Chapter 4
Throughout our meal, I couldn’t help noticing that Hydris seemed more confident.
Or maybe more comfortable and that made him confident?
We were chatting about my work as we ate, and he laughed heartily when I told him about tripping and falling face-first into a wheelbarrow of manure.
He was animated and relaxed, those vibrant blue eyes just sparkling.
Why the hell would Mannix make Hydris hide who he was?
Control. That had to be it. Hydris might think Mannix was helpful “most of the time,” but I had a feeling Mannix was doing everything out of a need to be in charge. And since Hydris didn’t seem like the type to stand up to a bully, Mannix could go right ahead and take over.
Ugh, I hated that! Hydris was telling me a silly story about himself and some puppies. It was adorable, and he was so cute. I didn’t know if those were ideal qualities for a prince of the realm, but I definitely wanted to protect him at all costs.
At the very least, I really hoped Hydris stopped diminishing himself, but I had a feeling it would take more than one reveal and supportive conversation to make that happen. Mannix didn’t seem like the type to give in easily.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Hydris exclaimed and dropped his spoon into his empty bowl of sherbet. “I was spying on the spell workers who were working in the pool and learned something.”
“Spying on them? Why couldn’t you go in and talk to them?”
He blinked at me.
“You’re the prince. You can ask anyone anything you want,” I said and booped his nose in the hope that it didn’t feel like I was lecturing him. “But what did you learn?”
He sat up a little straighter. “Well, there were two important things. The first was that the portal—that’s what they’re calling what the ring creates—has multiple branches inside it. Like, a lot of them. And that’s very unusual and powerful magic.”
“Maybe that’s why I didn’t end up in the same place as Milo.”
“Your friend who went through first?”
“Right. He could be here, too, but miles away.”
“Or in a different court.”
That made me wince. Aside from the stunted food and the fact that it seemed to rain at least once a day, the Spring Court wasn’t so bad. Winter? Autumn? If the rumors were true, the people in those courts might be seriously suffering.
“You said there was another important thing?”
“Uh, yes, but it’s not good news.” He looked absolutely apologetic to say it, but I waved at him to go ahead. “The magic is fading.”
“Fading? That sounds bad, but what does it really mean?”
“Well, they went into their investigation thinking they might be able to send you back, but now they’re just trying to learn everything they can before…before it’s gone.”
I sat back with a groan and covered my eyes for a moment.
Powerful magic no one understood was fading and meant that I was about to be stuck here.
No, it meant that I was stuck here. No one was going to come through the ring to save me, and no one on this side was going to send me home.
I could feel the despair settling on my chest like an actual weight.
Arms wrapped around my shoulders and a sweet smelling head rested on my shoulder. Hydris was hugging me. I put my arms around him and kept my eyes closed, savoring the comfort he was trying to give me. He understood.
“I’m sorry, Bridge.”
I nodded a bit, not sure I could speak around the lump in my throat.
I’d had hope until now. This place wasn’t horrible, I wasn’t suffering, but it wasn’t home.
On top of not knowing what might’ve happened to the three most important people in my life, I was leaving behind a job, an apartment, the few things I had from my mother, the application I’d put in to adopt a dog…
I was going to be a case number again, this time as a missing person instead of a foster kid.
Hydris eased back, and I let him go. The stark sympathy in his eyes had me clearing my throat and sitting up, getting my shit together again. Wallowing wasn’t going to help anything.
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“If you think of something…”
“Sure.”
I was suddenly exhausted down to my bones. A glance out the window showed me a dark sky, the moon glowing in at us. Normally, I’d be climbing into bed by now since I had to be up with the roosters.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said as I stood, “but I need to get going.”
“Oh, of course. Do you want me to fly you back—”
“No! Uh, no, it’s fine. I’ll take my chances and sneak down.”
“Well, then, let’s see if we can make that a bit easier to accomplish.
” He went over to a door almost seamlessly hidden in the wall and listened against it for a moment.
When he opened it and went in, I curiously followed and found a small bedroom.
“This is my valet’s room. That door should take you down to… the kitchens, I think.”
The door he pointed to was more obvious and, when I opened it, I could hear the clatter of pots and pans and distant voices. Hopefully, no one would question it when I appeared down there.
“So, technically,” I said as I eyed Hydris, “I could’ve come up this way.”
He giggled a little and blushed as he shrugged.
I couldn’t help grinning at him. “Good night, Your Highness.”
“Good night, Bridge.”
In the morning, I went straight to the stables.
I’d tossed and turned during the night until I finally decided that I needed to see one of the barriers for myself.
