Remi was still distracted from the magic he had managed to form into lightening the day before, although his frustration remained that he hadn’t been able to hit the ground. He almost ran into an advisor as he stepped in front of him. Remi was somewhat overwhelmed by the power he held, and control was still his main focus.
‘Your Highness,’ the advisor said loudly, and he stopped. ‘Is there any response from the reports I left for you?’
‘What reports?’
The advisor straightened, and his face clouded. ‘You can’t ignore your duties.’ Remi heard his father in the man’s voice. ‘There is much to do, much to report on. Have you found any sign of the magics?’ he asked in a hushed voice.
Remi shook his head.
‘Your father wants you on the Palace Isle, but perhaps you should head out again and see what you can find.’
‘Perhaps they aren’t interested in coming back,’ Remi offered.
‘Maybe they are biding their time and making a plan. They were so determined to kill the hidden princess, and then there was nothing.’
‘She is not in any danger,’ he said quickly.
‘I’m sure you do all you can to keep her safe, Your Highness,’ the advisor mumbled. ‘She is a clever girl; she will make such a wonderful empress.’
Remi nodded. He only managed to keep her out of his head for a short while before she was somehow dragged back. And he was reminded of the link between them and the shared future they would have.
‘Have you seen her of late? I half expect to be told to move your desk to her little palace.’
He shook his head. ‘I have business to attend to,’ he murmured.
‘But the reports… You haven’t…’
Remi turned on him. ‘I will get to them when I am ready.’
The man took a step back before he bowed low.
When Remi made it to the house they had been practicing at, there was no one there. He spent time strengthening his cloud building, but he couldn’t make the lightning strike the ground. After an hour or so of frustrating attempts and no sign of the magics, he gave up and headed back out onto the street. As he rounded the end of the street, a loud scream echoed between the palace walls. He raced towards the sound.
He discovered a small group of people gathered in the street. When one of them saw the prince, they raced forward and bowed. ‘The hunter is here,’ echoed through the group.
‘What has happened?’ he asked the group.
‘Magics,’ someone said.
‘On the Palace Isle?’ he asked, moving through the crowd to find what they were grouped around.
‘The magic has returned,’ someone else said. ‘I heard stories on other islands, but if it is here, then it is back.’
A child started to cry.
Looking through the crowd, Remi made eye contact with Hui Te-Sze as he stepped forward. ‘What is going on? You have been scouring this island for weeks.’
‘As have you,’ Te-Sze returned, his scarred face pulling against the words.
‘Have we missed something?’
‘Something big. Have you talked with the princess?’
He shook his head.
‘She might be able to help. She can sense things we cannot,’ he whispered to keep the news from the crowd around them, which had started to dissipate now that Remi had arrived.
As the crowd cleared, Remi saw the two men, dead. One of them was the one who had been showing him how to use his water skills. The other was someone he didn’t recognise. ‘Did you kill them both?’
‘This one is magic,’ the hunter said, poking the water magic with a foot. ‘The other was visiting from another island. A minister or some such, going by his clothing. The group didn’t recognise him.’
Remi looked at him more closely. He vaguely remembered the man from court, but he wasn’t sure. He looked odd. ‘What happened to him?’
‘Looks like he drowned.’
Remi looked around. They were far from the docks, and although there were rivulets and ponds that ran through the palace, they weren’t near any of them.
‘Why would they do this?’ he asked. They had appeared as though they had been trying to help him, but actions such as these only showed that they were using him. Remi’s frustrations at his lack of lightning increased.
‘Because they can,’ Hui Te-Sze said. ‘There are more of them than we thought. As soon as he used his magic, I sensed him, and I arrived just as the other man died.’
‘Are you sure…?’
The man turned on him. ‘I can tell the difference,’ he snapped. ‘I know what I know. They are not Hidden,’ he added. ‘Perhaps you should talk with her some more. She could help us.’
