by Mike Shelton
Shaeleen began to dig inside for her own power. She had used it before. The power of truth combined with intelligence could possibly allow them to escape. Before she could gather it, however, Orin yelled out, pushing against his bonds.
“It seems your brother is not the only one with some gemstone power,” the man said, his face red and his breathing hard. “Little Orin here has some speed.”
A noise sounded out in the hallway, and the man turned his head slightly.
As the man did so, Orin turned to Shaeleen and whispered, “Don’t use whatever magic you have, Shaeleen.”
“You’re right.” Shaeleen nodded, feeling both truth and intelligence flow through her. “I need to wait until the right time.”
The man turned back toward them and waved his hands. The power that bound them pushed them forward now, toward the door. “It’s time for you two to see the prince now. We’ll see if your brother needs some additional incentive.”
He pushed them with his power into the hall in front of himself. Then the man led them down a long corridor. A few servants flitted by, but one look at this captor’s hardened face sent them running down the hall.
Soon Shaeleen and Cole came to a door with two guards in front.
The man motioned for the guards to open the door.
One of them stepped forward and said, “The prince is still in session. He left word not to be interrupted.”
“I am his wizard, boy, and am always allowed in,” the man said.
“His wizard?” Shaeleen said softly to herself as she began to put things together. She felt the power of the IntelligenceStone flow through her, giving her knowledge. This was the kingdom of Galena’s one wizard—the guardian wizard of their TruthSeer.
A TruthSeer must be close by if her wizard is here. Rumors had her in the dungeon, but that didn’t make sense.
“Don’t listen to him,” Orin blurted out.
The man pulled the power tighter around both of them. Shaeleen could hardly breathe, and Orin’s face turned red. “Quiet, you two!” The man put his hand to the door and pushed it open with little effort as the guards stood off to the side, grumbling.
The wizard pulled Orin and Shaeleen into the room behind him. Shaeleen glanced around. The room was more ornate than Prince Basil’s study in Stronghaven. Gold-lined mahogany frames held giant pieces of artwork, antiquities from around Wayland sat on shelves, and heavily cushioned chairs sat in the corner around a small table—which held delicacies of food.
On the chairs themselves sat the prince and Cole. Both stood abruptly at the intrusion.
“Shaeleen!” Cole ran to Shaeleen’s side. “What did they do to you? And Orin?” Cole turned back around. “Prince Calix, what is the meaning of this?”
Prince Calix took three long strides and stood in front of the new group. His hair was dark and curled a touch at the edges, and his face was paler than Prince Basil’s, but the other features were similar enough to be uncanny. He wore a dark blue cape over a light blue shirt and dark trousers. A gold ring glittered on his right hand—the signet of a prince.
“Yes, Faegon,” the prince said, looking hard at the man that had brought them in. “What is the meaning of this?”
“They were caught sneaking in, and then they attacked me, Prince,” Faegon said.
Prince Calix laughed. “They attacked you—the mighty Faegon, ancient wizard of Galena—this young lady and small boy?”
Orin growled at being called small, but Shaeleen silenced him with a look.
“The boy has the power of speed, Sire,” Faegon said, clearly not enjoying being put down by the prince.
A small gasp ensued from the back of the room. Shaeleen turned toward it. A servant boy had been standing so still there that she hadn’t noticed him before.
Prince Calix whirled around and walked with deliberate steps to the boy. Without hesitating, the prince backhanded him across the face. “I told you that you are never to speak in this room, Poe.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of the boy, but he said nothing. A large, red mark with the outlines of the prince’s fingers reddened his face.
Shaeleen sucked in a deep breath. This man is dangerous. Basil obviously received all the genes for compassion.
The prince turned around and glared at her. “Do you have a problem with the way I discipline my servants, miss?”
Cole glared at her as if silently willing her to not say anything. But she couldn’t lie. “I think there are better ways to teach your servants.”
The prince pinched his lips tight, his face turning red. “How dare you tell me how to treat servants in my own kingdom.”
