The Child Prince (The Artifactor)

by Honor Raconteur

  She glanced at him and apparently found his expression amusing as she snorted, frown fading. “Relax. We won’t need to do it again. I’ve got the information I need from it. But I’m afraid the easy solution is out, now. I can’t track down that rump-fed giglet and force him to break the curse. We’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

  He preferred that over fighting a dragon. “But you can do it.”

  “Oh, certainly. It’ll just take some more experimentation and a few false tries before I find something that works. But we’ve got time.” She shrugged as if this was all just a part of the process and of no consequence. “Let’s go home and get breakfast. I’m starved.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Because the Beat-Up-The-Caster-And-Break-The-Curse Plan had epically failed that morning, Sevana needed to go back to the old method of curse-breaking. She sent Bel off to do his normal studying and training routine before retreating to her workroom. She had a lot of information to read through from Pierpoint’s study of the spell. He’d worked on it frantically for over two weeks, so he naturally knew more than she did at this point. His notes proved to be fascinating reading. It also confirmed a few things she’d already suspected.

  Hmmm, truly fascinating. Sevana had never once thought that Bel’s curse was slapdash or roughly constructed. If Pierpoint had failed to break it, then the spell had superior craftsmanship. That said, the more she learned about it, the more impressed she became. Whoever had put this together had not only amazing control over their magic but truly understood spellcrafting.

  She ran her finger over the spell’s components again. Dragon’s Breath, of course, for the base and then several drops of captured sunlight, a sliver of ice from the Endless Sea, all of it infused with moonlight. Not one shred of malicious intent could be detected anywhere in the spell. Which is why it got past his magical protection. Truly ingenious. Not that she didn’t want to castrate the person who devised the spell, of course.

  Setting her notes aside, she stood up from her worktable and started idly pacing the length of the room. Whoever crafted that spell had been too clever by half. It had a touch of almost every element (except wood and earth, but no one used those in casting spells). It made it harder on her to devise something that would break that curse. Whatever she chose to do must have an element in it stronger than what had been used in the spell or it wouldn’t have the necessary power.

  Just being inside of Big most of the time actually helped erode the curse a little. She had infused so much magic in the mountain over the years that it had a very strong natural defense to it. Casted spells couldn’t get through it. With Bel inside, the connection to the dragon’s magic was cut off. While helpful, it still wouldn’t solve the problem instantly. It just sped up the process of erosion a little.

  Besides, the kid couldn’t live strictly inside the mountain for the next five years. And that’s what it would take if she chose to let Big do all of the work.

  The thought of leaving Windamere in the hands of the Council for another five years made a shudder race up her spine. Especially now that they had shed all pretense and were now outright governing as they pleased.

  Earth, wood, water. The solution to this lay with those elements. Some combination of it would break the power of the wind. She could take two different approaches with this: either slow or slower. If she crafted something here, inside the workroom, it would take several days before any affect could be seen. And that’s if it worked.

  On the other hand, if she dragged him outside to a naturally large reservoir of that element and watched him for a few hours, she could tell what was the most effective.

  Two of them she could test easily. The Milby River lay just beyond the village, after all. She’d throw him into the water and see what happened after a few hours. Kid needed to learn how to swim anyway.

  After testing water, she’d test wood since Noppers Woods lay right behind Big. Seeing him hug a tree for a few hours should be entertaining.

  But after that…she already knew earth alone didn’t have enough power. Big would have broken the curse automatically once Bel stepped inside if he had the power necessary. So if water and wood by themselves didn’t work, she’d have to start trying combinations, based on what results she got.

  Regardless, they’d start with water tomorrow.

  A knock came at the door. She sat back in her chair and called out, “Enter!”

  Kip stuck his head into the room, but upon seeing that she didn’t have anything magical/dangerous/explosive in her hands, he had the courage to come in all the way. “So, how did your trip fare?”

