The Child Prince (The Artifactor)

by Honor Raconteur

  The city manager’s office proved to be very close by, almost providentially so. They barely had to walk two city blocks before reaching it. It also (fortunately) had its doors open for business but did not have many people around yet. Then again, at this hour of the morning, that was hardly surprising. He and Axelrad walked in unchallenged through the main door and straight up to the second level. They didn’t see a soul or hear a peep as they walked down a narrow, carpeted hallway, heading for the back of the building as instructed.

  The grandfather clock sat at a junction of two hallways, its back toward the outer wall, and could not be mistaken for any other ordinary clock. It looked exactly like the rest of Sevana’s clocks, beautifully detailed with ornate scrollwork that he now recognized as magical symbols. The clock on this side ticked with mechanical precision, counting down the time, but Bellomi knew better than to think that the clock’s twin had also been set into motion. He wouldn’t step foot inside of that clock until he knew it was connected to the other one.

  “Ah, did Sevana mention an exact time it would be safe to step through?”

  Axelrad blinked at him. “I didn’t know that would be necessary.”

  “Oh yes. She doesn’t leave all of the clocks connected at all times,” Bellomi explained. “Rather a waste of energy, you see, if she did that. She connects them when she needs to. And it’s rather dangerous to step through when they’re not connected.”

  Well, this left them in something of a pickle. Hmmm. Well, just standing here wouldn’t answer the question. He stepped forward and undid the side latch on the front casing before pulling it open and calling in a low voice, “Is it safe to step through?”

  “It is,” Sevana’s bodiless voice responded. “And don’t dawdle.”

  Right. Obviously waking her up at this hour of the morning had not endeared him to her. Knowing he’d probably pay for this birds’ hour rescue later, he nevertheless stepped through the clock and into the clock room of Big.

  Sevana of course stood nearby, boot tapping out an irritated rhythm on the floor, arms crossed over her chest. He offered her a smile. “My thanks for the rescue, lady Artifactor.”

  “You,” she groused, “are more trouble than you are worth. Do this again and you can ride home.”

  She really didn’t respond well to early risings, did she? He gave her a bow. “Duly noted.”

  Axelrad stepped through in time to hear this last exchange. Sevana turned on him and said crossly, “And I expected better of you. Bel aside, how did you get into trouble so quickly?”

  Ignoring Bellomi’s squawk of protest (what did she mean, him aside?!) the guard captain responded calmly, “They changed the time and positioning of the guards since the last time were there.”

  Sevana frowned, eyebrows beetling together. “How much of a change?”

  “A good half hour’s difference. We should have had plenty of time to leave before running the risk of being caught.”

  She rubbed at her jaw thoughtfully. “Not good. That means we’ll need to get the new schedule to do any more reconnoitering. We might need to stay home tonight until we can get our hands on it.”

  Did that mean he was largely forgiven for last night’s fiasco? No, judging from that expression on her face, probably not.

  Aren chose that moment to enter the clock room, expression like a dark thundercloud. “Just what is going on here? What’s this I hear about you infiltrating the palace last night?”

  “Why are you acting as if this is unheard of?” Bellomi responded wearily. After running around most of the night, his body felt heavy with fatigue and he wanted nothing more than a long nap. “We went last night to investigate a few things.”

  “And got caught!” Aren snapped out, waspish and out of sorts.

  “They changed the guards’ schedule,” Bellomi shrugged. He didn’t understand why his father was so livid with him. Things like this happened, and you just did your best to get out of it unscathed, and learned from it. Besides, after dealing with an irate mother dragon, nothing else could really scare him.

  Aren took in a long breath and let it out again. It didn’t appreciably sweeten his temper. “Bellomi,” he gritted out, “I think you are missing my point. You should not be venturing into the palace like this. It is far too dangerous.”