“It’s not your kingdom,” Shaeleen said forcefully. “It belongs to your older brother.”
As these words tumbled out, pain roared through her entire body. Shaeleen had never felt such agony before, and her body instinctively tried to bend over on its own. But the power of Faegon still held her tight. Then she retched on the floor in front of them.
“Shaeleen?” Cole rushed to her side. “Let her go!” he ordered Faegon.
Faegon looked at Prince Calix for confirmation, and the prince nodded his head. A puzzled look fell over his face.
Released from Faegon’s power, Shaeleen fell, but Cole caught her before she could hit the ground. Orin, who had also been released, grabbed Shaeleen’s other side, and together Orin and Cole lowered her softly to the ground, away from the vomit.
Shaeleen closed her eyes for a moment to try and push the pain back inside. When she opened them, the prince was still staring at her.
“Curious,” he said with a thoughtful look. Then, turning to Faegon, he said, “Take them to the guest quarters.”
“But, sir.” Faegon’s face barely held his anger in. “They are dangerous.”
“Nonsense.” Prince Calix waved a hand in the air. “Put guards on their doors, and magically seal it, if you wish. Cole hardly understands his powers, and this boy is just a renegade with a bit of Garnet in his blood. The girl, well…” He paused and studied Shaeleen again, tilting his head in a way that reminded her of Basil. “She may need some additional looking after.”
“My lord?” Cole asked. “She just needs rest and some food.”
Prince Calix nodded, smiling at Cole. “Of course, my young wizard. Anything for your sister. I am sorry this happened. After you have her settled, please come back. I would like to finish our conversation about how you can serve me and the throne of Galena.”
Shaeleen stood up on her own, but Cole and Orin still walked at her sides. What did the prince mean? She looked at her brother, who shook his head at her questioning eyes. This time she did stay quiet and let Faegon lead them to go to the guest quarters.
As they left the room, Shaeleen heard the prince tell the guards to clean up the vomit, then report to him for punishment. They’d had orders not to let anyone enter and would bear responsibility for their actions.
At their suite of rooms, Faegon closed the door behind them. Orin and Cole led Shaeleen to a golden couch, and she lay down on it and closed her eyes for just a bit.
She had felt truth and lies around Prince Calix. An increasingly uncomfortable thought began to grow in her mind. She pushed these incomplete thoughts away for the moment. She didn’t want to face what it all meant—at least, not right now. She was very tired and needed to rest.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Upon awakening after a brief rest, Shaeleen noticed her brother was not in the room. Orin told her Cole had gone back to meet with the prince and the wizard Faegon. She was worried that her brother was being manipulated by Prince Calix.
A note had been left for them, inviting Shaeleen, Cole, and Orin to attend dinner with the prince that evening.
A small basin in the corner of the room allowed them to clean up as best they could. Shaeleen stared at herself in a small mirror and tried to smooth her hair down. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were puffy and tired. It had only been that morning when they’d left the sh
ip—and the day was still not over.
Taking a deep breath and clearing her mind, she approached the door with Orin in tow. A guard escorted them to the dining hall. Although Shaeleen had thought it would be a private affair, around the room sat at least ten small tables, with groups of two to four people at each. As her eyes flicked in quick succession over each one, Shaeleen was surprised at the presence of Lord Bancroft, Galena’s minister of relations with Gabor. She hoped he wouldn’t recognize her from Lord Gregory’s birthday party.
In the back corner, two women sat talking with heads close to each other. Both wore exquisite gowns, making Shaeleen grateful they hadn’t forced something nice on her to wear. One of the women had dark, shoulder-length hair, curling lightly at the shoulders, while the other’s hair was gray, slightly covering her ears.
As if feeling Shaeleen’s attention on them, both women glanced up at her at the same time. Shaeleen let out a small gasp. The dark-haired one was the queen mother—mother to Basil and Calix—still a striking beauty, with smooth skin and intelligent eyes. The other woman looked directly into Shaeleen’s eyes, and Shaeleen felt the world spin faintly.
