The Child Prince (The Artifactor)

by Honor Raconteur

  “Oh, is that all?” Master laughed a husky, deep laugh. “Give me the details, girl! You know I want the full story.”

  Sevana started at the top and ran him through the basics, or tried to. He of course stopped her periodically for the specifics. He especially wanted to know how the bargaining with the dragon went, as he hadn’t realized she’d already left and come back. She wound down by saying, “Well, that’s about the size of it. Bel’s been training with Axelrad in his spare time, Sarsen has completely been sucked into Aren’s pace, and the king is having far too much fun infiltrating his own palace. Pierpoint is courting death by sneaking into my workroom periodically, but I’ll deal with him tomorrow.”

  “So the prince is training with the former captain of the guards, eh. Good, good. I was a little worried about the boy. He doesn’t have the full training to become a king.”

  “Not yet,” she agreed with a distinct lack of worry. “But everyone around him seems to be aware of the problem and are taking steps. Now, are you satisfied?”

  Master chuckled softly. “Not quite, sweetling. I do need to talk to Sarsen still. Go fetch him for me, will you?”

  Grumbling, she climbed out of her chair, unlocked the door and stuck her head into the hallway. “SARSEN! MASTER’S CALLING!”

  “I said fetch, sweetling. Not call!” Master corrected with a long suffering sigh.

  “Fetch, call, same difference.”

  Sarsen appeared in the next moment, gave her a sardonic look, and squeezed past her into the room. She decided she’d leave them to it and go find something else to do. As she shut the door behind her, Bel came from the inside training room, soaked in sweat and puffing for breath. “Did I hear someone call?”

  “I was calling Sarsen,” she responded, not surprised the message had gotten garbled before reaching him. Sounds did that inside rocky caverns like these.

  “Oh.” He lifted an arm and wiped at his forehead. “It was a little hard to hear over the swords clashing.”

  Ah, training with Axelrad, was he? “You have taken time out of your busy schedule to warn your lady friend that she needs to stop researching, I hope.”

  Bel looked briefly frustrated. “I tried. She’s not really listening to me. She claims that she has all the information she needs now anyway, so she might as well keep sifting through it.”

  Sevana quirked a brow. “You don’t believe her.”

  “Not really, no.” He ran a hand through sweaty hair, scowl etched into his face. “Because when you research things, you’re always looking for more information. You know that as well as I do. When you’re reading, you come across something that leads to something else. If she’s still sifting through the records, then how can she know that she has all the information she needs?”

  A very solid point.

  “For now, I’ve asked Morgan to keep an eye on the situation.” He faced her squarely, eyes looking for reassurance. “If she’s in danger, I want to bring her here.”

  Here? To this mountain of men? (Excluding herself of course.) Where she would be constantly within arm’s reach of her boyfriend? Oh, now wouldn’t that be a priceless situation. Sevana’s mouth quirked into a slightly evil smile. “That’s fine by me.”

  “Good.” Bel blew out a breath of relief. “Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that wouldn’t be a problem.”

  Axelrad took a half step into the hallway. “Your Highness, is something wrong?”

  Sevana translated this into ‘what in the devil is taking you so long?’ without a problem. Bel apparently did too, because he looked briefly panicked before giving her a nod and half-jogging back into the room.

  Shaking her head, she turned away and headed for her gear room. Clearly, if she were to get any peace today, she’d need to be outside to get it. Perhaps a little hunting in the woods would do the trick. “Baby! Let’s go hunting.”

  The palace at midnight was still and quiet, shadows the only thing moving as the clouds crisscrossed back and forth in front of the moon, giving the floor an erratic light show. Bellomi paused just outside of the grandfather clock, knees slightly bent in a habitual stance, face lifted as he looked, listened, and smelled his environment. He didn’t discern anything out of place.

  Axelrad stepped out from the clock behind him, landing soundlessly on the tile floor and carefully closing the clock door with a quiet snick. Assured the older man was ready, Bellomi took off toward the main hallway, sticking to the shadows as much as he could.

