I disclosed, “Mother, I’ve brought some young ladies to meet you.” All the girls curtsied on cue.
Queen Isabel turned into my mother and probed, “James, these are some very lovely young ladies you’ve brought. Are they here to become novices or are they special friends of yours?”
“They are part of my family now, Mother. I’d like to introduce Salma, Matri, and Ulia. They are my consorts.” The girls curtsied as I repeated their names.
My mother beamed. “I was wondering when you’d decide to take consorts! And who is the lovely little thing beside you?”
“Mother, this is my wife, Star. She’s been looking forward to meeting you for quite some time now.” I braced myself, in case she reacted badly to her eldest son being married. I should have known better.
She hurried off the dais and embraced Star. “Welcome to the family, my daughter! I know you must be a wonderful person to have won my James’ heart. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better! You must bring her to dinner in the great hall tonight, James. Your father has been hoping you would return soon so he would have Kethos Castle under noble control again. He can discuss it with you then, and I can entertain your girls.”
“We’ll plan on being there. We’ll be in my room if you need us for anything.”
“I’ll inform the maid staff that you’re home and make sure the room is tended. I hope to hear about your travels, since they said you had returned from Sabia.”
“Mother, you’ll have to forgive my stories if I just skim the parts about working at a fishing dock. There will be time for all that, unless Father wants me in Kethos immediately.
“He may want you there by the end of the week. That doesn’t leave me much time to get to know your wife, but there will always be visits.”
I nodded and bowed. “We’ll see what happens; until then, I’ll beg your leave and see you at dinner.”
“Wonderful to meet you, Ladies, and I’ll see you this evening.”
The girls curtsied and we made a hasty exit.
Outside, the girls erupted into giggles as the nervous tension was released. I asked them what they wanted to do until lunch and they said, in unison, “See magic.”
I’d seen magic every day for sixteen years, but for them it was new and exciting. I ported us to the target range, where there was always something going on. There were four novices there working on their energy bolt spell; all were dressed in the wizard uniform and were quite cute. I confessed to Star that I wouldn’t mind watching magic with them if I could watch the novices instead of the magic. She grinned and elbowed me, advising that three consorts should be plenty until she was managing a castle. I explained the difference between ‘looking’ and ‘consorts’ and she grinned again. I think she was still recovering from meeting the Queen, or maybe I was funny.
I watched for a while and noticed that the focus of one of the novices wasn’t clear when she used her activator word. It caused her energy bolt to be a bit weaker than the other girls’. I shielded and stepped toward the firing line, warning my girls to stay where they were.
I walked to the novice and stated, “Excuse me, but if you’ll picture your energy bolt a pure white and hot before you say the spell word, you’ll gain quite a bit of power.”
“I think I’m doing fine, thank you very much. And since you’re not even carrying a wand, I’m sure my energy bolt can beat yours!”
“I’ll take you at your word. Aim for the top of the closest metal target pole and we’ll see.”
She focused, sort of, and fired an energy bolt. It caused the pole to glow slightly red but not the almost white-hot the other girls were getting. I knew I was going to show off, but she’d said her casting could beat mine.
I commented, “Nicely done, but it could be better. I thought you were here to learn magic, but if you won’t take correction from some poor sightseer like me, you won’t learn as much. Let me show you what I mean.” I focused a heavy energy bolt and aimed six inches below the top of the pole. I pointed to ‘aim’ and fired, making the pole six inches shorter, and melted slag ran down the sides.
The novices all gasped. The one I’d been talking to exclaimed, “You cast that without a wand! We were warned that if we tried that, it would hurt us very badly!”
Another of the novices spoke up, “It will hurt you, unless you’re one of the King’s children.”
They all froze for a second and then bowed their heads and curtsied. I laughed. “I’m just James today, and here because my girls wanted to watch you ladies practice magic. There’s no need for all this formal stuff on the target range. My girls might want to meet you and visit, if you have time. They don’t have any friends around here yet, except for my family, and you’re the only girls we’ve seen near their age.”
