Chapter 29 Ban #2
“I know,” I grumble, peering around the palace.
Nothing else sticks out, aside from the frozen people and the new guards.
The Mad Queen’s banners hang across the front of the palace, for the eyes of the kingdom and any visitors to see.
It seems like a lot of work to arrive via ship through treacherous waters to attend a ball that didn’t happen.
We haven’t looked at the docks yet, but I assume another ship in port would draw attention, even ours.
Before we leave the palace, we’ll look into it.
Sighing, I stop walking again. “We should see what Lucius has to say. And Ray.”
“You’re suggesting we contact someone?” Zarev asks, nearly breaking his neck with how quickly he looks back at me. “No more avoidance tactics?”
With a sweep of my arms, I glare at him.
“Does it look like that’s an option anymore?
Whatever’s happening here in the Frostlands, it’s going to eventually trickle down to the rest of Mystica.
This is a power move on Davina’s part. She’s moving against the rest of the continent, and she’s bringing Camelot along for the ride. ”
~~~
When we find Neve and Odette a short time later, they are staring down at a map. One look at it tells me it’s all wrong.
For one thing, Thornton doesn’t exist, like Neve said.
But Camelot and Wonderland don’t touch, either.
In fact, the Court of Cards is only a small section near the coast, and Wonderland doesn’t have borders.
The Red Woods aren’t marked, and the Mad Court isn’t indicated at all.
There’s no Barrens; Icicle Pass is drawn but not labeled; and the Frostlands have more forests than they presently do.
Only Swan Lake and Tressa look relatively the same.
“This is it,” Neve says, rubbing her hands together.
“This is the map I’m familiar with. I saw one in my father’s study that looked more up-to-date, someone must have placed it in there in the last century.
I didn’t get much time to study it, though, over the last week with everything else going on. Is it that far off?”
“Quite,” Odette tells her, leafing through more papers. “There doesn’t seem to be anything more recent, but I’m sure we can find one. If not here, then somewhere. That’s not a map I’ve ever seen a copy of anywhere. Oh! Zarev, where’s that book?”
Zarev doesn’t say a word as he tugs it out of the shadows. I recognize it as the one Odette’s dog-earned for the past week. She begins flying through the pages as soon as she gets her hands on it.
“I nearly forgot about this. I took it from the tavern. It was in some of the debris after the fire. There’s damage to it, so it’s not the best map, but I was using it as a bookmark. Here, look!”
She sets aside the worn book, Through the Looking Glass, written on the cover, and unfolds an old paper with the corner on one side burned. Laying it out, it’s a much smaller version of the map of Mystica I’ve come to know.
Neve blinks, leaning in closer. “Well, I don’t recognize a lot of this. This is an updated map?”
“I think it was in Dahlia’s office. That’s Ray’s mum. It’s pretty updated.”
She leans away with a frown, rubbing her chin. “So many things don’t make sense. Why did Wonderland expand? That’s not something I ever heard King Jasper discussing.”
“You spoke with the King?” Zarev asks, intrigued.
“Not often. I had to meet him when my parents decided to speak to Davina about offering her hand in marriage. We chatted for a few minutes, as was required, but I was barely twenty at the time and not expecting to take the crown two years later. I was of little interest to him. I barely even spoke to Hans that evening.”
“Right, Hans,” I say, shooting a look at Zarev. Neve gave us a brief summary of the old Court of Cards hierarchy, from what she could recall, and random tidbits Odette seemed familiar with. They’re piecing together history, and as interesting as it is, I don’t know if it will do much good.
King Jasper, the King of Diamonds, is long since dead. And this brother of his, Hans, he–
Blinking, I lose focus on what Neve and Odette are debating now. “Neve?”
“Hmm?”
“When did Hans die?”
She frowns, pressing her hands to the table. “I’m not sure. You’re the one who told me when Jasper died. But I assume Hans is dead. He was about a decade older than I was a hundred years ago, and unless he pulled some tricks like Davina–”
“He could,” Zarev interrupts, “if he were the King’s brother.”
Neve hesitates, worrying her bottom lip. “Well, depending on how long ago he died, maybe it’s on record. It wouldn’t be in my lifetime pre-sleep, but it could be before or after Jasper’s.”
“Does it make a difference?” I ask honestly.
“If he’s the Sandman, maybe he can only be seen in dreams. Dreams are a space like the in-between, where we collect spirits and send them on.
Theoretically, he could be dead and taking care of that, right?
But if he’s dead, what he does shouldn’t affect the living. ”
“But it did,” Neve debates, crossing her arms. “After our trip to the mountains, before my mother tried to kill me, I saw him.” She points in Zarev’s direction.
“I think you were talking to them. I couldn’t make myself go back to the palace yet, so I lingered in the hills.
He came and spoke to me. Outside my dreams.”
I exchange glances with Zarev. “If he can interact with us in the land of the living, he might be a problem after all.”
“Maybe you’ve seen him before and you didn’t even know it,” Neve argues, tapping her chin. “Oh! Come this way. It won’t help us much with timelines or alliances, but I’m pretty sure my parents have paintings down this way—if Mother didn’t have them destroyed.”
“Portraits of rulers of other kingdoms?” Odette asks her skeptically. “Isn’t that odd?”
“We didn’t often receive guests,” she says with a shrug, grabbing Zarev’s container of pixie dust. “Bundle up again, Princess. The halls will be even colder than the central room.”
Neve spins, taking off without a backward glance, and I follow after her. A few moments later, I hear the other two following after us.
“When my parents had guests, they sometimes convinced visiting royals to sit for a portrait. It helped show good relations between the kingdoms to our people en masse, and it was an excuse for them to spend more time with guests in a relaxed setting. My father used to gloat about brokering his best deals during a painting session.”
Neve wasn’t lying when she said the halls would be colder, and Odette’s chattering teeth is the only other noise besides our quiet footsteps as we move through the room.
“Let’s see…” Her voice trails off as we enter a hall of paintings, and I’m struck by how many there are.
“When the visitors left, Father usually had the portraits brought to storage until they returned. It was too common a practice when we could get visitors to keep their portraits displayed all over the palace, as if they were friends. These people were allies, nothing more.”
There’s got to be at least fifty framed pictures back here, and my gaze cuts to Zarev who looks just as curious as I do in the shadows. Odette smashes herself between us, shaking, cursing under her breath about how damn cold it is here.
“Here’s King Oberson and his son, Prince Gordias. They were from Tressa. You can tell from the gold. That looks like King Dillon. You mentioned him, Odette. And over here… Ah! This way.”
She beckons us halfway down the hall, and the three of us follow, Odette planting herself between me and Zarev again. There are two paintings that Neve is pointing at, and I freeze when I catch sight of them.
Behind me, Zarev curses, and even Odette grabs my arm.
“This is King Jasper,” she explains, indicating a man with light brown hair and dark eyes.
He has aristocratic features, a polar opposite to the other man.
“Father had the prince painted separately. It was presented as a polite choice to give both of them time with the King, but it was purely strategic. He wanted to learn more about them before he agreed to an alliance by marriage. This one is Hans.”
Hans. But it doesn’t look like how I pictured Hans. The black hair is the opposite of Jasper, though the eyes match his twin. His skin is less ashen than I remember, but the set of his eyes, the angular jaw, even the almost sandy colors of his clothes…
Odette beats either of us to it, surprise and terror mixing together in her voice. “The Shadow Man.”