ARWIN

  Orchid stood in the doorway, her face paled by the moon and starlight, apart from her purple-tinted lips. Her narrowed eyes held suspicion. Despite how ravishing she was in a flimsy bck ensemble that revealed far more than it hid, her posture and demeanour were far less inviting.

  Arwin fought to keep a guilty blush from rising to his face. He hadn’t actually been trying to escape — yet. But he’d certainly been thinking of he might. Not the best impression to give when trying to earn someone’s trust. He stepped towards her, gncing over his shoulder, but thankfully saw no further sign of the giant spider. He turned back to his hostess. ”Just studying the castle. It’s very interesting.”

  “Studying how best to climb down?”

  He protested, “Not at all!” Curse it; it was like she could read his mind! “I saw some flowers growing on the wall. I was just trying to get a better look.”

  “You mean flowers like those?” She cocked an eyebrow and gestured to the walls on either side of the terrace. Both were thick with orchids of various colours. Oddly, now that he noticed it, every orchid pnt in the castle appeared to be sporting fresh flowers. Given that most orchids naturally only blossomed periodically, she must have been using magic to induce constant blooms.

  Arwin gulped. “Yeah. Um, guess I didn’t notice those.” He recovered swiftly and tried to be suave. “When I came out here, I was totally absorbed in the view. It’s wonderful, even at night.”

  She must have chosen to give him the benefit of the doubt because she rexed enough to tease, saying, “Funny, you seem a little nervous. Maybe you’re too scared to get a really good look. Perhaps I should give you a push so that you can get a closer view.”

  Looking right at her, he responded, “Actually, I prefer to be close up to this view.”

  She broke eye contact. “Hmm. I wonder if you’re just pretending to want to be here.”

  “I do want to be here.”

  “You could be lying.”

  “I could be telling the truth.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to know you better.”

  “Do you, now?” The fingers of her left hand idly twisted and flexed. A purple nebu cloud filled with lightning and sparks coiled around those fingers.

  Arwin decided to be honest. “I’d also like to earn your trust to the point where you let Yaz and I look around. I know the princess probably isn’t here somewhere, but he needs the peace of mind so he can move on.”

  She didn’t respond to that.

  He asked, “Weren’t we going to have wine?”

  She hesitated a moment but seemed to rex a little more. The nebu faded away. She flicked her freshly brushed hair with one hand and then joined him on the balcony.

  “You have beautiful hair.”

  “Thank you.” A half smile flickered over her lips and then departed as quickly as it had arrived. She sashayed as she walked towards the couches. The moons seemed a little brighter in her company.

  They lowered themselves into a couple of ornate wrought iron and wood couches padded with red paisley cushions.

  She flicked a finger. Fmes softly rose in three standing torches nearby, then the brazier in the middle.

  The wine sat on a coffee table next to the two gsses. Arwin took up the bottle. “May I?”

  She teased without expression, “You’re not going to try to slip poison into it, are you?”

  Equally deadpan, he replied, “Of course not. I left it back in my prison cell. Perhaps tomorrow.”

  She scoffed, “My, aren’t we presumptuous? Thinking you’ll be back tomorrow, too?”

  He let a sly grin show. “I know you can’t resist me and my charm.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re not that charming.”

  “Must be because I’m so handsome then.”

  She nodded seriously. “I once saw a face just like yours on a horse.”

  “I hope you had a long and wonderful retionship with that horse.”

  “Would you like to become a horse? I could help you with that.” She lifted her hand and pointed at him.

  Arwin ughed, trying to hide his nervousness. He did not want to become a horse! “Thanks, but while the horse is a noble animal, I think I’d like to remain human. It’s much more conducive to charming conversation.”

  “Again,” she reminded him, “you’re not that charming.”

  “I see.” His shoulders drooped, and he gave her a mock forlorn look.

  She ughed lightly. “Ok, maybe a little bit.”

  He brightened. “You’re not so bad yourself when you aren’t casting fireballs at me.”

