The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (63 page)

Kip started swearing when the blue ball of light did just that, setting the top of her bookshelf and her worktable on fire with a quick burst of flame. She caught it out of the corner of her eye, heart racing when she realized the fire had started perilously close to her eternal Artifactor’s license. If that thing went up in flames, she’d kill Kip with
her bare hands.

With a circular wave of the wand, she gathered up all traces of the shiranui flame and said sharply, “DENE XOLD!”

The blue balls flickered, then went still as she held them firmly. Maneuvering back to her worktable, she grabbed up the glass vial it had escaped from and slowly brought the wand tip to touch the vial’s open mouth, dragging the shiranui back in with the movement. With an audible hiss and sigh, the shiranui obediently went back into the bottle.

For good measure, once every trace of it was in the bottle, she tapped the stopper and said, “LOKKTE.” It wouldn’t be getting out with a locking spell on top of the protection spells engraved into the bottle’s sides.

But the
damage
it had done in the fifteen seconds it had taken her to cage the shiranui again! The top of all of her bookshelves were burned, she had another black scorch mark along the worktable’s surface, and the metal rode she’d intended to experiment with had been melted into unrecognizable gloop. Fortunately for Kip’s sake, her license had not been burned, although the fire had been scant inches away from it. This was fortunate for him. She wouldn’t need to kill him. Just maim him a little bit. Putting the wand down, she turned to face him slowly, hands flexing at her sides.

Kip gave her his most charming, defenseless smile. “Sevana, you look very busy today. I can see it’s not a good time for this little discussion. I think the job can wait. Perhaps tomorrow would be better? Or the day after?”

Seeing nothing but a haze of red, she took one step forward.

His false calm broke and with a yelp, he turned on his heels and fled, heading straight for the front door.

“Kip, get back here!” she yelled, taking off after him in hot pursuit. “Big, don’t let him open that front door!”

Too late, she could hear the door bang open and his footsteps on the paving stones outside.

“Kip! KIIIIPPPPP!”

For a sneak preview of the second book

in the Artifactor’s Series,

turn the page~

An Excerpt from
The Dreamer’s Curse

Chapter One

Sevana had both of her hands entwined in a particularly hairy trap mechanism for zippels when Big announced,
Two intruders.

Two? Sevana had thieves show up here every now and again, lured by the idea of raiding her storerooms and selling her magical items on the black market for a pretty price. But they usually showed up in large groups or all alone. She rarely had small parties. “Are they inside?”

Main tunnel,
Big responded.

“Well, you know what to do. Is Baby helping this time?” Sometimes when they had intruders, Baby and Big would tag-team. Big would create tunnels that infinitely looped and Baby would happily chase them until they miraculously stumbled across an exit.

No,
Big denied, sounding a little glum.

Well, the cat might be out hunting. Or even napping, considering the early hour. Well, early for Sevana at least. With a shrug, she re-focused on the work in her hands and didn’t spare another thought for the hapless intruders inside of her mountain.

A peaceful three months since Bel and company’s departure had passed. In that time, the government had slowly stabilized with Aren back in control. She’d also gone back to her normal routine now that she didn’t have a dozen people vying for her attention. Her eternal Artifactor’s License had arrived not a month after the victorious return to Lockbright Palace, and she had framed it and displayed it prominently in her workroom. (The better to gloat about, of course.)

The trap nearly sprung itself twice as she set it, which made her think that her design for this really needed to be simplified before she accidentally lost a hand. Frustrated, she tossed it into a corner, where it made a very satisfying
crash
, and lifted her arms above her head in a long stretch. Alright. Maybe she should go look at that task list Kip had written up for her yesterday. Who knew? There might be something urgent written on it.

But as she rose from her chair and headed for her research room, she noticed that the floor had risen a few inches, blocking the door. Big had developed this simple way of alerting her to danger and to keep people from carelessly entering the hallways while he still played with the stupid intruders.

“Big? Are the intruders still here?”

Yes,
Big rumbled, agitated.
Outside main door.

Outside the main door? Her head canted to the side, perplexed. She’d had a variety of overly ambitious and stupid thieves visit here over the years, but she hadn’t yet met one brazen enough to sit outside of her main door in
broad daylight
. Hmmm. Maybe Big had jumped to conclusions too quickly regarding the nature of their guest. Perhaps this was not a thief at all.

“Let me out.”

Big moved the floor back to its normal position so she could open the door. Beyond curious, she headed up to the top level, snagging her sword and a shielding wand on the way. When she exited out onto the clearing at the very top of Big, she closed the door firmly before walking down a side trail that meandered toward the bottom of the mountain. She’d actually worn this trail herself, as she found on a regular basis it necessary to come out and see for herself who stood in front of her door. The trail abruptly ended at a rather large tree growing out the side of the mountain, right above the door, and it gave her the perfect way of perusing her guests without them seeing her.

The air still held a nip to it, even though winter had more or less passed. She saw signs of spring as she walked through the trees—blossoms starting to bud, leaves regaining their strength under the pale warmth of the sun. It took some care on her part to avoid the leftover leaves of fall. They were perfectly dry and brittle, ready to give away her position if she put a careless foot down. In fact, she had to focus on the trail so much that she couldn’t spare more than a glance upwards now and again toward her destination, and so didn’t see her visitor until she finally reached the thick oak tree.

