‘You are jealous,’ the tutor said, the disappointment clear on his face. He sat at the table.
U’shi surprised Lis by sitting in the man’s lap. She reached her arms around him, pulling herself close. Lis wondered if she should make her escape, but then U’shi’s arm brushed close to the pot. She focused on it and then the cup, which still contained water.
‘Who else do you bring here?’ she snapped, leaping up.
‘No one,’ the tutor stammered, turning to look where she had. Then they looked at each other and around the room.
‘Could she have chosen our hideaway?’ U’shi asked.
The tutor moved quickly out into the rear of the little palace and then back. He shook his head and moved into the other room. ‘If she was here, she is gone now,’ he said when he reappeared.
‘We should tell the crown prince,’ U’shi said quickly, turning for the door. The tutor caught her arm and pulled her back to him.
‘And what would you tell him? That you found signs of his runaway princess where you secretly meet your lover? Would you add that we were here together when you should have been assisting her in the baths the day she was nearly killed?’
U’shi shook her head. ‘I could lie. I could say I thought I saw her enter the gate.’
‘You lie so well,’ he murmured, pulling her close for another kiss.
Lis couldn’t listen to anymore, and she slipped past them into the garden. The gate had been closed, and she cursed her stupidity in staying so close to her palace. She should have run far.
Chapter 15
Remi paced in his room, then walked out onto the balcony again. The soldier who had failed to bring him any useful news still waited by the door, and Remi had been trying to hold his temper. ‘There has to be something,’ he growled at the man.
‘Not a sign and no word. Do you think they want something?’
‘They took her for a reason, I just don’t know what it is. Or how,’ he added, turning to the soldier. ‘You were there, you saw where the soldiers were placed.’
The man nodded.
‘How did they get her out of the palace?’
‘The man in the back had disappeared,’ the soldier offered.
It was soon discovered that he had gone to relieve himself, but he hadn’t gone far enough that he wouldn’t have noticed the princess being dragged away.
‘She would have screamed,’ Remi murmured. ‘She’s not the type to give up without a fight.’
‘What if she went willingly?’
‘Because they persuaded her it was for the best?’
‘She was engaged to another; perhaps she would rather be with him…’
Remi turned angry eyes on the man as he petered to a stop.
‘She knew what was required of her,’ Remi said with a sigh. ‘She would not bring such shame on her family.’
‘Could they have gagged her or knocked her out?’
‘It is the only thing I can think of,’ Remi said with a nod, turning back into the room. ‘Although a tutor and maid were present as well. How did this person enter her palace?’
‘There are too many questions, Your Highness, and not enough known of just what those with magic can do. Could they become invisible?’
‘I would have sensed him.’
‘There have been others on this very isle that we did not sense at first.’
Remi looked around his room and then strode for the door, the soldier following behind. He had a sudden vision of Ta-Sho, twisted and burnt. He had no idea of how anyone had gotten so close to him. Anyone within the residence with magic would have been sensed by Remi himself or one of the other hunters.
He raced along the hallway, pushing out his senses before him. Could there be someone hiding right under his nose without him knowing it? He burst into his brother’s room. It was just as he had left it, as though Ta-Sho might walk back in at any point. There were still some papers on his desk that Remi had yet to look at closely. They didn’t appear to have been disturbed the day he found his brother dead.
He sat at the desk, feeling the loss of his brother, almost fearful that Ta-Sho would enter at any moment and chastise him for sitting there. But this was who he was. The hunter, the investigator—not the crown prince, not the future emperor. Although, that was who he was to become now that his brother was gone.
The reports were piled neatly on the right-hand side of the desk, and Remi reached for the top one. It was a report from a noble on Third. He skimmed through the report; it talked of supplies and the like, and then there was a brief, unclear mention of a boat he had seen.
‘Why would he mention such a thing?’
The next was from General Zho-Hou, and Remi realised that he didn’t fully understand everything his brother had done. He had been in correspondence with so many. Remi found his own name on a report and read it with more interest. The general had praised his actions and raised concern that there was more magic apparent within the Empire than they had thought.
‘Could it be returning?’ Remi wondered aloud.
‘Your Highness?’
‘Magic. Could it be that the magic is increasing? That there continue to be children born with it, despite the deaths during the magic war?’ He had thought that magic must be in the family line somewhere for it to manifest, but perhaps it wasn’t as easy as that.
The next report he picked up simply read: ‘The child is found.’
‘What child?’ He turned the report around, but it didn’t state who it was from, nor any indication as to when it was written.
What had his brother been looking into? And could this child be one of the reasons he had been killed?
Remi pushed himself up slowly from the desk. ‘Have these sent to my room,’ he said to the soldier, who placed his arms together and bowed to the prince. ‘Have all reports stopped since my brother’s death?’
‘I will find out,’ the soldier said.
‘Have everything redirected. The world knows me as the crown prince now; I must continue my brother’s work.’
