Page 40 of Her Royal Blood

“He has my magic and some of my memories. With Sire manipulating me and Polonius’ poisoning to keep me under his control, my wolf was trying to protect me so he locked my mage away. I doubt he’d free it until he feels that I’m finally safe.” Amadeus tried to sit up on the pillows and so I stood and helped him get more comfortable.

“I’m glad your wolf has your back, but we need your magic or at least your mentorship to teach me how to use mine. Do you have any memories that can help you do that for me?”

I was hopeful that he could, but looking into his eyes and seeing the confusion there had my confidence waning.

“Perhaps after a few days.” Amadeus gave me a light smile.

We didn’t have a few days, in fact we didn’t have any time at all.

“Do you think you could help me find a few spells in the book? I need a shielding spell. I can make myself invisible, but I need to be able to make you invisible too and perhaps others. So far when I’ve tried to shield others, the spell breaks apart andcan’t be done. I have to get us out of here and past the guards. You can rest as soon as you’re in the stronghold with King Helix,” I encouraged him, hoping he’ll be well and able enough to come with me.

I hate to leave all of his potions behind, but I can’t carry it all.

“The shielding spell is in the book,” he said, closing his eyes again to catch as much rest as he can before we have to go. “Everything you would ever need is in that book. Potion recipes, spells, research on roots and herbs, my experiments with elemental magic, all of it is in there.”

“Great. That’s fantastic, for a moment I was enthused. Do you know what page the shielding spell is on?” The book had to have five hundred densely handwritten pages.

“Somewhere near the middle,” he said as he drifted off to sleep; damn.

Somewhere near the middle was no help at all, but as soon as I opened the book I felt it. The magic held within it had seeped out of Amadeus from years of use and somehow, it knew me. My fingers danced over pages as the book directed me with a magnetic pull and slowly I was able to hone in on the page I needed.

Penned in my father’s hand was the spell for veiling and shadowing.

The veils and shadows are illusions that dance over the eye. Air is thin and is a poor shield, but by blending body to illusion, one’s shield becomes their ability to be that which surrounds them.

I considered the illusion spell and realized that I wasn’t confident in my ability to create something that was ever changing so I read on. Almost at the end of the page, I found a cloaking spell for large swaths.

To wear a cloak of invisibility one must become nothing, the very essence of a being should shift into a pocket of space andtime that is parallel. One may walk alongside another and not be seen because they walk between the crevices that bridge this reality and the next.

So instead of adding a layer of invisibility onto a person, which is tiring and hard to sustain, I could open the bridge between realities. Amadeus and I could walk through it like a trench until we found a safe underground passage or were able to use the trick to get to the safehold. There both of us could rest, hopefully.

While Amadeus slept, I worked on the spell.

Clear a space and focus on the bridge between dimensions.

This I didn’t understand at first, but as I stared at the thin air I started to see tiny blasts of light and dots in it, and realized that the space I was looking at wasn’t a plane of nothingness but a collection of tiny whizzing particles. Between those one could hide if they had the right illusion. While Amadeus slept, I tried my hand at hiding in the ether and after many attempts, too many for my shaky countenance, I finally mastered it, once, twice and then several times. I was ready to whisk Amadeus and I through the palace and hopefully to a vehicle as neither of us were in any shape to walk across half of the city to King Helix’s stronghold.

“Amadeus,” I woke him gently. “It’s time for us to go.”

“Yes, yes,” he blustered as he rubbed the short sleep out of his eyes. “I’m ready.”

I gathered up the glass bottle he’d given me with the memories and his spell book and as many potions and viles as I could stuff in the pockets of my cape. I grabbed Amadeus’ cape for him and successfully said the veiling incantation over us and we disappeared into the nothing between everything. While I could still see the Crypt Claw guards lazily draped over chairs napping or playing cards at the table, we still had to be silent.

I didn’t realize that even though I wasn’t carrying Amadeus his essence had weight and he was very heavy. It was hard to keep him masked. I found my magic tremoring and faltering on occasion. I had to get us out of there. I tried to move faster, but sincerely couldn’t. I could see the front door before us. All I had to do was get us to the fleet of military vehicles and I could get us into a car.

When the Royal Guard used the motor cars, they left the keys in them in case of sudden deployment. Many of them had military hats on the dash as most Royal Guards didn’t wear the ceremonial cap during their daily duties because they were uncomfortable. They were required to wear them on official business, however, that’s why there were so many on the vehicle dashes. If I could get to one of those motorcars, I would be able to drive us closer to the stronghold.

My muscles started to convulse and I was losing my magical grip on us. I couldn’t ask for Amadeus’ help, he had no access to his magic, but I wondered if he would be able to shift into his wolf, because the two of us were about to face a whole army of people who hadn’t seen action in too many days. I stumbled out of the veil and that’s when Amadeus sensed that we were in trouble.

“What’s happening?” he asked as I was exposed momentarily.

“I can’t keep the magic up. Can you shift? Are you able to get to your wolf. We’re going to have to make a run for it.”

“Yes. If we’re in danger, my wolf will come,” Amadeus, said with a worried look in his eye. “I hope, he said quietly.”

I didn’t know how we were going to get out of this, I should have practiced more, or not as much. I didn’t have time to panic. My magic faltered and I only had enough left to shift. Luckily my wolf was stronger than my human mage body. Within moments Amadeus and I were wolves.

At first the guards didn’t notice us, we were so close to the door, we might have been able to escape to freedom without being detected, but of course nothing was ever that easy for either of us. It was as if fate had destined our family line to hardship and turmoil. We were but steps from the door when a soldier sat up from his slumped over position guarding the entrance to the palace which alerted the soldier on his other side who had been reading a book.

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