Page 95 of Down from the Tower

“The dead don’t rise in Tressa,” I grumble, remembering the problem that started this mess. “They shouldn't be called to the land. I don’t understand why they are all racing back.”

She shrugs, and Margo looks just as uncertain. “Who knows. You’ll probably find the reason when you get to Tressa.”

“Then hurry up,” I growl, and Legs eyes lift angrily to mine. “Rapunzel left how long ago? She might need my help already.”

“She could still be searching a kingdom in turmoil to figure out what to do. Relax, Zarev. You will leave in a moment. Having magical gold lodged in your chest could give Midas the upperhand. Don’t give him the chance.”

My jaw clenches. “I need her to still be alive when I reach Tressa, I won’t reap her.”

“She will be,” Legs replies, ripping out more gold to glare at me. “Now, this is only a temporary fix. It should help draw the cursed gold from you and remove the essence of it that’s sticking to your skin. The gold resonates as part of Raunzel’s magic, and it works against her when she tries to heal you. She couldn’t tear the gold from your body and heal you at the same time. She doesn’t know how to do that yet. Midas’ touch should be deadly, but your half-alive soul kept this from being fatal.”

“I’m aware.”

Legs pulls hard on the last chunk, and I know she did that on purpose. She hands off the plate to Margo, who covers it with a glass container and sets it inside a cabinet. As she does this, Legs rubs what looks and feels like mud onto my chest, into the fresh wounds, and all I can picture is infection.

“This will draw out the magic, Zarev, so you’re at your best to help her defeat her parents and stand against whatever Arthur has planned. You need to be cautious. We have no way of knowing if Tressa is really at fault, if Arthur is involved in this, or if it’s something else. It’s just a gut feeling and Rapunzel ran with it. Killing Midas in front of her might leave scars you cannot heal. Tread lightly when you see the King and Queen. There are answers she still desperately wants.”

I purse my lips. “Like the mention that she could have a twin?”

“Yes. Some answers can only come from the people at fault.”

Shaking my head, I look away as Legs finishes her application. What are we supposed to do? No one in Tressa knows anything about Rapunzel, and half the kingdom doesn’t know what she looks like. If she miraculously gets the people’s attention, they still might not care about her words.

Staying in Tressa would’ve been the optimal choice, and now we’re going back with too many holes in the story. Midas has control of the dead, the kingdom could already be under siege, there’s that issue Midas mentioned with the water -

I blink, thinking that over. It was so long ago I’d nearly forgotten. As Legs places a wrap around my torso to hold the weird mud application against my skin, I catch her arm. “Do you think the Golden King could do something to the water in Tressa?”

She cocks her head as she finishes, leaning back with crossed arms. “Anything is possible. Water is life giving. Everyone would need it, so it would be the simplest method of control.”

“I know. But what could he do with gold?”

Legs pauses, before shaking a finger at me and turning to Margo. “Remember that book I gave you about the fountain?”

She stares. “The Fountain of Youth?”

“Yes. Grab it. Now.”

She pivots back to me, grabbing one of my hands. “When Lady Tremaine came through here, she struck me with my own book. Into the Looking Glass. It’s something I swiped from the Queen’s collection when I still lived in the Red Court. She never knew I had it.”

Shaking a finger, she starts looking all around the room. “Tremaine had too much to carry, or at least I assume so, because she left another book in its place. She tossed it in the river that runs through the garden, so I doubt she wanted me to find it. But Margo found it a few days later, and although there’s water damage, we still managed to read it.”

I almost lose it. They want to get into the details of a book, right now?

Margo reappears, and I cannot imagine this damaged book holds anything of value. The pages are badly warped from water and the colored cover bled onto the page edges. This is a mess, and if anyone but Legs had it, it would be riddled with mold. I’m sure she did something to preserve the pages with one of her magical plants, but I don’t bother asking.

Throwing open the book, she starts frantically searching the tabbed pages. “Where is it, where is it…”

My brow twitches, and I stand to look out the grand window towards the front of the house. Rapunzel is back home, and she needs me more than this blasted book does.

“A-ha!”

Legs snags my arm, and I look down where she’s pointing at the page. There’s a blurred picture that’s too hard to distinguish, and it was probably a nice painting at some point. But the text is still legible:

…the most common myth is the Fountain of Youth. Much like the alleged Holy Grail, the Fountain of Youth can give back the years stolen by time. A truly magical phenomenon occurs where the water in the fountain glows with a golden hue. This grants the fountain its unique qualities, including restoring youth.”

I do a double take, reading that passage again.

The legend says the fountain is lodged somewhere in southern Mystica, in the forest of Sherwood deep where no one is willing to travel. Once powerful, the elements interfere with the fountain’s properties, and it is said that the magic within has its limits.

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