  “You cannot hold me to a different standard than you obey, Father.” Bellomi couldn’t let this go. He stepped forward, meeting his father eye to eye. “I realize that to you, no time has really passed. You cannot help but think of me as your little boy. But I have felt every second of those ten years pass and I have grown because of them. I will go where I need to go, do as I please, and do whatever is necessary to regain my home. Am I clear on this?”

  “You are reckless!” Aren thundered back. “If you fall into the hands of the council, then all that we have done will be for naught!”

  “I’m doing exactly what you have been doing!” Bellomi snarled back. “You cannot expect me to sit here idly while you face all the danger yourself!”

  Aren instinctively flinched at this roar before he rallied and tried again. “Bellomi—”

  He lost all hold on his temper, and rode over his father before he could say anything more. “I spent ten years obediently sitting in one place awaiting a rescue. You want me to do so again? To just sit, and wait, and trust everyone else to do the dangerous work for me? That obedient attitude nearly killed you and robbed me of my sanity!”

  This time Aren reeled a step back as if Bellomi had actually struck him physically.

  Bellomi took in a breath and forced himself to say more evenly, “I cannot be that obedient little prince you want me to be. The price for that is too high and I cannot pay it. I will act rather than wait. I will always choose to act over waiting on someone else to provide the solution. You’re going to have to find a way to live with that.”

  “That rash way of thinking will get you and the people around you killed,” Aren rebuked. His voice shook slightly as he spoke. “Do you not understand that?”

  Bellomi tried a smile but it felt stiff and wooden. “I told you, Father. The only thing that terrifies me is being locked back into that room.”

  The King of Windamere had no response to that. He looked at his only child, lost for words.

  Silently, Bellomi turned for the door and walked away.

  With the morning’s training over with, Bellomi had every intention to spend the rest of the day with Hana. Training with Axelrad was important, he knew that, but he didn’t like leaving Hana alone to do all of the research herself, and he didn’t like being so far from her when she was drawing the wrong sort of attention from the government. If something happened, he wanted to be there to get her clear of trouble.

  He did pause long enough to wash off the worst of the stink and sweat, change clothes, and eat a quick bite of breakfast. No sense going to spend the rest of the day in the library on an empty stomach. But after that, he slipped on both swords and headed for the front door.

  On the way, he crossed paths with Sevana, who had a very complicated looking device of gears and levers strapped to her head. It looked beyond weird and he had no idea by looking at it what it had been designed to do. In fact, he didn’t even think it safe to ask. She paused long enough to give him a look and say, “And where are you going alone?”

  “I’m not,” he assured her, raising his hands in a placating manner. Every person in this mountain had made it very clear to him that he should not be venturing out of Big by himself anymore. Especially after the fiasco of almost being caught in the palace with Axelrad. He was too prime a target for the Council, now that he actually looked like a young adult. They could use him as the perfect puppet king. As much as it grated, he saw sense in their warnings, and grudgingly bowed to necessity. “I’m meeting Hana at the library.”

  “Hmmm. Well, don’t get caught.”

  Apparently she didn’t worry about what would happen if he got to the library and found guards there. But then,
with all of the training he’d been undergoing, no mere guard would be able to best him, if it came down to a fight. Shrugging, he kept going, stepping outside into the warm sunshine. He hadn’t made it more than two steps when Morgan came up the hillside at a quick lope, the fastest pace a horse could do on this steep incline.

  He reigned to an abrupt stop in front of Bellomi, the horse dancing in place, patches of sweat staining his coat. Wherever Morgan had come from, he’d rode hard to get here, and the worry on the man’s face said it wasn’t good news.

  “Bel. It’s happened. This morning the Royal Guard came and arrested Hana.”

  Bellomi stared at Morgan, rooted to the spot, absolutely sure that he didn’t hear the other man right. “…Say that one more time.”

  “Hana’s been captured by the Royal Guard,” Morgan repeated grimly, hands flexing at his sides. “I just saw her dragged off in manacles and they were headed straight for the palace. From what I heard, she’s been accused of ‘treasonous activity and illegal information gathering.’ My guess? Someone in the higher ups noticed that she was asking for some rather sensitive information.”

