Strange silver threads are climbing the glass outside, pressed to the panes.
Fascinating.
She leans closer. They look almost like the worms she saw yesterday—
Not worms, Rapunzel realizes. They stretch all the way down to the flower bed below the window and taper at the closest ends to a hair-fine point.
They’re roots. Silver roots.
Rapunzel jerks back with a gasp, drawing Verette’s notice. She turns to Rapunzel, and Rapunzel silently points to the windowsill.
Verette’s eyes widen. She tiptoes around the sleeping children to stand by Rapunzel, and whispers, “Is that what—”
The roots shiver and whip back, shrinking into the soil until no trace of them remains.
“…you saw,” Verette finishes, blinking.
“In the royal gardens,” Rapunzel confirms with barely muffled intrigue. Her botany book described plants that trap insects, and plants that roll up their leaves at a single touch, but those are simple, functional reactions. This seems different. Not a reaction, but ananswer.
Either the same plant species grows both on the palace groundsandsomewhere near the hospital, or…
Something has roots that run from the palace all the way here.
And the last time she saw them…they were stretching away from that iron door in the gardens.
That settles it.
It doesn’t matter if she has to find a new path into the Starlight Spring, or break into the king’s way with Eugene’s help. Rapunzel is going to see the spring for herself.
Tonight.
Twelve
Eugene
“You know, if we keep meeting like this, I’m just going to assume you have a thing for me,” Eugene declares as he once again finds himself blindfolded and bound to a chair in what he’s now assuming to be the hideout of the People’s Dagger. Or what’s left of them.
This time, though, there’s a bit of a complication.
It’s not that he’s been abducted again. In fact, he was gunning for that specifically. Third Street Hospital happens to sit near the same plaza as Herbert & Fitz. He let Hughes boot him and his book out because it gave Eugene an opening to go for a convenient walk “to clear his head” and provoke the People’s Dagger into making a move.
The complication is that Cressien was supposed to keep Hughes occupied. And instead, somehow, Cressien isalsobound and blindfolded in this room with Eugene. (He’s presuming Cressien also gets a chair, but he’s not sure. There was only the one last time.)
“Don’t antagonize them,” Cressien hisses.
“Too late for that,” Torch says brusquely. They sound very self-assured for someone who spent the last five minutes berating their lackeys for grabbing Cressien along with Eugene. “Apologies for dragging you into this, Minister. And apologies again for taking you out.”
There’s a noise of startled protest from Cressien, then a guttural mumble and light snore. Eugene makes a mental note to figure out what they’re using for knockout powder, because the only thing he’s found to be as swiftly effective is a skillet with a potential side effect of brain damage.
“You can speak freely, Yappy,” Torch continues. “He’s out like a light. So you’re accepting our offer?”
“I want to know more about my parents,” Eugene says, dodging.
“Then let’s start with your dinner with the king last night. What happened?”
If they know about that, then they have to have someone embedded even deeper in the palace than the stable master. Eugene decides to keep his cards close to his chest for now. “The king had to cancel. Something came up.”
“That’s all? What about the princess? Rapunzel?”