The two groups of girls merged into one and I slipped off down to the river. I sat and thought about Kethos Castle and what I knew about it. It was located roughly five hundred miles, the way the wizard flies, from Wizard’s Castle. It was a coastal castle, and the location of the only fight that had taken the life of one of my father’s students. That was when Dad started writing about magical creatures that he met, listing their strengths and weaknesses. I knew about politics, which was part of growing up in the royal family. I knew about finances, although my family was so rich, thanks to dragons, that we rarely thought about money. I knew that when I was assigned to Kethos, I’d have to send a quarterly duty to my father for the military and whatever else the kingdom required. I also knew that I’d better find a great assistant, because I was too young to be tied to a desk. I assumed, but wasn’t sure, that the castle was staffed with kitchen staff and maids, at the very least. There were many questions and I would have to find the answers. Loud voices from the target area grabbed my attention.
I stood and headed quickly back to where I’d left the girls. Star seemed to be in an argument with one of the novices, and I was stunned to see the novice’s hand was drifting toward her wand. I shielded my girls, knowing that the chance of a novice caster’s spell making it through was slim. As I approached, it sounded like the dispute was about my wife’s marital status. The novice was saying that Star might be a consort, but not my wife.
I arrived and asked the novice, “What seems to be the problem? I know you may be new here, but we don’t yell. If there is a problem, we talk about it. So tell me the problem and then we’ll all talk.”
She was truly angry. “This girl, Star, said she’s your wife. I told her that she might just be confused, because she isn’t magical and you’d only marry a magical girl, like me.” She blushed with her last comment.
“And why would you think I would only marry a wizard?”
“It only makes sense! Your children will most likely be magical and your wife would have to be, too, in order to control them.”
“My parents never used magic to control me and I developed my magic at the age of five. You do have a point, but Star is my wife. Be sure you are positive of the facts before your hand strays to your wand again. If I weren’t the man I am or if I thought you’d honestly threatened my wife, things could have been bad.”
The girl started crying and I approached her and put my arms around her. “Listen, nothing happened and everything has been settled. I don’t want to see you cry and I’m sure that Star will forgive your mistake. She is a kind young lady.”
The young novice whispered, “You don’t understand. When I came here, I knew I would meet you and I’d hoped I would be the girl to marry you. I knew you were an honorable man, and very kind and good looking. When Star said you were married, it shattered my dreams. Forgive me, Your Highness, but I loved you before I knew you.”
I sighed. “Right now you are committed to your training. I know novices make a promise to continue that training until completion. I don’t know what my parents’ policy on trainee consorts would be, but that would be something to take up with your instructor, who is probably my Aunt Alba.”
She quit cryi
ng and looked hopeful. “You’d take me as a consort if the instructor said it was all right?”
“My consorts are chosen by my wife. If you think that you two can make up, then perhaps, depending on the policy, you two could discuss it.”
She curtsied to Star. “I beg Your Highness’ forgiveness for speaking out of ignorance. Maybe we can start again and I can be friendlier?”
Star winked at me and said to the girl, “I’d love that, because one can’t have too many friends. If you do end up a consort of mine, there would be four of the five of us fifteen years old. Matri is a sweet girl and is sixteen, but I don’t know if I want consorts much older than me.”
“Now if everything is calm here and you ladies can find your way back to our room, I’ll be going,” I expressed.
They nodded and I started walking toward the dorm. Star speaking of the ages of my consorts had me thinking of Lynna. I missed her terribly and wondered if Star would approve her, since she was almost a decade older than Star. I returned to the room, lay down and closed my eyes. It seemed like only seconds later the girls were in the room and were warning me it was close to dinner time. I assured them I’d be right back and ported to the tailor’s.
