As the sun set, Tristan headed inside the monastery with two deer on his back. The monks met him at the door and happily relieved him of the weight. Tristan had been hunting for several weeks and had almost secured enough meat to feed the monks through winter.
Game was not scarce in this part of the land.
Tristan sat down at the long table in the old dining room beside a large monk named Gordon and watched Bartholomew, a strong monk who said very little, enter from the back door. The butcher of Tristan’s kills, Bartholomew was shirtless as he gathered the deer from the kitchen.
Tristan’s eyes caught on a design on Bartholomew’s chest. It was dark blue and stained into his skin, but it did not look faded like the design Tristan continued to stain on his own body.
Turning to the round monk beside him, Tristan gestured to Bartholomew. “What is that he has on his chest?”
Through a mouthful of food, Gordon said, “That is a tattoo.”
“Does it wash off?”
“No, it stays forever. Like magic. Brother Elliot does them.”
Tristan’s eyes brightened at this. A permanent ink?
He would have to talk to Elliot about this.
Three weeks later, Gabriel galloped and raced on his horse through the trees and out into the far field. Scarlet laughed as he tried to keep up with her.
They had been taking rides together almost every day for the last few weeks. Scarlet made him feel alive and took away the pain in his chest when he remembered Tristan. Gabriel’s favorite part of each day was the sound of her laughter.
When they had reached the edge of the outer field, Scarlet slowed her horse to a walk and Gabriel came up beside her. “You gave me the slow horse,” he teased.
She laughed and his soul lit up. “Do not blame the horse for your lack of skill in riding.”
He smiled. “But it isthe horse. This poor creature can barely carry my weight. Your animal, on the other hand, only has to carry a tiny woman.”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “You are too big a man for your horse? Yes, I’m sure that excuse works with the village girls.”
He laughed with her and took a deep breath as they guided their horses along the field’s perimeter and rode side by side.
“So where are we going today?” She smiled at Gabriel.
“Today, we are going to the lake.”
She smiled. “I like the lake.”
Gabriel smiled back at her. “I know. That is why we are going there.”
The lake made Scarlet happy. And Gabriel wanted to make Scarlet happy.
61
Scarlet entered Laura’s bedroom while Gabriel and Heather stood watch downstairs. Laura wasn’t supposed to be home for another two hours, but they didn’t want to take any chances.
Scarlet carefully opened drawers and cabinets and shamelessly riffled through Laura’s things.
Sexy shoes, sexy bras, sexy underwear….the only thing Scarlet was uncovering about Laura was her sexiness. Which was not new information.
Moving on.
Scarlet headed to the closet and started looking for things that would confirm that Laura was evil, or maybe Raven in disguise. She searched for any tell-tale signs; wigs…colored contacts…name tags that read “HELLO My Name Is Raven”…but no.
Laura’s closet was even bigger than Scarlet’s and completely overrun with business suits and scarves, but no Head Ghosts or Bluestone weapons.
Scarlet was starting to lose hope when she spied the black suitcase from Laura’s trip peeking out from behind a group of hanging dresses.
Without hesitating, Scarlet pulled out the suitcase and unzipped it.
The yellow flower was still there, tucked into the black Styrofoam casing. Scarlet contemplated removing the flower altogether but what if Laura opened her suitcase tonight and saw it missing?
No, that was a bad idea.
Scarlet pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and snapped a few pictures of the flower, being sure to get all the details. Maybe Nate could look it up online.
After grabbing her pictures, Scarlet shoved the suitcase back into place and exited the closet. Taking one last look around Laura’s room and not finding anything else useful, Scarlet made her way back downstairs.
“Wonder Woman?” she heard Heather’s voice say from the kitchen.
“No.” Gabriel’s voice responded.
“The Great Blondini?” Heather asked.
Scarlet descended the stairs and found Heather and Gabriel in the kitchen. Heather looked excited. Gabriel looked bored.
“No.” Gabriel shook his head at Heather. “I am not going to call you by any code names.”
“But what if you get to have a code name too?” Her eyes brightened. “Maybe something like Fierce Jaguar?” She made a clawing motion with her hand.
Gabriel stared at her. “Fierce Jaguar?”
She wagged her eyebrows. “Or what about Hot Archer? Would you take on a code name then?”
Gabriel pursed his lips.
“Okay guys,” Scarlet said, walking into the kitchen. “I didn’t find any incriminating evidence, but I did get some pictures of that flower thingy in Laura’s suitcase so, we’ll see. Let’s get out of here before Laura gets back.”
Scarlet hurried to leave her house. It felt weird exiting the front door. Like she no longer belonged there.
But maybe she never had.
62
Nate’s mouth fell open the moment he saw the picture of the yellow flower. “Laura has this?”
Scarlet stood with Heather, Tristan and Gabriel in Nate’s bedroom, everyone trying to peer over Nate’s shoulder at the picture on Scarlet’s phone.
“Yes,” Scarlet said. “Do you know what it is?”
Nate nodded and quickly uploaded the picture to one of the computers in his room so everyone could see. “It’s called Liferoot.”
Heather moved her eyes from the computer screen and took in the many video game controllers, superhero posters and figurines. “Wow,” Heather raised her eyebrows, “I feel like I’m in my little brother’s room. Except my little brother doesn’t have as many toys.”
“Collector’s items,” Nate corrected, blowing up a picture of the flower on his computer screen.
Gabriel eyed the hammer in the corner. “I’m glad you used the Zelda sword instead of the Thor hammer the other night. Trying to kill an Ashman with a plastic hammer would have been exhausting.”
“It’s not made of plastic, it’s…never mind.” Nate shook his head. He squinted at the screen and everyone stared at the picture of the yellow flower over his shoulder.
Scarlet leaned in. “You’ve seen this flower before?”
“Yeah. But not for a long…time….” He zoomed in on the roots. “I can’t believe Laura has Liferoot. It’s supposedly been extinct for centuries.”