‘You said that. Why don’t you ask her?’
‘Because she can’t come out of that palace without your say so.’
‘Then perhaps it is for the best, and her own safety, that she stays where she is.’
‘You were so determined to end this, certain they were behind your brother’s death, and now you don’t care that they are here. Are you so concerned for what she is?’
‘Why must she enter every conversation?’ Remi muttered. ‘I am the hunter.’
‘And yet the magic has clearly returned. Like the onlookers said, it is appearing more on the other islands. People are dying; the war is returning to us.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ he said.
‘I don’t care what you believe. It is true.’ Te-Sze stepped closer to him as other soldiers appeared. ‘Take them to the healers. I want to know exactly how he died, and anything else they can tell me of the other,’ he said to the group. ‘Something is going on with you, and I don’t like it,’ he said to Remi.
‘Who are you to tell me what I am to do? It is of no consequence if you approve or not.’
The man bowed stiffly. ‘Then I will go to where I can get help.’
Remi shook his head. The hunter could petition the emperor all he liked, but he wouldn’t get very far there either. Despite what had been happening in their capital, the emperor still believed the magic had been defeated and any sense of a return had been overturned. ‘Do what you think you must,’ he said, then headed back through the streets. He wanted to return and talk to the magics he had worked with; but, given the hunter’s suspicions, he returned to his palace instead.
Lis was surprised by the visit from the hunter. He didn’t pause to talk with the men in the yard as he usually did, coming straight into the palace instead. Wei-Song jumped up from the table and bowed low before disappearing and returning with rice wine. Lis didn’t know where she kept it or managed to find it for special visitors, but Hui Te-Sze was grateful and smiled kindly as Wei-Song poured it for him where he sat opposite Lis at the table.
‘I have not seen you for some time,’ she said. ‘How are things on the Palace Isle?’
‘Not as they should be,’ he said, holding out the cup for Wei-Song to pour again.
‘Do you need my help?’ she asked.
‘Perhaps I come to see if you are behind the trouble,’ he said, his eyes on the cup.
‘You know I’m not, or you wouldn’t visit in this way.’
‘True,’ he said with a laugh, and Lis tried not to wince at the obvious pain it caused him. He glanced at the healer, who watched him.
‘Healer Yang has great skill,’ she said.
‘I am sure he does, but I don’t think there is anything that can be done for me. And it reminds me I need to remain vigilant.’
Lis nodded once, and Yang bowed before taking a step back.
‘I have suggested your services to the prince, but he feels you would be safer here.’
Lis chewed on her lip and waited. She hadn’t seen the prince in some time, and she wondered if he would ever return after learning what he had of his mother.
‘Magic has very clearly returned to the Empire and the Palace Isle. The reports grow daily of brazen attacks. They seem to be targeted, but it is still a risk since we
can sense them as soon as the magic is used. I managed to kill a water bearer today.’ Lis gulped down the fear rising in her chest. ‘He was not near here. I think there would be enough soldiers to protect you here, if they knew where you were.’
‘I don’t think I am as well hidden as you think I am,’ she said, ‘but I appreciate the men protecting me.’
‘You don’t fear them?’
‘Not like I did,’ she said. ‘They may have been placed here to stop me escaping, but I understand how they keep me safe.’
‘I have asked the prince if I can use you for your sensing skills, but he won’t allow it.’
‘He doesn’t want me to leave,’ she said quietly. ‘Healer Yang has similar skills in sensing,’ she said quickly, looking up at him, and the hunter sat his cup down carefully on the table.
‘How similar?’ he asked.
‘We were both able to sense things you could not.’
‘Are you a Hidden?’ he asked Yang openly, and Lis held her breath. She didn’t want their secrets exposed to this man, but she had to trust him in some way because of the trust he held for her.
‘I am,’ Yang said, his voice surprisingly strong. ‘I could also reduce some of your pain.’
