‘And who allowed them entry?’
‘The empress,’ Princess Wei-Song said, although the world thought her only a maid. Her mother had done so much to keep her safe from a world that feared magic.
The hunter sighed.
‘Why are you not watching over her then, healer? Is it not your job to ensure she is healthy?’
‘She has given up,’ he murmured, climbing to his feet. He was not surprised but still disappointed when the man smirked. ‘There is little I can do. She will be dead soon enough and you can go hunt someone else.’
The princess by the door pulled her lips into a hard line. She too had tried to console Lis. She had suggested teaching her or testing her to see what else she could do, but Lis wouldn’t risk her prince any further. Yang had tested himself a little more and, despite the increased number of guards around their little piece of the world, he was quite enjoying his lessons with Wei-Song.
But today the tutors had come in force, at the behest of their empress. No matter the rumours, for they were only rumours, their hidden princess had not enough time to be trained.
Yang took a deep breath before he entered the little room. She knelt leaning over the table, and the air felt sickly and heavy. He tried not to breathe in, wondering if everyone could sense the putrefaction of his princess or if it was only his magic that allowed it.
She created her characters with a perfect hand. Her fingers closed around the brush, but he knew the scars that remained. She maintained her focus, and Wei-Song gave him a not very subtle look.
‘How fares the lesson?’ he asked, trying to mask his concerns.
‘How is the sun?’ she asked without looking up. He could hear the exhaustion and pain in her voice and wondered briefly if the tutors could hear it also.
‘Sunny,’ he said, and she looked up with a small smile. ‘I could beg for you to come outside.’ He knew he would have to beg her to leave the room and the guards to allow it, and so far the hunter was having none of it. He had considered asking the crown prince, but he wasn’t very keen on seeing the man again. The prince was the one who had destroyed her, not those with magic trying to prevent a prophecy. A prophecy that seemed would not come to fruition.
The surprising aspect of the situation was the lack of people who knew just what she was. Yang had hoped it was the prince who kept her secret, but it was more likely the empress. Although he had no idea how she had managed to convince the prince to keep it quiet. The guards who surrounded her certainly knew what she was, and they didn’t look at her with the same level of hatred the prince had that night.
The emperor had recovered and assumed that his soldiers had taken the magics down. It also appeared, from what Wei-Song told him, that the emperor was determined an end to the fighting had occurred. They knew differently. Yang could still feel the hum of magic, and he wondered if the prince could also sense it. Although the prince hadn’t been able to sense the Hidden.
He sighed as she turned her attention back to her work. She moved gracefully, fluidly. Yang knew she had a skill he did not, and he wondered if that was why the crown prince kept her alive. But when would she have the chance to use her skills?
‘You are sighing again,’ she said without pausing in her work.
‘I try not to.’
‘And yet you do.’
‘What would you like me to do?’ he asked, bowing low.
She huffed and shook her head. ‘Don’t pretend I am something other than what I am.’
Tutor Jichun muttered something under his breath.
‘Is it wrong?’ she asked, real concern on her face, and Yang wondered if she could magic whatever was needed.
‘You are perfect,’ the tutor hummed. ‘The empress wishes to take your classes tomorrow. She has asked us to clear the schedule for her, although I don’t know what she would teach.’
‘Do you not think she has the ability?’ Wei-Song asked, and Yang couldn’t hide his smile. She was so protective of her mother. He wondered how many times she had hidden with her before she could hide more openly as a maid.
He also had an idea of why the empress wanted time with the hidden princess. For she was just as keen as Wei-Song to learn what Lis could do. She was going to be disappointed, he thought as he watched Lis’s gentle strokes over the paper. She put the brush down with a shaky hand and he stepped forward.
‘I think you should rest.’
‘I agree,’ the tutor added before she had the chance to retort.
She bowed to them both and moved to the back of the room where a narrow bed sat against the wall. Yang sighed before he could stop himself. The room, this little palace, was not fit for a hidden princess. Particularly one who had saved the royal family.
‘Prepare the tea,’ he said to the maid and then glanced up, remembering who she was. She bowed, clearly in character for the tutor, but he would pay for the comment later. The three of them had become an odd little family of sorts.
The tutors bowed and took their leave. When the door shut behind them, it was as though Lis’s strength evaporated. She slumped in the bed, and he raced forward to help her lie down. ‘You do too much,’ he murmured.
‘You would tell me I don’t do enough,’ she whispered, her eyes heavy.
‘You certainly appear as though you can do all that is required.’
‘Lucky I have you and your tea,’ she said with her eyes still closed. ‘Don’t look at me that way.’
He poked his tongue out despite her eyes remaining closed. She giggled, and the sound warmed his heart.
He had tried to cheat her a little. When she would sit up and drink her tea, he would pour a little of his energy into her. He had learnt how to be subtle. In a way, it was like when he tried to heal, the will of it making the magic ebb from him to her. He worked in a similar way as she slept of a night.
She shook her head when he helped her to sit up as Wei-Song appeared with the tea.
‘I know what you try to do,’ she whispered, giving him a sideways glance as she took the cup.
