The guard proceeded up a flight of stairs, then headed south. She wished he could have told her where Arana and Phillip were sleeping exactly and then he could have stayed in the dungeon with his lantern, but she was afraid they wouldn’t have found their chambers fast enough. In the worst way, she wanted to reach both of them at the same time, assuming that the prince and princess wouldn’t be staying in the same chamber, maybe not in the same wing either.
“Here is Prince Phillip’s chamber.” The guard paused to look at it.
Sigrid saw a shower of blue dust around the entrance. “It’s protected,” she said.
“By the prince,” the guard said, then he continued on his way and Amerand and Halloran followed after him.
“They’re magic users,” Sigrid said.
“Then they can’t be prisoners,” Owen said.
Halloran turned into a dragon and entered Phillip’s room without any effect. Amerand followed in after him. “Shh,” Halloran said as they heard someone saying, “What is the meaning—who are you people?”
Once Sigrid saw that they were fine, she and Owen and the others hurried after the guard.
“Princess Arana’s chamber is this way.”
Sigrid, Owen, Kayla, and Alton walked for what seemed forever, upstairs, down a hall, into another wing, and down another long corridor. The guard finally stopped at a closed chamber door. “Here is Princess Arana’s chamber.”
“Good, return to your cell in the dungeon and sleep until morning. You won’t remember any of us being here.” Sigrid noted the chamber had a blue shimmer of dust too.
The guard nodded and plodded off.
Sigrid raised her hands and said a few words to remove the barrier spell, opened the chamber door, and saw a woman sleeping in a bed who looked eerily like her. She drew close to the bed. “Arana, we’ve come to rescue you.”
The woman’s eyelids fluttered open, and she opened her mouth to scream.
Owen waved his hand over her face, and she didn’t make a sound.
Sigrid turned to him and said, “You silenced her?”
“Yes. You’re right. I do have my abilities.”
“Cool. You should use it on Sinbad, if he gives us any trouble. I don’t have that ability.” Sigrid turned to Arana. “We’re here to rescue you. We’ve already found your brother. Hurry and dress. We could be stopped at any moment.” Then Sigrid frowned at her. “Your chamber door isn’t locked, but was protected by a magical barrier. Are we mistaken in believing you needed rescuing?” Sigrid saw a faint aura of magic surrounding the woman, but barely anything.
The woman couldn’t talk and Owen quickly unsilenced her.
Arana motioned to the iron bands encircling her wrists. “They stop me from shifting. And from casting more powerful magic. Who are you?”
“Your cousin. We’ll remove them when we get you to safety.” Sigrid didn’t know if she could undo the mage’s spell on them, but it would take too long to deal with it right at this moment. “Hurry. We need to leave at once.”
“My brother—”
“Others are freeing him now.” Sigrid helped her to dress, and then they hurried into the hall and all the way to the stairs that would lead them back to the roof.
Once they opened the door to the roof, they found all the dragons and the falcons and Sinbad waiting for them, a wall surrounding the roof, hiding them from view.
“Phillip!” Princess Arana said, seeing him, and giving her brother a quick hug. “You!” she said, as soon as she saw Sinbad.
Frowning, Sigrid asked Arana, “Did Malcolm use his mercenary mage, Sinbad, to imprison you on the island?”
“Malcolm is a wily one,” Phillip said. “He asked me to take Arana with me and make a treaty with the griffin fae to aid us in fighting King Yarrow.”
“Except when we got there, we met Sinbad. We didn’t know he was a mage, and he easily gave us jeweled bracelets in greeting. Once they were in place, they turned into iron manacles, and we were trapped on the island. Our wings couldn’t appear when in our fae form, and we couldn’t shift into our falcon form. And nobody can transport from the island. We tried escaping a few times, to their amusement, but we didn’t get far,” Arana said.
Everyone looked at Sinbad.
Before he could utter a word, Arana continued, “We learned from the griffin fae king that you were the one who had us sent to the island.” She pointed a finger at Sinbad, as if she needed to emphasize she meant the mage in their midst.
