The Black Mage: Complete Series

by Rachel E. Carter

  It was like there was some invisible cord holding us in place, trapping us in a daze we couldn’t break… until Eve tapped the prince’s shoulder and Darren turned back to his dialogue with the others.

  His back was to me.

  I continued watching him, memorizing the confident way he spoke and the way he drummed the saddle with his long, lean fingers until Ella reached over to wave a hand in front of my face.

  “Hey,” she chided, “enough of that!” Leaning in, she added, “We’ve still got a week to go before we reach Devon.”

  I’d told her everything weeks ago.

  “Those long, anguished looks are worse than your brother and me,” she added.

  For that, I managed a smile. “I know your aim hasn’t gotten any better since the two of you started those late-night practice sessions. What were they for again?”

  “Ssssh!” She clapped a hand over my mouth—well, she tried to. Her swat missed, and she almost swung out of the saddle, laughing. “If Master Joan or Byron catch one whiff of that, they’ll send us to latrine duty for a month!”

  They already had. Twice.

  At least the faction knew they were a couple. I had to suffer through Priscilla and the prince.

  The last two months, I’d been easily distracted and it’d shown in my performance. Too much of my time was spent watching that girl and wishing I were in her stead. The rest of that time was daydreaming about when I would take her place.

  My potential was at a standstill, and I had only myself to blame.

  Glancing back up front, I saw Priscilla had joined Darren’s party. My stomach twisted just looking at her run her fingers up his arm like he was hers.

  I hadn’t been able to do so much as hold his hand.

  My whole face was on fire, but I managed a deep breath. Ella was right. One more week, and then we could finally be together.

  “You know Alex is worried.” Ella interrupted my thoughts. “He says you shouldn’t get your hopes too high.”

  I frowned. “I know exactly what I’m setting my hopes for.”

  “He’s just trying to protect you. We both are.”

  “Well, tell Alex, if he really cares, he will keep his opinions to himself.” I regretted telling him the truth. He’d never liked the prince and now… “This isn’t a mistake. I don’t tell my brother how to go about his relationships—gods only know he’s made more mistakes than me.” I immediately regretted the choice of words when I saw the flush on Ella’s face.

  My friend pulled away, putting more space between our mares. “If anything, Alex’s mistakes should tell you he has a point. He knows how a man thinks. He knows how they act. He—”

  “Alex isn’t Darren,” I interrupted. “He doesn’t have any idea what it is like to be a prince.”

  Ella gave me a meaningful look. “Do you?”

  “More than him!”

  Ella sighed. “I wish you would hear him out, Ry.” A part of me wondered if she shared his opinion. Ella had a complicated past with Darren too.

  “He needs to apologize first.”

  “Alex just wants the best for you, even if he is making a mistake in the way that he goes about it. He remembers what I told him about Blayne, and then that time when Darren hazed you during your first year… It’s hard for him to forget that. He’s your brother, and I know more than anything he just wants to protect you.”

  I glanced to the right of our procession where the Restoration apprentices rode. My brother stared right back. I straightened in my saddle and glared straight ahead. I was the Combat mage. I could protect myself.

  I’D JUST HANDED off my reins to the palace hostler when something smooth and squared was pressed into the palm of my hand. A note? I glanced back, but the shaggy-haired stableman was already hurrying away.

  Curious to see what the paper said, I hurried to my assigned chambers in the palace without a second look back. Then I locked my door and read the scrap of crumbled parchment:

  R,

  Meet me at the palace gardens in one hour. Wait near the statue of Morteus. Look for an old hag with a long, gray braid.

  -D

  What? I hadn’t expected to see the prince until he talked to his father later that night… We couldn’t be seen together, so what was this?

  I made a quick attempt to wash from the morning travel and then fumbled around my bags for the right thing to wear. I held out the dress I’d worn to the solstice ball, but it was far too nice, and I had no idea what Darren had planned. Would I even see him at all? He wanted me to find an old woman, so there was no point in dressing up for him.