Yang tried to concentrate with the sound of movement in the yard, and then the prince stood in the doorway.
Lis continued in her slow movement as though he wasn’t there, but Yang could feel the tension in her muscles. Wei-Song stood slowly between them, allowing Lis to take the full weight of the cup. Yang smiled. Wei-Song was fierce, and he had a good idea she would win any fight with the crown prince.
As Prince Remi remained silent, Lis gently touched Wei-Song on the arm, and he could feel the strength it took for her to do it. The girl sighed and walked out into the garden. Lis handed the cup to Yang, but he remained where he was.
‘What else could he do to me?’ she asked, her voice cracking in her throat despite the tea.
‘You are sure?’
She nodded once, her eyes never rising from her hands. He bowed low and, with the cup still in his hand, followed Wei-Song out into the garden. The sunshine he had enjoyed so much not so long ago felt harsh and unkind.
His fate was entwined with hers, and he could not let the prince kill her further.
Chapter 2
Lis looked far worse than Remi had imagined, far worse than the last time he had seen her, and he still wasn’t sure what he thought he could gain by seeing her now. His mother suggested too often that he visit, and yet it had not been so long ago that she had warned him away. Reminding him of the traditions, and that he was ruining what semblance of the world they had left.
Although that seemed to lie about him in tatters now. After the magic and the men and the power she had. It scared him, honestly scared him, and he didn’t know what to do with that other than kill her.
She looked so close to death now that he wondered if it was the magic that did that to her. She was slumped forward in the bed, her eyes dark, her skin sallow and her cheeks hollowed out.
Has it been so long?
She pushed the covers back and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She looked so thin, and
a strange dark spot covered her belly, as though an evil leached from her. He wondered what good the healer did.
She noticed him looking and waved her hand, although it took obvious effort to do so. ‘I am nothing,’ she said, her voice thin and strained.
‘Do you mean it is nothing?’
‘I know what I say.’ Her voice was just as quiet, but it carried a strength behind it, a vehemence that surprised him.
He stepped forward and she flinched. He stopped, clenching his fists by his side. He had left his sword with the hunter, who was not happy about it, but he didn’t think he could face her with it again. He didn’t know how she would react, and he wasn’t sure what he might do.
She pushed herself up onto shaky legs and fell forward rather than knelt, bowing low before him.
‘Forgive me for not greeting you properly, Your Highness. If I had known you were coming…’ She looked around the little room and then back to the floor before her. ‘I would have prepared an appropriate greeting.’
‘You never prepared anything for my previous visits,’ Remi said, unsure how his voice sounded so level.
‘Breakfast was Mu-Phi’s domain,’ she said, her head still focused on the floor before her. ‘Tutor Na would be disappointed in my training. I shall endeavour to do better.’
‘I am sure you study hard,’ he said, taking another small step forward. Her body tensed, readying to move out of the way, and it burnt in his chest that she feared him. But then she didn’t appear to have the strength to escape him. He bent forward to help her up and then remembered the power she did have. He straightened, leaving her on the floor. She might not be what she appeared.
‘You may get up,’ he said.
She shook her head, staying where she was.
‘I am sure you rise when my mother commands it.’
‘If you command me, I will obey,’ she said, putting her hand flat on the floor and gathering her dress in her other hand.
He watched bewildered for a moment before she pushed back to her toes, lifting slowly from the ground. She shook a little and put out a hand, more for balance than anything else, and he took it to steady her without thinking.
She gasped, overbalancing as she pulled away from him. He reached out again, pulling her close and breathing in the strange scent that surrounded her. She shook wildly in his arms, her hand moving to her stomach, and when he chanced to look at her face, he could only see fear as the tears welled and spilled over quickly.
‘You are stronger than this,’ he said.
She shook her head. And he released her onto the bed, lowering her carefully. Her arms wrapped around her middle, where he noticed the dark stain had grown.
‘What has happened to you?’ He knelt before her, pulling her hands from her dress and trying to ignore the shaking.
She shook her head.
‘Healer Yang,’ he cried out, and she cowered from him, trying desperately to pull from his hold.
The man appeared quickly but paused a step from them, a dark expression on his face. Remi knew the man blamed him for this mess.
‘Why have you not healed her?’
‘She can’t be healed,’ he said, his voice clipped.
‘Because of the magic?’
She tried again to pull from him, but there was no strength there at all.
‘Because of you,’ the healer said. ‘Because she does not want to be healed.’
Remi looked at her, the fear still evident on her face.
‘You don’t want to live?’ he asked.
She shook her head.
‘Why?’
‘If I am not worthy of a quick death, then I must endure a slow one.’
‘You have done this to yourself,’ he scolded, releasing her hands, and she pulled herself away from him as far across the little bed as she could. ‘This is not where a hidden princess should be.’
A strange cackle filled the room from the woman who had seemed so sure of herself not so long ago. ‘Hidden,’ she laughed. She made to touch her hands together, and Yang shook his head. She clapped them together with what little strength she had and then laughed again. ‘I can’t hide,’ she said. Her bottom lip quivered as dark tears ran down her cheeks.
