The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (24 page)

The king obediently opened his mouth and took a bite, chewing and swallowing as if eating with his eyes closed was perfectly natural.

Not caring how strange this looked, he fed him a sandwich, the leftover pie from last night, and three glasses of water.

“Whoa, there.” Sevana stood in the doorway, watching this scene. “Slow down. The man’s stomach might revolt later as it is.”

“He needs to eat,” Bellomi insisted.

“Certainly. I’m not saying otherwise. But his body’s not really used to eating much anymore. You’re going to have to feed him small meals several times a day for a week or so until he gets used to eating again. Otherwise his belly might explode.”

Oh. True. He hadn’t thought of that. Reluctantly, he put the glass in his hands back on the table.

“If you’re done turning him into a stuffed goose, bring him along to the workshop,” Sevana directed, pushing off from the doorjamb. “I want to examine him.”

“Alright, King Aren Hilmar braun Dragonmanovich, be a good little king and stand still,” Sevana ordered, pointing to a patch of floor in her workroom.

She hadn’t lifted her sleepwalking spell yet, so the king obediently shuffled to the spot she pointed him to and stood stock still.

Bellomi hovered inside the doorway, not wanting to be in Sevana’s way or interfere, but too worried to stay outside until she had a result for him.

Sevana more or less ignored him, taking out her diagnostic wand and a new leather-bound notebook. She started scanning his father from crown to toe on every side, as she had with him when he’d first come here. Then she stepped back and read what her wand had recorded in the book.

“Ohh, this is clever,” Sevana said with a low whistle of admiration.

Bellomi gave her a cutting glare. “You mean evil, cruel and underhanded, right?”

She flapped a hand at him in acknowledgement without looking up from her book. “Yes, yes, that too. But it’s also
highly
clever.”

He reminded himself, again, that he couldn’t strangle her. Sevana had knowledge and abilities he needed. (Aside from the fact that if he tried, he’d likely find himself getting up from the floor with a ringing head.) “So what kind of curse is it?”

She straightened and pointed an illustrative finger at the book. “The Magnifying Glass Curse. Although it’s been modified to only have pure elements. The base is fairy’s kiss. But it’s mixed in with captured moonlight and ice crystals from Belen’s seas.”

He waited for a moment, but when she didn’t continue, he requested with false mildness, “Can you say that again in a language I speak? Belenese, Kindish or Windamese will do.”

Sevana gave him an exasperated look. “
In other words
, this spell has a similar design to yours. It’s made of completely pure elements so that it would slip past all of the king’s magical protection.”

Interesting, but didn’t answer his initial question. “So what was it designed to do?”

“It narrows his focus so that he can only pay attention to one thing.”

Bellomi went very, very still as years of emotions and questions surged through his mind. “So the reason why he stayed holed up in his lab for the past decade…”

Sevana shrugged. “His work was the one thing. He literally couldn’t think of or focus on anything else.”

His knees lost all strength and he sat abruptly on the ground, legs brought up close to his chest. His heart trembled.

Not purposefully ignored
.

His father had not chosen to ignore his own son, his kingdom.

Sevana crouched in front of him, arms casually crossed on her knees, head canted a little. “Bel?”

“A—” he had to clear his throat and try again before he could force words out, “All this time I thought he hated me. I thought he didn’t care that I was cursed or that the kingdom was slowly being stolen from us. And now I discover that if anything,
I
was at fault for not realizing that there was a reason for his abrupt change in behavior.”

She snorted. “You were eleven. I don’t blame a kid for being oblivious. I blame Pierpoint for not catching this.” She shook her head in disbelief. “
Really
. Just because his alarms didn’t go off, he thinks everything is fine. I’m going to have a long talk with that man.”

Pierpoint could be dealt with later. Bellomi had a more urgent question. “Can you break my father’s curse?”

“Certainly. What reward are you offering?” she countered.

Of course she wouldn’t do it for free. He felt like kicking himself for thinking she would. His thoughts spun madly. Sevana wasn’t motivated by altruistic ideals or the usual rewards of money, power or fame. What would
she
want…?

 In a flash, it came to him. “Name any magical element you want and I’ll get it for you.”

She gave him a nod of approval. “Your bargaining skills have improved. Alright. I want a flash of fairy’s kiss.”

He blinked several times in surprise. Hadn’t that been one of the elements of his father’s curse? Well, she
had
said that all of the elements were pure. “Alright. Um, how do I get this?”

“Fairies abound in Noppers Wood, if you go deep enough in. But do not go alone,” she warned. “Take Baby with you and no one else. They’ll only approach young men.”

Ahhh. Hence why she couldn’t collect it herself. The price now made more sense. “Do I need a special tool to collect it?”

“No, just let them kiss you. I can lift the kiss from your skin.”

It seemed simple enough. Perhaps too simple. “Will they really just come up to me if I walk into the woods alone?”

“Oh, I never said that.” A suspicious glint in her eyes, she stood back up. “I’ll set up a workroom for your father and settle him into it. And for mercy’s sake, stay away from the Fae.”

He pushed himself to his feet, absently brushing the dust off the back of his pants. He still felt rattled, still unbalanced after having everything that he thought he knew turned on his head. But aside from that, happiness and hope and a keen expectation filled his chest. If Sevana could break this curse, he could have his father back. If…no, when, she did that, he wouldn’t be alone in regaining his home.

He wouldn’t be alone, period.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to settle the emotions whirling rapidly within him. It didn’t noticeably help to calm him any, but he felt he could fake it better. As calmly as he could, he said, “And I have fairies to research.”

