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When the world settled around us, we were still falling.
We crashed into some kind of canvas sheet, and slid until falling through open air again. It was only a short fall this time before we landed on a solid wood floor.
Not a floor, I realized, feeling the vibrations under my hand. A deck. We’d transported right onto a ship.
It was too much to hope we’d found Captain Lafiyet again, but that didn’t stop me from looking up in excitement.
The crewmen did look familiar. The few gathered on deck, working to repair a broken railing, stared slack jawed at us. One pointed up at the sails we’d come from, silent questions forming in his mouth.
“The brats are back,” another one said.
The sailor beside him dropped the wooden beam. “Get them.”
“Wait, hold on!” I said, throwing my hands up.
Beside me, Ace swore and scrambled to his feet.
The men rushed us. We kicked and punched, and Ace was slippery enough to keep squirming out of their grasp, but there was nowhere for him to go.
It didn’t take long at all for both of us to be pinned to the deck.
If I were a different person, I’d be more offended that Ace had three men holding him down while it only took one to keep me in place.
A man walked up the deck towards us. All I could see were his boots, taking their sweet time to stop in front of us. He squatted to look in my face.
“King’s beard,” I swore.
It was a ship Ace and I had been on, alright. But it was Captain Ryan’s ship.
Ryan grinned. “It’s good to see you boys again, too. We were hoping we might catch you again, since we knew where you were heading.”
I hadn’t even considered that Ryan might come after us. I thought we’d knocked him out of the picture when we made his ship crash, but we must not have done as much damage as we thought.
“Let us go, you—” Ace’s swearing was cut off by the sailor pressing his face into the deck.
Captain Ryan didn’t even glance at him. “I do have one question, though.”
Well, this ought to be good.
“How did you get on the ship?” he asked. “I know you weren’t stowing away anywhere, and we’re up too high for you to have randomly climbed aboard.”
The blood rushed from my face. Of all the questions, that was one I couldn’t answer. Even if I was any good at lying, what would be believable?
Ryan grinned. “Why don’t I tell you what I think?”
“No one cares what you think,” Ace spat.
Again, Ryan ignored him. “See, I heard an interesting story from Lord Basil. He says this whole kingdom used to be overflowing with magic, but these days only the royal family has any.”
Who was Lord Basil? How did he know any of this?
Ryan pointed up at the sails. “You appearing just now? That pretty much confirms it. Even the way you survived the other day had to be because of magic, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.
Nodding, Ryan spit on the deck in front of my face. “Your pathetic family is even greedier than I thought you were. I can’t wait until you’re all dead and Lord Basil rules in your place. He promised to bring magic back to the kingdom for the rest of us, so we can all make our own lives a little easier. He won’t hide it away like you do.”
My head spun. It sounded like Lord Basil was some kind of leader to the Chimers. They planned to put him in charge once my family was out of the way. And he wanted to bring magic back to the kingdom. Was that even possible? Or was that an empty promise he’d made to get everyone to support him?
It didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he knew about magic in the first place.
“Wait, wait, king’s beard,” Ace said. “They’re talking about Dr. Carl. Jack! They’re talking about Dr. Carl!”
My neck would have snapped if I’d been able to look back at him. “What?”
“Someone called him Lord Basil while I was there, he must use more than one name!” Ace said.
“So, you know him as a doctor,” Ryan said. “Yes, he spends a lot of time offering his knowledge to the commoners who can’t afford traditional doctors.”
What a brilliant way to find his followers. He helps those most likely to already have a grudge against the king and recruits them, and word of him spreads through the lower class, far away from the palace ears. No wonder it felt like the Chimers rose out of nowhere. They built themselves in the poor parts of town no one wanted to look at.
This explained some of what Dr. Carl wanted with us, at least. He was part of the revolutionary efforts and probably wanted to ransom us against my parents.
I still didn’t know if he really wanted to try and bring magic back, or if he could, but I’d worry about that later.
“Well, you don’t need to worry about what to call him or what he plans to do,” Ryan said, standing up again. “You’ll be dead by the end of the week.”
