Page 63 of Wings of Snow
Sandus waved over his shoulder as Nish propelled Ilara down the hall.
“Ock, I was just doing what was best for you, Ilara. You need your rest,” Nish grumbled. “If that innkeeper hadn’t been blabbering on?—”
“He wasn’t blabbering, Nish.” She gave him an exasperated yet amused look. “He was just doing his job.”
I placed my palm on Ilara’s lower back when Nish found the room, then led her inside. “Nish is right. You need to continue recovering. You’re still not fully well.”
“What about you?” Her eyebrows pinched together. “You were so depleted yesterday.”
My stores were still only half full, but I wasn’t about to let her worry. “I’m fine, more than fine.” I signaled my guard over her head. “Sandus, do you want to find us some food?”
Sandus nodded and did a one-eighty out of the room as Nish, Haxil, and Ryder did an interior perimeter sweep. I highly doubted that anything was a threat here, but my guards were the best on the continent and never took my safety for granted.
“Do you need your supplies to scry?” Ryder asked.
I gave a curt nod. “I do. A knife and my crystals. The knife will be easy to come by, but I’ll have to mistphase back to Solisarium to get my crystals. Will you guard Ilara?”
“With my life,” Ryder, Haxil, and Nish replied in unison.
Immense satisfaction bloomed through me when I took in their savage expressions. I wasn’t sure when it’d happened, but sometime in the past few weeks, my guards had gone from protecting Ilara because I commanded it, to doing so because they loved her as fiercely as I did.
* * *
I appearedin my bedroom chambers in the Solisarium castle in a flash of mistphasing magic. The second I fully reassembled, I strode straight for my wardrobe. Within a secret safe, tucked behind my royal capes, were my most valuable items. My crystals, letters from my mother, a lock of Ilara’s hair, a looking glass, a portrait of me and Nuwin when we were young, among other things.
After whispering the spell to unlock it and allowing the safe to prick a drop of my fresh blood in identification, the safe opened. I grabbed the small yellow crystals off to the right. They tingled within my palm, and I tucked them into my pocket. Some Solis preferred ancient bones to scry, but I’d always connected more with the magical crystals harvested from the mines in Harrivee’s floating meadows. They channeled my power with more precision than bones ever had.
Before closing the safe, I slipped my hand into my tunic and pulled out Ilara’s letters—the one she’d written to me on the night she’d fled as well as the one I’d found on the beach near Vockalin. To others they were invisible, but my illusions were never disguised from me.
Crinkled papers sounded between my fingers. I read her first letter again as my gaze traveled over her hurried scrawl. The night of the Rising Queen Trial’s final test, my mate had promised to fight my father’s commands once she found a way back to her powers.
A small smile curved my lips. I was truly enjoying the more assertive sides of her that had emerged, especially when they were directed toward the king.
I tucked her letters into the safe, then resealed it. Now that I had my mate back at my side and she was fully bonded to me, the need to keep her letters close faded.
Striding from the closet, I allowed my magic to rise so I could mistphase back to Ilara and my guards, but before I could, my bedroom chambers door flew open.
“Oh, my prince, oh dear. Thank the Mother you’re back!” My personal servant, Balbus, careened toward me as his thin hair flew about his head while his large belly jiggled. His shirt was partly untucked, and perspiration beaded upon his upper lip. Panting, he stopped before me in a sudden jolt. “I’m so very grateful that you’ve finally returned. I keep coming in here, hoping to see you, but you’re never present.”
His hurried tone birthed my scowl. The only prior times that Balbus had acted this flustered had been when my father had done something entirely wicked. “What’s wrong?”
The portly servant took gulping breaths, his chest heaving. “It’s Lady Endalaver! She has Daiseeum in one of her manipulation thralls. The poor lady’s servant has been like this for hours and is ready to claw her eyes out!”
“What?” I roared. “Are you telling me that myfiancéeis using her affinity against a servant?”
Balbus’s jowls vibrated he nodded so fast. “Yes, my prince, that exactly.”
“Fucking female,” I hissed under my breath. “Where is she?”
“In the Exorbiant Chamber. Please, help Daiseeum, my prince.Please.”
Knowing I needed to conserve my magic for what was to come with Drachu, I didn’t mistphase. I strode out the door and down the hall to the Exorbiant Chamber.
The guard outside the room straightened as I neared, but I didn’t let his greeting slow me.
I barreled into Ilara’s former chambers to see Daiseeum wailing, clutching her ears, and frantically pacing about the room while Georgyanna lay sprawled on the couch reading a book.
“Make it stop! Make it stop!” Daiseeum collided with the bedpost, then cried in pain as she clutched her head more. “Oh please, my lady, make it stop!”