Page 61 of Kingdom of Locks

He cast his mind over the events of the previous few days. “Are you familiar with the magic in use at the prison?” he asked.

“We all are now,” Bartholomew assured him. “We’ve spoken of little else at the guild since the break out. And we’ve been sending enchanters and enchantresses to help reinforce the protections, as you would know.”

Amell nodded. “Of course. I understand that there’s some kind of…restraining enchantment around the property, that prevents certain people from leaving.”

“That’s right,” said the enchanter. “Although properly speaking, it’s called a fencing enchantment. Restraining magic is more…I don’t know how to phrase it without getting technical. Let us say more aggressive.”

“Would it require powerful magic to have a restraining enchantment around the whole building?”

“Oh yes,” Bartholomew said, with a little chuckle. “Extremely powerful.”

Amell frowned. “Unbreakable?”

“Well…” Bartholomew drew out the word. “Nothing is unbreakable. But to break it would require even more magic than to cast it. More resources than we have readily available, at any rate. I daresay a dragon could do it with ease, but we’re not speaking of dragons.”

“No,” Amell agreed ruefully.

If only he dared to seek out Rekavidur and Dannsair, he could probably break Honeysuckle and Abigail out that afternoon. But the beasts were virtually unknown to him, and dragons were unpredictable. They might help him again…or they might declare war on Fernedell for breaking the agreement, and wipe his kingdom off the face of the continent.

“Could you try?” he asked. “Could you, I don’t know…make an artifact that would make someone immune to any restraining enchantment?”

“Why would you want to do that?” Bartholomew asked, taken aback. “Surely we don’t want any of the prisoners to be able to evade the restraints?”

“Of course not,” said Amell casually. “This is nothing to do with the prisoners. I’m asking as a personal favor. Are you willing to try?”

“Yes, I’m willing,” said Bartholomew slowly. “For you, Your Highness, I’m willing. But it will take finesse, and a great deal of power, which I can’t spare all at once. Even if I’m able to create such an item, it won’t be ready anytime soon.”

“I understand,” Amell said. “I’d be grateful for anything you could come up with.”

Bartholomew nodded, still looking puzzled, but respectfully asking no questions.

“What about concealment magic?” Amell asked.

“What about it?”

“Well…” Amell could feel the magic closing on his throat, and he again hunted for an unrelated route into the topic. “When I was in Entolia, Prince Bentleigh of Bansford mentioned something that piqued my interest. He talked about concealment magic which acted to stop his tongue, preventing him from speaking about the thing that was concealed.”

“Interesting,” said Bartholomew, with all a scholar’s fascination. “Complex magic, indeed. That is an unusual layer of concealment magic, because it requires great finesse as well as great force.” He made a wry face. “Not as common a combination in the magic community as you might think.”

“How would you get around it?” Amell pressed.

“Oh, I don’t think you could get around it,” Bartholomew said, settling his shoulders more comfortably in his chair. “It would lift with the breaking of the whole concealment enchantment, of course.”

Amell let out a frustrated huff. “How would you do that?”

“With a great deal of magic, once again,” said Bartholomew. “And not just a great quantity. A high level of skill would be involved. Or the enchanter or enchantress who created it could undo it fairly simply.”

Amell frowned. Not much hope for release from either of those quarters, what with Cyfrin being a vile snake, and all the other enchanters in the kingdom focusing their efforts on the prison break.

“But surely,” Bartholomew said mildly, “Prince Bentleigh is no longer under this enchantment?”

“Of course not,” Amell said.

“And how was he freed?”

Amell sighed. “It was all part of the Listernian princess’s curse, which was broken altogether, as you’d know.”

Bartholomew nodded thoughtfully. “A very interesting aspect of the curse,” he mused. “I hadn’t heard about that detail before.” He sent an amused glance at Amell. “For a moment I was concerned these questions weren’t theoretical. That you had yourself been exposed to some kind of malicious magic.”

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