The evidence of the curse in fruits and veg that didn’t ripen was kind of thin in my opinion, so I wanted to see this impenetrable boundary as real, unquestionable proof.
I just wasn’t sure how to get there or whether I could do it with this job I was supposed to do.
“Hey, Sarosh,” I said quietly once I found him, “I need to visit the barrier.”
He didn’t miss a beat as he kept filling a bucket with grains. “Which one?”
“Whichever’s closest?”
He nodded and changed buckets. “It’ll take you most of the day to walk to Winter, and the same to walk back. We don’t normally get two days off back-to-back like that.”
“You get days off?”
He blinked at me. “You don’t?”
“I haven’t yet.”
“Well, that’s not right.” He stopped scooping grains and dusted off his hands as he came closer. “Take a horse. You’ll be back by this evening. I’ll cover for you.”
I waved him off. “Oh, no, I don’t want to risk anyone else here. I’ll ask… Is it Lars who’d let me have time off?”
Sarosh gave me the wickedest grin I’d ever seen. “You could try, but why ask for permission when you can ask for forgiveness?”
I snorted a laugh. “Because I don’t want to lose my position?”
“Nah. Now you’re taking a cart and you can tell anyone who asks that you’re getting unicorn grass for Silver Sparkle.” The unicorn in question stuck her head over her stall door as if summoned, and Sarosh cooed at her as he petted her nose.
“I… Grass? Hold on.” I knew the unicorn ate a special diet, but I’d never fetched it before.
“Nope, this is perfect.” Sarosh rubbed his hands together like a cartoon villain.
“You’ll take the road straight to the barrier, tell anyone there you’ve come for grass, and you can do what you need to do with the barrier while you wait for them to fill the cart.
Drive back, no one questions more grass coming in, ta-da! ” He literally did jazz hands at me.
I opened my mouth to dispute his plan, but… Well, it sounded like a good one. Someone had to get the grass, so why couldn’t it be me?
“Okay, let’s do this.”
We harnessed a horse named Mason that Sarosh assured me was a good trotter, and I wasn’t sure if I should mention that I’d never driven a horse and cart before.
I’d ridden plenty of times because it had been my therapy back after my parents had died and I’d stopped talking for a while. Maybe it wouldn’t be too different?
Once I got up on the two-wheeled cart, reins in hand, I actually didn’t need to do much at all. Mason was eager to get going and did indeed trot right on down the road. I waved to Sarosh, hoped his plan would work, and off Mason and I went.
It was a long drive with literally nothing to do but think. And the only thing I could think about was what I would do for the rest of my life if I really was trapped here in the Spring Court.
I had the basics covered, of course, with a job, roof over my head, and three meals a day. Did I want to stay at the palace?
Part of me wanted to stay because I had some friends there and I liked Hydris.
Of course, being his friend was probably going to get us both in trouble eventually.
I wasn’t sure he had it in him to fight for us, and I had no idea how far Mannix might go to stop me from spending time with the prince.
If I left, I felt like I had some skills that might be worth something toward getting another job. Maybe at a farm. Maybe a ranch. I was getting used to the early hours and hard labor. I could probably do pretty well for myself. If being a laborer was all I wanted out of life.
There was a village around the palace, so were there more farther out? Maybe I could learn a trade as an apprentice. I could check out this place I was heading to, see what being a grass-grower was like.
After stopping on the side of the road for lunch—mine was portable, but I figured Mason could use a rest and nibble, too—I realized the shiny thing I could see up ahead had to be the barrier.
It looked like a pane of glass that was so big, I couldn’t fully perceive it.
Clouds and birds passed through it, and the other side was definitely a winter wonderland.
There were people up ahead and… Was something going on?
I jumped out of the cart and went over to some people gathered around a man sitting on the ground. There was a lake between us and the barrier, and in Winter there was another group of people buzzing around someone laying on the ground.
“What happened?” I asked anyone who’d listen.
A woman looked at me with wide, scared eyes. “The lake tried to kill Humphrey here and the human who tried to cross over from Winter.”
“A human?”
I went up to the water’s edge, my heart pounding, but I couldn’t tell if the guy on the ground was someone I knew.
He wasn’t moving, and someone small who looked like living ice seemed to be clinging to him and barking orders.
Everyone else over there was scrambling to light fires and erect a big tent.
The weirdest sensation on my foot had me looking down to see water wrapping around my ankle. I exclaimed and hopped back, kicking out to free myself. And then the water released me and splashed back into the rest of the lake like someone had thrown it away.
Behind me, someone asked, “Prince Hydris?”
I turned around, and there was Hydris giving me a little wave.