Chapter 4

Justifiable Lightning Strikes

It was easier this way.

Firmly reminding himself of that fact, Cam dutifully followed Elena down the hall to Bishop’s office. The elf had apparently left already, and when the princess turned down another corner Cam didn’t ask where they were going next. He’d put in enough grunt time on sentry detail—stand there, look forbidding, learn how to embrace boredom—that he could probably make it through the next month without speaking more than eight words to the woman he was supposed to be guarding. Clearly, she would prefer it that way, and if she could keep from lying to him he could certainly do without the small talk. It wasn’t like he could do anything about the curse, anyway.

Cam narrowed his eyes at the back of Elena’s head, trying to figure out what was bothering him about all this. He was sure his dad expected him to do more than play shadow, but from what his parents had said, Nigel sounded more like a pest than a serious threat. Even if he had been, Cam was no better with a sword than either of his older siblings, and yet for some reason his dad had still wanted him on the job.

He wasn’t even exactly sure what the real job was. The biggest threat against Elena was obviously the curse, but Robbie was the closest thing the family had to a magic expert. If this was some insane scheme to get the princess a friend—what a nightmare that would be—he hoped they would have at least tried to throw twelve-year-old Gabby at her first. What was Cam supposed to do that no one else could?

He hated trying to figure out what his father was thinking.

“Wait here,” Elena ordered, stopping in front of one of the castle’s seemingly endless doorways. The faint chemical smell emanating from the other side suggested the room was hiding something considerably more interesting than a meeting. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

He was fine with following rules. Dictates, however, were a different matter. “I don’t think so.” He stepped forward before she could argue and grasped the door handle. “A good guard always enters a room before the person he’s protecting.”

Cam opened the door just as Elena was drawing breath for a response, moving into a room that was almost pitch black. He waited for his eyes to adjust, and when there was absolutely no improvement, he became suspicious. Then there was a faint crackling sound, only a little bit louder than the bubbling, and he yanked Elena behind him as he lunged for the wall.

An instant later, a bolt of lightning shot out of the darkness and sizzled as it left a burn spot on the wooden door.

“This is why I wanted you to wait outside,” Elena snapped, hitting him on the arm as she stepped away from him. “Braeth doesn’t like strangers.”

There was a deep, foreboding voice from the darkness “Oh, I have little trouble with them.” The words had an odd echoing quality, suggesting they were being made without the benefit of actual vocal cords. “It’s a poor sorcerer who hasn’t learned to work around a charred corpse or two.”

The darkness thinned, just a little, and Cam could just barely make out a hooded figure on the other side of the room. From the little Cameron knew about wraiths, they didn’t actually need to stay in the shadows, but it definitely upped the drama factor. “I bet you really annoy the housekeeping staff.”

Braeth—at least, it better be the Braeth Elena had mentioned—chuckled again. “Oh, I do approve of this one.” When Elena made a disgusted noise and pushed passed Cam, the darkness thinned a little more as the wraith floated toward her. “Though if you were hoping to put your potential suitor through a trial by fire, I would be pleased to make him bleed a little.”

The princess made a choking sound, presumably at the word “suitor” rather than “bleed,” but Cam had grown up with older siblings. “Pleased to meet you, sir. My name is Cameron Merrick, and Elena and I are very much in love.” As he gave his voice the extra drama such a ridiculous statement required, he could practically feel Elena’s temper climb a few more notches. He fought a grin. “It means so much to me that you could sense the emotion we have for each other.”

This time, Braeth gave in to a full laugh. “Oh, you are an entertaining creature.” Cam could make out just a hint of a skeletal face in the shadows beneath the cowl. Braeth’s bony fingers peeked out of the edge of his sleeve as he motioned toward Elena.“I suspect young Elena is already considering what portion of the cellar to bury your corpse in.”