  Ultimately, I decided on a simple blue cotton dress that wouldn’t draw attention. I pinned my hair back in a makeshift twist and then left to find the gardens.

  When I reached the statue, there was a hunched figure in a red cape with a long, gray braid sticking out the side of her hood. I approached her nervously. “Ma’am?”

  The figure spun around, and I gasped when she withdrew his hood, chuckling. It was the prince wearing a wig, pressing one finger to his lips as he beckoned me forward.

  “Darren!”

  “Gran.” He pulled the hood back low over his face and grinned. “Are you ready for a real tour of the palace?”

  I scanned the gardens, suddenly anxious. “What if someone recognizes you?”

  “The only servants who know this disguise are loyal. The rest?” He smirked. “They are too blind to see who is right there in front of them.”

  “What about your father? Don’t you need to talk to him?”

  “The king can wait.” His face contorted. “The moment I tell him my intentions, I will be yelled at from dawn until dusk.” Darren took a step closer and took my hand in his. It felt so good after weeks of watching him do it with someone else. “Before I subject myself to that, I’d like to spend time with the girl who convinced me she was worth it in the first place.”

  My whole face burned. I still wasn’t used to Darren talking to me like… like I was special to him—like we were a boy and a girl together, instead of two forces colliding in a storm.

  “There’s that blush I was hoping for.” His eyes warmed. “I was beginning to think you didn’t care.”

  “Priscilla paraded you around in front of me for months.” My other hand was on my hip. “What did you expect me to do?”

  He grinned. “So you were jealous.”

  “Of course I was. You didn’t have to watch me and Ian—”

  Darren ducked under a nearby willow and dragged me behind him.

  “Darren, what are you doing?”

  The prince put a finger to my lips, eyes dancing wickedly. “Would I kiss Priscilla like this?” He didn’t give me a chance to reply, his hot mouth was on mine in an instant and I forgot my own name.

  Gods. My hands twisted around his neck as his lips parted mine.

  When he finished, I was weak-kneed and lightheaded, floating on clouds.

  Darren released me with a groan. “I forgot what that was like.”

  So had I. I’d remember it, but the memory was a candle to the flame of the moment. I swore I caught fire every time.

  “I should take you on this tour before someone spots us.” Darren’s eyes fell back to my mouth, and he didn’t seem interested in leaving. “If we stay here any longer, I won’t make a very convincing grandmother.”

  I didn’t want to do anything but grab Darren and let him make good on that threat.

  Focus, Ryiah.

  I swallowed quickly. “Right, let’s take that tour shall we… Gran?”

  Darren grinned and held up his hands, taking a step back. “All right. Let’s start with the kennels. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

  “SO YOU ARE the one who’s put the prince out of sorts.” A large man with a gruff voice and three missing front teeth beamed down at me. He’d introduced himself as Heath. “’Course I shuda known that it could never be that other one. His highness has never once taken her to meet Wolf.”
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br />   “So who is Wolf?” I glanced between the two. I hardly knew anything about Darren’s life in the palace. To say he was a mystery was an understatement. I didn’t even know Heath’s role.

  The man chortled. “Not who. What.” He motioned for me to follow through a large building that served as the kennels. Inside was a large enclosure where twenty hounds relaxed on comfortable oak panels. A second set of steps led up to another platform where even more of them slept. Against the wall were large bins for food and water, and a large door led to a grassy pasture where the dogs could roam during certain hours while the servants supervised. The falconry was just a bit beyond, and I could hear the angry bird cries across the room.

  “Is Wolf a hound?” There was a pit in my stomach, but I forced myself to ignore it.

  At the mention of his name, a thin, shaggy mutt lifted its head from the middle of the pack. Unlike the sleek, muscled palace hounds, this animal was frail. Clearly not used for the hunt. It was scrawny with gray matted fur and timid brown eyes peeking out of the long gray hairs that practically covered its face. It didn’t look dangerous, but then old man Crawley’s dog hadn’t either.

  “Come here, boy.”

  I turned quickly to look at Darren. The tone he’d used to call Wolf forward was so different from what he usually used that I almost couldn’t believe it had come from him.

