Page 14 of Kingdom of Locks

“But that’s amazing!” exclaimed Amell. All three of his family members looked at him with identically raised eyebrows. “Sorry,” he said, trying not to laugh at his own ill-timed excitement. “It’s terrible, of course. I just meant…it’s our turn, after all.”

“And what,” asked King Bern icily, “do you mean by that? You think we deserve this misfortune?”

“No, no, that’s not what I mean,” said Amell, exasperated. He lowered his voice. “I just attended a meeting with King Basil, who thinks there might be a connection between the various magical attacks against royals in recent years. I commented, just joking you know, that we were feeling a little left out, but this certainly fits the description, doesn’t it?”

“Are you telling me,” King Bern demanded, sounding angrier by the second, “that you invited this calamity? That you baited whoever might have been listening to target us for—”

“What?” protested Amell. “Of course not! The conversation wasn’t the cause—I just meant that this development supports Basil’s theory.” He saw that his father still didn’t look convinced. “It was a very private conversation, Father.”

“If you were involved,” said his father cuttingly, “I don’t think we can put much reliance on the meeting’s privacy.”

“That’s not fair,” said Amell, stung. “I’m perfectly capable of keeping things to myself. I’ve kept plenty of—”

A pointedly cleared throat from his sister caused Amell to fall silent, rethinking what he’d been midway through blurting out. Quite apart from the fact that many of the secrets he’d kept over the years had been Tora’s, he wasn’t going to win any favor with his parents by boasting about how he took every opportunity to hide his activities from them.

He scowled internally, half wishing he’d kept Basil’s theory to himself. Of course his father not only refused to take Amell’s information seriously, but found some way to blame him for the disaster at the prison. Not that Amell really imagined for a moment that his father believed the attack at the prison had been caused by a casual conversation of Amell’s. He surely knew as well as Amell did that the prison break must have been in planning for some time.

“I’ll oversee the manhunt myself,” King Bern was saying distractedly. “But I suspect we’ll have to call in assistance from the other kingdoms. Over thirty fugitives! And all with magic at their disposal.”

Amell leaned forward in his seat. “I’d like to assist, Father. I can help coordinate the search.”

The king pinned him with a look. “This isn’t some chance for showy heroics, Amell. This is a serious threat to our people.”

“I understand,” Amell insisted. “I’m taking this seriously, believe me. I don’t want criminally minded enchanters roaming freely over our kingdom, subjecting innocent citizens to their malice. I want to help round them up, and—perhaps even more importantly—help figure out who was behind the incident, and make sure they can’t do any more mischief.”

His father was silent for a moment, searching Amell’s eyes closely, as if trying to measure his earnestness.

“You’re exactly correct about my two main priorities,” he said at last. Amell brightened. “And I applaud your eagerness to assist,” the king added. “This has the potential to be an excellent learning experience for you. But to be frank, Amell, I’m not sure I wantyouroaming freely over our kingdom, especially with thirty-five criminals on the loose. You’re still too young and, dare I say it, have too often proven yourself lacking in responsibility to be entrusted with such a crucial task without proper supervision.”

With an effort, Amell swallowed his irritation over his father’s total lack of faith in him. It smarted, but he knew expressing any resentment over the slights would only reinforce his father’s opinion that he was too young and hotheaded for any serious responsibility.

“I didn’t say I wanted to wander the kingdom unsupervised,” he said calmly. “Just that I want to help.”

“I know you didn’t,” acknowledged the king. “But this crisis is of sufficient severity that neither I nor my chief leaders can afford to be burdened with your oversight.”

“Furn’s old and responsible,” Amell suggested hopefully.

His father gave him a pointed look. “Twenty-five is not old, Amell.” He paused. “Although I will acknowledge that Sir Furnis has shown himself to be unusually responsible for his age. Otherwise he would not have been given the role of heading your guard so young. Given the antics you’ve still managed to pull off, I shudder to think what trouble you would have gotten yourself into without him these last five years.”

“It’s all right, Father,” smiled Amell ruefully. “You don’t need to pretend. I know perfectly well that you gave the role to someone young in the hope they’d have more success reaching me, and I’d be less likely to give them the slip. And you were quite right. I can never bring myself to go behind Furn’s back. It would be such a poor thing to do, somehow.”

“Well, I’m glad one of my strategies in curbing your activities has proved successful,” said King Bern dryly. He drummed his fingers on the table. “Well, you’ll never grow into your role if I don’t give you the opportunity to learn, I suppose,” he said at last. “When I ride for the prison, you and Sir Furnis may join me.”

Amell sprang out of his seat, ready to run in search of his guard immediately.

“Amell, will you calm down?” his father chastised him wearily. “The poor man’s just been released from your last journey. I won’t be riding out immediately. I’ll need to meet with my captain first. It’s possible I won’t go in person until tomorrow.”

“And do we need to remind you thatyouhave only just returned from a lengthy absence?” Queen Pietra added. “Can’t you even sit through a single meal with your family without running off in search of adventure?”

“Of course I can, Mother,” said Amell, with as much dignity as he could muster while lowering himself back into his seat. “I just didn’t want to hold Father up, that’s all.”

“I’ve said you can come,” said King Bern. “I’m not going to leave without you.”

“I want to hear more about this theory of King Basil’s,” said Tora, re-entering the conversation. “Do you really think it’s possible that this attack at the prison is linked to the curses some of the other royals have experienced?”

“It fits, doesn’t it?” Amell said eagerly, pleased that someone was taking his comment seriously.

“Not really.” His father’s tone was dampening. “I don’t see how a prison break can be considered an attack against the royal family. There are many more plausible motivations for someone breaking prisoners out.”

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