The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (6 page)

Sevana listened intently without speaking, mentally tallying up a list as he spoke. So in other words, this poor man-child had no experience with crowds, people, or day-to-day activities. He had extensive knowledge through books but no experience. No wonder she found his common sense lacking. When he finished, she nodded and said softly, “I see.”

The simple recitation of the past decade made a chill go up her spine. His living conditions might have been better than being in a dungeon—it sounded like house arrest to her—but it couldn’t have been better designed to weaken the would-be king. He had absolutely none of the skills that he needed to ascend the throne. A king especially had to be good with crowds of people, with speaking, and have experience in reading others. Sevana would lay good odds that he would be terrible at all of that.

Well, she couldn’t say she was an expert in any of that either. (Mostly due to a complete lack of interest in humanity.) But she knew of a person that was. Kip could charm a snake out of its own skin and the snake would thank him for it. She’d sic Kip on Bel later, but for now, she should address the princeling’s wandering issue.

“Come talk to me in the morning and I’ll give you a charm that should protect you enough to stay near the mountain without trouble. But don’t leave the area. You don’t know of the dangers around you and you don’t have a clue on how to handle a crisis if it does come your way. Besides, if something happens, Big can offer you protection.”

He gave a reluctant nod. “I understand. Then, for now, I’ll retreat to my quarters.” 

A week passed in a blur of activity. Bellomi’s days for the past decade had revolved around books and food and sleep—never anything more than that. So to suddenly be handed sword training and studies of a different nature not only felt invigorating but satisfying. He finally had something
productive
to do instead of just killing time.

The two humans in the cave fell into a sort of routine by the fifth day. Bellomi would get up early in the morning, pick up his swords, and train for two hours or so. (No matter what he had promised himself about five hours, he simply didn’t have the stamina for it. If not for Big showing him the supply cabinet for pain potions, he wouldn’t have been able to lift his arms at all.) Then he would stop for breakfast, which Sevana generally cooked. He didn’t know why it surprised him that she
could
cook, and quite well. It just did. Probably because she didn’t strike him being particularly domestic, with her poor housekeeping skills.

But over breakfast she would give him his studies for the day—covering topics from economics, history, trade, politics or languages—and then wander off to her workroom with an abstracted look on her face.

Somewhere in the middle of the day, she’d fetch him and run him through more diagnostics, muttering to herself as she took notes. Then she’d shoo him off and he’d either go back to studying or sword practice as the mood struck him.

The evenings were his favorite part of the day. Then Sevana would put her work away for a while and sit down with him and test him on what he had learned that day. If she felt like he didn’t get a concept fully, then she would give him an example of how that idea worked in the real world. He got the strangest insights to how her mind worked through those stories. He also learned far more than when he read it. No matter what she said about being a lousy teacher, she had a knack for explaining things that made the most complicated concept easy to grasp. It was just simple patience in explaining things that she lacked.

Twelve days after being freed from his palace cell, Bellomi rose that morning, washed up quickly, snagged his swords, and headed for the training room. As he walked, he heard a loud
thud knockknockknock
coming from the front door. Hmmm. It couldn’t be an intruder, right? If it were, Big would have re-routed the tunnels and led them on a merry chase already. So it must be a friend?

“Big, is Sevana going to answer that? Or should I?”

In answer, the tunnel floor slopped slightly to the right, leading Bellomi toward the door. Apparently, he had to answer it.

Knockknock
.

Impatient person. Or maybe someone that knew that Sevana probably wouldn’t bother to answer unless they were persistent. Bellomi pulled the door open and looked up. A man he had never seen before stood there. Handsome, well-dressed, his clothes were neat but not expensive and had no frills. If this were any other door, Bellomi would assume him to be a gentleman caller but with Sevana’s personality…well…he had a hard time picturing her flirting or having a beau.

“Hello,” he greeted, putting on a child-like smile of innocence. Might as well play the part of “apprentice.”

“Hello, Your Highness,” the man greeted with a bow.

Bellomi froze, heart beating rapidly in terror.
This man knows who I am.
On complete instinct, he drew the twin swords strapped at his back and fell into a guard stance. “Who are you?” he demanded.

The other man stepped back in alarm, hands raised in a pleading manner. “Whoa, whoa, I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m a friend of Sev’s.”

His left hand started to feel a little heavy. Whoops, he hadn’t quite gotten the stance right. He shifted it into the proper guard position before asking Big, “Is that true, Big?”

Friend
, the mountain sighed.

“Morgan Chansamone,” he offered with an extended hand.

Well, Big knew him and he knew Sevana, so… Bellomi slid both swords home before accepting the handshake, although it felt awkward shaking a hand so much larger than his own. Morgan had a strong grip, too.

“Bellomi Christoff Vogel braun Dragonmanovich. Call me Bel. Sevana does.”

For some reason, this made Morgan smile dryly. “Yes, she likes to give people nicknames. It’s a bad habit of hers. I’m glad to see you here, Bel, and in one piece. Sev tends to be a little rough on people. Or maybe I should say she’s careless with them.”

An understatement if he ever heard one. “It’s been interesting staying here,” Bellomi admitted. “But fortunately, Big’s better at communicating than a certain Artifactor. Come in, Master Morgan.”

“Just Morgan is fine,” he assured as he stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. “We are, after all, the same age.”

Really? They still had radically different ranks, though. Well, not that Bellomi could really claim his title at this point. He didn’t even want to, considering that it would just get him locked back up again. “Morgan, then. I believe that Sevana is in her workroom if you want to see her.”