There was a clear hesitation before the hunter nodded once. ‘I need a scar to remain,’ he said.
Yang bowed before he knelt beside him and held up his hand. Te-Sze nodded once, and then Yang placed a hand over the mark on his face. After a moment, Te-Sze sighed with relief, and although Lis could see that the skin didn’t pull in the same way, the scar looked to be the same.
Te-Sze gave Lis a small smile. Then, taking a deep breath, he turned to the healer and pointed to his shoulder. ‘Would you mind?’
Yang bowed his head again. ‘You will need to remove your armour.’
The man looked at Lis before he unbuckled and slipped the metal from his shoulders. Yang then helped him to remove the leather beneath it, and Lis chewed on her lip to prevent her surprise escaping. The man was well built beneath the armour, clearly a soldier who worked hard, but the skin was red and tight and deeply marked across the left side of his body.
‘Not as pretty as you imagined,’ he said with a laugh.
Lis smiled with him. ‘Not quite what I imagined,’ she said, thinking that he did indeed look quite pretty. Despite the redness.
Yang slowly moved his hands over the mark, and the redness faded. The skin didn’t look quite so puckered now. The man sighed with the relief. ‘If only all the healers could work like this,’ he murmured, his eyes closed.
‘Cake,’ Wei-Song whispered. Lis waved her hand over the table, producing a small plate of cakes.
‘That sounds nice,’ the hunter said, opening his eyes and looking at the plate before him. ‘Just what I need.’
Lis indicated the plate, and he helped himself as Yang continued to work. As Te-Sze rolled his shoulders, Lis was tempted to lean across the table and touch him.
‘You will have some work to do to bring the condition back to your muscles, but they will be able to handle it now,’ Yang said.
Te-Sze nodded slowly and shrugged his leathers back on. ‘Thank you,’ he said, reaching for another cake.
‘Would you like to stay for dinner?’ Lis asked. ‘I am sure we have enough.’ She looked to Wei-Song, who nodded once.
‘I would not like to be a bother.’
Lis shook her head. ‘I would like the chance to talk with you,’ she said. ‘Tell me, have you seen much of the crown prince? He doesn’t visit as he did, and I worry that things are not as they should be.’
‘We have talked of the increased magic, but the prince doesn’t seem to see the same issue as he once would have. I thought that may be because of you, but I think it is something else.’
‘He does seem a little different,’ Yang said, looking at Lis.
‘He is struggling with what I am,’ she said, ‘and how that will fit with his future. I would like to be of help, but he isn’t going to let me.’
‘He might allow Yang to be of assistance,’ Te-Sze said.
‘I’m not keen to leave the princess,’ Yang said quickly.
‘She is surrounded by soldiers.’
‘Who know what she is and may kill her.’
The hunter nodded slowly. ‘But I could use your help…’
‘I will see what is taking Wei-Song so long,’ Lis said.
Beyond the curtain, she magicked up a large meal. Wei-Song started to carry it out to the table. ‘Will you let him go?’ she asked Lis when she returned for more plates.
‘I think we need to, but I understand why he won’t.’
‘I think you are better able to defend yourself,’ Wei-Song said.
‘Am I? I can grow flowers.’
‘You can move the earth—perhaps you could swallow them whole.’
‘Not if they were throwing fire at me. It is up to Yang,’ she said, then returned to the main room carrying a bowl of vegetables.
The hunter looked up from the food and smiled. ‘If this is a usual meal, I may have to visit more often.’
‘You are always welcome.’
‘And if I could borrow Yang, perhaps I could leave another hunter to watch over you…’
Lis nodded slowly, looking at Yang, who didn’t seem happy at the idea.
‘If it could stop the war we fear is coming, it would be better for you to go,’ Lis said.
He nodded slowly. ‘As you wish, Your Highness.’
He hadn’t been so formal with her in a long time. And it tugged at her heart. ‘As long as you return.’
