Chapter 34 Ban #2
I tilt my head as Odette gasps. “Oh, Dima! She wanted to have access to the lake through Dima, because our marriage would give him access to the royal line. He kept murmuring about a queen. I thought he was trying to blame me. But… he had connections to Camelot, who is now working alongside her.”
“Less to the royal line, and more access to you,” Legs replies hauntingly, her eyes narrowing as Odette spits out more details without care.
“Married or not, his blood is not descended from the royal family. He would need a blood royal to open the pool, Princess. Your marriage would not have been a kind one.”
“You know Dima?” Zarev asks, sounding surprised. After spending some time as the idiot Dima’s personal punching bag, I’m kind of surprised to hear that, too.
“Only through association,” Legs says, her brows furrowing.
“We never met. I did have the misfortune of dealing with his mother, Ysanna, at one point. She attempted to come to the garden, but the Mad Queen’s troops caught her and turned her away.
She’s lucky they didn’t kill her or bring her to the Queen herself. ”
“Ysanna is dead now,” Zarev explains. “She became one with the beanstalk when it grew. We cannot sense her soul within it. When I spoke with Ray, we both agreed that she is most likely dead.”
“She was sucked into the beanstalk?" Legs asks, confused. I’m a little lost too.
“Kind of. They—Odette, Rapunzel, and Dahlia—planted and watered three seeds during the fight between us and the troops from Camelot. The beanstalk grew and caught Ysanna in the fray. It was a kind death, unfortunately. Ray would have loved to take a stab at her.”
Mentioning Ray sours my mood. We still haven’t heard from him or Rapunzel, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What is going on down there?
And is Thomas really dead?
“Three people,” Legs mutters, tapping her chin. “Three seeds. There weren’t four?”
“Dahlia showed me where she kept the seeds,” Odette explains. “There were only three. She said we needed to split them between us.”
Legs’s dark eyes look around the group again. “Then there’s one unaccounted for.”
“It’s just one magical seed, right?” Neve asks, but even she sounds skeptical. “Is it that big of a deal?”
“That big of a deal,” Legs repeats, glaring at her. “Three seeds allowed passage into the clouds to find the Pool of Truth. The fourth would allow anyone trapped up there to come down here. It’s better to know where powerful artifacts like that are than to leave them to fate.”
My eyes meet Zarev’s, and I know we’re thinking the same thing. Would a giant be able to climb down the beanstalk then?
Dread settles over me. And would the giant remember me?
“That seems like something that should only be a problem if the four are joined, right?” Neve asks, poking holes in my concerns.
“If it’s just lost, why would one seed be stronger than three?
In fact, why are these magical seeds so wondrous yet left in the care of someone in the middle of the woods?
That’s where Ray’s family lives, right? In Sherwood? ”
“Yes, but–” I begin.
“Dahlia, she’s his mom? If she felt the need to use them, it should be within reason that she knew the consequences too. You said that Ray’s family is independent, right? They don’t rely on the kingdoms for support.”
Her eyes meet mine, and slowly I nod. I did say that, but it was in passing. Just another throwaway line in a conversation.
“Perhaps she didn’t use them for the intentions you had in mind,” Neve goes on, placing her hands on her hips, “but didn’t they get used for a good reason? They protected their home, which is more than I can say for myself. And she used whatever means necessary to accomplish it.”
Legs looks away with a firm set of her jaw, and I can’t help but grin at Neve. She’s not going to put up with anyone’s bullshit, even Legs.
It doesn’t erase the fact that Dahlia did plant the seeds, though, and apparently, they were important to Jacob. I’ve never even heard of William before.
“The beans are one matter, but the pool is another,” Legs says, keeping her voice low even as she speaks through her teeth.
“All the legends I’ve ever heard about the Pool of Truth claim that once the pool is used to see what you seek, it can never be used again by that individual.
You can search for anything and the pool will supposedly let you see it, but only once. ”
“You mean I used my one time to find Ban?” Zarev groans. “I promise that’s not who I would have picked.”
“Be that as it may, if you summoned the image and Odette could follow you, your use of the pool is over.” Legs eyes Odette again, looking her up and down. “Possibly yours as well. You looked into the pool, I assume?”
Odette’s brows draw together. “Well, yes–”
“It’s hard to say for sure then, but the pool may not work for you again either if you ever go back.”
