Page 7 of Beneath Swan Lake (Deadly Endings #2)

When I wake, it's to dreary light. My eye cracks open, peering at the offending brightness, only to find it’s reaching through a narrow window several feet above my head.

And I’m on a bed.

I shriek and jerk upright, only acknowledging the man sitting on the bed beside me as I move. I’m certain I’ll bonk heads with him, but nothing happens. When I snap my gaze up, he’s gone.

“Sleep well, Birdie?” Raymundo says in the next moment, flashing into existence. I shriek and pull myself away from him, realizing my skirt is hiked high up on my leg and the tortured skin is visible.

I shove the dress back into place and he looks at me with a bored expression. “Don’t touch me while I’m sleeping, Reaper.”

He scoffs. “Relax, Princess. I wouldn’t waste my time touching you when I can’t see your response. Where’s the fun in that?”

Narrowing my eyes at him, I fiddle with my hair until I’m sure it’s covering my missing eye. Yesterday feels like a fever dream, and I close my eye to press my palm against it.

Everything was going fine until Raymundo shot me out of the sky. If I was on time, Dima wouldn’t have become curious, he wouldn’t have shown up in the woods, and none of this would be happening.

“Your parents are eager to talk to you,” he goes on, and I move my hand away from my face as I glare. “They are truly concerned about where you are.”

“Leave my parents out of this.”

He shrugs. “I tried. They contacted me when you never came home. Seems as though they are reaching out to anyone with a seeing stone to find out what happened to you.”

“You?” I ask, surprised. I know my parents are friendly enough with Raymundo and occasionally Zarev, but that’s the extent of their connections with the Reapers. “Why-”

“You didn’t come home,” he points out for a second time. “And it doesn’t sound like they initially knew you were missing.”

Despite myself, I worry my lip as the guilt sets in. Keeping my parents out of the loop isn’t just for the good of the kingdom, it’s for my own good as well. They cannot learn that I’ve been meddling with the darkness and monsters like Dima. It’s not as though I have much of a choice in the matter. “What did you say to them?”

He quirks a brow, and in the morning light his reddish hair looks a little brighter when he reaches up to drag his fingers through it. His hood is down, which is a welcome sight since he’s usually hiding inside the thing. At least, the very few times I’ve seen him in the kingdom and the memories from yesterday, he always wore the hood. “I told them there was an incident and that you would contact them in the morning once you were rested.”

An incident. That’s going to make them panic. They are always so concerned about me, and if he didn’t give them much to work with, they’ll for sure be freaking out.

Instead of voicing my concerns,I nod, already making a plan of what I need to do before I get back to Swan Lake. My parents will be in an uproar when I return, and there won’t be peace for days. Eyes widening, I reach up and trace my fingers over my neck, then up to my head and through my hair. Raymundo watches the whole time, letting me puzzle it out. “I thought-”

“If you’re looking for marks,” he says, “Rapunzel took care of those for you. There’s nothing to show that Dima took a swing at you.”

I wince, ducking my head at his pointed look. I wait for more questions, but Raymundo doesn’t pry. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse, like he’s letting me choose whether to divulge the truth to him or not.

Because I’m a coward and I have trust issues, I choose not to. Licking my lips, I switch the subject. “Do you still have the stone?”

“Yes.” He tosses something on the bed, and I glance down. The seeing stone is small and smooth, and is just a bit bigger than the palm of my hand. The stone my parents protect is a little bigger, and up until I heard Dima talking with Ysanna, I thought it was the only one in Swan Lake. I guess there’s still plenty of things I don’t know about the wizard.

