I waited nervously for her in her garden. She had summoned me for our monthly meeting, but she had been delayed by the King. I always started feeling especially fatigued as we got closer and closer to the time for me to take another dose of the medicine. It was almost as if the drug drained away part of my soul.
I sat on one of the concrete benches scattered throughout the grounds, my head in my hands. I was prone to panic attacks that only seemed to be getting worse as I got older. I’d had another attack that day and my head was pounding. I was learning to hide the physical effects they had on me from the courtiers, but I paid for it afterward.
The bright sun was beating down, the heat almost unbearable in the royal regalia I was required to wear. I didn’t know how long I had been sitting there when I heard a strange sound. It was the sound of claw on rock. I was afraid to look up, thinking it would be one of my father’s hunting hounds. Or Maalik’s. Maalik had set them on me before.
I both heard and felt something sniff at my fingers and I looked over in surprise. I sat nose to nose with the little green-eyed fox I had seen so many years ago.
It was still a juvenile but his coat was long and full. It was beautiful, and I longed to reach out and touch it.
Those green eyes bore into my own, and I felt a strange kinship with the animal. I could see its ears swivel and it’s tiny whiskers twitch as it took in sounds and scents from around the garden. Its small black nose was shiny and wet, and I watched it flare. Then it leaned forward, its tongue flicking out across the back of my knuckles.
I gasped and the creature started and ran for cover.
“Wait!” I called, forgetting for a moment that I was talking to a beast.
My mother chose that moment to stalk down the pathway, already muttering to herself.
“There is no help for it,” she said as she approached, handing me the last vial of the potion in her hand. “I will have to convince the King to let me visit my parents to get more of the medication.”
“Why not just have them send it to you?” I asked.
“It is too dangerous to take the risk. It is very difficult to manufacture, and we’ve only ever had small quantities available. It is far too rare and valuable to risk to a courier.”
Her communications with her family were monitored, she explained. Attempting to smuggle something like this into Alexandria through other channels would be too difficult. As Queen, her luggage was exempt from inspection by anyone but the King, so it was the only way she could think of to get more.
The King surprised us all when he granted her request to travel home. He had had another son born to him by a slave and was in a particularly gracious mood. He even gave me permission to go with her, which had delighted us both. The thought of being away from the palace, away fromthem, sent a thrill through me. I had never known true freedom before, and this might be the closest thing to it I might ever experience.
The porters were waiting in my room as I completed a final check of my luggage to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything whenthe door flew open and Maalik and Aurelius strode in unannounced, two of their guards behind them.
Maalik had been named Crown Prince three years previously when he had developed his Elusian powers, right after he had killed Erix. He and Aurelius had convinced the King to give him his own personal guard after a botched assassination attempt and had swiftly recruited the most brutish, sadistic beasts to join it.
I looked up in surprise as the door bounced against the wall with a thud.
“Crown Prince Maalik,” I acknowledged as I straightened to face them. I looked at his companion and recognized him with a nod. “Master Aurelius.”
Aurelius watched me through hooded eyes, a wicked gleam escaping from beneath his dark lashes. I suppressed a shudder at that look. He had my Father’s ear and Maalik’s support, a dangerous combination.
“Your Highness,” Aurelius drawled.
“Little Luke,” Maalik said with a sneer on his face. Without the sneer he might have been considered beautiful by some, I suppose. He definitely took after our father: he had the same dark hair, the same cruel mouth, but his eyes were a muddy brown, something he had inherited from his mother. Agnes had been a slave who had been executed years ago. I didn’t know the whole story, but I had heard she was killed the same week that Erix and Elex’s mother had died.
I’d only been a child at the time, but rumor had it that she had poisoned their mother because Agnes feared the birth of another royal child might usurp Maalik’s place. I wondered even now where Elex was, though I had my suspicions. Maalik had killed Erix, who had become Mageian and tried to escape. Rumors said Elex was dead, too, but I had hope that he might have just been sent to the Legion like Davidus had been. At least there he might still be alive.
Maalik stalked around my room lazily, picking up a trinket here and there before seating himself in my favorite chair. He picked up one of my few precious books that had been sitting on the table next to it and I sucked in a breath.
Books were rare in Alexandria. The King controlled the flow of knowledge into and out of the kingdom. While we might be able to watch recorded videos or the unrelentingly-positive news coverage on the networks, printed material was rare, and very valuable. I had borrowed the book from the Great Library to take with me on my voyage to Greece and had to swear on my honor to return it safely to Master Tarek, the Head Librarian of the Great Library.
Maalik leafed through the book, then dropped it carelessly into his lap.
“Get out,” Aurelius snapped at the porters, and they rushed to obey him. The servants were terrified of both him and Maalik. They left the room quickly, the door closing solidly behind them.Shit. I was coming to regret not pushing my father to allow me my own personal guard. When I had made the request, Maalik had said he’d be more than happy to share his guard with me, and father had turned down my request.
“Come here,” Maalik ordered me, my book in hand. My blood ran cold. This was not good.
“I need to pack,” I said quietly. Fighting with Maalik was always a bad idea, especially when I was so close to escaping him for a few weeks.
“I am your Crown Prince, and I am ordering you to present yourself,” he said with a sneer.
I sighed inwardly, but outwardly showed no response. In my dealings with Maalik I’d found that if he knew how much he bothered me he would only continue the harassment. Sometimes if I didn’t fight, he would get bored and leave me alone, so I turned toward him, still staying as far away as etiquette would allow and went down on one knee.