“Shae!” Orin held on to her arm. “You feeling all right?”
Shaeleen broke eye contact with the other woman and turned her head to Orin. “Yes, yes, I am fine.” Though her stomach began to sour.
Shaeleen flicked her eyes back to the older woman for a brief moment, but the woman had turned back to her conversation with the queen mother. Shaeleen was still sure the woman was the TruthSeer of Galena, a woman who had served the two prior kings and, by the haunted look in her eyes, had gone through numerous bouts of pain.
Is that how I will end up?
She cursed the keeper who had given her the TruthStone, although, upon thinking about it, her hand had crept into her pocket and felt the weight of it there.
Still scanning the room, she spied Cole at another table, in conversation with Faegon. They were laughing, and Cole seemed relaxed. He looked over and beckoned Shaeleen and Orin to their table.
“I don’t like that man, Faegon,” Orin grumbled.
“Because he was faster than you?” Shaeleen teased him.
Orin reddened. “Not just that.”
“I know what you mean.”
Shaeleen nodded her head as she wound her way through the tables. The men and women seated there stared hard at her and Orin, obviously trying to figure out who they were.
“I don’t like him either,” she admitted. “I wonder why he’s here with Prince Calix, rather than in Stronghold with Prince Basil.”
Shaeleen and Orin sat themselves at the table with Cole and Faegon.
Faegon gave them a slight nod, but he said nothing. He was younger than the TruthSeer he served, but not by much. The look in his eyes seemed to hold a lifetime of knowledge and experience.
Orin glared at the older man as if, by doing so, he could scare the wizard away.
Cole leaned over to Shaeleen and whispered, “Faegon has been telling me about my powers, Shae.” His eyes glowed bright with joy.
Shaeleen leaned back. “Be careful, Cole. I don’t like him.”
“But he is the kingdom’s wizard. He serves Galena.”
With her lips close to Cole’s ears, Shaeleen said, “I’m not sure if he serves Galena or Calix.”
“Prince Calix, Shae. He is a prince of Galena.” Cole’s eyes darkened. “Serving one is serving the other.”
Shaeleen shook her head at her brother’s need for honor and protocol. “Just be careful,” she whispered. “Remember our mission.”
“Our mission is to find out the truth, Shaeleen.”
That it was. And what was the truth here, in Prince Calix’s dining room? Once again Shaeleen’s eyes roamed the room. Off to one side, she spied two other guests that had been at Lord Gregory’s party—friends of Lady Judith, she was sure. Seeing them heightened her sense of danger. Why have I been invited to this dinner?
Double doors opened on one end, and Prince Calix strutted in. His dark cape swirled around him. Gold jewelry adorned his neck, wrists, and fingers, sparkling brightly in the candlelit room. His eyes surveyed the room then settled on Shaeleen. A small smile formed on his slightly downturned lips. Shaeleen turned away from his attention.
The prince seated himself at the table with his mother and the TruthSeer.
“That is Erlinda with the queen mother, Queen Raisa,” Faegon offered.
Shaeleen turned to the wizard, surprised at his sharing this information.
“It is no secret, young lady. She is our TruthSeer, the one and only TruthSeer of Galena. I have served her for over forty years,” Faegon said.
Shaeleen braced for the pain—as Erlinda was not the only TruthSeer in Galena at the moment—but the pain never came. Faegon gave her a surprised look, as if he had been testing her.
The lack of pain must have been because of the way Faegon had worded his statement. Unknown to him, Shaeleen was not a TruthSeer of Galena, but of all of Wayland. And, for the time being, Shaeleen willed that secret to stay hidden. But, with a glance over at the prince’s table, she caught TruthSeer Erlinda’s eyes and knew that at least one other person in the room knew who she was—or, at least, suspected her abilities.
Soon servants came into the candlelit room, carrying plates of wonderful-smelling food: roasted meats, steamed vegetables, and bowls of clam chowder, a seafood dish that North Bay was famous for. The sounds of silverware clicking and of a slight laugh from the back of the room were the only sounds Shaeleen heard as the dining experience began.