The soldier bowed again and disappeared.
There was still a strange mark in the middle of the floor where Remi’s brother had been murdered. Why had his father wanted this kept quiet rather than sorted? Someone had killed him. Someone had been brave—or stupid—enough to come into the royal residence, in the middle of the Palace Isle, and kill the crown prince.
He remembered his brother with a sword; he could have defended himself from anyone easily, yet somehow he had been beaten so badly. What had he discovered? Remi could remember his brother always standing and coming around the desk when he visited. Taking him by the arms. They would have stood on this very spot.
Could it have been someone he knew—someone he trusted?
Despite his need to continue what his brother had started in the hope of discovering who or what had killed him, Remi headed out into the square. He watched the people for a little while, wondering who amongst them might know something, who might be hiding something. He was frustrated that there was not enough he could do.
If the princess had run away, as suggested, she might have gone home. Back to her father, for her mother had just died. She might be caught up in her grief, and there was no shame in that. Remi wondered if she wore the veil as he had suggested. It gave her more freedom, although he doubted she saw it as such. For she could travel and remain hidden. He wasn’t sure at what point in their history they had started locking girls away, and he was sure there was more to the history of the hidden princess that he wasn’t aware of.
But it didn’t matter now. He needed to find her; he needed to ensure she was safe. ‘Peng,’ he murmured to himself, heading for the docks. The man she had loved before she was hidden away. Could she be so desperate to see him that she had run away?
A strange anger built in Remi’s veins as he strode forward, only to be jarred back to reality when he noticed the sheer number of soldiers around the Palace Isle. They were stopping everyone
, and he veered along a narrow street that led from the main square. Soldiers knocked on gates and entered homes.
They were doing everything they could to find the princess on the Palace Isle. It was up to Remi to see if she was elsewhere.
He strode through the great gates and onto the docks, looking over the few boats that were tied against it. There was no other way off the island. The rocks against the high walls that surrounded them were too sharp to allow a boat to get close enough, and the watchtowers along the wall housed enough soldiers to notice someone trying to scale the wall from either side.
How could she have made it all the way to the dock without someone seeing something? Remi leapt aboard his own boat. It had been used so often to travel between the islands searching out those with magic, but it had sat idle in the dock for too long while he’d done his mother’s bidding. His focus should have been on searching out his brother’s killer. Perhaps if it had been, he wouldn’t now be searching for his lost bride.
His heavy footsteps brought up the captain from below deck, the man about to growl at whomever had jumped aboard the prince’s ship, only to find it was the prince himself. He stopped mid-flight and bowed.
‘Do you know where General Long’s island is?’
The man nodded once, but then looked back towards the shore.
‘I need to get there.’
‘I shall pull the crew together.’
‘Now.’
‘Please, Your Highness. I cannot sail a ship this size alone. The men are all within the nearest barracks. A few minutes and we shall be underway.’
Remi relented and nodded. Perhaps he should have told someone where he was going, but they would be back before nightfall. And hopefully, he would have his hidden princess with him.
The captain moved quickly, as promised, and they were sailing away from the Palace Isle within a few minutes of his leaving the prince. With the large ship, it didn’t take long before they were out into deep water passing the other islands. Remi wondered if it had taken her so little time to reach him for the Choosing. Would it have taken hours longer with their smaller boat?
One of the crew pointed out the small island, which grew quickly as they sailed towards it. It was quite some distance from the main islands of the chain, and Remi wondered why the general had wanted to be so isolated from the rest of the Empire in his retirement. His father often talked of General Long’s great deeds and all he had accomplished in the name of the Rei-Een Empire during the magic war. They had been friends in a way, Remi had sensed listening to the stories. The general could have retired to a large palace within the Palace Isle itself. Perhaps he had wanted to distance himself and his family from all he had done during the war. Remi also had moments himself he wanted to forget. His brother’s burnt and twisted body was one of them.
A man stood on the dock waiting for the boat to reach them, but he was slight in build and Remi didn’t recognise him. At one point, Remi wasn’t sure if the boat would be able to reach the little jetty, but the crew sailed it in without incident and the man took the ropes to tie it up.
As the gangway was pushed out, the man bowed low to the prince.
‘General Long waits for you in the house, Your Highness.’
Remi nodded at the man and strode towards the house. It was a simple but large dwelling, well placed to look over the water and the surrounding land. Remi noticed the field beside the house and wondered what it would look like in flower. There were patches of green around the palace isle, but not like the other islands and certainly not like here. He smiled to himself, imagining Lis standing amongst the wilderness, her hair loose and her feet bare. She belonged here. He sucked in a deep breath, remembering why he had come.
‘Your Highness.’ General Long bowed low as he entered the main room. The man who had met them on the dock entered just behind him, and the general looked up and scowled, waving him from the room.
‘Stay,’ Remi said. He would want to talk to everyone.
