Chapter 35 Zarev
Our progress across Mystica is significantly quicker than the previous visit I made to the Butterfly Garden.
Last time, I had gold in my chest, thanks to Midas, and it made me weaker.
Now, uncertainty and fear drive the four of us forward, and the trek feels much more manageable when we all have one goal in mind.
The tavern. We can’t reach Dahlia, Ray, or Rapunzel, no matter how often we try with the stones, and eerily, Lucius is unreachable again too. Once we cross the Barrens we move fast across Sherwood.
The first night in Sherwood Forest isn’t terrible.
The two royals are exhausted from our travels, so when they tap out for the night, we set up camp and hunker down within the trees.
Tomorrow, we will be close enough to the scar left in the forest from the tavern fire, and after that, there isn’t much left to cross before we’re back with the others.
Ban is full of energy while the two women sleep, and if we weren’t already stretching our magic too thin, I think we would have forced ourselves to keep going. Not hearing from my golden girl for this long has me on edge.
“Do you think there was any sense to what Legs said?” Ban asks under his breath. I shoot him a glance, continuing to throw little sticks into the fire to pass the time. “About us, and the magic Rapunzel has.”
“Something’s wrong with Legs,” I reply, frowning into the flames. “She was different from the last time I saw her.”
“Same.”
“And she didn’t answer Neve’s questions,” I go on, tilting my head. “I always assumed that the flowers made their way to Tressa because Midas demanded it of his mistress. I never thought of how she gained the knowledge.”
Ban chucks a small rock at me. “That’s what you took away from the conversation?”
“There were some strange things going on with her,” I continue, glaring into the fire. I don’t know what I hope the flames will tell me, but it’s got to be better than all the things rolling through my head. I don’t like hearing rumors about Rapunzel’s past; she’s struggling with it even now.
But Legs didn’t hint at a single thing about a second baby. She spoke of Rapunzel as a single, not a twin who lost her sister. I don’t know why she would deviate from that detail in front of Neve and Ban, but she seemed adamant about not bringing it up.
And that nonsense about Rapunzel’s magic… surely there was no truth to it. If something went terribly south my princess would have contacted me by now. Instead, it’s constant silence. I’m not sure how to interpret it.
“Did you hear what Neve said earlier?” Ban asks, keeping his voice quiet.
While we traveled between the shadows today, taking breaks so we didn’t strain our magic too badly, the women talked.
I suppose it's good, since Neve seems to be slipping easily into the group. There’s still so much unresolved about her homeland, I’m not sure whether she will be an ally for long or if she’ll return to the north and hope for a miracle.
Until her people unfreeze, I think she’s tagging along with us.
“Which part?” I ask, glancing toward the two. They continue to sleep soundly, Odette tucked beneath some bedding and Neve lying on top of it like she’s too hot. At least Ban isn’t trying to sneak off and fuck her again. I appreciate not having to overhear that for the third time in a week.
“She mentioned a Pendragon,” he replies, and I vaguely recall something about that. “Uther, I believe. Odette recognized the name.”
“Oh, right.” My brows furrow together, thinking. “Isn’t Arthur a Pendragon?”
“I believe so.”
“Well what does Neve have to do with him?” I say, finally looking up. “It didn’t seem like her mother had a lot to do with that half of Camelot. How do the Pendragons tie in with Lancelot?”
Ban shrugs, his expression unreadable. “I have no idea. But Odette said that was Arthur’s father, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, how old is Arthur compared to Lancelot? I thought, based on the timeline, Arthur’s father died more recently than a hundred years ago. So why does Neve know his name?”
“Who told her?” I challenge. “Maybe she overheard it.”
“I think it has something to do with the Shadow Man,” he grumbles, shaking his head. “Perhaps the Frostlands knew something about Camelot before now.”
“Well, the best person to ask would be that queen you killed,” I point out. “If Neve doesn’t know, the answers might be in that library, but the thing is trashed now, thanks to those Flowerborne.”
“And the Icebound, don’t forget about those fuckers.”
I drop what’s left of the twigs I’ve been breaking, sliding my hands over my face. “When did this get so complicated? Wasn’t reaping spirits enough?”
When I look up, Ban’s giving me a strange look. “You actually enjoy that shit?”
“Enjoy feels like a stretch.” I sigh, leaning back on my hands.