He bowed, his smile bright, and she sat back to watch them eat.
Chapter 25
Remi walked quickly towards the house where he had been working with Chonglin. He had managed to lose the advisor again this morning, but there was something going on with Mu-Phi. She watched him far too closely, and it was unnerving. After the death of the water magic, he had been unable to find Chonglin for several days, but he had returned to the house to practice what he could on his own.
The fire burned quickly whenever he called it, but he was having very little luck with the cloud and rain. He struggled to make it any larger, and the lightning still flashed within the small grey structure rather than hit the ground. Now, with the water magic gone, he doubted he would find anyone else to assist him; and with Chonglin missing, he wondered just what control he could muster on his own.
His temper seemed harder to maintain, he thought as he pushed open the gate. In some ways, he considered returning to the hidden princess compound and using the open space there to see just what he could do. But his dreams of the gate had unsettled him, and there was always the risk of running into Lis.
He stopped in the doorway and sighed. The image of their rose came to mind as he wondered just what they could achieve together. If they worked together, they might actually be able to convince his father and the Empire that there was a way forward. A way to a world like they’d had before the magic war. He missed her, more painfully than he would have expected, and yet the uncertainty of what she was and what she had done to him put a distance between them he wasn’t sure how to cross.
Had he put himself in that danger? he wondered, still standing in the doorway. All those nights he had lain against her as the black sickness leached from her… Could that have been the cause of all of this? But then, that had been his fault. That had been him pushing his hatred onto her.
It wasn’t hatred she felt; it was fear. After the dream of the gate, she really thought he would burn her to dust. Maybe he would. Maybe he could if he needed to, to save the Empire or himself. He walked unseeing through the small house and out into the rear courtyard. As much as he wanted to be the altruistic prince and sacrifice himself for the Empire, as his brother had done, Remi knew deep down he wanted to live more than he wanted the Empire to succeed.
It was a disappointing revelation. He took a deep breath. The flames danced over his skin and he felt the
relief of it, as though keeping the flames from the world caused him pain. He shook his head. The flames threatened for a moment to engulf him completely, but he pulled them back to his hand. He couldn’t let his ideas of what Lis should or could be into his mind; it twisted him, and he was struggling enough.
‘Your Highness,’ a soft voice greeted him. He looked up with surprise to find Chonglin sitting against the wall of the house. A small flame worked its way across his fingers.
‘Where have you been?’ Remi asked. He wanted to think it was concern, but it was more for himself and his lack of training. His selfishness was more evident in his voice than he would have wished.
‘Hiding,’ Chonglin said with a strange laugh.
‘Hiding?’
‘The hunter knows we are here. You saw Li-Ze, his blood spilled out across the street.’
‘The water bearer?’ Remi sat slowly on a stool that rested against the back of the house. ‘Why did he kill the minister?’
‘He was to work with us, help us, but he changed his mind.’
‘Perhaps he knew just how expendable he was. Killing such a man in the middle of the Palace Isle does you no favours.’
‘We are not trying to impress anyone. We don’t need to,’ Chonglin said, lifting his dark eyes from his hands and staring with the same intensity across at Remi. ‘When we rule the Empire, no one will dictate to us how we should behave.’
‘Will you kill the common people in the same way?’
‘We will do what we must to survive. Your princess is helping the hunter.’
Remi shook his head. He had told Te-Sze that he couldn’t use her.
‘Your instructions mean nothing. She does what she wants. She might not leave the palace—trying to maintain an image of observing the traditions, perhaps. Yet whatever her reasons, she allowed the healer to go out with the hunter.’
‘He can sense the Hidden. It doesn’t mean he can sense you or your kind.’
‘Your kind,’ the man snapped back, and Remi felt the heat rise across his skin. ‘You are one of us.’
‘The hunters can’t sense me; they never could. I don’t know what I am, but I am something different from you. And you need me. I am the way you will rule this world.’
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 47