The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (9 page)

Dropping his teasing, Kip nodded in support of this. “Actually, that really was the holdup. He needs more practice with haggling and paying for things. He didn’t understand taxes at all.”

She cocked an eyebrow at Bel. “You didn’t read any economy books?”

“I tried,” he grimaced. “I fell asleep every time.”

Well, economy was taught better in real life than through a book anyway. “Then I’ll teach you as we travel. Kip, I assume while you were loitering around flirting at the library that you found out where Pierpoint is?”

“I did, actually. He’s on Tree-on-the-sea.”

On the island? That remote island where only fisherman and birds chose to live? That island that she didn’t have a handy portal to? She groaned. “Stone the crows! Why would he live
there
?”

“Maybe, like you, he’s trying to avoid having visitors,” Kip suggested sweetly.

She’d make him pay for that comment later. Sevana pulled up a mental map and thought it through. She had several different methods of travel aside from the clocks, they just weren’t as fast or as convenient. With a passenger along, it narrowed her options even further. But she could think of one that would work for this. “I’m going to have to use the far-see glasses.”

Bel gave her a blank look, as he had no idea what she was referring to, but Kip just looked confused. “I thought you broke those.”

“I broke my
nose
,” she corrected irritably. “And no, they work fine. I’ve done some adjustments.”

Raising a finger in the air to draw attention to himself, Bel asked, “Far-see glasses?”

“Eyeglasses that when you wear them, they will take you as far as you can see,” Kip explained. “It’s an early invention of Sev’s. Works quite good, too. As long as you don’t focus on something solid. Like trees. Or buildings. The glasses will take you straight to them.”

Hence her broken nose from the last time she’d worn them. She’d forgotten about that minor detail. “They can get us there quickly. The only thing is…Bel, you’re going to have to ride on my hip.”

The twenty-one year old (even if he didn’t look it) grimaced at her. “That’s a little embarrassing. How about on your back instead?”

“No.” She needed to carry a few things with her in case Pierpoint didn’t have an immediate answer for her. Her pack would take up any free space on her back. “The humiliation will be good for you.”

Bel rubbed at his head like it hurt him.

“Pack light,” she ordered. “We leave tomorrow morning.”

Muttering to himself, Bel got to his feet and left the room. As soon as he’d passed out of earshot, Morgan slid to the edge of his seat and leaned closer to Sevana, speaking in a confidential tone, “Here’s the
rest
of what happened in the village.”

“Oh?” She didn’t think a lesson on currency would hold them up that much. “Did you teach him how to talk to people like I asked?”

“Well, I certainly gave him the beginner’s course. He’s got a lot to learn yet. But Sev, the kid had a serious breakdown in the middle of the market. He’s terrible in crowds. He starts having panic attacks.”

Her eyebrows rose. “That must have been entertaining.”

Kip grimaced. “Not really. I didn’t see the first one, as we got separated, but Hana had to come to his rescue. I was there for the next two, though. You’ve got to expose him more to people. A king especially has to be good in crowds.”

“No kidding.” She’d half suspected that he would be uncomfortable around large bodies of people after being secluded for a decade, but she hadn’t thought it would be this bad. “What else happened?”

“Well, like I said, he had to be rescued by Hana. She gave me an earful for that, by the way. But he’s developed a little crush on her because of it, I think.” For some strange reason, Kip stated blushing at this point, just a light hint of pink on his cheeks. “Which made me think, with him being locked away and all, did anyone give him the birds and bees talk? He’s terribly naïve for a twenty-one year old. So….”

Sevana started laughing, smacking the arm of her chair in outright mirth. “Tell me you gave it to him!”

“On the way back,” he said sourly. “Cause I knew good and well I couldn’t trust
you
to do it. But you owe me for this one, Sev.”

“No I don’t,” she chortled, wishing she could have listened in on
that
conversation. “He owes you, I think. Was he blushing? Give me the details!”

“Completely red the whole time, and he wouldn’t look at me even once.” Rubbing at his jaw, he added ruefully, “I was rather grateful for that, actually. But something else I realized today was that he’s just not used to physical contact with people. Sev, I know you’re not really a touchy-feely person either, but you’re going to have to be with him. He’s not used to being touched, which is something else that a king needs to be good at. In fact, being in close contact with him will probably ease his way into becoming better at managing crowds.”

