As the door closed, Lis rolled out of the bed and padded over to sit at the table. The maid sat the cup before her.
‘He is hard on you without reason,’ she said to the girl.
‘He has always been hard on me. He works hard, and he expects the same from those around him.’
‘What is your name?’
‘Mu-Phi,’ she said, bowing to Lis.
‘Where have you been sleeping?’
She pointed back to the corner, and Lis frowned.
‘I know you would like some space, Your Highness, but he insists that I am close.’
‘I would rather you had a proper bed. Let us organise it. We shall be like sisters.’
Mu-Phi smiled and shook her head. ‘It is not my place.’
‘I would rather you comfortable, or you shall not be able to do your job properly.’
‘I shall see what can be done. Now, you must eat, and I have something special.’
Lis watched her skip back to the little corner of the room and return with a small box.
She sat it down in front of Lis and waited, her hands clenched before her, clearly excited about what was inside.
Lis pulled the lid off to reveal sweet cakes like those her mother used to make, perfectly shaped into flowers. The smell was overwhelming, and her mouth watered instantly.
‘My mother made them for you,’ Mu-Phi said, sitting down again and grinning.
Lis lifted one to her nose and breathed it in before biting hungrily into it. She moaned with the pleasure of it, and Mu-Phi laughed. Lis pushed the box across and nodded, and Mu-Phi hesitated for only a moment before taking one.
‘Thank you,’ Lis said, her lips still cakey. Then she pulled out another. ‘The best breakfast I have had in a long time.’ And she bit into the second cake.
‘Perhaps I should have made something more nourishing,’ Mu-Phi said, a worried look creasing her brow.
‘I am not likely to survive the first year, let alone three, if I continue with the empress as I have. Let me enjoy what I can of life while I have it.’
Mu-Phi laughed and poured more tea. ‘I think the prince will ensure that you are all you can be.’
‘Really?’ Lis asked with a mouthful of cake, and they both laughed.
Then Mu-Phi became very serious she bowed to Lis. ‘Yes. On his life,’ she said.
Lis woke from a dream where the whole world was burning around her to find that she was just as hot and dry in the waking world. The maid stood fidgeting by the bed and, despite being hidden in a dark corner, she could sense the prince reaching out for the magic in the room.
‘What has happened?’ she asked Mu-Phi in a hushed tone. Her throat burned, and she was desperate for water. As though sensing her needs, the girl knelt down beside the bed with a cup in her hand. Despite its heat, Lis gulped it down.
‘What happened?’ she repeated, looking past the girl to the corner.
‘What did you dream of?’ the maid asked.
Lis shook her head, sitting up and trying not to groan with the effort. She wasn’t clear on what had happened in the dream, whether it was her or someone else that had caused the devastation, nor why it had happened.
‘Magic,’ the prince whispered, and she froze. Had she unleashed what her father had feared, and he had sensed her?
Lis squeezed her eyes closed, wondering what he would do. When she opened them, she squealed, for he was standing over her.
‘Do not fear,’ he whispered, too close. ‘I have increased the number of hunters around you.’
Lis raised her eyes to the girl sitting beside the bed.
‘I am not what you think,’ Mu-Phi said.
‘You are more than you appear to be,’ Lis answered before she could stop herself. She looked up briefly at the prince, who tried not to sigh as he sat down on the edge of her bed. Was he too familiar?
‘She is the only other person I truly trust,’ he said. ‘If I cannot watch over you directly, then Mu-Phi is the only one to be alone with you in this room.’
‘The tutors?’
He shook his head.
‘I don’t trust your mother; she is too determined that…’ Lis bit her lip. ‘I am sorry.’
‘I would rather you were honest with me.’
‘Even though you think I ran away to Peng.’
‘You did run away to Peng,’ he said, standing.
She wanted to reach for him, but she didn’t. ‘Why are you here?’
‘There is a sense of magic. It appears to be everywhere I go, and I can’t find it or determine exactly where it is coming from.’
‘You fear it,’ Lis said.
‘You don’t know what they can do.’
‘I saw a man form fire in his hand,’ she said, leaning forward.
He nodded.
‘What have you seen?’ Lis asked.
‘All the elements in some form or other, and then those who have tried to shape the minds of others.’
‘Could they shape your mind?’ she asked, fearful of something dark.
‘I think my hunter abilities will help prevent it, but I don’t know. Perhaps I am bewitched already,’ he said with a smirk.
‘Your mother would not appreciate you here, and the healer said I am to rest.’
‘You don’t appear to be getting much rest.’
Lis nodded and lay back. She was exhausted, as much from the dream as after her time being invisible. ‘I should sleep,’ she said, pulling the covers up.
The prince and the maid moved closer to the door to talk in hushed tones. She wanted to tell him he could stay, but then he was only next door. If she caused any flames to leak from her dreams into the room in the night, she would rather he wasn’t there to see it.
Over the coming days the prince appeared in her room just as often as the maid. Her tutors had not returned. The dreams had become clearer in some ways, and much darker. Lis wasn’t sure what side she was on. But she woke the same way from each one, feeling drained and hot and sure that she had watched the whole world burn.