  Every Councilman kept a secure vault and a set of private rooms in the palace, just in case they chose to stay here after a meeting, or in case of an emergency. Most of them also had homes within the city itself, naturally, but the vaults here kept the majority of their wealth. Bellomi wanted inside of those vaults. Aside from listening in on the Council’s meetings, the vaults would tell him much more clearly about the inner workings and the backroom dealings these men were involved in.

  Bellomi had gone all over Windamere with Morgan, talking to anyone willing to give him a moment of time, listening to the local gossip, and gathering information. Part of why he wanted into the vaults was to confirm some of what he heard. But he also needed confirmation of something else. During the last twelve days, ever since he returned from Vash Village, his father had been making several assumptions. Insistently, no less. Nothing that Bellomi reported hearing would sway the king, either.

  He kept saying that Clasessens and Goethals were loyal to him and always had been. But if those two men truly were loyal, then why hadn’t they done anything the past ten years? Why leave both king and prince locked away in a dusty, forgotten room to languish? It didn’t make sense to Bellomi. He wanted physical proof in his hands of those men’s true allegiance.

  Pausing at a crossway, Bellomi looked back for direction. Axelrad had come along just in case Bellomi ran into trouble but also because he knew exactly where all the vaults were.

  The captain stepped forward, taking lead, and took a right turn that led them deeper into the palace interior. Instead of going up, they went down, descending to almost the basement level. The air became progressively damper and cooler as they went from one staircase to another. Neither man made any noise as he walked, but Bellomi imagined that if they had, the sound would echo endlessly in this oppressive silence.

  Axelrad took one more turn before stopping in a round chamber that held three doors. Ah, one of the vault rooms at last. Bellomi couldn’t have navigated his way here, but he remembered vaguely what they looked like, as he’d been to his family’s vault several times as a child. A single sconce on the wall flickered with lamplight, casting a mellow glow throughout the crescent-shaped room. On each door, the crest of the family stood out in sharp relief in the wood, sparing Bellomi from asking the question of which vault they should check.

  Out of the three doors, only one was of interest to him: Goethals. He went straight to it and sank to his knees, pulling out a simple machine that Sarsen had handed him earlier and placed it against the door. The metal in his hands warmed quickly under the force of the charm, becoming almost but not quite scorching hot, before abruptly cooling. The lock clicked and clanked as it opened. Rising, Bellomi tentatively put a hand against the wood and pushed the door open on soundless hinges.

  Well. That worked easier than he’d expected. Goethals only had a single lock on his vault door? The man either had nothing to hide or nothing in here worth hiding. They’d soon see which.

  He and Axelrad stepped inside, the captain shutting the door carefully behind them. No one had bothered to leave a light burning in here, to his lack of surprise, but they’d expected as much. Both men drew out an encased glass tube from their pocket and gave it a hard shake. The rock minerals inside of it, mixing, put off a blue-white glow bright enough to see by. Bellomi gave the slender glass tube in his hands a long look. “I know Sarsen said this wasn’t magic,” he whispered, “but it certainly looks like it.”

  Axelrad grunted agreement. “Your Highness, if
you’ll take the right side? I’ll start on the left.”

  It didn’t matter to him who started where, so he shrugged and turned to the right, gaining a better impression of the room as he moved. A tidily kept place indeed. Tall bookshelves lined the far wall with stacks of scrolls and ledgers, no doubt family records of some sort or another. The rest of the walls had trunks and jewelry chests lined up. Bellomi started opening one chest after another, taking a good look inside before closing the lid and moving on. For a man of his position, nothing here surprised Bellomi. Oh, there were very rich and costly jewels stored here, and a great deal of money, but Bellomi didn’t expect the man to be poor. No, what he wanted to see was how much wealth had been stored here and how.