“I did. King Malcolm wanted to eliminate you. He spoke to me about it because he felt I was the most reliable person to get the job done. Why? Because I’m not one of your kind. Malcolm believed that others would rally to your cause if he commanded one of your own kind to put you down. I told him a better plan would be to send you to the griffin fae kingdom and my father would eliminate you. Your people would believe you were there working for the king, like I’m working for your brother. Even though my father and I are at odds, he knows killing foreign royals can be a problem. Better to keep them alive and healthy, and maybe exploit them later. As to Malcolm, he believed my father had eliminated you.”
“We need to finish what we came here to do,” Sigrid said. “If someone would ferry them to the mainland, we’ll help Sinbad force his father off the throne.”
“If you remove our manacles—” the princess said, holding out her wrists.
“Once this is done,” Sigrid said.
“I’ll have to go with you and Owen, but as soon as I do, an alarm will sound,” Sinbad said.
“Will you have your people’s backing?” Sigrid didn’t want to get stuck in a situation where suddenly all the griffin fae rose up to fight them. They’d never win against those odds.
“Yes, I will. Many don’t like the queen. She’s an upstart, mean to most, but my father allows it because he is blinded by his love for her.”
“All right. Let’s go then,” Sigrid said.
“We’ll take them to the shore and wait for you,” Halloran said, then shifted into his dragon form and the prince climbed onto his back. Amerand shifted and Owen helped Arana onto his back, and then the two dragons flew off.
“We’ll go with you,” Ena said.
“I’ll lead the way. It’s the fastest way to reach my father’s chamber. Once we’ve secured them, you can send them where you sent the warriors you vanquished,” Sinbad said.
So, Sinbad knew just who Sigrid was and what she’d done. But maybe not where she’d sent the men. “Sorry to say, but no. Once we’ve confined them, you’ll have to send them somewhere else yourself.”
“All right. Unless we do this right, there’s bound to be a fight.”
17
Sinbad led them down a secret passageway and Owen wondered—if Sinbad’s father would know of his son’s presence in the castle—why no one attacked them right away. Owen glanced at Sigrid, questioning if she had anything to do with it, and she smiled devilishly at him. He raised his brows in question as they moved silently through the corridor.
She whispered to him, “Sinbad’s walking in an invisible bubble that hides his aura. I wasn’t sure if it would work to keep his father from knowing he’s here. It still might not, but I had to try it.”
Owen worried that there was more to the situation than that. What if this was a trap for Owen and his new mate, and his cousins? Maybe something King Malcolm had cooked up even and that would make the mage worthier in his eyes? Maybe Sinbad and his father were on perfectly good terms. Or maybe it was a way of getting revenge against Sigrid. What if they thought to use Sigrid’s ability to make people vanish forever?
No matter what, Owen didn’t trust Sinbad.
Through a locked door that Sinbad had a key for and unlocked, they entered a small room, no other entrance in or out of it. Wardrobes and chests were located against the walls, all but one. Sigrid motioned with her head toward the opposite wall. Owen couldn’t see anything, but she whispered to him, “A door is there, hidden by magic.”
Sinbad glanced at her, looking a little surprised that she could see it. “Can you open it?” His voice was hushed.
“I’d prefer that you did.”
He waved his hands and revealed the door to everyone. “Just inside is the washroom, connected to my father’s sleeping chamber. At this late hour, my father and his wife should be sleeping. The children are in another room. I don’t know why my father hasn’t alerted the guards that I’m here yet.”
“Maybe it’s a trap,” Sigrid said, not revealing she had cloaked him.
Sinbad nodded. “Be ready.” He opened the door slowly, and then they moved into the washroom and around the tub surrounded by privacy screens until they reached the door that opened to the bedchamber.
Ena, Kayla, Kiernan, and Alton turned into dragons. Owen’s cousins unsheathed their swords. The magic users all prepared themselves mentally.