Shaeleen was enjoying her first real meal of the day. She took a deep breath and reveled in the aroma of the feast.
“This is horrible!” Prince Calix shouted moments later. He stood up with his bowl of soup in hand and threw it against a wall. Shaeleen jumped up at the sound. The rest of the room went quiet. The servants froze in place. And then Shaeleen found that she was the only guest standing. The prince glared directly at her, his face contorted in anger.
Cole reached his hand over to Shaeleen’s arm and tried to pull her down, but she stayed standing.
“Do you have a problem, Miss Shaeleen?” the prince said, directing his attention to her. The rest of the room looked back and forth between the two, the servants looking relieved that the prince’s attention was not on them.
“No.” She shook her head. “You just startled me, that’s all.”
“And do you agree with my assessment of the soup?” Prince Calix asked, his tone defensive—as if daring her to disagree with him.
Shaeleen happened to glance at the TruthSeer and caught her eye. The woman gave a slight shake of her head, as if telling Shaeleen to not disagree with the prince. But the soup, in fact, was very tasty—one of the more creamy clam chowders she’d ever eaten. Using her new intelligence, scenes of varying outcomes quickly played out in her mind, and she chose a course that she hoped would let reason prevail in the room.
“It’s only soup, my lord,” Shaeleen said, trying to soften the occasion. “The age of the clams, where they were harvested, and the spices used will understandably result in varying degrees of taste in any given batch and for each person tasting it.”
The prince seemed taken aback by her answer, but his face softened somewhat.
Shaeleen let out a deep breath and smiled in return. She had reached the man’s senses and thwarted a difficult situation.
Turning to the nearest servant, Prince Calix said, “Tell the cook who prepared the soup to leave my home. He will be blacklisted in all of North Bay. And get someone out here to clean up the mess. I hope the roasted pork has been prepared more to my liking.”
Shaeleen covered a gasp from her mouth, and this time did sit down.
Faegon glared at her and shook his head in a condescending way. “You should not have spoken to him that way.”
“What way?” Shaeleen looked into the old wizard’s eyes. “I just pointed out the obvious to him.”
> “Don’t you think he already knew what you told him?”
Shaeleen opened her mouth to retort and then closed it again.
“Shaeleen, he is the prince,” Cole whispered to her. “Have some respect.”
“I don’t care if he’s a prince,” Orin said to the table. “He is rude. The poor cook doesn’t deserve to be fired from his job. Prince Calix is a bully.”
Both Faegon and Cole shushed the boy, but not before a few others at nearby tables had overheard his comments. Luckily, the prince hadn’t heard.
The meal proceeded without any other interruptions or tantrums from the prince. The food was actually quite good, and Shaeleen enjoyed it immensely.
During a break in conversation between Cole and Faegon, Shaeleen turned to Faegon and said, “So, what are all these people doing here?”
Faegon raised his eyebrows and glanced around the room before answering, “They are friends of the prince.”
Shaeleen rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not that gullible, Faegon. There is no way Calix has this many friends.”
“Shae,” Cole whispered loudly in her direction.
How can two brothers be so different? She thought about the excitement and compassion in Basil’s eyes when he had thought about his people.
“Well, it’s true,” Shaeleen continued. “His brother, Basil, is adored by his subjects. But these people only hang around Calix because they want something.” Shaeleen scanned the room shrewdly and then turned back to Faegon. “What does Calix have to give them?”
Faegon frowned at her. “Why do I have the feeling you’re more than just the sister of a random wizard?” He placed his hands under his chin and leaned forward, mere inches from Shaeleen’s face.
It took all she had to not back away. But she had to find out what was going on here, so she kept her eyes fixed on Faegon without flinching.
He finally growled, “You are an exasperating woman!”
Orin stifled a laugh, and Shaeleen gave him a stern look to be quiet. Turning her attention back to Faegon, she brought forth some of the power of the TruthStone and repeated her question. “What do they want from him?”