‘Lis,’ Yang chided gently.
Remi looked between the two of them, then reached forward and gently touched a finger to her cheek. It was as though she cried blood. Yang shook his head and left the room.
‘What have you done?’ he asked.
‘What you wanted of me,’ she whispered, the seriousness back in her voice.
‘I don’t want this.’
‘You need a new princess,’ she said, allowing her tired body to slide down to lie flat across the bed.
‘I have one.’
‘You don’t want her. The people don’t need her.’
‘I heard there was a prophecy that she would unite the empire.’
‘From a mad man with fire in his hands. I am sorry, Remi.’
His skin prickled when he heard his name. She had never used it before. She closed her eyes, and panic filled his chest.
‘I won’t let you do this,’ he commanded.
She huffed and remained still. He watched her for too long, the light dimming around them until the girl appeared with a lamp. He wrapped the covers around Lis, worried that she would not make it through the night.
He had done this. But then he didn’t know what he should do. He couldn’t discuss with his parents what she was, for he knew what would happen then. She might have saved them, but she was still one with magic.
She sighed in her sleep and then groaned, rolling slightly, and he moved from his stiff knees to sit on the edge of the bed. Yang watched him from the corner of the room, and he waved the man forward. Yang shook his head. ‘It is your turn,’ he whispered and stepped back into the shadows.
Remi lay down beside her and gently brushed the hair from her face. The tutor had reported that she was unwell but still completing her studies. His mother didn’t appear concerned, but then he didn’t know if she knew what had occurred between them.
He gently rested his hand on her shoulder. He wanted to pull her into his arms as he had before, to have her cling to him as though he were a lifeline rather than the enemy he had become. ‘I didn’t hear the fizzle,’ he murmured close to her ear. As his sword had penetrated her skin, he hadn’t felt or heard anything. But then if she was Hidden, perhaps no one would.
‘Fly,’ she murmured. ‘Remi, fly.’ And she rolled into him a little more.
Lis woke warm and comfortable for the first time in what seemed like an age. Her body felt a little less stiff as she stretched. Yang had spent too much time trying to help her. Although she had tried to tell him she was not worth the effort, he wouldn’t leave her side. In part because he too had learnt he was Hidden. Able to hide his true skill away from the hunters. He certainly seemed to be embracing it. After healing the empress of the darkness they had thought the priestesses had put on her, he had dedicated his time to healing Lis. She smiled at the thought of his warm embrace. He was usually close, but not usually wrapped around her body, and it was comfortable.
A hand rested on her foot, and she glanced towards the end of the bed where he sat, his hand on her leg, his back resting against the wall, sleeping soundly. That meant someone else was at her back. And although she had become friends, in a way, with Wei-Song, Lis knew it wasn’t her.
A deep voice murmured something and sighed against her skin. A wave of energy like what Yang had passed to her flowed over the arms wrapped around her. Did he understand what skill he had?
‘Your Highness,’ Wei-Song whispered over her. ‘Do you want your morning tea?’
‘Do you ever sleep?’ Lis asked, trying to sound light.
‘Not yet,’ the prince murmured as he rolled over onto his back.
Lis turned and looked him over; he was calm in his sleep, his brow less furrowed. He looked like the man she had begun to like when he would visit her
room in the residence and make sure she ate her breakfast.
Wei-Song looked at him with a mix of annoyance and curiosity. A brother she didn’t know, one who didn’t even know of her existence, let alone who she really was.
‘You murmured in your sleep,’ she said, handing Lis the cup as she sat slowly, pulling her leg from Yang’s grasp and leaning against the wall.
‘I’m surprised I got any, surrounded as I was.’ She sipped at the small cup. The tea was bitter, but she drank it without complaint. Yang would have ensured it had something in it to help her heal.
‘You were cocooned in their care,’ she said. ‘What did you dream of?’
‘I don’t remember,’ Lis lied. She was sure she’d been flying again, Remi’s arms tight around her, and she wondered if that was because of what he did for her. She had also dreamt of the fire and destruction, but it hadn’t left her feeling dry and burnt as it had before.
‘He has embraced what he is,’ Wei-Song whispered, looking over at Yang sleeping awkwardly. ‘You need to do the same,’ she said with a friendly smile.
Lis sighed and opened her mouth to say something else, but Wei-Song bowed low and turned.
Lis realised the prince was awake, lying still, his eyes blinking into the morning light.
‘You look better,’ he said.
She bowed her head to him but couldn’t speak. What could she say to him? She didn’t know where to start, and she was scared that he still feared her.
He surprised her by taking her hand in his and examining the marks his sword had caused across the skin. They were red and angry, but they had healed over. He ran a finger across her palm and she shivered at the touch, pulling away from him. He let her go with a sigh.
‘Your Highness,’ she managed, her voice feeling raw, and Yang murmured something in his sleep.
‘You called me Remi last night,’ he said, a smile playing on his lips. She felt a relief with it, but she bowed again.
‘I beg your forgiveness,’ she said.
‘There is no need,’ he said. The smile slipped, and he rolled away from her off the bed.
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 29