Pursing my lips, I try to decide what I should say to him. When my gaze lifts again, he’s gone. Or at the very least he decided to fade into the shadows where I can’t see him. Huffing, I get up to stretch my legs. This conversation with my parents is going to be an unpleasant one.

~~~

The morning flies by. After I finish the conversation with my parents, I check myself in the mirror propped against the wall. There’s nothing to hint at my adventures yesterday, although I push my dress up and study the scarring on my legs and torso. I suppose Rapunzel’s strange magic can’t heal everything.

I dig around Raymundo’s room, which I come to learn is split between him and a brother. One of many. When I descend the stairs I find a room stuffed with patrons, and there are a gaggle of children with hair the same color as Raymundo’s running around the space.

Upon first glance I don’t spot Raymundo, Rapunzel, or Zarev, and everyone else in here is a stranger. I slide into a seat at the end of the bar and try to blend in, drumming my fingers on the bartop. Now would be the perfect time to leave if I don’t want Raymundo escorting me home like I need a guide.

A young boy comes to stand beside me, and if I had to guess he’ s one of Raymundo’s siblings. “Are you Ray’s guest?”

I blush, guessing that’s better than being called Odette or Princess in a crowded room. I give him a tight smile. “Yes.”

“I’m Trey,” he says with a grin. “Ray’s my brother.”

“Oh.” I don’t have much experience with younger children since there’s no one in my parents' court with kids, and I don’t get to go down to the village or out to Swanling often enough to connect with anyone. I awkwardly smile back. “Nice to meet you.”

“Are you staying for a while?” another boy asks, a shorter and louder version of the first. “Are you Ray’s guest like Zarev’s new guest?”

“Saul-” Trey begins.

“She’s not going to be like Zarev’s guest,” another boy says, and I do a double take. He’s a mirror image of Saul. “She only has one eye.”

I wince, nervously reaching up to brush my hair further over my eye as the tallest of the three boys wacks the last to talk in the head. My cheeks burn, and a few people sitting at the bar peer over curiously. Great.

“Sammie,” Trey hisses, “manners.”

“Well, she doesn’t-”

“Ignore my brother,” a third boy says, and this one’s another copy of Saul and Sammie. “He’s an idiot.”

“Be quiet, Steven!” Sammie hisses.

“Okay you three,” a girl says, appearing behind the four of them. She’s got the trademark hair and green eyes like Ray’s, so I guess this is another sibling. “Back to work. Don’t harass the guests.”

The four of them shoot me differing looks before taking off, and I stare as they go. The girl sits down in the only other vacant seat at the bar, blocking the curious look of the man sitting nearby. “Sorry, they can be a handful with guests. I’m Genny.”

She holds out a hand, and I hesitate before shaking. It’s strangely formal. “I’m-”

“I know who you are,” she cuts in with a wink. “Ma and Ray made sure we all knew what’s happening. Ignore my baby siblings, they can be a bunch of dorks. They just want to ask you questions.”

Nodding, I study Genny. She’s older than the boys but younger than Raymundo, with a petite nose and a splatter of freckles. Her green eyes are a bit more muted than the Reaper’s, but she seems kind enough.

“Ray got distracted talking with Zarev,” she goes on, leaning back. “Those boys, they are always making plans. I think they’re trying to reach out to some friends.”

I just keep nodding, filing away the useless tidbits of information. None of it matters to me. Once I leave here I’ll fly straight home to Swan Lake, Reaper or not. The specifics of the tavern will be nothing but a memory by tomorrow afternoon.

A small gasp slips out when I recall Dima’s words. He mentioned a dinner tonight. With my parents.

What is that liar up to now ?

Genny’s grin falters a little, and she clears her throat. “Well, Ray will be back in a moment. He’s just finishing up some things before he’s off to travel with you.”

“Sure.” I don’t mention how much I don’t want that to happen.

“Gen, catch,” the bartender calls, and I think he’s a sibling too. He’s got all the characteristics of one. He throws a bottle, sealed with amber liquid, across the bar to the girl.

Gasping, I can already foresee the glass shattering and causing a mess. But Genny doesn’t even get up, lifting her hands into the air with the palms open. His throw comes up a little short, and she flexes her palms and suddenly, the air in the room shifts. Instead of slamming into the floor the bottle catches midair, and she rolls her palms and the air brings the bottle close enough for her to grab.

Grinning, she sets it down next to the guy that was staring, before turning to shoot me a wink. “I have a tiny bit of air magic. Good thing, too. Tom doesn’t have the best aim.”

Well, I didn’t see that coming.

I give her a smile as Tom comes over and the two chat about work for the day. The words turn into background noise as I observe the tavern, noticing a map hung to one side of the bar. Pursing my lips, I study the map and realize the tavern is conveniently marked right in the middle of Sherwood. I didn’t realize the distance between The Missing Shoe and the ruins of Tressa offhand, but if Raymundo brought us back here after running into Dima he covered a good bit of ground for me. It would take at least twice as long to fly as a swan as it does for a Reaper to travel.