  “It gave me a great deal of information,” she responded in satisfaction. “Why are you here?”

  “Ah, just delivering some orders for a few things,” as he spoke he drew several sheets of paper from a coat pocket and laid them on the table. “But also, I thought it might be a good time to give Bel some riding lessons. He was quite young when cursed, so I’m not sure how good he is on horseback. Even if he did learn, he might need a refresher course.”

  “I leave that up to you.” Sevana despised horses and always had. She would not be a good equestrian teacher.

  “I reckoned you would,” he responded dryly. “Where is Bel?”

  “Who knows.” She shrugged, honestly not sure where he would be and not caring, as long as he kept out of trouble. “Big?”

  On top, the mountain answered breathily.

  Again? Sevana let out a growl. “Tell me he took a shielding charm with him this time.”

  Did, Big assured her. Showed him one.

  Thank all mercy for that.

  Kip raised a finger in the air in an inquiring gesture. “Problem?”

  “Can’t keep the kid indoors for any length of time,” Sevana groused. “He’s got claustrophobia, I think, after being locked in a room for ten years. Understandable and all, but he’s giving me a headache because he likes to hang out on the edge of Noppers Woods. You know how dangerous that place can be.”

  Kip winced. “Especially for him. He’s a beautiful looking child. He’d be a prime target.”

  “Explain that to him, would you?” she requested in aggravation. “Because he’s not listening to me.”

  “I’ll try,” he promised rubbing at his forehead. “Have you been touching him a lot like I asked?”

  “Past few days, that’s been easy.” She shrugged. “After all, I had to carry him to use the far-see glasses.”

  “You say that, but there’s this evil glint in your eye. What else have you been doing?”

  “Working on his spatial awareness?” she offered with a mock-innocent batting of the eyes.

  “In other words,” Kip translated wryly, “you’ve been sneaking up on the kid and scaring the living daylights out of him.”

  “You told me to touch him,” she defended herself.

  “A request I now regret. I’d take it back, but judging from that expression, you’re having too much fun stalking him and won’t quit now no matter who tells you to.” Kip raised his eyes to the ceiling in a bid for patience. “Honestly, some days, I’m not sure who’s worse, you or Baby.”

  “Baby,” she said decisively. “At least I don’t sit on people.”

  Kip groaned and gave her that point with a flip of the hand. “Big, can you call Bel down for me? Tell him to meet me at the front door.”

  Big gave a wordless rumble of acknowledgement.

  Bel eyed the water warily. The river seemed murkier than the lake had. He couldn’t really see the bottom, just a swirl of brown that looked less than inviting. This late in the spring season, the day was rather warm, so the water likely wouldn’t be too cold. But…still….

  With a distinct lack of sympathy, Sevana ordered, “Hop in.”

  “There’s nothing in the water, right?” he asked nervously. There could be a water dragon in there and he wouldn’t be able to tell. For that matter, there could be an abrupt drop and he wouldn’t be able to tell. If he slipped in th
e water, he had no confidence in being able to get back to shore.

  “What are you so scared of? People are in and out of this river all the time. Get in.”

  He edged in, the water lukewarm against his skin, the mud squishing up between his toes. Face screwed up in distaste, he slowly felt his way along with his feet, cautious about either slipping or falling into a deep section.

  “Farther than that,” Sevana ordered in exasperation. “I can’t tell anything when you’re only ankle deep.”

  Bellomi’s ears picked up the sound of dry leaves crackling underfoot. Forest surrounded the river on both sides, but this sound had come from behind him. He turned to see who approached from the woods. From in between the trees he caught a glimpse of blonde hair. Oh no…don’t tell me…. His worst fears were confirmed within moments as Hana stepped into view.

  “I thought I saw the two of you head in this direction.” Hana smiled at them in greeting, stepping carefully around an upturned tree root so that she could stand on the shore. She had obviously been at work in the library as she wore a conservative dress of solid grey, hair caught in a neat twist at the nape of her neck. “Bellomi, I wanted to tell you that we have the book in that you ordered.”

