| |
I was downright giddy to be home again. In a few minutes I'd have real food, as much as I wanted, and I could hug my parents for hours.
And I could sleep in my own bed. And bathe. Gods, I'd never wanted a bath more. Against the pristine palace halls, I felt even grimier. The servants could probably smell us coming three rooms away.
I led Ace, Wilde, and Havoc to the small dining room and took my usual seat. "Have a seat wherever."
Ace chose to sit next to me, while the men sat across from us.
A servant rushed in with a tea cart loaded with fresh pastries, steaming tea, and pitchers of water. My mouth drooled. We hadn't had anything like a pastry all week, and my sweet tooth was screaming.
Even the water tasted amazing, cool and refreshing, nothing at all like the stagnant water from the barrel on Ryan's ship.
We devoured everything on the cart by the time another servant pushed in a cart full of sandwiches, fresh fruit, and bowls of nuts.
This, too, was eaten rather quickly. Ace and I had barely eaten in the last two days, and our meals before then had been spotty and unsatisfying. But this? Perfectly seasoned meats between fresh slices of bread slathered with sweet nutty spreads...I wasn't sure I'd ever loved a meal so much in my life.
Wilde and Havoc looked slightly concerned at the speed Ace and I were eating, but they chose not to say anything, sticking to their tea and waiting silently for my parents to finally arrive.
They burst in maybe twenty minutes later, pausing in the doorway to make eye contact with me. They looked as put together as ever, not a hair out of place, but there were dark circles under their eyes. Mom teared up right there.
This hadn't been an easy week for them, either.
"Mom, Dad!" I leapt from my chair, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth and meeting them halfway.
"Jack!" Two pairs of familiar, strong arms encircled me. These arms meant safety and home.
"Thank goodness you're alright," Dad said. "We've been worried sick about you."
Mom squeezed me a little tighter. "I thought I'd never see you again, oh Jack!"
"I missed you guys so much," I said. "I have so much to tell you."
"We want to hear everything," Dad said, pulling back and running a hand over my hair. He grimaced and rubbed his fingers together afterwards.
"I know, I'm a mess," I said. "I'll take a bath soon, but there are some people you need to meet."
They finally glanced at the other people in the room. "Yes, please introduce us to your...guests," Mom said, gaze lingering on Ace.
I stepped away from her and walked over to Ace.
He stood up, back stiff, and chin raised, with a hunted expression in his eyes. He looked ready to bolt at the slightest sign this could go wrong.
"Relax," I told him. "Mom, Dad, this is....actually, you might want to sit down first."
They glanced at me in surprise.
"I'm serious. It's going to be a shock, and it will be hard to believe, but I've already proven who he is."
Mom and Dad cautiously took seats at the other end of the table next to one another. "And who exactly is he?" Dad asked.
I couldn't quite hide my grin. "This is Alex, my brother."
They didn't react. The expressions on their faces slipped to their polite court masks.
I pressed on. "It's true, I promise you. He...well, it's hard to see right now under all the dirt, but he looks like Mom, and he can use magic!"
Mom's eyes sharpened immediately, cutting across to Wilde and Havoc. "Jackson!" she hissed.
"They already know," I said. "We had to use magic in front of them, it was the only way to save people. There were...so many demons, and there's another magician out there, he's actually leading the Chimers, and he promised them he'd bring magic back to the whole kingdom, and..." My head was spinning. There was so much to tell them, and I was trying to get it all out at once. I was only overwhelming myself, though, with each reminder of every horrible thing we'd had to face.
Dad scrutinized Ace. "Perhaps it would be best if you started at the beginning. What happened when you went to town a week ago?"
I sat down again, relaying everything from the last week in a much more linear order. Ace didn't contribute much, idly playing with a butter knife on the table.
I didn't leave any detail out, so it took a while to tell them everything. They processed in silence for several moments when I finally finished. And then they started asking questions.
And they didn't stop.
"You were really attacked by that many demons?" Dad asked.
"Where did this Lord Basil come from? How can he use magic?" Mom asked.
"Are you boys alright now?" Dad pressed.
"If someone outside the family can use magic, then maybe this isn't actually Alex," Mom said.
Dad snorted. "Are we looking at the same kid? That's definitely your son. He has the same mouth as you."
The same shape, maybe, I thought to myself. But the similarities would end the second Ace started talking. He was far more foul-mouthed than my mother could even imagine.
Ace scowled. "Look, I'm not asking to be your kid. I'm here because some lunatic keeps trying to kidnap me. I don't know how I've used magic, since I don't have a fancy watch like Jack. So, we don't have to get all mushy over this. We deal with Basil, and then I'll be out of your hair, and everything will be the way it was."
I glanced at him, frowning, already trying to come up with ways to convince him to stay beyond that.
Mom and Dad didn’t like his proclamation, either.
“Let’s not be hasty,” Dad said.
Someone knocked on the door, and then one of Dad’s guards poked his head in. “Sorry to disturb you, your Majesty, but there’s a disturbance at the gate. A man is demanding an audience with the entire royal family.”