She trusted his judgment on this. Kip, after all, had always been the people person. Not her. “We both should work with him on this, then.”

“Why are you smiling evilly when you say that?”

~ ~ ~

The little prince proved to be good at following orders. He brought his swords and a change of clothes along but nothing else. Actually, Sevana had packed similar things—an assortment of wands and potions at her belt, her notes of his case, and a change of clothes. It all easily fit on her back in a special pack she had custom made for travel like this. With an expression of distaste, Bel allowed her to pick him up and settle him on a hip, just like a mother would her child. He thankfully didn’t squirm, though.

Then she put on the glasses and raised the wooden blocks attached on a hinge. She took a long look toward the south, in the direction of Platt, finding an open patch of land. Then she lowered the wooden covers again. The wind rushed past her in a flurry, ruffling her hair and clothes. Then abruptly, her forward movement stopped.

Bel let out a whoosh of breath. “T-that was intense.”

“Truly?” she lowered the glasses on her nose for a moment and turned to look at him. He looked a little wide around the eyes, a flush of excitement in his cheeks. The experience hadn’t scared him, but obviously got his blood to pumping. “What is it like? With the glasses covered, I never get to see.”

“Streaks of color just blaze past you,” Bel explained in excitement, hands rising to paint the picture he saw in the air. “And it all seems blurry and yet not, as if you can almost see what you’re passing by. The further ahead you look, the clearer everything becomes.”

Hmmmm. How interesting.  

He pointed a finger east, away from the plains and toward the Sanat Forest. “If I remember right, Tree-on-the-sea is directly east of us. Wouldn’t it be faster to go that way instead of south, toward Platt?”

“For someone who’s never been out of Lockbright Palace, you know your geography quite well.”

Bel gave a shrug. “I had a world Map of Mander hanging on my wall. I know my geography by heart after looking at it every night for twenty-one years.”

Good. One less thing she had to teach him. “Well, you’re right, we’re going to have to go that way eventually. But I’m trying to avoid all of the trees.”

“Oh.” He gave another look at the forest standing a fair distance off, just hovering within their view. “That would slow you down considerably, wouldn’t it?”

Thank the heavens she didn’t have to explain that. “Yes it would.”

It took several different jumps with the glasses to get to the edge of the Sanat Forest and then a considerable more chunk of time to get
through
the forest. Trees blocked her view and slowed them down considerably. Fortunately, they reached the edge of the Windamere mainland without her breaking another nose. Or worse.

From there, she had a clear view across the sea and to the island of Tree-on-the-sea. Living up to its name, it looked like trees grew directly out of the sea itself, with barely any land in sight. She searched with squinting eyes before finally spotting a rocky outcrop. (She absolutely
refused
to just look at a tree in order to cross the channel. One broken nose was enough, thankyouverymuch.)

They passed over the water with nothing more than an errant splash of sea water on her boots to show for it and landed with a crunch of boots against gravel. Sevana thankfully put Bel down as her arm ached from holding his weight for so many hours. He just as thankfully backed up a pace, obviously relieved to be on his own feet.

“Morgan said that his cottage was on the far side of the island, right?”

“Right.” The glasses would be practically useless as this point as the trees were so thick that she could barely see two feet ahead. And bypassing the trees wouldn’t be possible. She’d be in water if she tried to circumvent them. Sevana slipped them off and stowed them safely in her breast pocket. Hefting her pack on her shoulders, she started weaving her way in and around trees, Bel on her heels.

Their progress moved at a snail’s pace. Actually, the snails might be able to move faster. The trees were not only dense, but their roots stuck up above the ground and weaved together. And the bark was slippery, to boot. It proved not only challenging but hazardous to navigate through it.

“Sweet mercy, there could be a whole castle on this island and you’d never know it,” she grumbled to herself.

“Truly,” Bel sighed, and then gasped as his foot slipped on a root.

She glanced back over her shoulder. “Don’t break a leg in here. I’m not carrying you out.”

