She cleared her throat. “I suppose you might know more about it than I do.”
“I’ve seen it,” he said darkly. To his surprise the world remained stable even though he was thinking of a distinct place in his memory. There was a brief silence as both Tomaz and Leah seemed to contemplate what it was he was talking about, but neither of them questioned him about it.
“How’re the illusions?” the girl asked.
“Good, as long as I don’t focus on them.”
“Well, hold on a bit longer,” Tomaz said. “They only exist around the borders with the Empire. A few hours into tomorrow and you’ll be fine.”
“Tomorrow?” the Prince asked weakly.
“You’re lucky,” Leah said. “The enchantments used to cover the whole land south of the mountains, days in every direction.”
“What changed?”
“No one knows,” Tomaz rumbled. “But the world’s moved on, and some things start to fail.”
“What happens when it fails completely? What do you do?”
“Hopefully we have a long time until that happens,” the big man said. “But when it does… I pray that we’re strong enough to face the Empire on our own.”
They lapsed into silence, and the Prince closed his eyes. It was easier that way, and with his horse obediently following the rest of the group, he was able to remain close.
That night they camped in the middle of a lake. Or at least that’s what it looked like to the Prince. A lake complete with waves rolling beneath and around his feet, and fish that stared up at him in alarm as he sat on the glassy blue-green surface.
When Tomaz asked what he was seeing now—the big man seemed to have a sick fascination with the illusions—the Prince said as much, and Leah’s brother Davydd began to make jokes at the Prince’s expense, until Leah told him to stop because the Prince was looking decidedly green in the face. Which, of course, only encouraged another round of jokes from the red-eyed young man about seasickness. The Prince was distinctly starting to dislike the man, no matter whose brother he was.
In the end, even when Davydd had stopped mocking him, the Prince found he couldn’t choke down any food at all, and so he simply curled up in hisbedroll and blanket—thankfully, both of these were solid objects that did not shift—and closed his eyes.
But in the middle of the night, he woke to find himself back in the Seeker’s lair, with the Lord Seeker himself standing at a nearby table, unrolling a long collection of metal implements in a leather sheaf. Each implement was longer and sharper than the last, and the Prince knew, beyond a doubt, that he would be tortured to death for what he’d done. As this thought solidified in his head, the Seeker pulled out a long, wicked, three-tined instrument, crossed to the Prince, and bent to begin his work.
In a matter of seconds, he’d woken the rest of the group with his screams. It wasn’t until Leah and Tomaz came, inexplicably walking through the walls of his prison and shouting at him to close his eyes, that he was even able to grasp what was happening. Tomaz grabbed him by the shoulders and was able to convince him to stop screaming, but it was Leah who managed to bring him out of the vision altogether by unexpectedly taking his hand and holding it tight, giving it a quick, almost apologetic squeeze—and then slapping him so soundly that his ears rang and his brain did a somersault.
The shock blanked out his mind, and suddenly the world resolved into a long, rolling grass plain, with the moon high above them, and wind flicking back the girl’s hair.
“What… how did you do that?” he asked her.
“Well, you cock your arm back like this—”
“No no! Please, no need to demonstrate.”
“Good,” she said with a sly smile. The wind gusted again and blew her hair back, and his mind seized this thought and started working again—and just that quickly, the plain had disappeared, replaced by a mountainside, a river, and Leah without her clothes.
He recoiled in surprise, thinking she’d be angry, but she just stood there. Which, of course made sense, because only he could see the illusion. Except,this time it was also real. He suddenly felt extremely guilty about what was happening, and he quickly looked away.
“Is everything all right?” Leah asked cautiously, taking a step forward.
“Yes!” he exclaimed, his voice an octave too high. She reached out toward him, and he jumped back as if she were wielding a burning brand instead of offering a friendly shoulder pat. Keeping his eyes firmly on the ground, he turned, went back to his bedroll, and covered himself with the blankets.
“Thank you, but I’m fine now. Time for bed. Good night.”
For a long moment there was just silence, and the sound of wind blowing across the plain/mountainside. And then Davydd spoke:
“You brought us a halfwit.”
“Go back to sleep, idiot brother,” Leah said.
The Prince managed, after a time, to sleep as well, and this time he slept until morning, when he was awoken by a huge hand covering his eyes.
