Chapter 11
11
Felix’s throat closed as Morlokk’s sonorous voice filled the room. “ You have been tricked…”
He had known from the beginning that he couldn’t maintain his disguise forever. Somehow, though, he still hadn’t been prepared for this moment to come.
He grasped hold of the table before him as his gaze clung to Queen Saskia’s vividly compelling face, waiting for fury to overtake her first shock.
He didn’t have to wait for long. As her dark eyes flared wide, she let out a growl that reverberated through his bones. “Of all the arrogant, insulting, unbelievably disrespectful bastards—!”
Oskar leapt to his clawed feet on the table between them, his feathered head bobbing as he frantically scanned the room for enemies.
“Your Majesty”—Felix fought to keep his voice steady—“if you wish for my resignation—”
“Don’t be absurd,” she snapped, without even glancing back at him. “ You can stay here in peace. I’m going to go teach that dark wizard a lesson about who makes the decisions in this castle!”
With a sweep of her heavy velvet skirts, she stormed for the door. Morlokk held it open for her, bowing his head politely. The majordomo bowed again to Felix, with scrupulous courtesy, before following his mistress out of the library… but Felix felt the speculation in that thoughtful gaze like cold water splashing over any deceptive sense of relief.
He was moving across the crowded library floor an instant later, stepping swiftly around the piled stacks of books and papers while Oskar shook out his feathers and then flew to overtake him. Still, the library antechamber was empty by the time they reached it. Felix turned in place on the thick, patterned carpet, trying to guess which staircase and direction the others would have taken. “Elva guide me…”
“ Caw! ” Oskar zoomed ahead to the farther door—and with no better guidance, Felix followed after.
The queen must have been summoning her crows again. More and more joined them in the steep stairwell as they descended, some of the birds squeezing in through arrow slits in the stone walls while others circled down from higher levels of the castle. Most of them shot past him immediately, unburdened by the long, tangling cloak that Felix wore or the unevenness of the old steps. Oskar, at least, stayed carefully within reach, but even he cawed with impatience.
“Trust me,” Felix muttered, lifting the folds of his cloak higher, “ I would prefer to move more quickly, as well.”
Every instinct warned him that he needed to witness what was about to happen, so that he could prepare himself to flee… or simply give himself up to execution.
No. Even as that thought flicked through his mind, he dismissed it.
Felix had been desperate enough when he’d first arrived at Kadaric Castle to accept his own death as a risk worth taking. Coming here had been only the final toss of a coin before his surrender to inevitability.
In the past few weeks, though, he had felt what it was to control his own life for the first time. He had worked harder than ever before, and something deep inside him had been awakened by it: a free-flowing source of energy and even, astonishingly, confidence. Felix might be wearing a disguise, but beneath that silver mask and in Queen Saskia’s library, he felt more keenly himself than ever before.
He refused to give that up without a fight, so he scooped up the folds of his long cloak to run.
Together, he and Oskar emerged a minute later at the back of the grand hall where Queen Saskia had received him upon his first arrival. This time, Felix found himself standing in the shadows behind that massive, intimidating throne, shielded not only by Morlokk’s looming figure, planted as ever by the queen’s side, but also by the cloud of angry crows that circled the throne while the queen’s voice and waves of furious energy rolled through the air like thunder.
“… If you think you can intimidate my staff and imagine your own desires to be more important than my time—!”
“Your Majesty is clearly overwrought.” The deep male voice that spoke oozed with a false sympathy that made Felix grit his teeth behind his mask even before he heard the next words. “Of course no one could blame you for being so overburdened by your new responsibilities that you couldn’t wait for my arrival or tell the difference between a mere dark wizard and a master. But I am here now to solve your problems, and I am more than ready to take matters in hand.”
