." Bunias apprenticed with the weavers whenever Merula--Vis now--didn't need him out snatching.

The old man arched a brow as he pressed an ear to the girl's back. "And how is that going for him?"

"Better than expected. I guess the stuff is pretty soft." Not like the razor-wire filaments the weavers usually had to soften with lye and rinse a hundred times to get all the poison out. Rich people sure liked to do the weirdest things to lord it over others. "He may soon be the only Pullatus to wear a clivia silk tunica."

The chirurgeon frowned. "Something strange is happening. This time, however, it may be in our favor." He leaned back from his patient and smiled. "I see no signs of poisoning. At least not yet. It could have a slow onset." He glanced at the girl. "How long ago did you eat the flowers, dearie? And how many did you have?"

"I've been eating them all week." She scowled as Vis and the chirurgeon both gaped at her. "What? I was hungry, and they taste good. Way better than boiled barley." She grimaced. "Well, sort of. They taste gross if I eat them when I'm not hungry."

"Interesting," the old man said. "I think you found a patch of medicine flower, my dear. You are a very lucky little girl. The blossoms are safe to eat. Good, even. I have never seen such myself, for they are extraordinarily expensive and rare. But I would dearly love to see where you found  them." His brow furrowed in confusion. "The herb is usually only found on the night-side." He glanced at Vis. "It grows in tiny patches and takes over a decade to blossom. But you said it covered the whole house?"

She nodded. "It is a tiny dwelling, but yes. The flowers grew everywhere. It was really strange."

"Strange, indeed." His eyes narrowed. "I would dearly like to see this place."