He looks surprised, crossing his arms. No one’s mentioned anything about that yet, and Neve shifts curiously at my side. She hasn’t even seen it. Behind the trees in Wonderland, the stalk is hidden, but once we leave this place and go back to the Barrens and Sherwood, she’ll see it along the way.
“I went up with Odette to explore it,” he replies carefully, his brows pinching together. “Do you know something about it?”
“Let’s hear what you found first,” Legs says easily. It’s hard to rattle her, and even now, with unexpected guests, she’s easily controlling the direction of our chat.
Zarev blows out a breath. “It plateaus at the top, and the clouds there are strange. Thick, sort of like the shadows, and disorienting. We walked for ages without moving, but a few feet until I used my shadows. After that, we could walk around more freely.”
“There’s a giant up there,” Odette pipes in, making my skin crawl at the reminder. “We avoided it until we found this pool, and then I was reading a book Zarev had–”
“Through the Looking Glass,” he grumbles.
“Right. That’s the book. He didn’t even read it ahead of time.” I bite back a laugh at the irritation in Odette’s voice. “I was trying to figure out how it worked, but then Zarev had this, this feeling I guess, and we could see Ban.”
I glance toward Zarev, who’s avoiding looking at me. He had been vague about the details, but I don’t recall him mentioning a feeling. He just summarized the pool. Despite our shared magic, I’ve never been able to feel when one of my fellow Reapers is in great distress. That’s not how our connection has ever worked.
“That’s how you ended up in the Frostlands,” Neve muses, and after hearing this tale a couple of times, it’s only slightly irritating to realize this is the first moment we’re getting the whole story.
Legs’s eyes sparkle as she looks between us. “So the beans delivered in unexpected ways.”
Her words startle me, making me rock back on my heels. It’s eerily close to what she said when the beanstalk first grew, the words falling out of my thoughts until now. There were so many other things to fret about at the time, including waking Neve from her sleep.
“So, someone finally planted the beans to find the Pool of Truth.”
“How did you know about the beans?” Zarev asks suspiciously.
Folding her hands, Legs looks unbothered by his distrust. “A long time ago, when things were rough but not so unsettled, Jacob came to see me here in the garden.”
Silence blankets us, even as Neve fidgets beside me. I’m not sure she recalls who Jacob is, or if I’ve even mentioned him to her before.
“Why was Jacob up here?” Zarev asks, taking a step closer.
Legs waves a hand, completely unbothered. “Oh, Jacob and William came to see me many times before Jacob settled down.” A fond smile crosses her face. “Jacob married Dahlia shortly after the visit, while his brother continued his travels to lands far and away. Jacob told Dahlia about the beans.”
“And you just know about the magical beans?” Odette pipes up.
“I should, as I gave them to him,” she says, lifting one eyebrow. “I gave them to Jacob before his wedding day. He said he wanted one more chance for adventure, but closer to home. I knew the beans would plant a beanstalk meant to stretch into the clouds. That’s what I saw when I grew the beans myself.”
“You. Grew. The. Beans,” I repeat slowly, not able to believe the words myself. It contradicts what she told me weeks ago, here in the gardens. “Why?”
A darkness crosses her eyes, and her settled hands clench into tight fists. “Why do I do anything? For the Queen.”
Pursing my lips, I meet Zarev’s gaze. I don’t really know what happened with the beans after them being planted. All the stories about the clouds and everything else are a second-hand recount of what he experienced.
“Did you have any idea where they would lead?” he asks seriously. “Or did you just know planting them would result in a big-ass beanstalk and hope for the best?”
“I knew a beanstalk would grow,” Legs allows, peering around the little group again. “But the clouds… There are some places even a butterfly can’t go.”
As if on cue, we all peer skyward. Between the thick branches, I can see clouds far above, but they are little wisps with almost no substance this early in the morning. What Zarev describes would take something sturdy or, else they would have fallen back to the earth. But a pool of water and a giant?
“The Queen wanted to find it,” Legs whispers, her voice turning hollow. “The Pool of Truth. The final looking glass. She believed the beanstalk would take her there when infused with enough magic.”
“So itisa looking glass!” Odette squeals, sounding delighted. “I figured it had to be something along those lines. Like the secondary lake in Swan Lake, Swanling. And Zarev said the Fountain of Youth used to be in Tressa before Midas destroyed it.”
I feel Neve rising to the challenge to ask questions of her own, but I squeeze her hand instead. We’re getting off track.
“Not so many details,” Legs says, placing a finger carefully to her lips. “The trees here listen for certain things. Mind yourself, Princess.”
I don’t look her way, but I’m sure Odette is glaring. Legs doesn’t usually reprimand people.