The man moved over and stood beside a young woman just behind the general. His other daughter, Remi guessed. She looked very much like Lis, the family resemblance clear, but she was not nearly as pretty. He shook his head to dispel the image and tried to determine what he should say. He’d had it very clear in his head as they had travelled here. But now that he saw a nervousness on the general’s face, he didn’t know where to start.
‘Is she here?’ he asked, instead of what he had planned.
‘Who?’ The general looked confused.
The prince opened his mouth and then closed it.
‘Has something happened?’ the other man asked, clearly concerned.
‘Peng, hush,’
‘Peng,’ the prince repeated slowly. ‘You were to marry Lis.’
He nodded once.
‘She is missing,’ he said quickly.
The general stepped forward. His daughter started to cry, and the young man crossed his arms savagely across his chest. ‘How could you let this happen?’ he asked, his voice carrying the same anger.
‘Peng,’ the general admonished again. ‘I’m sure the crown prince has done all he could to keep her safe. And now all he can to find her.’
‘I wondered if she might have come home,’ he said softly.
The general’s face turned hard. ‘You think she would run away from her responsibilities? That she would bring such dishonour on her family when we have just lost her mother?’
The prince found himself shaking his head quickly, and the general took another step forward.
‘But that is what you think, or you would not have come.’
‘I thought her taken,’ he murmured, unsure of himself now in the face of the great General Long. ‘But she can’t have simply disappeared, and there was no hint of magic, no sign of anyone else around her palace. I was just outside in the street. Talking of security and…’
‘And yet you could not keep her safe,’ Peng accused loudly.
‘I have failed her,’ Remi said, looking down at the ground.
‘What can you tell me?’ the general asked, stepping forward.
Remi shook his head.
‘Why are you here?’
He sucked in a breath and looked at the general levelly. ‘She is not happy as the hidden princess. It is not what she hoped for,’ he said, looking past the older man at Peng. ‘She tries her best, but my mother is hard and the tutors are difficult. When I could find no sign of magic, I feared she may have run away. Returning home in desperation and grief at the loss of her mother. To Peng,’ he added almost inaudibly.
The general sighed then. ‘Please sit, Your Highness. It has been a long journey from the Palace Isle. Drink with me.’ He indicated the table and waved his daughter from the room. He looked pointedly at Peng, who waited before he followed her out.
‘He is a great help to your family,’ Remi said, watching him go.
‘He is part of the family, even though Lis is gone.’
‘I did not mean any disrespect,’ he said.
The old man shook his head as his daughter reappeared with rice wine and cups on a tray. ‘I know your motives,’ he said softly as the girl laid out the cups.
She appeared younger than Lis, and Remi studied her a moment. ‘Were you at the palace for the Choosing for my brother?’
She nodded once and took a step back.
‘Thank you, Ting,’ the general said.
She bowed once to the prince and disappeared.
‘She is a good girl. This has all been very hard on her.’
‘I am so sorry for your loss,’ Remi said sincerely.
The general poured wine and held his cup up to the prince before downing its contents.
‘What do you think my motives are?’ Remi asked after doing the same.
‘To find my daughter. Although she is no longer mine. She belongs to you and the Empire.’
‘She will always be General Long’s daughter.’
The old man smiled a little and poure
d more wine. ‘She is not here,’ he said. ‘She has not run away. Who would have taken her?’
‘I fear there is magic in the palace. I have seen more signs of it than I would like, although my father will not trust my skills as he should. But although I believe magic was involved with Lis… I mean, the disappearance of the hidden princess… I have not been able to detect it.’
‘At all?’ the general asked, downing another cup.
‘I could feel a taint of it, but there was no sign of magic, no scent of it.’
The general nodded once. ‘You will find her.’ It was a command, not a question.
Remi got quickly to his feet, bowing low to the man. ‘I will return now. Soldiers cover every inch of the Palace Isle. They search every home. She will be found.’
The general bowed low to him and he walked unaccompanied back to the boat.
Chapter 16
Lis stood on the bridge and watched the fish swim lazily beneath it. As desperate as she had been to get home, her newfound invisibility was a welcome relief. Like this, she could take the time to study the island and all its beautiful buildings, although not as many were in use as she had imagined, and there were not as many people as she had expected from her mother’s stories.
She had been wandering for hours, enjoying the fact that no one could see her, when she discovered the bridge and the pond she had admired with the prince on her way to the hidden palace.
At the idea of him, she scowled. He had done so much for her, and yet he so easily took the life of someone so dear to her. The only explanation was that he knew what Peng was to her and had killed him anyway. There was no magic involved, not with Peng, and she was certain he had been killed for a very different reason.
The prince himself had seemed so kind. He had certainly appeared to put her safety first, and she could still remember the fizzing sound as the man in the bath house had been run through. She shivered with the idea, then looked up from the calm water and the fish to find a young woman on the other side of the channel watching her.
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 12
