“Your Highness!” he exclaimed in surprise, his beloved face alight with joy and surprise as I hugged him.
“You’reour contact?” I demanded.
“You’rethe Illyrian strike force?” he asked in response, his deep laugh booming.
“Well, me and my friends,” I admitted, gesturing to where the others now stood.
“We should get off the road,” Elex interrupted, his sharp eyes glancing around.
Master Tarek nodded, his chocolate brown eyes suspiciously bright, then his gaze swung back to Elex.
“Erix! You scoundrel! It’s been too long!” he exclaimed, moving forward to wrap his arms around my brother. Elex jumped back, power creating elemental rings around his forearms. I could sense the shield he had created.
“I amnotErix,” he growled.
Master Tarek froze, then slowly lowered his arms.
“So I see. Peace, my friend. I mean you and yours no harm,” he said quietly.
“He’s a friend, Elex,” I said, placing myself between my brother and my mentor.
Elex nodded slowly and lowered his own arms, the rings of power fading away.
“So you are the infamous twin,” Master Tarek said, looking Elex up and down.
Elex just growled and turned on his heel heading into the trees. We led the wagon off the highway to a secluded area so we could talk.
“I can’t believe you’re our contact,” I said, my heart lighter than it had been in years. “How in the world do you know Erix?”
“We met through Master Bacillus shortly after his escape from Alexandria. I becamepersona non grataafter our little meeting with the King,” he said. “Thank you for saving me, by the by, though it was a foolish thing to do. I am hurt that you felt you couldn’t tell me about your powers, though.”
I shrugged.
“I didn’t tellanyone, Master Tarek. Only my mother knew, and that was only because she guessed.”
“I understand, given how things are in Alexandria,” he said, sighing. “But look at you! You’ve certainly come a long way from the boy I knew!”
I blushed, trying to recall what I had looked like back then: tall, skinny, gangly, with no muscles to speak of. The last several years had left me with physical strength that young boy couldn’t have imagined, along with an assortment of scars.
“What’s going on, Tarek? Why have we slowed?” I heard a familiar voice call from the wagon, a man’s red head popping outone of the side windows of the paneled wagon. Beside him was a worried looking young woman, her eyes lined exotically in kohl.
“Master B?” I exclaimed in surprise.
“Young lord Luke!” Master B exclaimed, dropping the window closed and rushing out the door of the wagon. He knelt in front of me.
“Your Highness,” he said.
“Oh please. You’ve seen me naked. I think that means we’re on a first name basis,” I said, laughing and pulling him to his feet.
When my parents had determined that I needed to be educated in the sexual arts they had hired Master Bacillus and his courtesans to instruct me. Part of that instruction had been a rather humiliating naked inspection in front of Master Aurelius.
He shook my hand and smiled. Master Bacillus was shorter than Master Tarek, and nowhere near as physically imposing as the former Head Librarian, but I had found in him a kindred spirit when it came to learning. His curiosity knew no bounds.
“It is good to see you alive, Luke,” he said. He clapped one hand on Master Tarek’s back, smiling at his partner. “And thank you for savingthisone. He is a pain in my ass, but I would have missed him if he had lost his head.”
“And here I thought I was the light of your life,” Master Tarek said. “And as for your ass—”
“Enough!” I said, laughing.