“Ah…no, that’s not why I’m here.” Morgan shot a nervous look in the direction of the workroom. That expression said a great deal—he definitely knew Sevana well enough to know that going anywhere near that room put a man’s life in jeopardy. “I actually came to see you. I just wanted to make sure you arrived and were still safe. It’s…ah…challenging living here. I should know, as I’ve stayed here a time or two.”

And the man had survived to tell the tale? That was heartening.

The door to Sevana’s workroom opened. “Is that Kip I hear?”

Kip? Bellomi assumed she meant Morgan, but how on earth could she get the nickname
Kip
from
Morgan?

“Hello,” Morgan greeted. “I just came to see how you were and if the Prince was still alive.”

“We’re fine,” she assured him laconically.

“Well, I also came to update you on a few things.”

“News, is it?” She waved him toward the inner section of the living space. “Let’s get comfortable and talk.”

Agreeable to this, Morgan led the way inside.

As Bellomi followed him, Sevana fell in step and said, “Kippy.”

Bellomi ran that through his head, trying to make sense of it, but gave up after a few moments. “I’m sorry?”

“Kip is short for Kippy,” she expounded.

Morgan shot her a glare over his shoulder. “You don’t need to explain.”

“The question was all over the kid’s face,” she responded with a very suspicious twinkle in her eyes. “You see, Bel, the man in front of you is infamous for having been hit with the Sleeping Princess curse.”

Didn’t that curse only work on women…? Apparently not, if Morgan had been affected. Bellomi studied him curiously even as Morgan let out a pained groan.

Ignoring her friend, Sevana continued, “He slept for nearly two weeks before I figured out how to break the curse and wake him up. Kippy means napping. Kip for short.”

In other words, she was the type to do favors for people and then constantly remind them of it later. Or maybe she just knew that it bugged Morgan to hear her call him that and so she kept doing it. Probably both.

“How did you get cursed with it, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Very,
very
reluctantly, Morgan answered, “There are some old castle ruins near here where a sleeping princess used to lay. The curse still lingered in some of the stones. I just happened to touch a residual spot and…well….”

“The adults warned us not to play there, of course,” Sevana added off-handly. “But Kip’s never been the kind to listen to warnings like that.”

“I got better after being hit by that curse,” Kip defended himself.

“
Better
still leaves a lot of room for improvement.” Sevana skipped ahead of them both so that she could stretch out in her favorite chair near the fire. No matter what kind of rooms or tunnels Big created, there was always a draft and so no place inside of the mountain really ever got
warm
. Sevana seemed to be colder than most people on just a normal basis and gravitated to heat like a cat would.

Bellomi also felt the cold easily, being from a warmer climate, and so he took the other wingback chair next to the fire. Well, he had to take off his swords first, as he hadn’t yet figured out a way to sit comfortably with two swords the length of your back strapped on. He leaned them against his chair as he got settled.

Morgan stretched out along the long couch nearby, sitting down like a man that had been in that exact spot many times before. He’d likely had, at that.

As he sat, he looked around the room as if searching for something. The only thing in here was chairs and the fireplace, really, so Bellomi couldn’t understand what Morgan needed.

“Where’s Baby?”

Bellomi blinked. Baby?

“Oh, he’s around,” Sevana assured him, curling up tighter in her chair with her legs tucked under her. “He’s just not sure what to make of Bel yet, so he’s lurking in the shadows for now.”

Not sure if he wanted a complete explanation, Bellomi nevertheless asked, “Baby?”

“Mountain lion,” Morgan answered. “He’s been Sev’s friend since he was cub. Big found him, actually. He’s got to be, what, thirteen years old now?”

“He would be if I weren’t feeding him age-reduction potions,” Sevana agreed.

“Anyway, he’s sort of Sev’s pet/guard/friend. If Big can’t handle intruders, Baby has some fun chasing them through the tunnels. He’s actually quite a gentle cat, really, although he has this bad habit of sitting on people’s chests at 2:00 in the morning.”

“No, he only does that to you,” Sev assured him, eyes twinkling. “He thinks it’s funny how you flail about.”

“
You
wake up from a sound sleep not breathing because of a massive weight on your chest and see how
you
react,” Morgan shot back.

“Naw, funnier to watch you.”

Morgan shook his head, letting the matter go. “But that’s another matter. What I came to tell you is this: the palace is in a bit of turmoil over Bel’s disappearance, but they’re not really searching for him. Oh, they sent out some of the palace guards to go looking, but it’s just for show. If you take him around with you and introduce him as an apprentice, I don’t think anyone is going to give the kid a second glance.”

Sev nodded in approval. “Good. We need to travel soon and gather more information. I was reaching the limit of what I could do here.”

Bellomi didn’t say anything to this. It…hurt to think that his father hadn’t noticed his disappearance. Of course, he’d spent the past decade in a locked room without the man noticing but if a child disappeared without a trace, shouldn’t a parent at least
try
to find him? But he knew that in all reality, the king had likely not even noticed that something was amiss.

What he needed to focus on was helping Sevana as much as he could in breaking his curse and learning everything he could so that he could wrest control back from the Council and become a king in his own right. With a deep breath, he forced his emotions into the background.

“So where do we need to go?” he asked her.

“Hmmm,” she put a finger to her chin as she thought. “Probably to Pierpoint first. I want to know what he tried with you and what he ruled out before he was dismissed. No point covering the same ground twice. I also need him to rework the stasis spell he put you under as it’s hampering what I can do. After that, we’ll see. I can’t make plans until he’s told me what he learned.”

It sounded like a good start to him. “Very well. Do you know where he is?”