  His eyes closed in fatalistic understanding. He’d known that asking her to research would bring unwanted attention to her, but he’d never thought that the information she found would be so sensitive that it would actually land her in a dungeon! “You said they just dragged her off? As in, how long ago exactly?”

  “Hmm, about two hours? It took me that long to get the full story and make it up here.”

  “Good. Then I can catch up.” Bellomi patted the stone wall nearest to him and requested, “Big, make a room for Hana. I’m bringing her straight back here. Morgan, where can I get my hands on a fast horse quickly?”

  “Take mine,” Morgan offered with a crooked smile, already dismounting.

  “Bless you.” Bellomi grasped the man’s shoulder in thanks before stepping past, taking the reins from his hand.

  “Shouldn’t someone go with you?” Morgan asked him, glancing back at the front door.

  “I’ll be fine!” he responded, not even slowing his pace. He gathered up the reins and quickly swung himself on board. It’d been a while since he’d ridden a horse, and it felt especially odd with this tall body, but he and Morgan were of a similar height now and he didn’t need to get back down and readjust the stirrups, thankfully.

  The stallion, sensing his impatience, danced a bit in place as he found his seat. But he barely had the horse turned about when he spotted Baby laying casually across the path. “Baby, move! I have to go.”

  Baby cocked an ear, tail twitching, but didn’t flinch.

  “Hana’s in trouble, I have to go now,” he insisted, mentally cursing Baby’s habit of blocking pathways.

  Baby let out a low growl, ears flattening.

  He finally calmed himself enough to pay proper attention to the cat’s body language. “Oh. You want to go with me? Well, fine, but let’s go!”

  With an easy bound, the cat found his feet and started racing down the trail.

  Bellomi spurred the horse into motion, going down the steep trail at a faster pace than he should have. It would take another five minutes to get down from Big, but then he would have to make a choice. There were exactly three routes to get to Lockbright Palace from here. One he could instantly discount, as it would take getting aboard a riverboat and going around by sea to Lavella Harbor. The palace guard only got on a boat if it was a life or death situation. No, they would stay on horseback for this trip. So he had a choice of one of two highways. Either the Chastain Highway that curved around the Sanat Forest and wound its way eastward, or the Florane Highway that actually went through the forest. Which one? Florane was shorter, but tended to take longer because of its winding nature. Chastain was the longer path, but it took almost the same amount of time as Florane and overall was easier to travel.

  And why, he growled to himself in frustration, didn’t I ask Morgan which path they took before bolting out of there?!

  Alright, calm down and think about it. Anyone in town would know of Hana’s arrest by this point and taken notice of it. So if he stopped by briefly in Milby and asked, someone was bound to know which highway the guard took. Both highways intersected at Milby anyway, so he wouldn’t be losing any ground by doing this.

  He half-stood in the stirrups, matching the rocking gate of the horse as they fairly flew across the flat meadow. Baby bounded along at his side, keeping up admirably with his mad sprint. But his plan to go into town fell away when he saw a man standing at the corner of the highway, both arms over his head and waving frantically. Bellomi reined in hard, dragging the horse almost onto his haunches as they skid to a stop over the slick cobblestone of the road.

  “Sir!” he exclaimed, beyond surprised to see Hana’s father waiting for him.

  “Prince Bellomi,” Conli responded frantically, grabbing onto his leg with an iron grip, expression pleading. “My daughter told me who you are. Please, please go after her!”

  He set aside the worry of having his identity known roughly aside. There would be time to worry about that later. “I intend to,” he assured him quickly. “But I need to know which road they took.”

  “Florane.”

  Good. That would be the easier road to ambush them on. “I’ll get her back, I promise you. But I won’t bring her back to Milby, not until this is all over.” He felt it only fair to warn the man.

  “Just send word when she’s safe, and where she is.” He managed a strained smile.

