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The plants led the way—running, hopping, tumbling over one another. It would have been comical if Terlu hadn’t seen the look on Yarrow’s face. With Dendy galloping beside her, she kept pace with Yarrow, and they raced into the greenhouses.

Through the roses.

Through the ferns.

And into the greenhouse that Terlu had walked through on her first day awake, the one that should have been dripping with humidity. It was overflowing with greenery, every inch filled with fat leaves and tangled vines, but the air felt chill. Above, Terlu instantly saw what had gone wrong:

The sun had died.

She remembered this greenhouse had had a false sun at the peak, so intense that she’d had to squint to look at it. Now its cupola was a smoky gray, like a hearth soot-stained after years of fires.

The dragonflies, the ones who had danced around the sun with their diamond bodies and golden wings, had all already fled. She didn’t see a single one left in the dying greenhouse.

Snap.

A crack spread up a pane of glass, branching as it reached up toward the cupola.

“I have to save the plants,” Yarrow said.

“Tell us what to do,” Terlu said.

“Us?”

Terlu looked at Lotti, Dendy, Risa, and all the other sentient plants. She didn’t want to speak for them, but if she was any judge—

“Me,” Lotti said.

Dendy said firmly, “Us.”

The others shouted their agreement, then fell silent, trembling, frightened but ready. Terlu felt a swell of pride for them. Only a day ago, they’d been caught in an enchanted sleep, and now they were eager to spring into action, to work together to help others.

Yarrow looked at them for a half second as if he wanted to say more, then he nodded.

“Last time this happened, the greenhouse temperature plummeted to subzero and then rose to scorchingly hot—the enchantments don’t just fail; they go awry.

We have to get as many plants as possible out before that happens.

Including yourselves. Do you understand? Don’t risk yourselves.”

Lotti clapped her leaves together. It sounded like fabric slapping against fabric. “You heard him! Let’s do this.” Pausing, she looked up at Yarrow and Terlu. “What exactly do we do?”

Yarrow was already working. He’d shed his coat on the floor, rolled up his sleeves, and was ramming a shovel into the dirt near a hibiscus bush.

Terlu scanned the greenhouse quickly. Much of the greenery was planted directly into beds on the ground, but the potted plants could be moved first. “You, you, and you”—she pointed to the plants who looked strongest and had the most vines, leaves, and tendrils for grabbing and hauling—“begin with the pots. Drag them into the next room. Yarrow, shovels and trowels? Small enough for the plants to use?”

“Go east two greenhouses, then left at the roses. There’s a storage bin in the corner of the citrus room,” Yarrow said without pausing.

“I’ll get them,” Terlu said. “Dendy, as soon as Yarrow gets that bush uprooted, you and your friends should haul it into the next room. It can be replanted after everything is saved.”

“Yes, ma’aaam,” Dendy said.

She sprinted through the greenhouses, took a left at the roses, and charged onward until she reached a greenhouse filled with lemon, lime, and grapefruit trees.

The distinctive scent of citrus curled around her, and she breathed it in as she panted.

It flooded her senses. She looked for her favorite orange trees— Focus, Terlu. Sightsee later.

Which corner had the tools? She wished she’d asked. Every second she wasted could mean the loss of another plant. Huffing, she jogged to the closest corner. It held a lemon tree, with brilliant yellow fruit nestled between the leaves.

Next corner—

Yes!

Terlu loaded every trowel into a wheelbarrow, plus two shovels—there were more, but trowels would be easier for the sentient plants to grasp and lift with their leaves and tendrils—and she rushed back through the greenhouses.

Sweat dampened her armpits, and she puffed as she ran with the wheelbarrow wobbling side to side.

She nearly spilled it twice, but she made it back.

All the sentient plants were working, hauling pots across the dying greenhouse and into the safety of the next room.

Cradling the tools, Terlu halted and puffed. She hadn’t run in… She couldn’t remember when. She wasn’t built for it. Her lungs burned as she gasped in air. But she forced herself to move again and begin distributing the tools.

“Give me a shovel,” Risa demanded.

Terlu handed one of the shovels to Risa, who wrapped their vines around the handle. With one end, Risa secured themself around a pillar and used that as support to dig into the soil. Dirt flew into the air, landing on their leaves, the ground, and the walkway. They didn’t slow.

