I rapped a fist against the colourful windows of the enclosed garden where Master Hector, milling about inside, was once again scared out of his wits. He slipped forwards as the sound startled him, he flailed about, his hands flying into the soil of a flowerbed for support.
"Sorry!" I apologised sheepishly, sticking my head through the gap again.
He scrambled forwards to meet me, his face as eager as I had ever seen it.
"Did you speak to him?" He asked.
"Yeah!" I said enthusiastically, "He's surprisingly good company."
"He is!" Hector agreed with probably the loudest tone I'd ever heard him use. "Did he enjoy talking with you? Did his colour return to normal?"
"He was a greyish colour when I arrived, but he was bright green by the time I left."
"Wonderful! Thank you." Hector nodded, the worry evaporating off him.
"He's certainly special, where did you find him?" I asked.
Hector seemed taken aback by my curiosity, which I found extremely odd, who wouldn't be curious about where you found a giant, talking Venus flytrap?
"I found him in Scotland; he had been sold to the royals there. I did some farming work in return for him." He told me briefly. I got a sense that there was more to the story, but I didn't push for information, simply happy that Hector was engaging with me.
"You know, I've also been known to do tasks in return for something I want." I beckoned, leaning up against the glass.
His eyebrows lifted in understanding.
He came closer to me at the window, his green eyes sparkling as the sunshine hit them."That day, the day of the dragon attack. As I stood gazing from my window in the castle, I spotted in the fire a shape I know all too well."
He moved to one of the flowerbeds in the enclosed garden and delicately removed a flower with its bulb for me to look at.
He brought the flower to the hole, and I got a good look at it. It was a small flower that fit in the palm of his hand, bright red in colour with pointy petals that had yellow tips.
"You have probably seen them many times before but nevertheless this is a fire lily." He presented it to me, as if introducing us.
How do you do? I wanted to say, but I bit my lip.
"Watch this." Hector said eagerly.
Gently, he pressed on the flower's bulb and a rush of flame materialised from the petals. It swirled out in a vertical trajectory, the heat singeing my baby hairs and flushing the skin of my cheeks.
I darted backwards, a yelp on my lips. "You could've given me a warning!" I yelled.
"Sorry, sorry." Hector apologised,
unaffected. "But did you see the shape?"
"The shape?" I questioned, my face still reeling from the heat.
"The shape of the flame! You weren't looking properly, were you?"
"Looking?" I gawked, "How am I supposed to see with my eyes being burned out of my skull?"
Hector turned around to put the flower back into the bed.
I lurched forwards, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll look properly this time."
He swirled around his eyebrow cocked and I nodded vigorously, resolving to behave myself. He sighed, coming over with it again.
"Look carefully this time." He instructed before setting the plant ablaze again.
I tried, fighting against my survival instincts, to look at the small pillar of fire. This time, I noticed that it didn't sore upwards in a straight column. Instead, it had a distinct five-pointed, shuriken-like shape.
"I see it!" I shouted over the roar of the flame.
He stopped pressing the bulb and the fire subsided.
"It is that shape I saw from my bedroom window, I knew instantly that a plant was responsible for the blaze, and a very large one at that. Excited by the prospect of a giant fire lily, I immediately went on the hunt for it but to no avail."
"Well, that would explain how someone was able to emulate dragon fire." I pondered, "Have you ever seen anything like a giant fire lily before?"
"No, nor have I cultivated one. So, imagine such a plant would be very valuable. Green giants are very expensive to purchase." Hector told me.
"Green giants?" I questioned.
"Plants that have randomly mutated to be larger in size. Like Venus, he's a green giant. He's also a cultivator since he has abilities, the power to move his limbs and speak."
"These terms, they are commonplace or you came up with them yourself?"
Hector looked at his feet shyly. "I came up with them myself, but since I am known for my work in horticulture they have spread amongst this community."
I stared at his unassuming countenance, impressed. "That's amazing!" I cried, "So, these green giants, what would it take to acquire one?"
"It would take something of high value to trade for one, probably wealth or a negotiation of political value. Green giants get traded in by foreign merchants but often don't make it to the markets because they get negotiated for by wealthy nobles long before they even leave to come to England."
I thought deeply for a few moments, "So one couldn't simply get on demand?"
"No, it's a lengthy process, even if the green giant is grown on English soil. I would say that if your culprit was triggered by the day Prince Arthur's capability was questioned, it would not have been enough time to find such a rare plant and make the arrangements to purchase it. I would suggest that they already were in possession of the plant before that incident."
At Hector's speculation the cogs in my brain began to whirr without showing any signs of slowing down.
"This is such valuable information Hector, thank you! If by some miracle I find the giant fire lily, it's yours!" I promised.
I could tell Master Hector didn't want to show it, but his eyes lit up with excitement at my pledge. With that vow sealed, we said our goodbyes and I slipped away happily. I skipped back into the orchards, the enclosed garden getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
The broad smile on my face faded, and I looked back to where Master Hector was being locked away. Such intelligence being concealed and suppressed. I sighed; he was like a beautiful bird shut in a tiny cage. My heart clenched, and I found myself daydreaming wearily about him as I trudged back the way I had come.