  The conversation took a natural lull, and they both sipped their wine. A rge brown moth fluttered by. It was the size of a dinner pte, with patterns on the wings reminiscent of tree bark. It nded on a white, trumpeted blossom simir to an evening glory growing up the wall next to the gss doors. A proboscis as long as Arwin’s forearm uncurled and slid into the flower. The moth fed.

  Arwin gauged his hostess. If he wanted to get on her good side, the best way wasn’t compliments or even jokes; it was taking an interest in her. “You have a beautiful collection of orchids. And almost all of them seem to be in bloom. How did you ever become such a great gardener?”

  Sharply shaking her head, she humbly protested, “Oh, I’m not a gardener. Orchids are really the only thing I actively grow. I’ve never really studied pnt biology or anything like that.”

  “Still, I thought I’d heard that they were one of the more challenging flowers to cultivate. You must have something of a green thumb to grow so many healthy pnts.”

  She wasn’t immune to the compliment, and she faintly blushed. “I don’t know if they’re any harder than anything else. I do my best. I had a lot of help from a dryad.”

  “How do you get them all to bloom so much? There are flowers everywhere. Or is it the time of year when they all bloom?”

  “No. That’s magic. Normally, most species bloom once or twice a year.”

  “Is it easy to do?”

  “No,” she admitted. “It required a lot of research into the biology of the pnt and then into how to shape energy into affecting the pnt’s DNA. And, of course, if you change one thing, you must change others to keep it in bance. Being in bloom all the time puts certain unnatural stresses on the pnt. That required tweaking some of its biological processes, and it took some years of experimentation to alter the way that it took up nutrients and stored them. I had to call in help, and the dryad was able to assist by developing an internal mechanism to reduce the stress of being in bloom so much. And each different kind of orchid is a little different than the st. Some species were much more temperamental than others. It took, oh, twenty years or something to figure it all out.”

  “Humans back on Earth have been doing simir things. Genetic modifications. It’s pretty controversial. What happens when those changes are introduced to the wild and other organisms? Will the modified strain become dominant? Will everything die out? Will we destroy genetic diversity or add to it? And who decides what changes to make? Can people be responsible—?”

  Orchid shuddered. “Absolutely not! Imagine regur people pying with genetics. Or worse yet, imagine corrupt politicians and greedy merchants with that kind of control. They’d breed armies of super-soldiers or deadly diseases or accidentally create a new form of life that decides we’re its food. Anything to make a quick profit, no matter the consequences. No, most people are very much irresponsible. Just look at how they live their daily lives, the mess they make of the world around them.”

  “What about you? You can be trusted?”

  “More than most of them, yes! I’ve had centuries of practical learning and experimentation. I abide by reason, take every precaution, and go through years of trial and theory before applying anything with risk. Politicians and merchants are usually self-serving and rapacious, with no sense of long-term responsibility. I’m a magicist. I care about the consequences of my actions.”

  “You definitely sound like a scientist.” He gestured towards one wall of flowers. “Do you have a favourite kind or colour?

  She thought about that. “Hmmm. No, not really. Ok, I guess the bck ones, the ones growing on the castle walls. I suppose the ebony of the petals kind of...resonates with me. Sometimes, I feel dark inside. And Dark is the name others have given me. I’m not just the Enchantress, but the Dark Enchantress.” She gave him a wan smile. “Incidentally, those bck orchids are the rarest of their kind. They grow nowhere else in Heartstone, only here, in the heart of the swamp, and on this castle.”

  “Actually, that’s not true. There is an orchid that’s rarer.”

  She swivelled her head towards him in surprise.“There is?”

  “I can think of one particur orchid that is absolutely unique. It’s one of a kind.”

  She frowned in thought. “You—?” Then she realized what he was referring to: her. “Oh.” She blushed much more strongly this time, caught off guard. But she sought to recover like a champ. “Ftterer.”

  They sat in silence again, and once again, Arwin felt himself with the burden of continuing their conversation. He tried an entirely new direction. “This is my first time in a castle. Pretty amazing.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Is it a family home?”

  “No. And yes. In a way.” She shrugged.

  “How so?”