It was after one of these dreams that the prince rushed into her room as she woke coughing and she was sure she saw someone on the other side of the doorway before it closed.
She glanced at the maid, who was fussing by the pot making tea, but neither of them seemed to notice him, so she wondered if he was a remnant of her dream. But once she had settled down later that evening and the prince left, satisfied that she was well although muttering about getting the healer, she noticed the man standing in the hallway again. The prince walked past him as though he wasn’t there. He held his finger to his lips, and Lis squeezed her eyes closed.
The next morning, she jolted up from the bed as the prince arrived with a healer and the man, wearing muted colours, a lopsided smile and loose long hair, followed them in.
‘She isn’t sleeping,’ the crown prince announced, his voice showing his frustration.
‘I sleep,’ she said. ‘I have been having strange dreams that wake me,’ she added, and the man no one else could see raised his eyebrows.
‘You need your rest. It is the stress of your situation,’ the older man said. ‘I shall talk with the empress.’
‘I need to return to my lessons,’ Lis blurted. ‘There is not enough time.’
‘I do not think there is as much to learn as my mother thinks.’ Lis turned to the prince as he spoke, and he looked lost for a moment. ‘Perhaps there is more than I think.’
Lis laughed despite her head aching and her dry throat.
‘Three days,’ the healer announced to the room. ‘If I am satisfied with your condition in three days, you may return to your studies.’
She nodded once and took the offered cup from the maid.
‘I think the baths would assist in your healing,’ he announced.
Lis looked straight to the prince, her heart suddenly pounding.
‘Mu-Phi will be with you every moment, and I shall stand outside the door.’
She nod
ded and gulped.
‘It is to help you relax,’ the healer chastised, as though she was foolish to fear such a venture.
‘I shall discuss it with the guards,’ the prince said, leading the healer from the space.
‘He told me what happened in the baths,’ Mu-Phi said. ‘Have you not been back?’
She shook her head.
‘Ahh,’ Mu-Phi said. ‘My mother has made more cakes,’ she added brightly, trying to change the subject completely.
‘I feel like an invalid,’ Lis murmured, watching the man walk the room. ‘As though I’m not capable.’
‘The prince thinks you are.’
The man stopped and looked at Mu-Phi, then back to Lis. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t place it. Was he at the island she had visited? He wasn’t the man throwing fire at the old tutor. A school, she realised. The answer had been before her all along and she hadn’t seen it. Somewhere they could learn. Lis looked down at her own hand, flexing her fingers and feeling her magic just below the surface.
What could she do if she had the opportunity to learn how to use her magic? What wonders could she create? She looked up slowly as the door opened and the prince returned. What horror could she wreak if she wanted to?
She sighed and looked at the man standing back from the prince. What did he want, and why hadn’t she told anyone he was there? She looked back at her hands. How long until he dropped from the exhaustion of maintaining the invisibility and was discovered?
‘They are ready for you,’ the crown prince said, and she looked back to the maid.
They would have prepared the streets, cleared the people, just so she could travel to the baths. She stood, feeling a little wearier than she would like to admit, and the maid was beneath her arm, supporting her. The other man, she noticed, had also stepped forward.
As they moved out, the man unseen by the others bowed to her. When she followed the prince out and down the steps, it was harder than she imagined it could be. What did she do during those dreams that drained her so completely?
The litter sat just inside the main entrance, and a guard stood back with the curtain lifted. She smiled her thanks to him, noting how different it was to have him look at her. When the curtain dropped back into place, she was lifted smoothly from the ground and jostled along. She was unsure whether she was more nervous about what might occur at the baths or what the man left alone in her room might do. How long would he stay, and what did he want from her?
As they travelled, she could hear the prince and the maid talking. She couldn’t hear what was said, but it was comforting that they were both with her. She felt a stab of guilt that she could like the prince. Yet he had been nothing but kind and had saved her several times already, while Peng had already forgotten her.
When the litter stopped and she was helped out, she stood for a moment too long inside the gate. The prince bowed once and disappeared inside. He returned after a little longer than she expected. ‘I think he has checked it thoroughly,’ Mu-Phi said, leaning in beside her.
She nodded and stepped forward as he emerged. With the maid at her side, she entered the royal baths. A lemongrass scent filled the steam, and she tried not to chew her lip.
Mu-Phi helped her out of her clothes and held her hand as she stepped down into the bath. Sure she could still see the blood in the water, she put a hand over her mouth at the coppery scent.
‘It is safe,’ the maid reassured her. ‘There is nothing and no one here.’
Lis nodded and allowed herself to relax into the hot water. Mu-Phi moved to the side of the bath, and Lis could see her with a basket. ‘I am getting some lotions for your hair,’ she called back, her voice echoing strangely in the room. ‘Do you want to wet your hair?’
Lis nodded, took a breath and submerged her head under the water. She ran her fingers through her hair and then opened her eyes. The water was dark, and she couldn’t see anything. She broke the surface half expecting to see someone, but it was only Mu-Phi, smiling and indicating the step. She poured a lotion into Lis’s hair and massaged it in vigorously.