  He had a flash of embarrassment at being caught in just shorts in front of her. After all, no woman really appreciated the body of a scrawny eight year old. Or supposed eight year old. But Sevana wore an evil smile on her face that suggested she knew exactly what he was thinking and he wouldn’t let her tease him about this later. He smoothed out his expression and gave Hana a smile.

  “My thanks. I appreciate you coming to tell me.”

  “Not at all.” She smiled back, dimples peeking out. “Although I admit, half the reason why I followed you down here was curiosity. What are you two doing?”

  “An experiment,” Sevana answered concisely. “Or we would be, if I could get Bel properly in the water.”

  Hana flashed her a thoughtful look before turning the same expression on Bellomi. He gave her a slightly trapped smile and edged a little further into the water, silently saying that there was no problem here and he was going into the water, see?

  “Bellomi, didn’t you tell me that you grew up in a city?” She didn’t wait for his confirmation. “Do you even know how to swim?”

  How had she guessed…? No, Hana had proved on their first meeting that she had a good head on her shoulders. And she thought about the people around her, so her guessing the root of the problem shouldn’t surprise him. “Well, actually…” he trailed off, shoulders slumping. “No, I have no experience with swimming.”

  Hana shot Sevana a frown. “And you wonder why he didn’t want to go any deeper?”

  Sevana’s brows arched, a hand held over her mouth as if hiding a smile. Actually, she probably found this whole situation hilarious. “He didn’t tell me he couldn’t,” she responded easily.

  “You have to ask children these sorts of things.” Hana shook her head in despair. “Bellomi, you stay right there. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Um?” he glanced between the two women in confusion.

  “I’ll change and then come back and teach you how to swim,” Hana clarified, already turning toward the village. “I can’t trust Sevana to do it. She’s a terrible teacher.”

  Before he could begin to formulate a (coherent) response to this, Hana had disappeared back into the trees. Him? With Hana? In water? He felt a flush heat up his whole face at the thought.

  This proved to be too much for Sevana, who clapped both arms around her waist and busted out laughing. “That’s quite a blush you’ve got, Princeling.”

  He frantically raised a finger to his lips. “Will you shush?” he demanded in a low tone.

  Ignoring his panic, she continued. “Not every day that a man can get swimming lessons from his crush. My advice? Learn slowly and fumble a lot.”

  He’d planned to do that anyway—no, wait. Not the point. He drew himself up and with all the royal authority he could muster, said, “Sevana, for the love of all that is holy, do not interfere.”

  That thrice-cursed smirk still on her face, she assured him, “Oh, I wouldn’t miss watching this for all the gold in Sa Kao. Trust me. I don’t care what you two do as long as you keep your body in the water.”

  Not exactly the reassurance that he wanted, but he’d take it.

  Hana came back within a few minutes, her hair done up in a loose bun and a robe on with two towels draped over her arm. She set the towels down on a large rock nearby before untying the robe and shrugging it off, revealing a black shift that ended at her knees and left her arms bare. Well. He’d always assumed that under the clothes she had a nice figure, but…well. Um.

  Highly aware that Sevana was watching this whole scene with avid amusement, he tried to keep his jaw in place and his eyes from staring. Hana didn’t seem to be aware of how awkward he felt as she just waded right in, taking his hand and coaxing him in deeper.

  “It’s not as deep as it looks,” she assured him as she pulled him along. “You can go almost to the middle of the river before the water will go over your head.”

  “That’s reassuring,” he responded with a game smile. He still didn’t like the feel of mud squishing between his toes, though.

  “Isn’t it? And we won’t go that deep yet.” She pulled him a little deeper before stopping. “Now, first, I’ll show you how to tread water.”

  He listened carefully as she explained and tried mimicking her as she showed him the movements. Despite his intentions to drag this out as much as he could, he couldn’t help but perform his best for her. She always looked so pleased when he did it right, he found himself doing it perfectly just to win that smile from her.

