Chapter 13 begins with Merry and Sholto, who is carrying Mistral, walking along a stone path deeper into this new magical garden that had just formed. Merry realizes that her feet are all cut up, because walking on the stones hurt. “The stones seemed to be touching the cuts.” Yeah, no shit, that’s how it normally works.
So Merry whines about how the stones are trying to eat her feet (seriously) and Sholto says he needs to find a spot to lay Mistral down so he can carry her. No other possible way they could make it through the stones, none at all. As Sholto says that, the garden opens up a bit and creates a small little alcove in which to lay Mistral. She could have just climbed onto his back, I’m pretty sure Sholto could carry them both, JFC.
Normally I felt safe when the magic of the Goddess was moving this strongly, but there was just something about this garden that made me nervous. Maybe it was the feel of the stones moving under my feet, using the small mouths to lick and drink from the minute cuts in my feet. Maybe it was the knotted herbs that made it almost dizzying if you looked at their patterns too long.
I looked behind us and found that the rose hedge had knitted itself completely around the garden. No, there was a gate in the hedge. It looked like a white picket fence gate with a wooden arch that curved gracefully over it. Then I realized that there were images in the pale wood. Then I knew it wasn’t wood. The gate was formed of bone.
Then. Then. Then. This whole scene could be so beautifully cosnsructed if it wasn’t LKH writing it.
Then (lol) Merry realized that the garden is growing a bed for Mistral to lay on. Flower petals start raining down inside their little garden area, forming four pillows on the bed.
Sholto looked at me. His look was a question. I answered it as best as I could. “Your sithen has prepared a place for us to sleep and to heal Mistral.”
How can I convey in writing just how loudly I groaned at that?
“And to heal you, Meredith.”
I squeezed his arm. “To heal us all.”
So Sholto lays Mistral down on the bed, and Merry has to climb to get on top of it. Vines grew out of the bed and helped lift her up. Sholto wonders who the 4th pillow is for, and Merry immediately knows it’s for Doyle. However, he’s still being treated at the hospital for some strange reason, so Merry wants to go rescue him.
Rescue him. From the human doctors. That they left him with. To heal.
Sholto questions how they’re going to reach Doyle, despite, you know, just saying in the previous chapter how he can INSTANTLY TRAVEL WHERE EVER HE WANTS. I swear to god this series is 90% characters reminding other characters of stuff they already know.
“You are the Lord of That Which Passes Between, Sholto. You took us where a field met woods, and where the shore met ocean. Isn’t there anything in a hospital that is a place between?”
You could also, you know, decide to land in a door threshold or where the grass meets concrete. Choices!
He thought for a second, then nodded. “Life and death. A hospital is full of people who hover between. But there is too much metal and technology for me, Meredith. I have no human blood in me to help me work major magic around such things.”
Merry DOES have human blood, though, so she suggests helping somehow. The Goddess shows up again, this time in the form of a mistletoe crown in Merry’s hair, and a crown of herbs and lavender appears in Sholto’s hair. They say some stupid shit about joining their magics and by the power combined I AM CAPTAIN PLANET they will join their kingdoms, and the chapter ends with them disappearing from the garden and reappearing inside the hospital.
IMPORTANT
Breonna Taylor was murdered in her house by police who raided the wrong house and was shot 8 times while she was sleeping. Call or E-mail the Louisville Mayor’s office and demand that the officers involved be charged!
Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer
– (502) 574-2003
-Text “ENOUGH” To 55156
“ENOUGH” to 55156
Trailer Park of Emotion 