  Darren didn’t notice; he had already jumped the fence.

  Wolf sprung to life and launched himself into his master’s arms. The dog yipped and thumped its tail so loudly I was afraid someone might think there was an attack.

  Foreboding filled my chest. I knew what was coming next.

  Darren glanced back at me. “Are you coming, Ryiah?”

  I hesitated for a moment. Maybe. Maybe I could do this. I took a step forward and gripped the gate’s handle, my knuckles white with trepidation. One of the hounds trotted forward to sniff at my fingers, and I leaped back, retreating to where Heath stood a couple feet away from the gates. My hands were slick with sweat, and I wiped them nervously against the skirt of my dress.

  “I… I can’t.” My throat was dry and the words came out scratchy and odd—like I was choking on sand.

  Darren frowned. “What do you mean you can’t?”

  “I mean…” I clenched and unclenched my fists anxiously. “I just can’t, Darren.”

  “Ryiah.” Something about the prince’s voice made me look up. “Are you afraid of dogs?”

  I forced myself to hold his gaze. “When Derrick was five, one of them attacked him. I was only eight. We’d both grown up playing with our neighbor’s dog, Bo, and then one day it just turned.” My breath hitched, and I made myself exhale. “It was terrible. Crawley had to—he couldn’t call Bo off—he had to…” I couldn’t say it. The blood and those glassy eyes afterward…. “And then Derrick had to spend two weeks being treated—we, um, we couldn’t afford a healer, so it was up to my parents to tend to his leg… It’s fine, now, but I—ever since that I just...”

  Darren hadn’t once taken his eyes off me the whole time I was talking. Now he straightened and approached the gate’s fence with Wolf trailing behind. When he reached the edge of the enclosure, he rested his arm on the top of the barrier’s railing. “Ryiah, I want you to come here.”

  I stared at him, wide-eyed. “You are mad if you think that I’m going inside.”

  “Ryiah,” he said patiently. “You want to be a war mage. Facing your fears is part of that.”

  I thought my fears would involve other things.

  Darren read the protest in my eyes.

  “You can.” His eyes held pity. “Ryiah, Bo was sick. It happens with the hounds when they are bitten by an infected animal, or even one of the strays. There’s no known cure when it happens. There was nothing you could have done differently.” He patted Wolf’s head and the dog yipped affectionately. “Heath and the rest of the kennel’s staff know the signs. You are safe. Now come meet Wolf.” There was a smile as he looked down at the shaggy-haired mutt; the kind I so rarely saw on the prince. “He’s the only family member I can promise will give you a warm reception.”

  I forced myself to take a step forward, and then another, until I was in front of the gate. Darren nodded encouragingly as I unbolted the latch and timidly stepped through its entry, every hair on end.

  Darren held out his hand, and I took it, hoping he wouldn’t notice how clammy my fingers had become. I let him gently tug me closer to Wolf and then held myself rigid as the mutt eagerly sniffed at my boots. The other hounds remained at a distance, seeming aware of my obvious discomfort, or perhaps a testament to their training and obedience.

  Wolf yelped, and I dropped Darren’s hand, heart slamming into my ribs. For a second, all I could see was the cold, hard axe and Bo whimpering in a pool of his own blood.

  “It’s okay, Ryiah.” Darren’s voice broke through the haze as his hand found mine again. “Wolf just wants you to pet him.”

  The hammering in my ears lessened, and I forced myself to look away from the prince and down to the panting gray dog at my feet. The dog looked up at me and thumped its tail, then whined again.

  “He’s a bit needy. I’m afraid I’ve spoiled him.”

  I took a deep breath and reached out to touch him. Wolf yipped and jumped up to meet my hand. I stumbled, unable to stop myself from pulling back in fear, and landed on the ground with Wolf bounding right on top of me. Wolf lodged his head at my throat, and I shrieked, arms held up against my face only to feel his warm, wet tongue against my skin. I lowered my arms, embarrassed, and the dog darted in to lick my face.