Cam glanced over at the princess, deciding he could squeeze in one more joke before his life would be genuinely at risk—from Elena, not the wraith. Surprisingly, he felt comfortable around Braeth already.“If she kills me, she’d have to deal with my mother.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Elena’s hand twitch in that same way it had before. Though he couldn’t be sure of the specific meaning behind the gesture, it looked remarkably like a woman fighting the urge to toss a spell at his head. He gave her an “Oh, really?” look, making it clear he’d seen the aborted gesture. Her jaw tightened, eyes sliding away from his.

When he turned back to Braeth, the wraith was watching them both. Nothing of his face was visible, and Cam realized how much he usually relied on reading people’s expressions. “As entertaining as that was, we have other matters to attend to,” the wraith said, the humor that had been in his voice now completely absent. “Did you come seeking wisdom or death from me?”

Elena hesitated, then folded her arms tightly across her chest. “I think the curse is coming early.”

Braeth went utterly still, even shutting off the wind effect that made his cloak perpetually rustle. “If it did,” he said, “You would already be unconscious. Sleep curses are designed to take effect as soon as the target date or scenario is achieved. The one your aunt constructed is very definitive.”

Cam saw Elena flinch a little on the last word, but she lifted her chin. “Well, it’s becoming less definitive. I collapsed for thirty seconds in town a few days ago, and in the hallway for more than a minute about an hour ago. I dropped in mid-sentence, without reason.”

Braeth was silent as she finished speaking, then lifted a hand towards a row of bookshelves against an opposite wall. One of the books floated up off a shelf and headed for the wraith, opening in front of him and hovering there obligingly while the pages turned. “If this was an intentional feature of the curse, there will be a specific pattern to the incidents. Only fools think it possible to generate true chaos.”

Elena sighed, her entire body drooping a little. “So you’re saying I need to wait for more incidents so I can see what the pattern is. Because there will be a pattern, and this is just a nasty little feature of the curse we somehow haven’t found until now.” The fire that had been in her voice was gone, and she sounded tired and sad enough that Cam felt an uncomfortable twinge inside his chest. He liked her smiling, and he was used to her ice queen routine, but this, this was just wrong.

Braeth didn’t say anything as he slowly returned the book to its place on the shelf. “I fear so,” he said finally, sounding oddly regretful despite the echo in his voice. “We focused on the inherent structure of the curse, not flourishes such as these. Whatever this proves to be, it is likely nothing more than cosmetic.”

“This feels a little more than that, Braeth.” The edge was back in her voice. Cam tried hard to pretend he wasn’t relieved to hear it. “After we find the pattern, will there be any way to get rid of this particular flourish? She’s getting the rest of my life—she shouldn’t be able to mess with the last few months I have left.”

The cowl nodded. “I cannot imagine it will be too difficult, once we understand the structure of the alteration. I will consult my books.” He slid towards Elena, lifting a hand to brush almost but not quite along the top of her hair. The fine hairs fluttered, caught in the same invisible wind that he used on his cloak. “There is little need to ask if you’ve consulted with your mother about this.”

“No.” Elena closed her eyes, looking tired again. Cam was sure she’d completely forgotten he was in the room. “No one’s going to. There’s no reason to break her heart any more than it already has been.”

Braeth let out a long, rattling breath. “You know full well I do not share the secrets given into my possession.” His bony fingers moved near her face, once again almost but not quite touching her. Then he floated away again. “You must be careful until we resolve the matter, however. Keeping your secret is useless if she sees a collapse with her own eyes, and the queen is a skilled enough sorceress that she would undoubtedly detect any attempt on my part to wipe her memory.”

Cam’s brain registered all the possibilities in the last couple of words, and he turned to Elena with a steely look. “If you were thinking about it, don’t.”

Elena had jumped a little when he’d started speaking—he’d been right about her forgetting.Her face shifted from confused to appalled to annoyed in a matter of seconds. “Why would I bother going through the effort of wiping your memory? You already know everything useful there is to know about the curse, and I’m certainly not going to let you get the opportunity to find out anything else I want kept secret.” She huffed out a breath. “Besides, it speaks poorly of you that you immediately assumed a threat from a casual conversation.”