~ ~ ~

After two days of digging in Sevana’s library, he finally found a book on woodland fairies that answered his question. Actually, the  book had a lot of information that he needed to know, including how to politely approach a fairy—which defied all common sense in some ways—and where they tended to make their nests. Which, really, was probably the reason why Sevana sent him searching for the answer in the first place. She never chose to rattle off information for people. She knew that finding the answer yourself often gave you answers to questions you didn’t know to ask.

Of course, his search had been slowed slightly because he stopped three times a day to feed his father and check up on him. After six solid meals, the king had improved slightly. Instead of moving in that jerky, lethargic way as if a puppet master manipulated his limbs, he now moved with more energy, a half smile on his face. His complexion had also improved slightly, changing from a sickly grey to a more healthy alabaster.

But two days of taking care of his father made him realize something.

After feeding the king a late lunch, he went to Sevana’s workroom and timidly rapped on the door. Big, sensing his desire to enter, just opened the door, which swung open with a slight creak.

Fortunately for all, Sevana didn’t have her hands wrapped up in some delicate experiment. In fact, she had pulled apart one of her bookshelves looking for something, or so he gathered from her irate mutters.

“Um…Sevana?”

She paused with a book in both hands and shot him a look over her shoulder. “This had better be important.”

“It is,” he assured her hastily. “I realized this morning that we’re going to have to do quite a bit of traveling at certain points to get everything done. But my father requires pretty constant care. Is there any way that we can get Kip to come in and help when we’re gone?”

“Oh, that?” she answered in an absent fashion. “Kip realized the same thing two days ago. He’s gone into the village to hire someone to help out. I don’t want you taking care of the king on a regular basis anyway. For one thing, it’s a miracle the man hasn’t died yet from your atrocious cooking.”

He let out a wordless noise of protest, but had to laugh in rueful acknowledgement. Not that he wasn’t improving, with all of the practice, but he
did
tend to burn things more often than not.

“But for another, you’re losing valuable study and training time constantly cooking and cleaning up the kitchen,” she added. She shoved all of the books aside and started rummaging through another stack. “
Where
did I put that thing?”

Alright, she made a good point. Two, in fact. He leaned against the doorjamb, thoughtfully rubbing at his chin. “I didn’t know you’d let people in here.”

“There’s a select few.” She lifted off another stack, shuffling the books from side to side with more haste than care.

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. “What are you looking for, anyway?”

“I have a mirror that shows me the location of things. I use it to find lost items.” She blew out a breath, which made the wispy hair falling in her face fly briefly. “Or I
would,
if I could keep track of the thrice-cursed mirror! The thing grows legs and walks off, I swear it does.”

More like Sevana carted it around so much that she constantly misplaced it. “Maybe you should mount it to a wall?”

“I don’t put anything on the walls, or hadn’t you noticed? It would make Big feel uncomfortable.”

Actually…now that she’d said that…he couldn’t think of a single thing that was attached to the walls. Even the cabinets were held up by metal braces.

The front door opened at that moment. He couldn’t quite see it from here, but Bel could hear Morgan’s voice call out a cheery hello to Big as he walked inside. The prince turned to greet him, making way for Morgan to enter the workroom at the same time. “Morgan,” he acknowledged.

“Bel,” the other man responded with a smile. “How fares the king?”

“Slowly improving,” Bellomi assured him. “Fortunately, Sevana’s mirage trick worked. He’s happily tinkering with some doohickey even as we speak.”

“Good, good.” Morgan walked into the workroom but like Bel, stopped just inside the doorway. But then, only an insane man chose to fully walk into this room when it had a grumpy Artifactor. After years of being around Sevana, Morgan had clearly picked up several survival instincts which included instantly picking up on her moods. Silently, he pointed at her back and gave Bellomi a questioning look.

Looking for mirror
, Bellomi mouthed the answer carefully.

Morgan gave a silent ahhh of understanding. Clearing his throat, he said aloud, “Sev, I hired Eva to help out. She said she’d come up this afternoon so you can show her the ropes.”

Sevana paused in mid-motion and turned in creaking degrees so that she could give Morgan a dark look. “You hired
Eva?
”

Unfazed by her reaction, he shrugged and said, “She’s the only one with time right now to help. It’s planting season, remember? Besides, Eva’s a reliable worker, especially with work like this.”

Not convinced by this rationale, Sevana let out a groan and slumped.

Bellomi didn’t know what to think of these polar opposite opinions of this woman named Eva. Sevana didn’t like most people on just general principle, but it seemed to be more than that. To Morgan he asked, “What is this woman like?”

“An older matron,” he said reassuringly. “Even-tempered, capable and very sweet natured.”

“Kip, she’s only sweet-natured because she doesn’t have the intelligence to be mean!” Sevana shot in exasperation.

Morgan couldn’t quite choke back a guffaw. “Ouch. She’s not
that
bad, Sev.”

“She is too! The last time you brought her up here I had to explain
three times
that I didn’t want her organizing my storerooms. And even then she didn’t get it.”

“She was
trying
to be helpful,” Morgan insisted with a strange twinkle in his eye. “Besides, you need somebody to organize you.”

“I do not! I know where everything is.” Sevana crossed her arms over her chest in a stubborn way.

“Right, which is why you have a mirror that locates lost objects for you.” Somehow, Morgan managed to keep a straight face saying this.

Sevana gave him a look that could kill. “You’re just looking to be hexed, aren’t you?”

Proving to be a smart man, Morgan raised his hands in surrender, not pursuing that argument any further. Turning to Bellomi, he assured him, “She’s raised five children and come up here on various occasions to help here, too. She’ll take good care of your father.”

“But you didn’t tell her who he is, did you?” Bel didn’t think he would, but had to check.