  Neither man spoke to each other until they had gone the length of the room, which didn’t take much time, and they met in the middle of the back wall. Bellomi looked at the other man’s worn face and offered quietly, “Every bag of gold or money pouch I found had Goethals’ seal on it and no one else’s. I can’t find evidence of him taking any bribes. You?”

  “The same, Your Highness.” Axelrad turned a thoughtful frown on the room, one hand propped up on his hip. “In fact, the only thing that seems odd to me is that there’s not quite enough wealth stored here.”

  Bellomi blinked. “As if he’s been giving bribes instead of taking them?”

  “He’s certainly been paying for something. But it could be something entirely benign. His daughters are both of marriageable age, after all.”

  An excellent point. “Let’s go check Clasessens’ vault, shall we?”

  They left the room as quietly as they’d entered it, re-locked the door, and left that alcove for the one across the hall. Clasessens, like Goethals, didn’t have anything more than a standard lock on his vault and Bellomi entered it just as easily. But also like Goethals, it didn’t contain anything incriminating. Bellomi couldn’t decide if he felt heartened by this or disheartened.

  “Strange,” Axelrad commented thoughtfully as they moved back toward the door. “He didn’t have as much gold in here as I’d expect either.”

  Bellomi paused with his hand on the handle. “Marriageable daughters?”

  “No, he only had sons, and they’ve both been married for years now.” Axelrad turned again to look at the room, eyes narrowed. “I can’t think of a good reason off hand for this.”

  Hmmm, how interesting. “We’ll need to do some more investigating. But I think we’re done for the night. I’d rather not be here during the next change of the guards.”

  Axelrad nodded, conceding the point, and followed as they left the room. Once again, Bellomi locked the door behind them, erasing all traces of them ever being there. But once they got to the stairs, Axelrad again took the lead, which Bellomi felt silently thankful for. He could not absolutely swear that he remembered the way back to the clock from here.

  They went from staircase to staircase, ascending, leaving the damp and cool air of the sublevels behind them. Bellomi breathed out a quiet sigh of relief when they reached the main level. Good, he knew exactly where to go now. Being turned around in his own palace was a little embarrassing—

  “Halt!” a voice thundered from above them. “Who goes there?!”

  Bellomi reflexively looked up. There should be another good half hour until the next changing of the guard, and no one should have been here on this route at this time of the night! Where did this random guard come from? He stood looking over the edge of the railing from the landing above, although the dimness of the moonlight from the windows didn’t penetrate enough to give Bellomi a clear view of his face.

  For a moment all three men froze, just staring at each other, and then Axelrad and Bellomi bolted up the stairs.

  The guard let out a shout, calling for his fellow guardsmen, and yelling out as he took off in pursuit, “Halt, I said! In the name of the king!”

  Shouldn’t that be in the name of the Council? Bellomi couldn’t help the irreverent thought even as he kept running. “Axelrad?”

  “I don’t know, Your Highness,” Axelrad responded grimly, not slacking his pace as he sprinted down the hallway. Of course, at this speed, neither man could disguise his footsteps, and it sounded raucously loud as they ran. “He shouldn’t have been there. Unless they’ve changed the patrol patterns. Again.”

  Which they might have done. Bellomi strained his ears, tracking the movements of the men pursuing them, counting out footsteps and voices. “I make it nine following us, but they’re rousing their fellows, so it won’t be that for long.”

  Axelrad let out a particularly vicious curse. “They’re catching up quickly as well. Your Highness, I don’t think we dare use the clock to escape from here.”

  “Too close, do you think?” Bellomi had to agree. The one thing they could not endanger at this point was the secret of the grandfather clocks. Many of their plans hinged upon using them. (Not to mention Sevana would have his head if he did expose it to the whole palace guard.) “Then, do you know of another way out?”

  “I do, but it’ll be risky and it will take us much longer to get back to the mountain.”

  He didn’t see how they had much choice at this point. “Lead the way.”