If I get started soon I can probably fly towards Swan Lake and be there before nightfall with no breaks. Can Raymundo’s magic shadow hop us there faster? Probably, but the shadows leave me vulnerable to the Reaper. There’s no talking, and he’s the only one who can see me. I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.

“Ready?” Raymundo asks, popping into existence right in front of me as if he could read my thoughts. I jump, narrowing my eyes as he throws me a smirk. He enjoys scaring me far too much. It isn’t my fault I can’t see through the shadows and spot a Reaper.

“Don’t scare the poor girl,” Genny says from my other side. “Give her a break. She had a hard night.”

“Let’s get this over with,” I grumble, standing to brush off my skirt as I ignore all three of them. It’s strange being defended by someone I know next to nothing about, and I don’t know if I want to be friendly with Genny or not. “Come on, let’s just go.”

Raymundo says a few quiet goodbyes to his siblings as I hurry off, and the girl I was raised to be is screaming inside for my blunt rudeness. It can’t be helped, not when I need to leave as little impression as possible. Once I get home my parents are going to want to keep me under lock and key for an unknown amount of time to ensure I’m absolutely okay. They have before.

We’re almost to the door when someone steps in our path. I don’t recognize her as she wraps an arm around Raymundo’s bicep before reaching up to pat his cheek, giving him a half hug. “If you think you’re running off again without a proper goodbye, my boy, you’re mistaken.”

I’m surprised that a Reaper lets someone motherly so close until Raymundo turns his gaze to me with a grin. “Birdie, this is my mother, Dahlia.”

Guess Birdie is better than blurting out my name.

Ignoring his poor endearment, I give the woman a broad smile. Raymundo is the eldest of many if I remember the gossip between travelers and tradesmen who stopped by Swan Lake correctly, so I expected the mother of seventeen (if that rumor is true and I’m starting to think it is) to be older. She has to be close to my parents' age, which is frightening considering they only had one child.

“Pleasure,” Dahlia says, speaking before I can. It’s easy for me to see where all the children got their trademark red hair, but hers is streaked with gray although her bright green eyes are still full of life. “Now, the two of you are coming in the back with me for a moment.”

My instinct is to fight it. “Thank you, but I don’t think-”

Dahlia clucks her tongue, effectively cutting through what I’m going to say. “My son runs off to help Mystica every single week, and he never brings anyone but family along. You can spare me a few minutes.”

I duck my head at her words. It’s truly like being reprimanded by a parent, and I stay silent when Ray shoots me a grin and follows her towards the back. The whole tavern is pretty crowded as far as space goes, and my pessimistic side can’t help wondering what would happen if a fire started here. The storage is stacked floor to ceiling, and I pray for their sake no one ever comes here looking for vengeance on Raymundo. The Missing Shoe Tavern is supposed to be like a home away from home for travelers, but one soul with a bad temper could set the whole place on fire.

I follow Raymundo into the back office, where a desk is lodged between piles of paperwork, worn books, and even a second map of Mystica. That’s what draws my attention, and I step away from them to eye it.

I’m quite familiar with Mystica. Before the Mad Queen began her tirade, when she could still sometimes be reasoned with, my parents would travel around the lands. Since my encounter with Dima and the following curse those travels all but stopped. My adventure out as a bird was my first trip beyond the boundaries of the kingdom in years.

This map has some personal touches. Someone took the time to sketch in an actual large shoe where the tavern is located, and the place is so popular it is marked on several maps these days. This place truly is a wonder.

But the scribe from this map went further, and it isn’t just the tavern that’s exaggerated. There’s details on Tressa, all of which seem useless now, especially the fountain with a question mark beside it. Over by Swan Lake, someone drew in a second question mark.

Oh tell me they don’t believe the rumors that there’s a secret beneath the lake. I’ve had the misfortune of going beneath the lake once, though the memories are pretty scattered and hard to pick apart. It’s a time I’d rather forget about.

“My daughter Elsie likes to add in places,” Dahlia says, snapping me from my thoughts. I turn to find the two of them staring, but Dahlia has a friendly shine in her eyes. Elsie is one of the siblings I haven’t met. “She takes the tales she can verify and adds them to the map. She never really cared much until Rapunzel walked through the doors, and she could learn all about Tressa.”

“Mum,” Raymundo warns, but I’m curious now.

“She wants to be a cartographer?” I ask, honestly curious. Raymundo shoots me a murderous look, so maybe it’s the wrong question to ask.

