“I’ve paid to have pies made for anyone who wants one.” He looked a bit sheepish about that, color coming to his cheeks. “A token of appreciation for their hard work.”
“That’s kind of you.”
I looked a little closer at the greenhouses we passed and saw that some of them were constructed of what looked to be windows, frame and all. Like they’d taken what they had available to start new buildings instead of just prolonging their established growing season.
“Did you farm before the curse? Or did you get everything through trade?”
“We farmed in the fields before,” he said with a gesture at the snowy land stretching to the right of us. “We had normal seasons—like every court did—though our winter was the longest of them. We can grow all year long now, but didn’t have the means to jump straight into that from the beginning.”
“I’m guessing there wasn’t any warning either.” That would explain a lot, actually.
“No, none.”
Lord Badru wore his heart on his sleeve. I could see the heartbreak in his eyes as he gazed at the greenhouses and the people bustling inside and out. He was desperate to save his people.
So, okay, even if I was a Hobbit—sacrificial or otherwise—I’d do what I could. I wouldn’t just live in the palace and do nothing. Not that Badru and the rest were doing that! Just that my contributions were unknown or untested, so I had to see what was possible.
It wasn’t long before I realized the strange reflective surface up ahead was the barrier. It looked like a huge pane of glass stretching in every direction for as far as I could see. Clouds might be moving through it, but not sunlight—there was a definite difference between cool gray winter on this side and soft warm spring on the other.
As we got closer, I could see people on the Spring side working in a field of…tall grasses? They were cutting, bundling, and tossing long green reeds onto wagons. They had trees with fresh new leaves and colorful little flowers beneath them. Between those people and us was a calm blue lake that hugged the winter side of the barrier.
Instantly, I didn’t like the look of it.
Everyone started dismounting, and I watched several for a refresher on how I was meant to get off this geriatric mountain of a horse. Thankfully, Hopper stood still and waited while I figured out how to get myfeet out of the foot things and my leg over the proper side of him. Then I pretty much fell off him.
“Easy there,” Badru said as he helped me up off my ass.
“Oh god,” I said when I stood up. “Oh fuck. I think I’ve dislocated my hips.”
Badru laughed. “That’ll fade. Don’t worry.”
I’d been in the saddle for maybe an hour, hour and a half. How did people used to ride for days at a time? I took a few steps and realized I was walking like a bowlegged cowboy. And I’d have to get back on to return to the palace!
Well, assuming nothing I did now worked, of course. Otherwise, I’d be heading over to meet the people on the Spring side who’d stopped their work to stare at us.
I shuffled over and held up a hand to greet them. Several waved back. One man touched his pointy ear and then curled his hand and pointed at me. I did the gesture back since, yes, my ears were rounded and not fae at all. Was that my most telling human feature?
When I pointed at my chest and then mimicked swimming across the lake, nearly all of them came closer and a few of them looked like they were waving me off.
“Not terribly encouraging,” the prince said as he came to stand beside me.
“Maybe they knew the horse.”
He cleared his throat like maybe he was trying not to laugh.
“Well, first things first.” I walked close enough to touch the barrier and put my hand right through it.
“Much more encouraging,” the prince said.
“So now we test this…” I found a fist-sized rock and threw it through the barrier and into the water on Spring’s side. Nothing happened, not a ripple or a bubble.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking.”
“For what?”
“Alligators? Crocodiles?” I threw a handful of pebbles into the water. “Shrieking eels?”