  Time passed pleasantly as the swimming lessons progressed. She taught him how to float (or tried to, he sank like a rock every time), how to swim, how to dive, and how to swim while on his back. Once he understood the mechanics of it, it proved ridiculously simple and he soon swam rings around her like a sea otter. Hana watched him and clapped in approval. “That’s it, that’s it!” she called in encouragement. “You see? You can’t drown now.”

  He swam back to her before cautiously standing again, putting his feet under him. Here, the water lapped around his shoulders. Taking advantage of his appearance, he put both arms around her waist and stole a hug.

  “My thanks.”

  She hugged him back, slicking his wet hair back from his forehead. “You’re welcome, Bellomi. How is it? Is it fun now?”

  Without releasing her, he looked up into her face. “It is,” he answered, surprised to find that he meant the answer. “Now that I know how, will you swim with me?”

  “Eh? Oh, can we?” Hana darted a look at Sevana, who was patiently waiting on shore, an open book in her lap. “I thought we couldn’t venture far.”

  Sevana lifted her head long enough to say, “You can swim anywhere you want to. Just don’t let him drown.”

  “Oh.” Hana looked perplexed, as if she didn’t understand why Sevana chose to stay nearby if that were the case, but she shrugged it off. Everyone in the village had likely gotten used to Sevana’s cryptic answers long ago. “In that case, let’s swim to the opposite shore and back.”

  That actually wasn’t a very far distance. “Race you?” he challenged.

  Hana ruffled his hair, laughing. “Already thinking you can surpass your teacher?”

  “Only one way to know.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, pleased when that made her laugh even harder. He liked it when she laughed.

  “Alright, then.” Hana stepped back and assumed a lower stance. “On three. One, two, three!”

  ~ ~ ~

  Sevana watched the two frolic in the water, both of them acting a decade younger than they actually were. (Not that Hana knew this.) Actually, Hana’s insistence on teaching Bel how to swim had been a lifesaver. If Sevana had done it, it probably would have ended disastrously. Besides, Bel had already spent a full two hours in that
river without seeming to realize just how much time had passed. If it had been just the two of them, he’d likely have started asking her endless questions just to pass the time. But with Hana, he’d be content to stay in there until the river froze over. Maybe even after it froze over.

  He certainly picked up swimming quickly, despite her advice. He’d been advancing quickly with his sword training as well, come to think of it. Perhaps he was a natural athlete. He couldn’t quite beat his swimming teacher, though. Hana reached the shoreline a good body length ahead of him. Then again, she had a longer reach than he did. For his size, he was quite fast.

  They stopped at the shore and sat down near the bank, catching their breath and laughing. With him this close, and their backs to her, she could pull out her wand and do a quick examination of the curse. Opening the book in her lap to a blank page, she gave Bel a quick scan.

  Hmmm? Interesting results. She had thought that because of the addition of ice from the Endless Sea in the spell’s composition that water wouldn’t have much of an effect. But it actually did. Flowing water did, at least. Being in the lake yesterday hadn’t done much of anything. She had tested him again in the river on the off chance that flowing water might be different. Still water, after all, didn’t have as much power to it.

  Lo and behold, being in moving water made a marked difference on the curse. Not significant enough that Bel himself would notice, but she could see the difference in the numbers. Used in the right way, this might be the power that she needed. Or at least part of it. She still wanted to try a combination of elements before making up her mind one way or another.

  Well, either way she had her answer. She opened her mouth to call Bel and then paused as a thought occurred. Bel’s social skills still had a long way to go. Sevana didn’t personally care what people thought about her or if she offended people, but a king should have very good social skills. And Hana would be a very good person for him to learn those skills from.

  So she sat back and turned her attention to the numbers in front of her, working out calculations and guesstimates and let the two of them play to their hearts’ content.