“Casual? Hah!” Cam made a disbelieving noise. “You’re apparently comfortable enough with the idea of wiping your mother’s memory that the terrifying wraith felt like he needed to be the voice of reason, and you don’t even like me. Don’t try to tell me the idea wouldn’t have crossed your mind at some point.”

She sputtered for a few seconds, clearly trying to find a reality where he wasn’t right. “I don’t know why I’m even trying to explain myself to you,” she snapped, taking a definite step away from him.

“If you could manage some reasonable explanation for why you are the way you are, I’d love to hear it! There are entire five or ten minute stretches where you’re a fairly pleasant human being, but then it’s like some sort of signal goes off in your head and you insist on doing something specifically designed to drive me insane. You make less sense than anyone I’ve ever met in my life, and that includes my little sister who spent a good three months of her life wanting to be a frog.”

Her glare sharpened. “You think I’m the one who doesn’t make any sense? You clearly don’t want to be here, and yet no matter how many chances I give you to leave you insist—”

“Silence!” Braeth’s voice thundered as he cut them both off, the echo in his voice making it seem like it was coming from all sides of the room at once. Both Cam and Elena fell silent, and the wraith let the stillness settle in before he spoke again. “Good. If I had needed to expend further effort to get your attention, you would not have appreciated the consequences.”

He looked back and forth between them, then focused on Cam. “I assure you that your memories will remain unharmed while you reside in this castle. I cannot make the same promise for all of your limbs if you continue to vex my goddaughter, but I suspect you are already well aware of that.”

Then his gaze swung to Elena, tone softening in the same way it had earlier.Really, the whole “goddaughter” thing made a lot more sense than it probably should have. “It will do you good to be vexed on a more regular basis.” He paused, considering. “In time, I suspect you will realize that as well.”

Elena stared at him, appalled, then shook her head as if she’d given up hope of finding any common sense in the immediate vicinity. “Why does everyone like it so much when I get upset? You’d think a centuries-old sorcerer would have better things to do with his free time.” Still looking annoyed, she gestured to the wraith’s bookshelves. “Can I borrow Eskalion’s Treatise on Magical Forms’? I think it has something in there on exponential curse structures.”

When the book floated over to her outstretched hand, she turned and pushed her way out of the room without another word to either of them. Cameron resisted for only a second before hurrying after her, pride temporarily bowing to the knowledge that he had no chance of finding his way to the dining hall alone.

~

Several hours and one very stressful dinner later, all Cam wanted was a little sleep. His dad didn’t have a bedroom in the castle—there was a perfectly good one with a wife in it waiting for him at home—but there were a few rooms in the princess’ suite meant for ladies-in-waiting. Since Elena had talked her mother into reassigning all of hers to other parts of the castle, his dad had commandeered one of the beds for those few nights he’d had to sleep over.

One of the maids had already brought his bag in and set it on the bed. Cam shoved it onto the floor as he sat down and scrubbed his hands through his hair. Elena was safely ensconced in her room, after deliberately locking the door on him, and he left his own open to make it that much harder for her to sneak past him.

He let out a long, tired breath. Just six more weeks.

“If he can’t see us, do you think we can sneak away and eat his pie?”

Mood lifting at the familiar voice, Cam opened his eyes again to see his little sister and no-longer-quite-so-little brother standing in the doorway. Gabby was holding a covered dish that probably held a slice or two of the aforementioned pie, and both of them were flashing grins that matched the one he was wearing. Apparently, Mom had been letting Robbie practice his transportation spell.

“I think he’s caught us, Gabs,” Robbie said easily, leading his younger sister into the room. He sat down on the bed next to Cam, his lanky teenage legs only an inch or two shorter than his older brother’s, while Gabby held the dish out to Cam. “Two slices of bloodberry pie, your favorite,” she announced. “I helped mom make it, so it’s more delicious than usual.”

Robbie leaned over. “Don’t let that scare you off,” he said in a stage whisper, making Gabby scowl at him just like he’d wanted her to. “It’s definitely not poisoned. We’ve all tested it.”