“Tell them to make an appointment like everyone else,” Mom dismissed.
“They’ve tried, your Majesty,” the guard said. “But he claims he has knowledge about Prince Alex.”
All eyes snapped to Ace.
My mind started racing. There were very few people in the kingdom who knew Alex was still alive. Most of them were in this room.
The only one who wasn’t was Lord Basil.
“I think I know who it is,” I said. “And maybe we can finally get some answers.”
Dad studied me for a long moment. “Very well, then. Bring the man into the audience chamber. And summon more guards, just to be safe.”
“As you wish,” the guard said, and ducked back into the hall.
We moved into the audience chamber. It was a large room with white marble floors and a glass ceiling to let in sunlight, with three thrones at the far end. My parents took two, and Ace and I couldn’t agree who would take the last one so we ended up standing on either side of it. Wilde and Havoc stood nearby, and my parents’ guards stood ready on both sides of the room.
Like Dad requested, more guards filed in to stand at attention against the walls.
It seemed overkill for one man, but when Lord Basil was escorted in, it didn’t feel like enough.
“Your Majesties,” Lord Basil said, inclining his head but refusing to bow. “I am known as Lord Basil.”
“Welcome,” Dad said. “My men say you claimed to have information about Prince Alex?”
“I do,” Basil said. “As you’re no doubt already aware, he is standing with his brother.”
“And how do you know this?” Mom asked.
Basil grinned. There was nothing pleasant or charming about it. His smile sent shivers down my spine. “Because I can feel his magical energy from here. It’s identical to the energy I felt fourteen years ago when I kidnapped him.”
Mom and Dad were on their feet in an instant. The guards drew their sabers. Wilde and Havoc stepped in front of Ace and I.
Basil never flinched. Never stopped grinning.
“Why?” Mom demanded, her voice cracking on that one word. “Why would you kidnap an infant?”
“How dare you walk into this palace and brag about it,” Dad added.
“I did it because I needed the blood of a magician to fertilize the mystical desert this kingdom has become. The list of people who fit that requirement is limited to four of us in this room.”
King’s beard, he really did have a way to bring magic back to the kingdom. It wasn’t just some nonsense he’d told the Chimers to convince them to work for him.
“And I’m only here now because I still intend to revive this kingdom. But it would be better for all of you if you cooperated, so I’m offering you the chance to assist me willingly.” His gaze lingered on me and Ace, like he’d already written off my parents.
“We will never cooperate with you,” Mom stated. “You are a detestable man, and you will spend the rest of your pathetic life in jail before you are tried and executed for your crimes.”
“Arrest him,” Dad ordered.
The guards sprang forward.
Basil slipped into the shadows beneath his feet, reemerging in front of the doors. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You had your chance to do this peacefully.”
The guards converged on him, but he vanished into the shadows again.
“Find him!” Dad yelled. “Do not let him leave this palace!”
Mom whirled on me and Ace, putting a hand on my shoulder and drawing Ace in for a hug. “Oh, Alex.”
He squirmed out of her embrace. “I go by Ace, actually.”
She blinked.
“We’ll call you whatever you like,” Dad said. “Just promise us not to disappear without a word.”
Ace looked supremely uncomfortable, and did not actually make any promises.
Mom teared up and pulled him into another tight hug. “Oh, I can’t believe you’re really here!”
Ace’s desperate eyes found mine, pleading for help.
“Uh, Mom? Maybe let him breathe?” I suggested.
She loosened her arms and then took a deep breath, and then she took an entire step back.
As bad as I smelled, Ace was worse. I had at least bathed before our whole adventure started. Who knew the last time Ace even touched soap?
“I think it’s time you two cleaned up. I want four guards around you at all times until Basil is found.”
“That’s really unnecessary,” Ace protested.
“Not negotiable,” Mom said.
“It’ll ease her peace of mind,” I said. “It’s not a big deal, I promise.”
Ace glared at me, clearly disagreeing on many levels. But then we were shepherded out of the audience chamber. I went up to my rooms, and Ace was taken to a guest suite while servants started preparing a more permanent room for him across the hall from me.
Bathing had never felt more wonderful. Once all the dirt and grime was washed away and I smelled like a fresh flower field, I collapsed into my bed and slept all the way through dinner, nestled in my comfiest blankets.
By the time I woke up for breakfast the next morning, Basil hadn’t been found. The whole palace had been searched top to bottom three times.
The question was, had Basil escaped the palace altogether, or was he lying in wait somewhere to use one of us like he’d threatened?
To Be Continued in Book 2:
A PRINCE’S GUIDE TO BROTHERS AND RITUALS
Author’s Note...
Thank you so much for reading The Street Rat’s Guide to Spells and Royalty. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have the time, I hope you’re able to leave a review online and let others know what you thought of it. Reviews are important for Indie Authors. They help us promote our books and allow us to keep writing.
At the end of the day, we’re happy as long as our readers are happy.
So, thank you again for reading this book, and I hope you’ll stick around for the sequel!
Follow me on social media for updates!
Twitter: @bylrweltmann
Facebook: L.R. Weltmann
Lydiaweltmann.com