Page 52 of Kingdom of Locks

The man clearly wasn’t going to last long. He fought savagely, but he wasn’t trained with a sword like Amell and Furn were. Amell wasn’t even out of breath yet when he twisted his sword in an expert flick, sending the other man’s stolen weapon flying.

The prisoner let out a cry of fury, but as his eyes locked on Amell’s face, the expression changed.

“It’s the prince!” he shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. The other prisoner took advantage of the soldiers’ distraction to shove one to the ground, sprinting to his companion’s side.

He gave a cackle. “Thanks for saving us a ride to Fernford, Your Highness. Let loose!”

Before Amell well understood the words, both prisoners had raised their hands, shouting in unison as they slashed them down again.

Instinctively, Amell raised his sword, although he knew it wouldn’t defend him against this type of attack. He braced himself for pain, but it didn’t come. Instead, two things happened in such quick succession, he could barely make sense of them. The first was that Furn threw himself bodily in front of Amell, and the second was that the two enchanters behind him shouted as loudly and as unintelligibly as their opponents.

Furn fell like a stone to the grassy ground, and with a cry, Amell dropped to his knees alongside him.

“Furn!” he cried, trying to comprehend what had happened. “Are you all right?”

Furn groaned, pushing himself to a sitting position and running a hand over his chest. “I’m fine, Your Highness. Are you hurt?”

“You know I’m not,” Amell snapped, an illogical anger taking hold of him. “Because you threw yourself in the way. What were you thinking?”

Furn didn’t bother answering. “Thank you,” he said instead, his eyes on the enchanter who’d knelt down as well. “I’m guessing that was a powerful shield you both constructed.”

The enchanter nodded. “Good thing it was, too,” he said grimly. “I reckon they put all the magic they had into that attack. That one was aiming to kill for sure.”

Amell followed the man’s eyes to where the prisoners, looking spent and exhausted, were being bound by some of the soldiers. A glance around showed two soldiers down, but neither of their injuries looked life-threatening.

“Fortunately shield magic is our bread and butter in this line of work,” the other enchanter prison guard interjected matter-of-factly.

“Well, thank you again,” Furn said with his usual calm, as he pushed himself to his feet.

“Yes,” Amell agreed, more shaken than he wanted to admit. “Thank you.”

“You saved my life first, Your Highness,” the enchanter reminded him.

Furn turned to the senior soldier. “Did you hear what they said? They were heading for the capital.”

“But why?” Amell demanded. He glanced at the prisoners, who stared sullenly back at him.

The soldier followed his gaze. “Revenge, I’m guessing. They weren’t running, they were gathering what they needed to strike a blow at the kingdom which put them in prison. Makes sense of why they hadn’t gone further.”

Furn nodded sagely. Amell felt his anger once again rising at his friend’s calm demeanor.

“Furn!” he demanded. “What were you thinking? If those enchanters hadn’t shielded you, you would’ve been killed!”

Furn looked at him in surprise. “And if neither I nor those enchanters had shielded you,youwould’ve been killed.”

“Well that would be on me!” Amell declared.

Furn gave his familiar light chuckle. “You’re wrong there, Your Highness. It would have been on me.” Taking in Amell’s expression, he frowned. “Why are you so surprised? This is the job, Your Highness. This is my role.”

“What, to leap to your own death?” Amell demanded.

“If I can’t defend you any other way, then yes,” Furn said, still sounding bemused. “Absolutely.”

Amell realized his mouth was open, and he closed it. A strange mix of emotions were churning inside him. Furn’s very calmness chastised him even more than his friend’s words. The guard wasn’t even scolding his charge for riding off after the soldiers when he wasn’t supposed to be there, when doing so had almost led to disaster.

“Furn,” he said. “I don’t want you to die for me.”

His guard clapped him on the back. “It hasn’t come to that yet, Your Highness.”

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