With her hands against the rough bark, she leaned into the solid trunk and put her head around it just enough to get a good look.

A man in his early twenties sat directly in front of the door, legs crossed comfortably, hands on his knees. The sides and lower half of his hair close shaven, his straight dark hair flowed from a ponytail high at the crown. He possessed the strong nose, jaw, and cheekbones of a Kindin, but his white shirt, simple leather vest, and dark pants said Windamere. At his waist, strapped to his back, and in his boot he had a variety of daggers, one sword, and a bow laying on the ground beside him. She didn’t need clairvoyance to know this man’s occupation: a hunter.

At his other side sat one of the largest wolves known in Mander. His fur was black as midnight, eyes a golden topaz that shone like old gold. He wore an earring in one ear, and the way he sat alertly, scanning the area around him with eyes and nose, spoke of high intelligence.

A hunter and a wolf. What a fascinating combination to find on one’s doorstep.

The wolf’s nose twitched, several times, then his head came up and around as if homing in on her location. She knew the instant he spotted her for he shifted into a standing position and gave a soft huff.

His master took instant notice of the wolf’s behavior and also looked up, his dark eyes finding her with unerring accuracy. These two had clearly been spending too much time together.

Spotted, she gave up on hiding and came around the tree into full view, moving down three steps so that she stood directly above her own door. “You are not a thief,” she observed.

“I am not,” he responded, voice deep enough to vibrate rocks. “Are you an Artifactor?”

So, he had indeed come to see her, and wasn’t here because of some silly mistake in directions. “I am.”

“Good.” He gained his feet effortlessly, gathering up his bow as he stood and settling it over his shoulder with the ease of long habit. “My name is Decker. I’m here with a job request for Artifactor Sevana Warran. You match her description. Do I have the right person?”

“You do.” She cocked her head, still studying him from head to toe. She knew that accent. She’d heard it before—on the very edge of Windamere’s borders, to be precise. The clothes and looks fit, too. She’d bet her eye teeth he came from the Kindin-Windamere border. “Most people, you know, go to my business manager with job requests.”

“He’s a mite difficult to track down at the moment and I didn’t have time to chase after him,” Decker responded. His tone remained level, but lines of strain and fatigue deepened around his eyes.

This man had come a very long way to speak to her directly. Whatever sent him here wasn’t trivial. “You’ve succeeded in getting my attention, Hunter.” With a casual hop, she jumped the seven feet to the ground and landed easily. “First thing—is that an Illeyanic wolf?”

Decker blinked, the first sign of surprise he’d shown in front of her. “He is. Most people aren’t familiar enough with the breed to recognize him on sight.”

She didn’t bother to explain that Master had a wolf of the same breed or that she had spent enough time around him to know that this breed of wolves had more intelligence than most people. She just turned and addressed the wolf directly. “Wolf.” When he looked at her, she continued, “I have a mountain lion that claims this place as his territory. I’d take it kindly if you didn’t start a fight with him.”

The wolf cocked an ear at her and gave a soft whine of understanding.

“Well enough.” To Decker, she waved a hand toward the door. “Come inside. I’ll hear your request.”

He still had that cautious expression on his face, but he let out a short breath of relief. “Thank you.”

Sevana led the way inside, closing and shutting the door behind them. These two moved well—if not for the slight scuff of boot heels on stone floors, she would not have known they were there. They didn’t ask her anything as she escorted them into the main room. “Take a seat.”

Decker took the loveseat, not sitting so much as dropping into it. She hadn’t seen a horse, but he might very well have left it in the village before making his way up here. The way he sank into the couch made her think he’d ridden hard and long to get here quickly.

She stole a look from the corner of her eye as she paused long enough to throw another two logs on the fire before folding herself into her favorite armchair. The wolf chose to lay down at his master’s feet, but he watched her every bit as carefully as she did him. Yes, a very interesting pair. This man had to be very successful to dress as well as he did, not to mention own a wolf as expensive as this one. But successful or not, why would he come here with a job request? Hunters dealt with their own business, usually, and didn’t look for outside help. “Alright, Hunter, what’s the request?”

“I come here on behalf of my village.” The way he started made it sound as if he had rehearsed this a hundred times in his head. “We are under a curse.”

About the Author

Nearly twenty-eight years ago, in the hills of Tennessee, a nice, unsuspecting young couple had their first child. Their home has since then been slowly turned into a library as their daughter consistently brought books home over the years.

No one was surprised when she grew up, went to college, and got her Bachelor's in English. Despite the fact that she has a degree, and looks like a mature young woman, she's never grown out of her love for dragons, fairies and other fantastical creatures. With school done, she's ready to start her career, hopefully by blending two of her loves: books and fantasy.

Her website can be found here:
http://www.honorraconteur.com
or if you wish to speak directly with the author, visit her forum at:
http://z13.invisionfree.com/adventmage/

Table of Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-one

Twenty-two

Twenty-three

Twenty-four

Twenty-five

Twenty-six

Twenty-seven