Then Sinbad opened the door to his father’s bedchamber. The room was dark, but Owen could make out the curtained bed. He wished he had his magically enhanced net. He hadn’t planned to be dealing with a magic user here, but if he could have tossed the net over the king, they could keep him from casting a spell.
Sinbad gently pulled the curtains back to reveal the bed. It was empty. Sinbad stared at it as if he was trying to figure out what had happened to his father and the queen. He rushed across the room and into another chamber. They quickly followed him inside, and he opened the curtains on another large bed. “Their children are gone.”
“Then, if they’ve left the castle, the kingdom is yours,” Sigrid said. “Without a fight.”
“Unless your father is lying in wait somewhere else,” Owen said.
Looking distraught, Sinbad headed for the door that led into another corridor and stalked toward yet another chamber and opened the door. “Lufkin?”
They all followed Sinbad to watch his back.
A man jumped out of bed and stared at Sinbad, then he saw the others with him. “My lord, it’s not safe for you here.”
“Where is the king?”
Lufkin glanced at the falcon fae. “You brought their kind here when they have murdered the king and his wife? We managed to hide the children before they could kill them too. They’ve been ruling here, waiting for your return so they could kill you too.”
“Arana said the manacles you gave them prevented them from leaving here,” Sigrid said to Sinbad.
“They did,” Sinbad said. “And it prevented them from using their magic.”
“They had erected barriers to keep griffin fae out of their chambers, it appeared,” Sigrid said. “Halloran walked right through Phillip’s entryway without any trouble.”
“They destroyed both your father and your stepmother using magic, while they slept in their bed, Prince Sinbad,” Lufkin warned.
“They could have forced someone to remove their manacles,” Sigrid said. “Why didn’t they leave?”
“We lied and said none of us had magical abilities, only the king, and he was now dead. And Sinbad, of course, and he was no longer here,” Lufkin said. “They planned to lay in wait for him.”
“But they still could have forced some to take them to the continent,” Sigrid said.
“Aye, but then what? They couldn’t shift, and they couldn’t have managed on their own. The manacles prevented them from using powerful magic, but they still had enough to kill the king and queen while they were sleeping. The cowards. And to keep any of us from attacking them. The spells on their doors were geared toward keeping the griffin fae out of their chambers, based on our auras. They couldn’t erect anything more elaborate than that. But they did manage to electrify armed knights who tried to overpower them. We hoped Prince Sinbad would return soon, and we could warn him and he could use his magic to destroy them.”
Ena shifted. “Amerand and Halloran! We have to ensure they’re all right!”
Alton shifted too.
“Have you vanquished the prince and princess?” Lufkin asked, sounding hopeful.
“They are gone from here,” Sinbad said, “I’ll return and be king, but I’ve got to help settle the issue between the hawk fae and our people. These falcon fae are our allies.” He motioned to Sigrid, Owen, and his cousins. “And the dragon fae as well. Let everyone know the prince and princess have been vanquished, and I will return as soon as I can. Where are my little brother and sister?”
“They are in the catacombs with armed guards and two nursemaids. Is it safe for them to return to the castle?”
“Yes. I will see them when I return.” Sinbad turned to speak to the rest of them. “Come. This is the fastest way to the roof.”
Sinbad led them in a different direction from where they had entered the castle, and once they were on top of the roof, they shifted, even Sinbad, into a griffin, and they flew toward the beach. That was a surprise to Owen. Like Sigrid, he’d never had anything to do with the griffin fae before and seeing the half eagle, half lion, was like witnessing something out of Greek mythology.
He prayed the dragons were safe. But he realized if the manacles prevented Arana and Phillip from shifting, they’d have to wait for Sinbad to remove them or they would have removed them already themselves. And they couldn’t transport themselves anywhere without the aid of the dragons.
But the prince and princess had to know what Sinbad and the others would discover when they went to oust the king from his throne.