“Hah hah.” Gabby kicked Robbie in the leg. “I’m a good cook. I’ve decided I’m gonna be a big fancy chef.”

“And I’m sure you’ll be a great one,” Cam soothed, rubbing at an errant smudge of flour just underneath his sister’s ear. She changed what she wanted to be when she grew up about once a month, throwing herself headlong into every new profession. His mother had been profoundly relieved when the juggling urges had passed, but so far Cam had been particularly delighted by that phase. “Now give me the pie.”

She handed the dish over with a big smacking kiss, then started poking around the room looking for anything interesting enough to occupy her attention. Grateful for both the pie and the company, Cam started eating.

“Wow, you really needed the pie. You look wrecked.” Robbie watched his brother with an analytical, sympathetic expression. “Since Mom didn’t mention that she was worried about anything, I’d say it’s the princess who’s been running you ragged.”

Cam shook his head, swallowing his mouthful before attempting to say anything. “I can’t talk about it. If I do, I’ll start shouting, and it’ll make it harder to keep drowning my sorrows in pie.”

Robbie winced sympathetically. “Sorry. I know Dad was pretty insistent on dragging you back here, but I thought the fact that he’d managed to convince Mom meant it was probably safe.”

“She loves him,” Cam grumbled, taking another bite. “That sometimes leads her to make poor choices.”

Robbie chuckled. “Because I love you, I promise not to tell either of our parents you said that.” He patted Cam on the leg, expression sobering. “Honestly, though, I’m here for you if you think there’s anything I can do. You backed me up on enough of those magic fights between me and Dad that I probably owe you about a hundred at this point.”

Cam was about to say no, not sure that there was anything anyone could do to make his life easier, when his mind went back to the rows of books lining Braeth and Elena’s shelves. He wasn’t going to get involved in the technical details of the curse—what a nightmare that would be—but he desperately needed to understand something that was going on with these people. “Do any of your books have anything about curses?” he asked, not sure if he’d be able to understand the books even if Robbie did have anything to hand over. Even if he couldn’t, though, this wasn’t the first time the kid had helped him with his homework. “How they’re put together, the basic features, that sort of thing?”

“Witchcraft doesn’t really do curses, but there are a couple of theory books that might have something. It depends on what you’re looking for.” Robbie hesitated. “You know that a whole bunch of really serious sorcerers and sorceresses have studied the curse over the years, right? No one’s been able to figure out how to even get a look at the inner workings of the thing, let alone start on untangling it.”

Cam looked at his brother in confusion, knowing Robbie was trying to politely say something but not sure what it was. When it hit him, he laughed. “You think I’ve got designs on fixing the curse? I’m not stupid, Robbie.” He returned to his pie. “I’m the first person to admit that the only thing I know about magic is what you’ve told me over the years. But there are about twenty different things going on here that no one wants to talk about, and you’re the only person who I’m sure will give me a straight answer.”

Robbie’s expression cleared in understanding, but before he could say anything, Gabby’s voice cut in. “Cam? Robbie? I don’t think that’s a bird.”

Both brothers turned to look at the girl, who had stuck her body halfway out the window to get a closer look at something in the night sky. Suddenly suspicious for no reason that made logical sense, Cam hurried to the window to try and get a look at whatever his sister was seeing. Gabby, obliging, pointed at the tree line just in time to catch a dark shape disappearing just beneath the tips of the pines.

Cam turned to his sister. “Did you see what direction it came from?” Elena had seemed a little too calm about him being able to watch her door, now that he thought about it.

When she pointed in the general direction of the princess’s room, Cam swore and turned to Robbie. “Do sorceresses know flying spells?”

“Not as far as I know. It’s usually easier to just ask a dragon to give you a lift.” Robbie’s brow lowered as he thought. “Witches use a spell to make their broomsticks fly, but—”

“Close enough.” Cam bolted out the door, then went a few feet and swore again. He spun around on his heel, then poked his head back in to look at his confused brother and sister. “Does anyone know the quickest way out of this stupid building?”