“Noted.” He shot her a gamine grin. “Don’t
you
break a leg either. I
can’t
carry you out.”

“Some prince you are. Princes are always supposed to save the damsel in distress, remember?”

He laughed aloud at that. “Sevana, if you’re a damsel in distress, then I’m a three-eyed donkey.”

“Ohh? That finally explains the ears, then.”

“Hey!”

Chuckling, she climbed around a monster of a tree and finally saw something that wasn’t either brown or green. “I see a clearing ahead.”

“With a cottage?” Bel asked hopefully, scrambling after her. His breath came a little fast and hard in his lungs. Still not much stamina, huh.

She took several feet forward, away from the line of trees, so she could see enough to be sure. “It’s a cottage alright.” And what a cottage. It stood two stories tall, painted in pristine white with a blue shingled roof. Really, instead of saying cottage, ‘house’ would be more accurate. From this angle, she could just make out the edge of a walled off garden, too.  

This place didn’t belong to any normal person. She could tell that at a glance. There were grow-not spells all along the line of trees, keeping a clearing of grass open around the house. Each corner of the house had a very strong protection ward engraved into the wood. Only a magician of high caliber would be able to make it. Sevana nodded in satisfaction. “This is Pierpoint’s house.”

“Are you certain?”

“Sure.” She set off at a brisk walk across the lawn, clearly saying words of safe passage as she walked. There were other spells and wards in place, keeping people from casually trespassing as she was currently doing, but she knew how to get around them. Every Artifactor in the world put in a safeguard so that they could deactivate a spell or ward if they needed to. They all used the same passwords, too, just in case they needed to bypass something made by someone else. Disasters had happened before they instigated that little rule in their community.

Because of that, Pierpoint had no idea that he had visitors until Sevana pushed open his front door and took a step inside. “Pierpoint,” Sevana greeted cordially.

“Sevana,” he responded in surprise, dropping the quill in his hand and turning to face her. He’d finally shaved off that hideous beard he’d kept for so many years, and his greying hair had been cut close. Away from the Council and their standards of how a proper magician should dress, he’d fallen into old habits of wearing any loose, comfortable tunic and trousers at hand. It made him look like an old fisherman. “I didn’t know you were coming. What brings you—” at that moment he looked beyond her and saw the boy hovering in her shadow. He choked on his own words, eyes round as saucers. “Y-you’re the one that kidnapped the prince?!”

She pretended to mull that over for a moment. “Is it truly kidnapping if he came along of his own volition?”

“According to the kingdom’s 1,000 Statutes of Law, it is not,” Bel said confidently.

Momentarily sidetracked, she gave him a funny look. That book was thick enough that if you dropped it on a man’s head, it would likely kill him. “You actually read that monstrosity?”

“Cover to cover,” he answered with a shrug. “I ran out of things to read.”

Well, after ten years, he probably would. Not that it really mattered right now. Sevana turned back to Pierpoint, who didn’t seem to know how to react to their presence. “I’m working on his curse,” she told him matter-of-factly, “and I don’t want to repeat anything that you tried. Will you show me your notes on his case?”

Bel stepped forward and said in a formal tone, “I would take it as a personal favor if you would cooperate, sir.”

Pierpoint softened into a sad smile. “Of course. In truth, Your Highness, I always regretted that I couldn’t help you.”

“I always regretted that you lost your position at Court because of it,” Bellomi admitted frankly. “But if you’ll help her, I’ll have you reinstated when I’m back on the throne.”

Pierpoint stood from his chair and gave him a bow. “It would be my honor to serve you again. I accept your terms. Please, come in. I will fetch my notes.”

She took one of the padded stools that sat next to the table, looking around idly as she sat. The place could be an almost exact replica of the workroom Pierpoint had had at the Lockbright Palace. Herbs for potions hung on the walls and from the ceilings, and bookshelves covered the walls, housing everything from books to magical tools. A single massive table dominated the center of the room with stools all around it. Everything was in place and perfectly organized, with the only “mess” being the project that Pierpoint currently had out on the table. Even the smell reminded her of his previous workshop—the slight tartness of sage, earthiness of wood and the metallic twang of metal smoldering.