Chapter Thirteen
I walked into the tailor’s shop and she grinned as usual. She loved all of the family and not only because we’d made her quite wealthy. She said she hoped I could carry a lot, and then laughed, knowing that with magic I could carry her shop. She began piling bundles on the counter and disclosed that the rest wouldn’t be ready until at least noon tomorrow. She had hired help over the years, but whatever my dear sister Lia had ordered was keeping her and her staff quite busy. I asked if there were clothes in the bundles that would be appropriate for a young lady at a royal dinner, and was told there were a couple things in each bundle that would work. I stacked the bundles and held them with magic, then reached into my pocket and dropped five platinum coins on the counter. The tailor protested as usual, and lost as usual. I had no idea what women’s clothing cost, but knew she was making a lot. Now I was home and had access to tens of millions, so I wasn’t worried. I ported back to the dorm hall and walked through the door to my room. As I laid out the packages, I informed the girls they had to figure out what belonged to whom.
They were quite excited and started searching through the clothing. Each package contained two nice dresses, an extra nightgown and a set of clothes that were exactly like the wizard uniform, except in sea-blue instead of brown. That was Lia’s touch there, I was sure. Star’s reaction to the uniform was curiosity, and I was thrilled. I knew she would look stunning in it and I’d be happy to look.
The girls decided what they were wearing to dinner and began to change. Ulia stepped into the bathroom for privacy, but the other three girls undressed in front of me. I suggested the naked young ladies should dress quickly, before I had to send my father a note excusing myself due to hardness. They tittered but didn’t rush their dressing at all. If anything, there was more bending, twisting and bouncing than before.
Soon we were all ready and looking beautiful; I ported us to the side entrance of the great hall and entered there. We were shown to our seats and watched people filing in. My mother and father were the last to show and everyone stood as the made their way to their seats. We were all seated again after they sat, and then Father stood again.
Everyone got quiet and he spoke, “Good evening, everyone. I’m glad you could come out on this special occasion. Most everyone knows that my eldest son, James, left to see other countries, traveling to No Man’s Land and to Sabia. What you may not know is that he not only discovered foreign lands, but also a bride. James, would you and Star stand, please, so the people can admire your beautiful wife?” We stood momentarily, to polite applause. “I am now publicly requesting that my son and his wife take control of Kethos Castle. Upon his acceptance, I’ll ask him report there and move his family in as soon as tomorrow. Everyone, enjoy your dinner and have a good time!”
Star eyed at me and remarked, “Tomorrow? That sure is a quick move! That won’t give Kemma much time.”
I was confused, and the other girls just smiled. “Who is Kemma and what doesn’t she have much time to do?”
“She’s the novice I argued with earlier. I told her that if she wanted and could figure out something with her training, I’d talk to you about her being a consort. I just thought that having a girl who knew some magic might come in handy around the castle. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I’ve yet to deny you anything, my love. And here I thought I only had one more virgin to initiate and I’d be done with all the delicate lovemaking.”
“One more? Oh, I see you had a very nice shower! I might have left everyone out in the room and joined you if I’d known that was going on!”
“If the super-shy Ulia decides to let me in, perhaps you can help with that. Having you with me when I was with Salma was the most exciting experience I’ve ever had. If Kemma does join the family, you’ll be assigned to finding out if she is pure or not. I’m actually considering a consort myself and I know she isn’t pure, so that isn’t a big deal to me.”
“Who are you considering? Is it anyone I know or have seen?”
“Her name is Lynna and you may have seen her once. She came to the docks to see me off when we left Todan.”
“She wasn’t a girl, James! She was in her twenties at least. I’m not sure I want a consort that much older than I am.”
“We’ll just wait and either I’ll give up on the idea or ask you again later. She is special to me because she was my first. We were only together a week, but became close. I never let her know my identity, but did give her some money to help her out.”
“If it really means a lot to you, then I’ll accept her. I always want to make you happy.”
“Well, we aren’t making any decisions tonight, so let’s just relax and perhaps you’ll hear from your friend later.”
We finished supper and my father came over and asked if I’d be ready to leave tomorrow. I assured him that if tomorrow was when he needed me there, I was prepared to serve. He believed it would be for the best. Our family had a bad experience with a regent once, and Father had been leery of him ever since. There was no indication that there would be a problem with me replacing him, but Father was a ‘just in case’ kind of guy. I promised we’d be ready by noon. If the tailor hadn’t finished with the order for the girls, Lia could send the clothes to us. He thanked us all for assisting the family.