Ready to take matters in hand… Felix had to hold back a flinch at the too-familiar words. He’d been only eight years old when he’d heard them uttered by the Count, in Felix’s first introduction to his new regent. Even then—having been sheltered all his eight years of life beforehand—he’d sensed the cold warning that accompanied that statement, and he’d felt a shudder of foreboding.
Queen Saskia showed no such fear. “So you think I have no notion of how to judge a wizard—or make my own decisions?” Her voice was no longer raging. Instead, it had dropped to a near purr that made Felix’s skin prickle.
The other man chuckled, an oily sound. “Oh, Your Majesty. What training has any witch ever had in true wizardry? Of course you all have your own sorts of powers, enough to frighten the nonmagical, but if you think I couldn’t overcome them with a thought, well …”
Felix couldn’t see the derogatory gesture the man used to finish his statement, but he didn’t need to. As Oskar flew to join the rest of the flock behind the queen, Felix stalked forward to take his own place, unhidden, between Queen Saskia and Morlokk, anger burning through his fear. “You will not threaten the queen.”
He wasn’t a child anymore. He wouldn’t stand back and quietly allow a new tyrant to take over yet another home.
Beside him, Morlokk let out a barely audible sigh…
But the dark wizard who stood before them let out a chortle that sounded like delight. “Aha! My so-called competition. ” The cloaked figure stood disrespectfully close to the stone steps that led up to the throne, his broad chest puffed out beneath the folds of his black coverings in an attitude that Felix had seen far too many times before from his own brutal brother-in-law just before an act of physical retribution.
The wizard’s hood tilted with a moment of inspection… and then, following his muttered command, balls of fire appeared above the beefy palms of both hands, sizzling with heat. He grinned fiercely below a crimson half-mask decorated with bumpy, painted scales to mimic a dragon of old. “Excellent! A duel will settle this matter for good. Your Majesty, prepare to have your decision made for you.”
Oh, gods. Felix froze in place. What had he been thinking, to challenge this man? He couldn’t win a duel of magic. He barely even understood the basic structures of the spells that he’d been studying… and he knew for a fact that he had no magic of his own that could bring any of those spells to life.
Every young child in the Empire who possessed a spark of magic was carefully identified by the inspections mandated by law, regardless of their station in life. They were then removed from their families for lifelong training in Gilded Wizardry. Needless to say, Felix had passed—or, rather, failed—that early inspection without a hitch.
And yet…
I’ve dealt with pain before. And he couldn’t—no, wouldn’t —dishonor his employer by turning and running now. So Felix said with perfect calm, “Her Majesty makes her own decisions. I merely follow her instructions—whatever they may be. If she wishes me to fight against you…”
“ Her Majesty, ” Queen Saskia snapped, “wishes to be finished with all of this nonsense! Fabian, you may return to the library. I appreciate your loyalty, but there was no need for you to attend this meeting. And as for you —!”
Her voice abruptly cut off as a crack of thunderous sound filled the room. Balls of fire hurtled through the air from the dark wizard’s suddenly outflung hands, aimed directly at Felix.
Oskar screamed with rage from his place behind the queen.
Felix set his jaw and braced …
And the balls imploded, half a foot from his chest, with a popping sound that sucked half the air from the room and left his ears ringing.
“ How dare you? ” Queen Saskia’s whole figure seemed to lengthen, shadows multiplying behind her, as she surged to her feet. Her crown of bones cast an unnaturally growing shadow that swept across half the hall as she loomed furiously over the bulky, cloaked figure. In that moment, she was every bit the terrifying dark queen of rumor and legend. “Every member of staff in this castle is under my protection. You think you can attack any of them before my eyes and survive the encounter ?”
“Now, Your Majesty.” The wizard had the sense to fall back a step on the flagstones, raising his now-empty hands. Still, his tone was heavily indulgent. “No one expects you to understand the rituals and rules of dark wizardry, but—”
“I don’t need to understand anything, ” Queen Saskia spat, “except that you’ve just made a mistake that every other dark wizard will whisper about in horror for decades—because no one will be allowed to hurt any of my people again!”
