ART



Fluxion
Then he bent down to the water’s edge, reached was an old fallen tree surrounded by a smattering
out and tapped the surface with his fingertips, sending of stones. The log was covered with lichens, mosses,
issue
small concentric waves radiating over the pond. When and strange luminescent flowers. Each had an inky
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they had dissipated, the water seemed to simmer for a black center surrounded by fleshy white petals. As
moment and to the sorceress’ wonder the pod flowers she approached them she saw that each petal bore a
popped back to the surface, freshly inflated and exud- pattern—the features of a skull with tiny teeth-like
ing a faint scent of vanilla. fringes at the base where they all met. They gave
“I don’t understand,” she said, her curiosity deli- off an odd, sickly sweet smell that made her
ciously piqued. “Do they do that of their own accord slightly queasy.
or did you teach them to do it?” “Behold the calavera orchid,” the warden said,
“That, my friend, is a secret,” he answered with and waving his hands over the log, he murmured a
Figure 4 Sighing Hyacinth (Eichhornia suspiria)
an inscrutable expression and gestured back to the few words. When he’d finished, the flowers jittered
opening in the clearing. as if a buffeting wind was shaking them. The odor
The path to the next display was bumpy and led dissipated and the sorceress heard a delicate sound,
down a small incline. The trees surrounding the clear- like small shells clattering together. She saw that it
ing were tall and dark. Their lower branches sagged was the flowers’ “teeth” chattering, and the image of
and draped over the space so that it was like a dim the quaking “skulls” suddenly struck her as silly. She
cave. She felt a chill and shuddered with apprehension. laughed, then turned to find the warden watching her
“What could grow in there?” she asked with a bemusedly as he stroked his beard.
quaver in her voice. “And now we’ve come to the end of the
“Trust me,” he said placidly, and stepped through Circus Botanicum,” he said and led her back
the boughs. After a moment of hesitation, she followed. up the incline and into the last and the
At the center of the damp, gloomy space largest of the clearings.
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