  Axelrad took an abrupt turn at the next hallway, leading them down a staircase instead of staying on the main level. Bellomi followed on his heels, his ears tracking the situation behind him, but keeping one eye on the guard captain. He didn’t feel the slightest bit winded from all of this running, but he didn’t know if Axelrad had the stamina for this anymore. The other man didn’t seem to be the least bit tired, however, and he moved at commendable speed.

  They left the main level and headed directly for the south side of the palace. The building no longer seemed quiet and empty but lively as noise seemed to come from every corner, echoing and re-echoing as it travelled down the long hallways. Bellomi quickly became confused as the sounds crossed and mixed with each other, and he could not be sure that he trusted what he heard now.

  Axelrad burst through a door that let them out directly onto one of the verandas that overlooked the garden. So far, no one seemed to anticipate their route, and the garden lay vacant in front of them.

  “Axelrad, where are we going?” Bellomi demanded as they ran for the nearby stairs that led downward. The stables lay in the exact opposite direction, so he couldn’t be thinking of getting a pair of horses and making a run for it.

  “There’s a side gate that lets out directly into the city,” the man explained quickly, his head pivoting about as he panned the area. “Few know of it or use it. I think we can get through there if we move fast enough.”

  The city, eh? No one had gotten a clear view of them yet, so Axelrad might very well be right. If they could move fast enough, they’d be able to blend in with the city’s nightlife and disappear. “Then let’s move.”

  The door that Axelrad mentioned sat just beyond the stairs, half-covered in hanging ivy and the branches of a willow tree. He brushed all the greenery aside and shoved at the metal gate. It had half-rusted in places, so gave quite the squeal as it swung open, resisting Axelrad’s efforts. Bellomi, feeling time ticking away relentlessly, quickly stepped forward and put his own hands against the cold metal of the door. Under their combined strength, it swung open enough for both men to slip through. Bellomi paused two seconds, just long enough to force it back into position.

  He and Axelrad ran down the slight slope and into the first street near them, a wide road that served as the downtown market most days of the week. Of course, at this hour of the night, all the shops were closed and not a soul stirred. They hugged the shadows of the building as they ran, putting as much distance between them and the palace as possible until they reached a busier street. In a city of this size, it never truly became still, as merchants, businessmen, and entertainment of some sort always played out.

  Axelrad slowed his pace abruptly when they reached the entertainment section of town, where all of the theaters and mus
ical halls were, and he melted quite naturally into the flow of traffic. Bellomi fell into step with him, making his voice just loud enough to be heard over the street noise. “Where to?”

  “We need to either leave the city or send a message back to Artifactor Warran.”

  “A Magic Post would be best, I think,” Bellomi offered after a moment’s thought. “But they won’t be open again until the morning. I’d rather not leave the city only to ride a whole week to reach Big again.”

  “Truly.” Axelrad shrugged. “I’m willing to do so, however.”

  Bellomi wasn’t. They already had too much to do and not enough time to do it in. He didn’t want to waste any of that time on the road. “I know of an innkeeper nearby that’s an associate of Morgan’s and Sevana’s. Let’s see if he’ll put us up for the night and send a post in the morning.”

  It took four long hours for the sun to rise and finally signal the beginning of the working day. As soon as feasible, Axelrad left the room and went straight to the nearest Magic Post to send a quick note to Sevana. He came back barely ten minutes after he left, a relaxed air about him.

  Bellomi paused in the middle of putting on his second sword and asked, “What did she say?”

  Axelrad recited the reply verbatim: “Head for the city manager’s office. Grandfather clock on second floor, back of building.”

  Oh good. She did have one in the city. “Do you know where it is?”

  “As it happens, I do.” Axelrad waved him to follow.

  They descended to the main floor, where Bellomi paused long enough at the bar to say to the innkeep, “Thank you, sir, for putting us up.”

  “Think nothing of it, young master,” he responded with small chuckle. “I’m used to Sevana’s erratic comings and goings. I expect midnight calls from her friends.”

  Wise man. With a rueful shake of the head, he bid a final farewell and caught up with Axelrad at the front door.