This seems like it’s going to be a longer talk than I imagined.Angelique cleared her throat. “Perhaps we could discuss thisindoors?”
“Of course!” Empress Sonya smiled, magnifying her natural beauty, and set a hand on Angelique’s upper back, guiding her toward Tsona. “We should retreat to my private salon—I’ll call for refreshments. And mysons.”
“Thankyou.”
“Not at all,” Sonya said. “It is I who must thank you—for coming when no one elsehas.”
* * *
Sonya hadenough time to serve tea and snacks before a tall and brawny young man threw open the salon door. “I foundAlexsei.”
He and a second young man slipped into the salon, closing the door behindthem.
The second lad was a little shorter and not so broad shouldered, but he had a welcoming smile and the same sharp eyes that spoke of intelligence masked with charm as Empress Sonyapossessed.
Yevgeniy cleared his throat and joined his sons, resting a hand on each prince’s shoulder. “Lady Enchantress, please allow me to introduce you to my sons—the Imperial Prince Yakov and Prince Alexsei,” He indicated first to the taller brother and then to the one with his mother’s eyes. “Yakov, Alexsei, this is the Lady Enchantress Angelique. She attended the Summit called by Prince Severin and Princess Elle, and she agreed to help us when she heard of our difficulties withRothbart.”
“I’m afraid I’m only anEnchantress-in-Training.” Angelique said—the Emperor and Empress seemed especially inspired, though, to ignore this correction. “However, I will do my best to aid you. I had heard of Rothbart’s activities before, but I thought the Veneno Conclave would send help. I apologize for the lengthydelay.”
“There is no reason for you to be sorry, Lady Enchantress.” Sonya took Angelique’s empty teacup and set it on the cart the maid had wheeled into the salon. “The matter was out of your control, and I must confess evenwedid not know what a boil Sorcerer Rothbart has been untilrecently.”
“Indeed,” Yakov said as the younger prince, Alexsei, drew closer to his father and exchanged a whispered conversation with him. “There is a group of folk who stay at Swan Lake because Rothbart cursedthem.”
And there it is, Angelique internally sighed.The obligatory curse. I hate curses. I hate dark mages who castcurses.
Yakov continued, “They act as smugglers, but Alexsei says it’s a front because they spend most of their time defying Rothbart and attempting to stop hisplans.”
Sonya sighed as she set her empty teacup on the cart as well. “The smugglers are perhaps the only reason there are fewer…incidentsthan one might imagine. The sorcerer obviously has power—he’s set dark animals loose. Most recently, he created andreleaseda wyvern. Alexsei was there when he loosened it—he and the swan smugglers were able to fight it off, but they couldn’t defeat it. It’s flying around our lands, now, wreaking a path ofdestruction.”
Angelique nearly inhaled her own spit and had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Awyvern?”
Dragons were an unusual sight in their lands. Mages saw dragons more than the average folk, and Angelique had seen them even more often because of her apprenticeship with Evariste, who drew them in as a result of hispowers.
But wyverns were rarer than dragons. Dragons had the magic to cross realms as they pleased; wyverns did not. They occasionally made it into this realm, but it wasn’toften.
Which is why it was worrying that Rothbart couldcreatesuch a beast, particularly given that they were generally blood-thirsty and destructivebeasts.
The younger prince, Alexsei, turned away from his father and pushed his shoulders back. “Yes, LadyEnchantress.”
What is it about this family that they don’t listen to a thing I say about my title?Angelique clenched her teeth and smiled as brightly as she could manage. “Please, Angelique is enough. I was told, Alexsei, that you believe Rothbartcreatedit?”
“Yes,” the prince said. “He claimed as much previously, and it seems true based on its actions. When I was with the swan smugglers as they drove it off, it was almost clumsy—as if it was the first time it had been free to use its legs, wings, and other abilities. Some things it knew naturally; others it was learning through trial anderror.”
Empress Sonya steepled her fingers together and narrowed her eyes. “That would explain why our soldiers could not defeat it—even after Odette and her people woundedit.”
Angelique’s smile slid off her face.A sorcerer who can create not just a living thing, but a wyvern? I can’t recall any such thing occurring in history before! Just how powerful is he?“It is not a good sign,” she slowlysaid.
The eldest prince hooked his thumb on his sword belt and glanced at his father. “Would it have been better if it was a wild one hecaught?”
“Yes,” Angelique said, favoring bluntness over sensibilities in the ugly situation. “It is difficult to harness wild dragons and wyverns. It takes a great deal of power and many expensive spells that take a long time to produce. As a result, it also makes it impossible for every dark wizard or mage to run around with a dragon under their command. But if Rothbart found a way tocreatewyverns…”
Alexsei clasped his arms behind his back. “I think he’s created just the one. Odette and her people are watching his castle. She can get in contact with Rothbart’s daughter, Odile, who can verify if he’s been makingmore.”
The sorcerer has a daughter? That’s just great. But they did say she’s in contact with them and must be leaking information. This implies she doesn’t take after her father in terms of ethics.Angelique kept her thoughts off her expression and instead zeroed in on the other question that nagged at her. “You’ve mentioned this Odette several times. Who isshe?”
Alexsei’s stance and expression softened, and a warm smile slipped across his lips, but it was the elder prince who puffed up his chest and explained, “She is the beautiful and fearless leader of the Black Swan Smugglers—the group of unfortunate folk whom Rothbart has cursed to be swans during the day and humans atnight.”
He directed the second half of this statement to his father, who apparently was unaware of the cursed smugglers development, for he stiffened. “Smugglers?” he said in a slightly foreboding tone that sounded angrier than Angelique had ever heard during the entirety of theSummit.