When we started back to the dorm, Kemma saw Star and called to her. Star stopped and told us that we could go on and she’d meet us in the room. When we finished climbing all four flights of stairs, we entered my room and found Aunt Alba waiting for us.
“So you’re going to show up and swipe the first cute novice you see in tight pants? Alba began. “Maybe I want to keep her and train her!”
“I didn’t know anything about your novice becoming my consort until a little while ago. My wife was the one who had been talking to her about that.”
“Oh, then that’s a different story entirely. Of course she can go with you to Kethos, with my blessing. I’d like to stop by a couple times a week to continue working with her, if your wife doesn’t mind. I just thought that a cute backside had you thinking with your little head.”
I chuckled, “I think it might be Star’s little head that’s doing the thinking. She’s chosen all my consorts and she does get lovely ones. But I know now who has all the pull with you in my family.”
“It’s just that she’s so adorable. If you ever want to get rid of her, bring her to me and I’ll keep her, just to play dress-up. Davie never lets me do that with him. Well, I guess I’ll go find Kemma. She’s supposed to be in the dorm, now that it’s getting dark.”
“I believe you’ll find Star with her, too. You can take care of telling them both, and my spoiled wife can get her way one more time.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, nephew of mine.”
She left and I started preparing for bed. They all wore their new gowns and shy little Ulia had to be coaxed from the bathroom. I crawled into bed and Salma decided that she was lying beside me. We left one side open for Star and I started dozing off.
Star finally came bustling in and announced that Aunt Alba agreed to let Kemma be our consort and leave with us for Kethos tomorrow. She was down on the first floor right now packing, and she was going back down to help. I mumbled that I was happy for her and was going to sleep and would see her in the morning, then. She ran over to the bed, kissed me and ran back out the door. I felt like a whirlwind had blown through the place. I slid next to Salma and she rolled to her side, away from me. I snuggled against her and she wiggled seductively. I whispered that maybe tomorrow, but finding out I had to start a new job had me exhausted. We cuddled and drifted off to sleep.
When I awoke, Star was in bed and the four of us were side by side, locked together. I knew we’d all miss this bed, but we’d have to make due until Gwen and Della could send it or we got lucky and the previous lord of Kethos had a double king. I pulled myself out from between the girls and started packing a chest. I wouldn’t need much, but took a few changes of clothes, parchment, ink and a few quills. I looked around the room for anything else I might want and decided to take the soap from the bathroom. I was going to make running water a priority, at least in the kitchen and a shower for my bedroom. Since I’d been one of the few kids to grow up in the kingdom without ever using a chamber pot, toilet facilities would be near the top of my list, too.
After I was packed, I determined that the girls had slept long enough. If we were going to arrive at Kethos Castle any time soon, they’d better get a move on. I kissed Star and she woke with a smile. I told her the day wasn’t getting any younger and there was packing still to be done. She put her arms around me and pulled me down onto the bed, and asked if we couldn’t just stay like that forever. I replied that we could, but the king would come looking for us. With a sigh, she rolled over and put her feet on the floor. Salma was next and when I kissed her, I got no argument about getting up. I kissed Matri and she didn’t move. She didn’t twitch, and there was no flutter of the eyelids. I kissed her again, a bit more insistently, and she cracked a smile. She wondered, if she kept pretending to be asleep, if I’d keep trying to wake her. I laughed and walked to the other side of the bed. I softly kissed Ulia on the cheek; she reached up and pulled me to her and kissed my lips quite firmly. She stated that just because she wasn’t quite ready to sleep with me, it didn’t mean that she didn’t want to be kissed! I laughed and guessed that my wife had chosen consorts just like herself. They were all difficult, but beautiful. The girls were rapidly packing their meager belongings.
James, The Crown Prince Page 9