🌿🌿🌿
I sighed deeply flopping in amongst the thick woollen quilts of my bed. Freya looked down at me, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I thought you would be happy! You've found plenty of new evidence. You even got to have a full conversation with Master Hector." She consoled with a strange mix of exasperation and sisterly fondness.
"Urrrggghh, I did..." I rolled over, groaning.
"But?" She added.
"I don't know, he just seemed so trapped in there. Surely, it's not right to lock someone up in a garden shed like that?"
Freya sat down on the bed, her eyebrows raised. "Master Hector is under the authority of the Lord and he manages his estates affairs. How he deals with Master Hector is up to him."
The medieval period had some weird morals and a disturbing lack of law enforcement. I shivered, suddenly feeling unsafe.
It was at that moment Jocelyn barged her way into the room. Her skirts were muddied and her hands were covered in black charcoal, but her face was as radiant as the sun. I sat up, pleased she seemed so happy to be doing something different for a change.
She scurried over to me excitedly, a piece of thin cloth flapping in her hand.
"A tracing of the footprints. There was only one set at the scene." She said, handing me the charcoal rubbing done onto the cloth.
I took it in my hand and looked carefully. The footprint was very... Small. Much smaller than I had expected. I took the piece of string out of my sleeve and compared the length of Prince Damian's foot to the footprint on the paper. Prince Damian's foot was far bigger.
"Huh. Not what I expected." I mused.
"What did you expect?" Jocelyn said.
"Well, a man's footprint." I admitted, "This is either a woman's or a young person's footprint."
"It wouldn't be unusual for a royal to hire someone or use their servants to do their bidding." Jocelyn added measuredly.
"I don't know why I hadn't considered that." Internally I chastised myself for thinking too much like a modern woman from a time when devoted servants and hitmen were a rarity and not easily obtained.
"Did you find anything else of interest?" I asked Jocelyn.
She nodded, "Drag marks, as if someone had been pulled unconscious to the scene."
"Prince Arthur." I nodded.
"Also, on the way back here, I acquired these for you from a butcher in the settlement."
Jocelyn poured out a small bag of bones out onto the bed.
"I took your bones before I left and the local butcher was all too happy to tell me which bone came from which animal; he even gave me duplicates so it can be proved the bones are fake."
I looked down at the pile of bones, some pearly white, others blackened and charred.
Jocelyn continued, "The butcher was an odd fellow and when I changed the topic from bones he seemed disappointed but he was willing to tell me that on the day of the attack the fire was too hot for anyone to get a close up look but he said that they could see the figure's blonde hair and circlet clearly whereas the dragon itself was just a silhouette; a shadow."
I scratched at my chin, "That's fantastic information, I would definitely say this all points to the dragon being a definite illusion, executed just at the right time and place for optical distortion to be used most efficiently."
"So where do we go from here?" Jocelyn asked, her continence perky.
"We need to find out who pretended to be Prince Arthur and hopefully this will lead us to the mastermind. There are some pieces of evidence missing; the flower used to make the fire, the weapon used to cut Arthur's face and the imitation dragon."
"Do you think they could have been destroyed?" Freya asked.
"That's possible, but it's still worth checking the servants' quarters for any evidence." I added.
Jocelyn gawked at me, "You're going to check the princes' servant's quarters?"
"The mastermind is wealthy and wants Prince Arthur to be the Prince of Wales. Nope, I should be checking all the servants staying in the castle. Almost every Noble here is a suspect."
Jocelyn's mouth dropped open. "How are you going to do that without getting in serious trouble?" She urgently whispered.
"I'll have to wait until the day the King chooses his successor for all the servants to be busy and the royals distracted." I winked, "But in the meantime I think it would be a good idea for us to go back to the scene and search the surrounding areas for any items disposed of. I think it's likely if the perpetrator was a lone individual then they would need to dispose of some evidence closer to the scene as they wouldn't be able to carry it all away quickly after the ruse was complete. Did the footprints look like one straight trip or many back and forth?"
"Oh they were scattered over the place but hard to track in the changeable terrain. Perhaps they threw the items they could no longer carry into the inferno from the clifftop." Jocelyn suggested.
"That's a possibility but I don't know if they would want evidence of the forgery potentially being thrown near the skeleton of the dragon." I wondered.
Jocelyn's face looked thoughtful, her eyebrows narrowed and her full cheeks puffed out. "There is a stream nearby?" She finally announced, her expression loosening.
I pointed towards her happily, "Now that could be a better option."
I leapt off the bed, my sprightliness returning. Imbued with a new sense of determination and excitement I wrapped my arms around both my sisters' shoulders and pulled them tight. They squirmed in my grasp, protesting in mock disgust.
"Ladies, we have a new mission!" I cried, "It could be wet, it could be muddy and it could be fraught with unladylike perils. Are you with me?"
Jocelyn nodded her head happily, eyes sparkling and cheeks flushed.
Freya pushed us away, her face wrinkled as she looked down her narrow nose at me.
"I'll observe from the bank." She scoffed.