The two of them exchange a glance, and if they really did find me because of the pool, it’s a pretty shit way to find out that they have exhausted their options to use the Pool of Truth.
“You lot can stay until nightfall,” Legs continues in a biting tone, “but no later. Rest, we’ll give you some food and supplies, but then you’d best be on your way. We can’t risk the Queen’s ire.”
With that dismissal, Legs waves her hand and calls the viny horse Phillippe forth with her magic. The beast rises up, bows his head, and Legs climb on his back.
“You can walk through the garden if you must, but mind the borders. Where the flowers give way to dense forest again is where the garden ends. The other butterflies and beasts know not to step back here uninvited, but I can’t be sure if anyone’s lingering nearby. I need to check on my flowers. Margo?”
With that, she leaves the room, Margo falling into step behind her. I shoot Zarev a look; he’s glaring, his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t wait until they are all the way out of the room before hissing, “What the fuck was that?”
~~~
I try to rest, as Legs advised, but sleep is out of the question.
After the strange things the Sandman showed me, I can’t imagine falling asleep again.
Instead, Neve sits beside me, literally tearing the sleeves off her dress because she’s too hot, and tucks the extra fabric away into a bag.
It’s a little like Odette’s. Margo dropped off the travel bags for us without a word and left, likely hoping we will take our things and quietly be on our way.
She grumbled as she disappeared, and I’m pretty sure Legs guilted her into it so we wouldn’t leave without supplies.
The atmosphere is hostile, and I don’t know where things went wrong. Legs has always been a little evasive, that’s her nature. But Margo was silent for once, biting back her opinions of me with the extra company present. Now, it feels like they are counting down the minutes until we leave.
After failing to reach Ray, Rapunzel, or Dahlia again, I sit against the side of the house and fill the silence with Neve, telling her tidbits about whatever she asks me.
How did I meet the other Reapers, and who are they? I keep the explanation bland, and she fidgets uncomfortably when I mention being tortured by Davina before she killed us. My summary of the Shadow Man doesn’t seem to help, and she gives me curious looks once the tale is over.
“If you have so much going on,” Neve asks in a low voice, hugging her knees, “why bother coming back for me? None of the tragedies in the Frostlands occurred until I awoke. Perhaps I was supposed to stay in that frozen sleep.”
“You weren’t meant to stay in the frozen sleep,” I say with a scoff. “I spoke with Legs about your curse. She agreed it was unnatural. She helped me figure out how to look for the spinning needle, and Barty, the ghost, helped me find it. I just had to put up with Dima in the process.”
She’s still troubled by that. I’ve repeated this story a few times now, and each time I explain my process of waking her up, she looks more and more troubled.
I get that her parents weren’t big on going out of their way for her when they were alive, but I’ll move all the shadows in her path if it clears her way to greatness.
Until she can see herself how I do, Neve won’t believe she’s worth the trouble.
“He went out of his way for a long time to ensure you woke, my dear.”
Neve spins around, and I raise a brow as Phillippe brings Legs into view. It’s been a few hours now, and the sun is creeping across the sky. I might not need sleep, but Neve probably should or else we’ll only get out of the gardens and probably across the Barrens before we need to set up camp.
And then how many days to the new tavern? Two, three?
“You don’t seem that pleased that I am awake,” Neve points out, none of her bite disappearing in Legs’s presence. My old friend gives her a tight smile before directing her attention to me.
“Did you tell her what I gave you?”
Stiffening, I slowly shake my head. “Nothing came up.”
“You did use the package you came to me for, didn’t you?” Legs asks, her brows drawing together. “The salve, the medicine?”
Neve stiffens beside me as I sigh. “I used a bit of snow to douse her before she woke. I’m pretty sure I accidentally dropped the vial off the side of the mountain when she shot me through the side of the cabin. But the salve was nice.”
“I didn’t know there was a salve,” Neve grumbles.
“You took me out before I had a chance to explain,” I reply, peering between the two of them. “And then you passed out after not moving for a century.”
Neve scoffs, but she doesn’t argue. That first half hour after she awoke was turbulent, and until now, I hadn’t even remembered the vial that Legs gave me. I mostly wanted things to help Neve adjust since she hadn’t moved for a hundred years. That was the whole point of detouring to Wonderland.