I sucked in a breath. They still planned to attack Chiari.
And if they had Dr. Carl and his magic on their side, they stood a stronger chance of succeeding than I wanted to admit.
“Lock them up!” Ryan ordered. “Separately.”
Ace and I were dragged to our feet amidst the jeers of the men. I was tied to the mast where Ryan could keep an eye on me, and Ace was taken kicking and screaming below deck.
We’d been in a lot of close calls over the last few days. Even ten minutes ago was cutting it close.
But this? Tied to the mast with no magic and no Ace...this felt like the grimmest situation we’d been in.
And flying all the way up here meant there was no one coming to save us.
My arms went numb against the ropes after twenty minutes. I couldn’t wiggle free or reach the knot, and I gave up on it pretty quickly. Someone had their eye on me at all times, and when I started squirming too much, a knife impaled the mast inches from my head.
Considering this was a moving ship, I was lucky they hadn’t hit me. I resigned myself to waiting for a better opportunity. If I waited a few hours, claiming I needed a water closet might work. And by then, some of my magic would have recharged. I’d stand a better chance with that.
I just hoped Ace could hold out that long. They didn’t seem to have any interest in him, which meant Dr. Carl—Basil, whatever his name was— hadn’t told them that the long-lost missing prince was also in the picture.
Whether or not Ace believed it, we only teleported to this ship because of his magic ability. I was wiped out after fighting that demon and couldn’t have casted the simplest of levitation spells. But wherever he stored his energy, it was usable. It allowed me to cast the spell and fuel it with his magic instead of my own.
There was absolutely no doubt: Ace was Prince Alex.
This was going to be huge if we lived long enough to tell anyone about it.
Waiting for a better moment wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world. Most of the sailors were content to ignore me, and the ones that seemed to have a personal grudge against my family were kept away. I assumed Captain Ryan wanted me presentable, or at the very least recognizable, when we arrived, and I was in rough enough shape as it was without anyone throwing any punches.
This didn’t leave me with much in the way of entertainment, though, and I was so exhausted I fell asleep.
Not a deep sleep, and not for very long. My neck was at a weird angle and protested when I woke up. At this point, there wasn’t a part of my body that wasn’t uncomfortable for some reason.
But, as terrible as this situation was, we were that much closer to Chiari, to home. Returning as a captive wasn’t exactly how I imagined seeing my parents again, but it was better than nothing. If I could time it right, maybe Ace and I could escape right before we arrived.
This meant more uncomfortable waiting. I had a coughing fit around dusk, and a sailor took pity on me and gave me a cup of water.
It helped a little, but it also awakened the hunger pangs in my stomach, which were becoming an old friend after so many days. Food, however, was not part of the sailor’s generosity.
“Make sure Ace gets water, too, please,” I asked when he turned away.
He glared back at me.
“I know you don’t like me, but he’s not royal.” I winced saying it, since he technically was, even if I was the only one who knew it. “He got caught up in my mess.” My face was doing something weird. I wanted to look earnest and pleading, but it probably looked more desperate than anything else.
Let this be the one lie in my life that anyone believes. Let me be able to do this one thing for Ace.
The man snorted and took a cup of water below deck.
I let out a sigh of relief.
That was the only exciting thing to happen for hours. I tried once to claim I needed a water closet, which got me untied from the mast and personally escorted to a bucket with a knife at my neck, and lost me my dignity when I then had to use the bucket.
Worse, the sailor noticed me toying with my watch on the way back, and snatched it from my grasp.
“Fancy heirloom?” he asked, opening the face. He held it out of my reach when I made a move for it.
My heart pounded. I needed that watch back. “Yes? And...” What could I tell him to make him think it was worthless? “And it’s broken, so it’s useless to you, so give it back, please?” I bit my lip.
He did not believe me. Pocketing the watch, he tied me to the mast again and brought it to the captain.
Ryan couldn’t have known what it was, but he kept it anyway, taking whatever magic I’d stored up and leaving me defenseless.
I hoped Ace was having a better time.