She flung up her arms. Her crows flocked behind and above her, like an oncoming storm of retribution. All the prickling energy in the room gathered around her, just waiting to be released…
And waves of almost unbearable heat swept through Felix’s cloaked body as he watched, his mouth falling open behind his mask.
It was incredible.
She was incredible.
He wanted to fall to his knees before her in awe…
So he was almost too late in stepping forward. “Wait!” he blurted, his voice hoarse.
Queen Saskia’s sigh was full of aggravation as she stilled with her hands still raised in preparation. As she turned towards Felix, the dark wizard before them opened his mouth to speak; an impatient flick of one finger on her part sealed his lips shut.
“What now?” she demanded.
“Your Majesty, you don’t need to kill him for my sake!” Felix swallowed hard over his dry throat, fighting to think clearly through the overwhelming, intoxicating waves of power that emanated from her towering figure. “He didn’t actually succeed in hurting me. And—”
“But he dared to try, ” she snarled. “You may have a surprisingly soft heart, Sinistro, but I do not—and I will not allow any challenge to the safety of my staff or to my authority to go unpunished. A message must and will be sent to any other dark wizard who thinks he can attack my staff to overrule my own decisions.”
“But how can he send that message if he’s dead?”
The wizard turned to lunge for the door—but another flick of the queen’s finger fixed his feet irresistibly to the ground.
“Ahem.” On Felix’s other side, Morlokk cleared his throat, reaching out with one giant hand for Felix’s arm. “Perhaps, Sinistro, you should withdraw, so you needn’t disturb yourself by witnessing…”
“ Wait, ” Felix repeated, stepping closer to the throne.
The dark wizard was physically convulsing, now, with his efforts to escape; furious whimpers and what might have been attempted spells sounded through his sealed lips, but they didn’t concern Felix at this point. All his focus was on the woman who stood above him, vibrating with power and fury. She was the most dangerous, beautiful, astonishing creature he had ever met… and she was ready to kill to protect him.
It would be suicidally foolish to even dream of running up those stone steps to kiss her with all the exhilarating passion she inspired. But he kept his gaze fixed steadily on hers as her power thickened in the air, and he said, “Men like him would only take his death at your hands as a challenge. They’d want to prove their own strength to all their peers by being the one who could finally beat you.”
Magical or not, he knew that type of aggression only too well after growing up with Radomir at his side.
Queen Saskia’s dark eyes narrowed as she held his gaze. “What would you decide for me, then?” she finally asked, her voice poisonously sweet.
Felix didn’t miss the lurking danger in the air. But he’d spent too many years of his life in suffocated silence. He already cared too much, too foolishly, to stay silent now. So he said firmly, “Your decisions are your own, always—but if you would choose to accept my advice this one time? Humiliation. That’s what they fear most of all. If you make this one a laughingstock, others will be far less tempted to put themselves in the same situation.”
For a long moment, Queen Saskia didn’t answer. Then her lips curved into a gleamingly satisfied smirk that made Felix suck in a breath—and fight down an entirely inappropriate physical reaction.
“I will accept your good advice this time, Sinistro.” Turning back to the desperately wiggling dark wizard, she tilted her head, considering him for a moment. Then she said, “You wanted to be the most powerful person in this castle, didn’t you?”
She dropped her hands, with the finality of a theatre curtain falling at the end of an opera…
And where the dark wizard had stood, a tiny mouse squeaked desperately as it wriggled out of the abandoned cloak.
She sneered down at him with magnificent disdain. “I would suggest that you take your leave now, while you still can, because my crows are nearly ready for their midday meal.”
The flock behind her cawed their enthusiastic agreement. The mouse turned and fled for the door…
And Felix let out a long breath as he accepted the inescapable truth:
His life might not be at risk from Kitvaria’s witch queen at this moment, but his heart was in grave danger of being lost to her forever.