After a little while, Lis allowed herself to close her eyes and relax. The maid poured water over her hair and repeated the experience. The hard fingers on her scalp helped relieve her tension.
Lis returned to her rooms in a relaxed daze, feeling calmer and ready for sleep. She had forgotten the man in the room until Mu-Phi had tucked her in and left, at which point he tapped her on the shoulder.
She stifled a scream and sat up slowly.
‘You are never alone,’ he whispered, his eye on the door.
‘How can you stay as you are for so long?’ she asked.
‘That is not important. Are you unwell?’
‘Tired, from my time as you are, and I have these dreams.’
‘Can you tell me what you dream of?’ he asked in a hurried whisper.
‘It is not clear, but the prince is often there at the edges of my vision.’
He held up a hand, looking back to the door. ‘He trusts you,’ he whispered.
She nodded. ‘He doesn’t know.’
‘When you can use all your skills, he may come to understand the good you can do.’
‘He may trust me now, but he will kill me as soon as he knows.’
The man smiled then. A warm, genuine smile that made Lis want to smile with him. ‘He cares for you.’
‘Someone else told me the same thing, at the school,’ she added, leaning closer to the man who was now kneeling at her bedside. ‘But I’m not sure.’ She looked towards the door.
His smile broadened. ‘He has risked everything to bring you here, to have you close and ensure your safety.’
‘I am the future empress,’ she said.
‘It is more than that.’
‘What do you want from me?’
‘I want what your prince does, to keep you safe. Although for possibly very different reasons.’
‘And they are?’
The door opened quietly and the maid entered. It was only when she briefly glanced across at Lis that she realised Lis was sitting up. ‘Are you unwell?’ she asked, rushing over.
‘No. Where were you?’
‘The crown prince wanted…’
Lis held up her hand. ‘You don’t have to tell me,’ she murmured, her face heating at the idea of them together.
‘I will let you rest,’ Mu-Phi said, backing out of the room.
Lis sighed.
‘It is not what you think,’ the man said, now standing beside the bed.
‘You don’t know what I think,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘Or anything of who I am. There was another like me, a woman who took me to the school.’
He nodded once. ‘The princess.’
‘Princess?’
‘That is a story only she can tell. We want you safe and strong. Neither of us are a risk to you.’
‘I guessed as much,’ she said. ‘But there are others who do wish me harm.’
‘They know what you can be.’
‘I can’t even learn to be a hidden princess properly. What else could I be?’
‘You will see. I will leave you in the care of the crown prince. Rest. It will become easier.’ He bowed low.
‘Will the dreams stop?’ she asked as he headed for the door.
He shrugged. Lis climbed out of the bed and opened the door for him. As he stepped into the hallway, she followed and noticed the prince and the maid talking in hushed tones by his door. The man turned and bowed low before her. With a grin, he strode past the crown prince without him even noticing he was there. She watched him walk along the hallway and down the stairs.
Was the overall feeling of magic blocking the prince’s ability to pick up what was around him—or was this man, as she was, truly hidden from him and the other hunters?
Chapter 25
Wei-Song sat behind the desk at the front of the classroom, evidence of the recent fight still scorched across the wall behind her
. The young man she had sent to find the hidden princess rushed into the room.
‘Your Highness.’ He bowed before her, and she worried the girl had been lost.
She waved him up from his knees. ‘Did you find her? Is she safe?’
Kei-Bi nodded. ‘But it is hard to get close to her.’
‘Guards?’
‘The crown prince himself watches over her.’
‘I am surprised the empress lets him that close,’ she mused.
‘The empress is not what she was. I am sure she feels the betrayal of U’shi, and the prince has coerced her into letting the hidden princess remain at the royal residence.’
‘Do not presume to know the mind of the empress,’ Wei-Song said sharply, and he touched his head to the floor before her. She tried not to sigh. ‘The royal residence didn’t offer enough protection to save the eldest prince,’ she said. ‘U’shi is with child then?’
He nodded.
‘Has he placed a hunter close by?’
‘He is a hunter,’ the man reminded her. ‘He has placed Mu-Phi as a maid, and he is just next door. He visits with her far too often, and I’m sure he looks in on her while she sleeps.’
‘I heard stories of how he cared for her when she was found.’
‘In a cell,’ the man murmured with a shake of his head. ‘Not the way to look after such a woman.’
‘A woman who is intended to be your future empress.’
‘She reminded me of that herself,’ he said.
‘You like her,’ she said with a grin.
‘She is struggling. I remember such a time myself. She has strange dreams, and she looks exhausted.’
‘Did you learn anything else?’ Wei-Song asked. She wondered at the dreams herself, but she wasn’t going to raise that with this man. ‘What of the others?’
‘There was no sign.’
‘Was the former hidden princess working with them?’
He shook his head. ‘She only thought of herself, and spending time with the tutor. When she left the hidden princess to see her lover, it was by chance that they reached her in the baths.’
‘Has he changed the guard?’
‘He has added to it, but I think they remain essentially the same men.’
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 19
