“Potions are dangerous,” he continued. “Does your friend know what she’s doing?”
“I think so.”
Mina pulled down her backpack, and extracted the glass jar from it, then the neon yellow gloves.
“By the looks of it, it’s something dangerous?”
“Poisonous, yes.”
“What are you… I mean, what is your friend making?”
“Hexensalbe,” Mina said, trying to sound as German as she could.
“The flying ointment?” he called it another name but Mina knew it was the same thing. “She’s a witch?”
“Why else would she need it?”
Mina asked, a little more gruffly than she intended.
She’d been stressed out as the days slowly passed and it started to show only now.
“So, you need the fat of children then,” Thorn said gravely.
“The what??” Mina shrieked.
That wasn’t on the list. Were the witches going to kill a child during their Sabbath? She was horrified. If this was true, she’d take no part in it.
“Relax,” Thorne laughed seeing her reaction, “Francis Bacon said something along those lines, that the flying ointment consisted of the fat of dead children dug out of their fresh graves, then smallage, wolf-bane, cinque foil and wheat.”
“What the hell…” Mina frowned. “I don’t have any of those things on my list.”
She got the list out of her pocket, and checked it carefully. She was sure there were no kids listed there, nor wheat.
“Can I see that list?” he asked, extending his hand.
She thought about it for a second, then realized she had nothing to lose. He was already here. He might as well help. He already knew enough to make him even more curious.
His eyes skimmed through the list of necessary plants, then looked at her.
“All of them are here,” he told her, matter-of-factly. “And you need just a little bit of every single one, so if we’re really careful, no one will know that you even took anything.”
“Really?” Mina squealed with delight.
“Give me those gloves and the jar.”
She did as she was told. Thorne started walking through the Botanical garden and Mina just followed him.
“Belladonna, belladonna….” he talked to himself, scanning the room. “Ah, there!”
He rushed over to the corner, picked a few leaves, then put them in the jar.
“Henbane bell,” he remembered the second plant on the list.
The moment he saw it, he went for it and carefully placed it next to the previous one, safely in the jar. It took him about fifteen minutes to scratch every single item off the list, handing the jar back to Mina.
“You’d best just throw these away,” he told her, taking off the gloves.
Then, he went to a nearby bench and sat down. She felt the urge to go and sit next to him. She was very grateful for his help but, somehow, felt like a mere thank you wouldn’t be nearly enough. He had helped her gather them and she sensed that she could rely on him to keep her secret.