  Meanwhile, standing above me was Darren, shaking with laughter.

  I timidly began to pet the dog, still keeping one eye on his teeth while I shot Darren a half-hearted glare. “I could have been mauled!”

  “How? Being licked to death?” Darren crouched down with a grin to rub Wolf’s neck. “This one is a coward. The palace cats tease him about it all the time. The hounds chase them and then they take their frustration out on Wolf because he’s not fast like the rest of them. He’s only a stray.”

  I couldn’t help smiling a little as I shifted to a crouch, still petting the dog. This isn’t so bad. Bo was like this too, before it happened. “A stray?”

  Darren nuzzled his dog’s neck, seemingly unconcerned that he was getting white and gray fur all over his dress. The perfect, immaculate prince had a weakness after all. “When Wolf was just a pup, I found him wandering the palace grounds… I’m not sure exactly how he got through the gates, but it was raining and he was nothing more than a pile of bones, so I took him to Heath. I was only ten...” He suddenly stopped, and when I glanced at his face, it was pained. What happened? “I brought him to my first hunt.”

  “Is that how he got his name?”

  Darren’s hand faltered on Wolf’s neck. “It was.” There was another long pause. “During the hunt, one of the men broke his legs falling down a ravine and his horse didn’t survive the drop. A pack of wolves attacked. The soldier and I managed to kill three, but Wolf managed two. He couldn’t have been more than six months at that time.”

  It sounded like an ordinary childhood tale, but there was something dark he wasn’t telling me. I could see the memory as a garnet storm in his eyes. Whatever that day had been, there was more to the tale than he was telling me.

  Still, I knew better than to push. It’d taken this long for the prince to open up about his past at all.

  I rubbed Wolf’s belly, pleased to note the anxiety I’d been feeling had all but disappeared. Wolf was making excited yips and rubbing his back against the ground so that Darren and I had no choice but to continue patting his stomach. “He’s not so bad,” I admitted.

  The storm was gone as the prince rubbed a hand along his neck and smiled. “Wolf has had me wrapped around his finger since the day we met. There hasn’t been a day gone by that I’ve been in the palace and not visited this kennel.”

  “He better not be with
that filthy animal of his!”

  Darren and I glanced at each other: both of us recognized the voice. Prince Blayne couldn’t be more than two minutes away from the kennels.

  “Why he thinks it’s appropriate to come here before seeing to his family is—”

  “This way.” Darren led me to the back of the enclosure. He gave a nod to Heath and the man strode off in the direction of his brother with a smirk. A moment later, he and Blayne exchanged words—Blayne demanding to see his brother while the kennel master insisted he hadn’t seen Darren all day.

  “Let’s go.”

  I turned sharply. There was a tunnel I had never seen before—it had come from one of the panels in the wall. “Where did that—”

  Darren yanked me through the door and slammed it shut just as Blayne’s voice reached the hounds’ enclosure.

  “You see, Your Highness? Your brother isn’t here.” I didn’t get to hear the rest of their conversation; Darren and I were already running through the tunnel as fast as we could in the dark. I was mostly blind. Darren dragged me through the musty passage with a small casting of light—he seemed to have the turns memorized. There was no way I wouldn’t have fallen on my own.

  I crinkled my nose as we reached the end and Darren halted behind something solid. The entire place smelled like mold and cold, dank earth. “Where are we?”

  “The servants use this tunnel to feed the animals. It’s the shortest route directly through the kitchens. Cook gives them the leftover scraps. It helps the hounds keep up their stamina.”

  Darren did something to the wall and a door swung open to a very hot room teeming with steam and the tempting aroma of fresh roast and stewed vegetables.

  “What’s this—why is a beggar woman in my kitchens?” A hefty man in cook’s robes flushed, cheeks red as cherries as the prince dropped his hood. “Your Highness!”

  The prince gave the man a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s fine. Has Blayne already been down here?”

  “Your insufferable brother has already been down here twice.” The cook made a face. Apparently he and Darren had some kind of rapport. “I told him you were probably with that mutt.”