Page 27 of Kingdom of Locks

Tora stepped away from the prisoner at once, nodding her thanks for the woman’s time. After casting another amused glance at Furn’s strained expression, the inmate returned to picking herbs.

The three of them moved halfway back toward the rest of the guards, pausing where no one would overhear.

“Father’s going to be occupied for some time interrogating the fugitives who’ve already been recaptured.” Amell said. “And I want to use the time to explore.”

“I thought we weren’t going to wander off, Your Highness,” said Furn, although he already sounded resigned.

Amell grinned. “That was on the journey. Now we’re here, we may as well be useful.”

“Useful?” Tora echoed, sounding intrigued.

Amell eagerly explained what he’d seen on the map, and how it had piqued his curiosity. Tora looked unconvinced.

“Doesn’t sound like there’s much chance of finding anything,” she said skeptically. “Not if the area’s already been searched.”

“No harm in it, though,” Amell argued. “And as you said, it’s already been searched and cleared by the guards. They’ve pronounced the prison perimeter secure, so we’re not strictly doing anything dangerous.”

“How disappointing,” smiled Tora.

Amell raised an eyebrow at her. “Since when are you so determined to get into danger?”

“I was only joking,” she said quickly. “I doubt we’ll find anything, but we may as well look.” Her voice turned dry. “I’m guessing Father didn’t invite you to assist him with the interrogations.”

“Not exactly,” Amell agreed. He turned to Sir Furnis. “What do you think, Furn?”

Amell expected Furn’s usual unruffled willingness to follow his charge into whatever foolish situation he was determined to pursue. But the guard’s eyes flicked between the two royals, a crease appearing between his eyebrows. Well used to Amell’s impulsive ways, however, he made no attempt to talk him out of it.

“Don’t worry, Furn,” Amell assured him, as they collected their horses. “We won’t be going outside the magic perimeter set up by the Enchanters’ Guild.”

Furn nodded, looking only faintly reassured. Amell couldn’t help frowning at his friend’s serious demeanor. Furn had been acting strangely all day.

Tora’s guards fell in behind them as they directed their horses to the north western edge of the prison. Amell noticed that Tora looked none too pleased about their presence, but she made no effort to actually lose them. For some time after they entered the tree line, the group rode in easy silence, Amell and Tora searching the trees from their mounted position, Furn taking in every detail of their surroundings with eagle intensity. Every now and then they passed sentries from the prison, patrolling the trees. They all sprang to attention when they recognized the royals, but Amell didn’t stop to speak with any of them.

His eagerness to explore faded quickly, and after almost an hour of fruitless searching, he was ready to return to the prison. He was about to say so when a particularly dense clump of trees drew his attention. Figuring he may as well examine one more section of forest before turning around, he urged his horse toward it.

“Tora, Furn, look at this,” he called over his shoulder once he’d reached the trees.

“What is it?” Tora’s horse picked its way across the uneven forest floor, its head appearing suddenly beside that of Amell’s mount.

“Probably nothing,” Amell said. “The trees are just so thick there, I wondered if it might be a good hiding place.”

“Let’s have a look,” Tora said brightly. She swung down from her horse, ignoring Furn’s noise of protest. Amell joined her, Furn following close behind, and the three of them approached the clump of trees.

“It does look like a good hiding place,” Furn admitted uneasily. “If you could get in, it would be very hard for anyone to see you.”

Getting in, it turned out, was precisely the problem. The dense patch was larger than Amell had at first supposed, and it took the better part of a quarter of an hour to walk all the way around it. And at no point in that walk did he find any gap large enough to allow him to force his way inside. The trees grew so close together, and the general foliage was so thick, he simply couldn’t get through.

“Well, if we can’t get in, I doubt a fugitive did,” Tora said matter-of-factly, once they’d returned to their original position.

“Unless they’re using magic somehow,” Amell suggested.

Furn shook his head. “The search parties all included magic-users. Some of the prison guards were talking about it while you were inside. They would have sensed magic coming out of those trees from a mile away. The use of magic would make any hidden inmate easier to find, not harder.”

Amell nodded slowly, still not entirely convinced. He continued a short distance around the thick trees again, his eyes scanning the forest on the other side.

“Is that the edge of the trees?” he demanded, surprised. Striding forward, he confirmed that the trunks really were beginning to thin on the far side of the clump. “But surely that’s not right,” he mused, picturing the map the warden had shown him. “I thought the forest went on quite a bit further than this.”

“We must have come further than we realized,” said Tora.

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