He catalogued his attire. Someone had placed him in a loose dark purple tunic and black pants and tied his hair back into a low ponytail. Faust wiggled his toes in disdain. It was unacceptable to set foot outside without boots. His state of dress and the room he occupied all pointed to him being a stowaway. He glanced to his right and caught sight of the green tunic he’d thrown on back in the castle covered in blood.
Faust touched his neck and winced. Bandages met his fingers, and he rested his head on the glass. It hadn’t been a dream. He flexed his hand and eyed the rope burns on his wrists. He was certain there were more of the same on his ankles.
Footsteps thudded against the wood outside the small room.
Faust crouched and covered his mouth.
“What’s this room for?” a voice asked.
“Extra storage,” Rene replied from outside the door.
“I still have to check it.”
“Be my guest.”
Faust huddled behind a tall stack of crates as the key turned and the door opened. He wasn’t out of sight, but if he stayed still, he hoped he wouldn’t be seen. The guard wore Volant armor and stared straight at him, yet he didn’t react. Volant guards were Emoris’s personal fighters who wore special flight armor powered by some unknown magic. He’d never been allowed to wear one, but one day, he’d get his hands on a set. It was odd of the guard to come up to a Volliare. This kind of check should have taken place when docked.
Magic rippled against his senses, and Faust stared at Rene. The historian’s aura flared a light purple as they locked eyes. Rene put a finger to his lips, and Faust nodded. He reached out with his own magic, and dark blue flashed back to him. It was magic from a water stone as he expected. Rene had used the moisture in the air to create an illusion of some kind.
“It’s pretty full in here. Are you certain His Highness is not on this airship?” the guard asked.
“I would sense him if he were. I was sent by order of the king to find him,” Rene replied, turning on his heel to walk away. “Come along. Your presence is making the people nervous.”
“By order of our deity, it is my duty to question you—”
Faust let out a breath and hunched as the pair walked away. Rene was here to protect him, but Faust didn’t understand why he was here and not back in his room in the castle. He glanced around. There had to be something in this room. He rummaged through the blankets. Nothing. He checked the crates next.
The wind beckoned him, drawing his attention to one crate in particular. It held a light purple aura like Konrad’s.
Faust lifted the top off the crate. It was full of clothes, but they weren’t tidy. He moved the clothes around and came across a small leather pouch. He took it out and flipped it over to untie it, and a letter fell to the floor among a bunch of official documents.
Faust stared. Those were the royal decrees he wrote for the court merchant, but the letter held the seal of the king. Faust snatched it from the floor and sat on his makeshift bed. He popped the seal and read.
Faust,
You will be safely aboard a Volliare run by the Guild of Artisans by the time you read this. Your alias is a court merchant recently appointed to Prince Faust Kingsley sanctioned by the Guild of Artisans named Lord Arcus. The guild will harbor and protect you wherever you go on your journey. They can be trusted.
As a court merchant, you will have power to order the guild and upheave any corruption you find, but that does not mean you can cause trouble wherever you go. Rene is your escort as he searches for Prince Faust.
I need you to lie low and stay out the hands of the Kingsley Knights. They are not on our side. We will meet again in Roltan in six months. Listen to Rene.
Konrad
Faust could not believe this. He was to be the court merchant. Faust’d thought Konrad had found someone for the job. No wonder Konrad worked him into the ground, Konrad had planned this.
Faust folded the letter and flopped on the pillows. The knights had tried to kill him. Joel had tried to kill him, too. All knights were trained by Emoris’s Servant of Power, Panos Acker, who carried a blessing from the deity that gave Panos heightened magic. Those knights should have been loyal to his crown.
Footsteps creaked along the planks outside again, and Faust stilled.
A key lodged in the door, and the heavy lock clicked back. Rene stepped through the door and closed it. The historian raised one hand, and the water veil dispersed, the water stone now dark in Rene’s hand.
“I am pleased to see you awake, Your Highness,” Rene said and sat next to the pile of blankets and pillows. “How do you feel?”
“Betrayed.”
Rene laughed. “Not like you hit a wall or two?” He grabbed the small pitcher of water by the bedside and filled a glass, passing it to Faust.
“Did you throw me into one?” Faust said with a nod of thanks. He drank the water and settled the empty glass in his lap.
Rene shook his head. “Only during training will I do that, Your Highness. Your fever broke around dawn, but you’ve been in and out of sleep for a few days.”
Faust gripped the glass tight. “What happened after I passed out?”
Rene leaned against the wall. “We defeated the knights, but it caused quite a ruckus. The king wished to find the man that gave you . . . a foreign substance as he put it, but our healer confirmed it was an antidote.”
Faust needed to find that man with the strange warmth again. He’d held a red aura that spoke of an unknown force of power among the three kingdoms. The warmth wasn’t the same feeling he got from a magic bearer, and it was almost as if it had a life its own. It reminded him of a deity’s magic as well, similar to the way wind guided him at times.
“Did he do anything to you?” Rene asked.
“Besides be rude?”
Rene shot Faust a stern look.
“No. He saved me and fought the knights. He knew they would kill me instead of helping me. Who was the other group? They seemed to want me alive.”
Rene touched the bridge of his nose in thought. “Windilum subjects. The king and I confirmed it when we ran to your room. We were lucky Lathil was away from the castle. I do not think we would have been able to smuggle you out of Limorous otherwise. Your little signals to us were quite helpful.”
Faust smiled at the praise. It had been arduous to maintain without giving his secret away, but it made him wonder if he hadn’t hidden his magic as well as he thought if people from Windilum had tried to kidnap him. They may have figured it out, but it didn’t explain the man’s warmth. He’d felt a warmth like this long ago, but it was a distant memory. He didn’t understand why anyone from Windilum would help him. Their kingdoms didn’t get along.
“Did Joel say anything to you?” Rene asked.
Faust turned to the historian, anger boiling under his skin. “He killed my parents.”
Tension fell from Rene’s shoulders. “It’s as the king feared, then.”
“What do you mean?”
“Emoris is attempting to curb the Kingsley line,” Rene explained. “My orders are to investigate a few corrupt lords, check the conditions of the people, and find any clues concerning our late queen.”
“But the knights reported her death as an accident.” Kingsley Knights had reported that her carriage had fallen into a ravine, killing Queen Arleen, Princess Lynn, Princess Giselle, and Prince Ian. But Konrad’s daughter, Olivia, survived. Konrad found her surrounded in plants and could only assume Arleen had saved Olivia before herself. “Konrad thinks they fabricated the whole thing, then?”