Dahlia seems far less concerned. “If any of the travelers would take Elsie on a journey she would go in a heartbeat. She has a wanderer’s heart, just like her pa did.”

Raymundo tenses, and I notice that his hands clench at the mention. There’s plenty of rumors of Dahlia and her red-headed brood if you care to listen to the ramblings of travelers and tradesmen, but I can’t remember the last time I heard anything of the father. He’s been gone a long time, and so far as I know the tavern didn’t exist as it is now until after his passing.

“Look where all that wanderlust got him,” Raymundo grumbles, and Dahlia smacks him in the arm. It’s endearing, but I can’t help wondering what on earth we are doing back here.

Dahlia nods, before she meets my gaze again. It’s almost unreal how green her eyes are and how that trait passed down to her children. “Now, I have something for the princess to take back home.”

I frown, glancing up at him. Raymundo only shrugs, and it’s on the tip of my tongue to ask when Dahlia learned I’m the princess. Just because we’re traveling there doesn’t automatically make me Odette, but from the looks of things he’s open with his mum, so there’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t know who I am. Besides, Rapunzel and Zarev know me now. They could have said something too.

I’m unprepared when Dahlia reaches into a drawer, one that was already hanging open, and digs around for a moment before dragging out a small handkerchief. When I take it there’s weight, and unfolding the cloth I find a timepiece.

Interesting. Clocks are very expensive, and this one is a pocket watch, carried on a bronze chain. I pop open the contraption, staring at the face of the timepiece.

It’s cracked, and there might be a design on it but it’s too old and broken to really make out. I can hardly read the numbers. But before I can ask what this is for, Dahlia beats me to it.

“You take that back to the Timekeeper,” she says, the mystery in her words making her lips quirk up in a smile as she speaks. “You’ll know once you find him. When he can fix the hands, time will restart again.”

I look at Raymundo again, because that sounds like gibberish to me. His eyes are narrowed, and he looks positively perplexed when he speaks. “Mum, what are you-”

Dahlia spins on him, and he clamps his mouth shut. “When time starts up again, the nightmares will resume.”

Now she’s speaking in riddles, and after everything that’s happened to me I have a particular hatred for them. “What is that supposed to mean?”

She shrugs at us, not answering my question. “I’m not too sure. Travelers leave things all the time. The man who carried the watch wore the colors of Swan Lake, but he had a friend from Tressa before the wall went up.” She looks between us. “He was a palace guard, Theo. I believe he was friends with someone who works for the King, Odette. They were friends. Theo and… I think the other was Reginald. The man who left to work in Swan Lake.”

Raymundo narrows his eyes, but he doesn’t comment. It gives me a moment to reel at the name, because I do indeed know a Reginald who works for my father’s court.

He works very close with my parents, in fact. But what is he doing with such a unique, puzzling timepiece of all things?

“People leave parts of themselves when they travel,” Dahlia continues, patting her son's arm again. It’s impossible to miss the love in her eyes, which morphs into sadness when he turns away. From his body language I can tell the Reaper is ready to leave, and it looks like Dahlia is used to it even if it makes her sad too. She clears her throat and carries on before her son even notices the wavering emotions in her eyes. “You would be amazed at what you can find at a place like this.”

I think that message is for me, but she doesn’t give me anything else to work on and simply waves her fingers before shoving the pocket watch into my hands. “Safe travels, you two!”

Raymundo is in a hurry after that, practically dragging me out of the tavern. Unfortunately his attentiveness to me means I’m not going to slip away, and turning into a swan with an audience isn’t something I want to do, so small talk it is. “She seems nice.”

“My mom is the sweetest,” he agrees, glancing around. We don’t pause, even when I spot Rapunzel, Zarev, and a few younger people who look like more siblings standing to the side of the tavern. I’m surprised he doesn’t stop to speak with them, but maybe that’s where he was before finding me.

“You’re in a hurry,” I say instead.

Raymundo nods. “There’s some unrest in Sherwood-”

“Isn’t there always?” I interject.

“Yes. But there’s a lot of dead coming in from Camelot. I think Zarev is taking Rapunzel that way to try and see what’s going on.”

“To Camelot?” I glance back, letting Raymundo’s guiding hand keep me on track. He grunts in response, and I don’t keep asking questions as I catch the other princess' gaze. Rapunzel is watching us curiously as Zarev talks to the three young children. It looks so natural, like they’ve done this before. But there’s something in her eyes that makes me turn right around again.

She’s too interested. She wants to know about my eyes, both the missing one and the gold one. I don’t have the answers she may want, so it’s better this way. If she has questions, I can’t answer them. Not so long as Dima is alive and still holds a part of me.