  “I will,” Bellomi promised. Kneeing the horse’s side, he brought him around and kicked him back into motion. They sped along the highway in a sharp, staccato sound of metal hooves striking hard cobblestone, the cacophony almost deafening in his ears.

  Alright, he knew which way and the other party couldn’t have much of a head start on him. He had been going full speed this entire time—they wouldn’t be going at a particularly fast pace. Why should they? No one would be expecting pursuit. It gave him a slight edge, and he needed it.

  Axelrad had taught him about situations like this, once. He said that any rescue operation had three parts to it. The first part, obviously, was catching up with the enemy. The second part was safely rescuing the hostage. But the third part was the trickiest unless well planned: getting away. Rescuing your hostage from the captors without a good plan on how to escape would just land both of you in trouble.

  Bellomi knew he could enact the first stage without trouble. The problem would be part two and three, especially since he didn’t have time to really plan this and was doing everything on the fly. So how could he rescue her safely and get away just as safely without landing them both in even worse trouble? Just diving into their camp, snatching her up, and running off with her seemed…a particularly bad plan.

  The highway turned at this point, heading deep into the heart of the Sanat Forest. The trees were so old here, so thick, that it blocked most of the sunlight above and it felt as if he had suddenly plunged into twilight. Sound also echoed here, bouncing between the trees, so that the sound of his pursuit became even louder. Cursing (he didn’t want to alert his prey that someone was following them), he left the paving stones and started riding on the hard packed dirt alongside instead, which muffled the sound considerably. Still anxious about how it sounded, he also slowed his pace to a more sedate gallop instead of a full out run. He probably needed to do that anyway. The horse couldn’t keep up that frantic pace forever, and he needed enough stamina to get them back to Big after this as well.

  Think, think, think! He ordered himself. What kind of distraction can I arrange quickly that will keep them from following us?

  A mountain lion, perhaps? But no, that would put Baby in danger. The cat could handle himself, certainly, but if Sevana heard the details of this mad rescue later, she’d kill Bellomi herself for putting her precious cat at risk. A normal guard squad had six men in it and that would be too much to ask Baby to handle on his own.

  Bell
omi absolutely could not step in and order them to stand down as Prince of Windamere. That would throw all of his father’s plans into disarray and it would be tantamount to putting a bounty on his own head as well. If the Council learned he was alive, and mostly curse free, they’d send assassins for him. Or they’d do something even worse, and kidnap him to use as a puppet king. No, better not do that either.

  What creatures of the forest or aspects of Sanat could he use to his advantage? He’d been reading up on mythical beings ever since Sevana had taken him in, but he didn’t think anything really chose to live in Sanat. The presence of humans was too strong here. The only thing that was known to stop here, during the migratory season, were the fire and water dragons…dragons. Of course. The water dragons were beginning their northward migration. He’d seen them just last night, which meant they were probably still here foraging for food before going onward.

  “Baby!” he called to the cat still running at his side. “Is there a spring or stream nearby? Some place that the dragons like to use to hide their eggs while they hunt!”

  The cat’s ears went flat against his head.

  “I know, I know, I’m not intending to keep it. But if we put it in their camp, wouldn’t it be the perfect distraction?”

  Baby’s head cocked slightly as he considered this. Then his lips drew back in an evil smile, baring his fangs. Apparently he approved of the plan. With a hiss, the cat bounded ahead, his stride lengthening as he ran forward, before abruptly diving into the forest.

  Bellomi followed him, almost instantly forced to slow his pace as the horse struggled to wind its way through all of the trees and over the enormous roots sticking up out of the ground. He almost lost Baby twice, as the cat maneuvered nimbly through the obstacles, but fortunately it wasn’t much of a distance before his guide abruptly stopped dead.

  Reining in, Bellomi dropped from the saddle, tying the reigns to a nearby tree limb before slinking low to join Baby’s side. The cat hunched close to the ground, ears perked and nose lifted into the air.