The silence surrounds us, the critters in the forest smartly avoiding our campsite.
Ban makes an icicle in his hand, and he seems to be using the little blade he keeps at his hip to whittle it.
I’d nearly forgotten he carries a knife with how little he uses it.
I almost don’t ask him, but the question has been burned in the back of my mind since Tressa. It seems unlikely now, given what I’ve seen since our paths crossed, but I can’t stop myself from asking anyway. “Did you sleep with the Mad Queen?”
He cusses, missing the icicle with the knife and stabbing his hand. A speck of black blood bubbles against his pale skin before he tosses the icicle into the fire and shoves the knife back into its sheath. “Where did you get an idea like that?”
“From Davina,” I reply, and even now, saying her name feels strange. It feels too… ordinary after all the chaos she’s brought upon the world. “In Tressa.”
“Why was she speaking about me in Tressa?”
Pursing my lips, I replay her speech word for word in my head: You don’t think that's the last time I had an update, do you? That ice boy of yours, Ban? He can be bribed with some pretty coins and a bit of frost. Such a pretty, pretty boy.
“She alluded to the idea she paid you for sex.”
He sneers, turning his full attention on me. “And you think so little of me that you believed her?”
“I had to wonder,” I reply evenly, refusing to be bothered. “She said money and frost could bribe you. Can it?”
Scoffing, he looks away with a shake of his head. For many moments, I don’t think he’s going to respond at all. “I slept with Davina a few times before I was turned into an ice mage. She was Lady Hartsell back then. Never since.”
Narrowing my eyes, I try to think of Ban’s interactions with the Mad Queen.
We only crossed her once as a group, and it led to our transformation.
She put the four of us in cages in her dungeons and tortured us one by one: first, myself, then Ray, Ban and finally Lucius.
Ban riled her up, and when she finally got to Lucius she stabbed at his eyes until he lost his sight.
Ban’s scars are deeper than mine or Ray’s, but she really took out most of her anger and hatred on poor Lucius.
There were no signs that they knew each other. Maybe she didn’t remember him at the time, or he was so inconsequential she didn’t want her court to know that they were ever together.
“I can’t imagine sleeping with her,” I say seriously, shooting him a look. His expression is grim, and I don’t see that changing. “What drove you to it?”
“Madness,” he replies dryly, shrugging a shoulder.
“And coin. I was poor, flat broke once my parents died. I made my way for some years, but I was a decent-looking teen and she wasn’t that much older than me.
It went on for some time until she started courting the King of Diamonds, and then I was no longer of use to her.
Later, I tried to cross Icicle Pass and died. ”
I wince, Legs’s words playing through my mind. Are we really more spirit than living? I’ve never thought of it before, because the shadows make us outliers to the traditional dead. We guide them, but are we really spirits, too?
Spirits can splinter and change when left in this world for too long. Modred was an excellent example of that, and I haven’t seen his spirit in quite some time. If we are the same, we should be able to fall into the same heinous reality.
But it’s never happened, and we’ve all gone through losses since turning into Reapers.
“It was before you were born,” Ban goes on, arching a brow. “You weren’t even a thought.”
“Thanks for the reminder that you’re an old man, asshole.”
He smirks, and it’s hard to tell whether he’s masking his thoughts or not. This can’t be easy to talk about, but the disgust in his voice when he mentions Davina makes me think he’s being honest. “If you have more questions, I’m sure I can fill you in on the details.”
I groan, nausea rolling through me. “Please, don’t regale me with stories of sleeping with the Mad Queen.”
Ban begins laughing, and after a moment, I join in. It’s so utterly ridiculous it’s difficult not to not laugh. For the moment, it breaks some of the tension around the campfire, and I feel a little lighter looking toward tomorrow.
~~~
“Seventeen siblings you say?” Neve asks, looking a little pale as we get closer to the tavern.
By now the beanstalk is an obnoxious eyesore, but it’s a good way to know exactly where the tavern is.
I may need to mention to Dahlia that the location might be a little too obvious if they ever need to hide again.
“Seventeen,” Odette echoes, but she doesn’t sound so sure. “He’s either one of seventeen, or he has seventeen siblings, and he’s the eighteenth. I honestly can’t remember. I know their names and everything, but, well, give me a second and I’ll count–”