If the king had been a powerful mage, then Phillip and Arana had to be powerful magic users too. Unless, as Lufkin had said, they had bushwhacked the king and queen while they were sleeping. What about King Malcolm? Was he also a magic user? Why hire Sinbad as his mage, if Malcolm could use his own abilities to fight against King Yarrow?
The dragons and falcons, and the griffin soared over the ocean, trying to reach the land mass as fast as they could, but it would take some time. Owen knew everyone was worried about their dragon friends.
Arana and Phillip would have to realize they would make enemies of the dragon fae if they killed Amerand and Halloran, Dragon at Arms.
When the beach finally came into sight, they saw the dragons flying above the sand, shooting streams of fire at large green lizard creatures. They looked like alligators, except they had spiked balls on the end of their long-wicked tails. They were about five-feet long, ate meat, nested in the caves in the ridge dividing No Man’s Land and the Hawk Fae kingdom, and attacked anything on the beach at night. Halloran and Amerand were swooping down for the kill, but the lizards seemed to have scales that would protect them from fire like the dragons’ scales did. Phillip and Arana were casting spells at the lizards. The blue streams of light looked like a freezing spell. The golden streams of light were some kind of paralyzing spell. But the spells appeared to be weak, not effective.
Owen said, “Their hides are protecting them, but the display of lights is making them hesitant to attack further.”
“But they can be killed with a sword,” Tarrant said.
“Why aren’t Halloran and Amerand just taking the prince and princess inland to the hawk fae territory?” Sigrid asked. “On the other side of the cliffs, the beaches are safer.”
“Unless they realized that the prince and princess were treacherous and set them down on the more dangerous beaches until we showed up. The dragons are safe up above while Arana and Phillip try to keep the lizards from reaching them,” Owen said.
Sinbad landed on the cliffs and then created an astral projection of himself on the beach.
“We helped you to rid yourself of your father and the queen,” Arana shouted at him. “You owe us.”
“I had promised I would let them live,” Sinbad said, “and banish them from the island.”
“We were not about to be imprisoned by your kind, mage,” Phillip said.
Sinbad waved his hands at the prince and Phillip tried to cast a spell, but he couldn’t.
Owen wondered if he’d done the same mind trick to Phillip as he had to him.
The
prince cursed under his breath as one of the lizards attacked Sinbad’s astral form, but his physical form was safely on the cliffs.
“You are now king of your kingdom,” Phillip said again. “You’re the one who imprisoned us there. What would you have done in our place?”
Owen agreed he was right. He would have done anything to free himself from imprisonment, especially when, at the whim of royalty, he could lose his head at any time.
“This changes everything,” Owen said to Sigrid.
“Sinbad’s father was supposed to be a powerful magic user, and I assumed my cousins had only minor magic skills, or Sinbad would have ensured they couldn’t use them against anyone in the kingdom,” Sigrid said.
“The kingdom is yours,” Arana said again. “We will be at peace with you. We only want to return home and deal with our brother, Malcolm.”
Owen wasn’t about to interfere. This was between Sinbad and the falcon fae brother and sister.
Sinbad glanced up at the dragons. “If you want to ferry them to the hawk fae kingdom, I’m in agreement.”
The dragons swooped down in unison, two landing to take the prince and princess out of there, the others repelling the lizards’ attacks. Once Arana and Phillip had climbed onto Halloran and Amerand’s backs, the dragons and the falcon fae all flew to the hawk fae coast and then inland to the kingdom.
Sinbad was flying with them as a griffin. Owen had thought he might return home now, but before they knew it, five more griffins joined them in flight. He hoped King Tiernan wouldn’t be angered to see the griffin in his territory and try to shoot them down. He suspected they’d come to protect their new king from the hawk fae.
They continued on their journey and finally saw the royal castle off in the distance. Several more castles, smaller in size, dotted the landscape, all built by the dragons, their safe refuge when they had fought with the king of the dragon fae.
“Who are you?” the princess finally asked, calling out to Sigrid.
“Your cousin, if King Malcolm is your brother,” Sigrid said. “How long were you imprisoned?”