As the others presented themselves, Terlu handled out trowels. Most were large enough to grasp them with their leaves or vines or, in one instance, roots. All the plants except Lotti.

“I want to help!” Lotti cried, her petals quivering.

“Terlu! Terlu, I don’t know how to help.

Please help me help.” She was dwarfed by the massive jungle plants in this greenhouse, too small to drag any pots and too small to hold a shovel or even the tiniest trowel.

“Terlu, please. I can’t just watch. Never again. I won’t be just decorative.”

Terlu considered the tiny rose. “Can you climb?”

“Yes. Why—”

There was no way to know how quickly the spells would fail or when they’d run out of time.

They had to move as many plants as possible before the greenhouse became uninhabitable, which meant starting with the easiest to remove.

“We need someone who can see the full picture to tell us where to dig and which plants to rescue first. You’re in charge of triage.

Identify which flora is fastest to save and shout to whoever is nearest and able. ”

“Yes! I can do that!” She scampered up the nearest pillar like a flowery squirrel.

From the rafters above, she began barking orders.

“Dendy, three rows to the left, there’s an alocasia that hasn’t spread—yes, there!

Nif, help Hosha with the potted fern in the third bed on the left.

Ree, the grasses! Yes, those! Zyndia, help Ree! ”

Claiming a shovel for herself, Terlu began to dig around the base of a small palm tree.

She hoped the edge of the shovel wasn’t cutting through too many of the roots.

The tropical trees and bushes had been growing for many years, and they’d spread their roots deep and wide into the soil.

She didn’t know if they’d survive transport, but she knew they wouldn’t survive staying where they were.

The talking plants worked as hard and fast as they could, for their size and strength.

As soon as one chunk of flora was unearthed, a slew of sentient plants clustered around it to haul it to safety.

Lotti perched above it all, directing them to the next rescue, calling out whenever one of the sentient plants or Yarrow or Terlu needed assistance.

Shouts would go up whenever a tree, bush, or plant was ready to be moved, and everyone would swarm.

Terlu’s arms ached, and she felt blisters forming on her palms from the shovel handle. Her shoulders ached too, and she was drenched in sweat. Freeing the palm tree, she dragged it into the other room and then returned. She picked the next tree to uproot.

A few yards away, Yarrow was focused on digging, digging, digging—his shovel didn’t stop. Dirt flew, covering him and filling the walkway behind him. He barely paused to wipe the sweat and dirt out of his eyes.

A moment later, he tossed the shovel on the ground.

Dropping to his knees, he began pawing at the dirt to free the roots.

Terlu joined him, working her fingers between the roots to loosen them without breaking them.

After they’d worked around the base, Yarrow jumped up and began pulling at the trunk.

He freed it from the soil, and they carried the tree through the door into the next greenhouse.

Its outer branches snapped as they yanked it through the doorframe, but there was no help for it.

They hauled it to an empty stretch of walkway.

He didn’t speak as he rushed back into the dying room to dig up the next tree.

She helped the prickly pear, Hosha, and the orchid, Amina, maneuver another bush out the door.

The morning glory hauled another pot out, while the delphinium and the fireweed worked together to unearth several clumps of lurid red flowers.

In the adjacent greenhouse, the greenery was beginning to pile up.

It was going to need to be replanted, and she wasn’t certain it would all survive the shock of being extracted from the earth.

The rescuers were all being careful, but was that enough?

Also, she didn’t know how they’d replicate the heat and humidity conditions of their original greenhouse.

But that was a worry for later, after they’d saved as much as they could. Taking a deep breath and rolling her shoulders, Terlu dove back in. With Lotti directing her, she cleared a bed, using the wheelbarrow to transport the smaller plants to safety.

Pausing to catch her breath, she scanned the greenhouse—it was still overflowing with green.

If they were merely trying to hack it down, that alone would have taken hours, but to remove the plants carefully with roots intact…

This was a project that could take days.

I don’t think we have days. “Any guesses how much time we have?”

“Not enough,” Yarrow said grimly.

Terlu picked up her shovel again. If there were more gardeners on the island, maybe they’d have a chance of moving it all, but even with every single sentient plant helping… It’s not enough. They couldn’t work fast enough or hard enough. She pushed the shovel into the dirt again.

And she shivered.