Chapter 105

  An Interrupted Intermission

  One would think that after battling a daughter of the Gods, a dragon, and to a lesser extent, an emperor, that the valiant heroes would get a well deserved rest.

  Well… All they were given was half a day.

  Tam awoke from a deep sleep with a jolt.

  Which instantly cracked a skull numbing headache through his head.

  He was not enjoying the effects of the concussion he had been given the night before.

  As he drove his knuckles into his temples, wishing there was some sort of reprieve from the action, his horrible wake up call sounded again.

  The sound of wood splintering under the assault of an abnormally strong fist pummeling the wood of the door to the room he slept in with the woman he loved, Eli.

  Tam stumbled out of bed, nearly vomiting from the agony as he did so, and wrenched open the door to the guest room located in the Zinferan palace he and his friends and family had nearly burnt to the ground the previous day.

  Upon opening the door, he braced his forearm against the frame, and glowered down at his sister as colored dots started to dance around the edges of his vision.

  “What?” he growled.

  Katarina Reyes, queen of Dxaria, stood outside his chamber with her familiar Pina laying on her shoulders, and the hands of Luca and Penelope clasped in her own.

  She stared at her brother with a raised eyebrow, her golden eyes flitting to his bare torso. “Gross.”

  Tam made an animalistic snarl. Until he felt a gentle tug on his pants, and his attention fell down to see his son, Luca, peering up at him. Luca’s face was pale, but he still spared a smile for his father before he proceeded to wrap his arms around Tam’s waist.

  “Time to grab your stuff and get out of here, sunshine,” Kat informed her brother airily. “The emperor is going to be a real pain in the backside about Eli staying in Zinfera. You lot have to leave. Now. And take mum.”

  By this time, Eli had risen from the bed and made her way over to the door. Her short hair full of cow licks as she, too, stared blearily at the Daxarian queen.

  Tam frowned as his hand gently rested atop Luca’s head. “What about you and Harris?”

  “We have to do damage control here. The emperor is right to be concerned about the dragon returning, and the first witch probably isn’t through with us. Plus there is the whole matter of the Coven of Giong and Coven of Wittica now rebelling… It’s a mess. We can’t leave them high and dry. All the kingdoms need to be united, and Kezia only just woke up. She’s pretty disoriented, so she won’t be traveling for a while, and I’m not leaving her and Sir Cas here alone.”

  Tam started to nod along as he was reminded of the Troivackian princess who was gravely injured mere days earlier, but the movement pained him and so he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  He felt Eli’s warm hand rest on his upper arm. “We’ll grab some painkiller tea as soon as possible.”

  Kat scoffed. “Pfft. I can’t believe what a baby you’re still being. A little concussion has you in such a state.”

  Tam shot her a narrowed eyed look.

  She stuck her tongue out at him, but then a look of seriousness overtook her expression once more. “There’s something else you should know before you go… I finally was able to get my hands on the letters that have been sent to me from Daxaria.” Kat paused, anguish filling her eyes, making Tam straighten. “Shortly after you left Antony’s magic had surfaced. He’s a weather witch.”

  Tam’s eyebrows shot upward. That was an incredible power.

  Kat’s eyes lowered. “But in his letters Eric says that Antony’s not handling it well.”

  Tam tensed and felt his own anxiety and worries lurch forward at the thought of his eldest nephew.

  “Antony’s upset because he knows now he can’t be king, and his emotions are affecting the environment back in Daxaria. Eric is struggling to figure out what’s going on here, and da… Mum saw da in one of the magic visions after we were attacked at Soo Hebin’s palace. He probably thinks mum is dying. You need to go home and tell everyone what is happening. We won’t be able to have reliable messages even if we send hawks. Not with the witches at large. The majority of the covens have scattered. Nowhere is safe.”

  Swallowing, Tam once more peered down at Penelope and Luca. “Alright. We’ll steal a ship and head home to Daxaria.”

  Kat’s serious expression melted away as she shot her brother a wry smile. “Steal a ship? Look at you, you little vagabond.” She reached up and tried to muss his hair but Tam dodged her hand with a pained grunt. Cackling, the Daxarian queen added. “Jiho is giving you a ship. No thievery required.”

  “Aw. It was kind of fun setting the fire that one time!” Luca contributed while dropping his head back to stare at Kat upside down.

  Kat snorted. “Gods. Four Ashowan boys… And the oldest one has already set a pirate ship on fire and punched a foreign prince in the crotch. I’m going to miss when Mr. Howard hears the news…”

  Ignoring his sister’s musings, Tam turned back to the spacious room and spotted his black tunic on the floor.

  Barely stifling a yawn, Eli asked, “Where is Duchess Ashowan?”

  “Ah, I believe the last I saw her she was—”

  “BUKAA!”

  The telling herald of a chicken echoed out in the hall making everyone turn—including Tam who had already reappeared with his tunic on, albeit untucked—-and found the duchess strutting down the marble hall, making the dome of feathers around her head bob.

  Duchess Annika Ashowan had been transformed recently into a black and white chicken with a large tuft of feathers atop her head thanks to a mutated witch from the Daxarian coven named Henrietta.

  At present, the duchess was perched on the back of none other than Kraken, her husband’s familiar, as he trotted toward the group.

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  Kat nodded at the animals. “Right. That works. Now, Kraken, it is up to you whether or not you leave with Tam or stay here with me.”

  Kraken chirped.

  No one knew what that meant, but all wordlessly acknowledged that it would become apparent when they departed what his decision was.

  Eli leaned farther out of the doorway and glanced down the long hallway with its jade encrusted pillars and gold filigree. “I’m surprised no one is coming to get us.”

  Kat grinned. “Oh. That’d be because I may have taken some inspiration from my children at home and oiled the stairs and most of the main floor.”

  Tam and Eli gaped in silence at the redhead who stared unabashedly back.

  “How… Did you do that with no one noticing?” Eli speculated dazedly.

  “You’re asking a lot of questions when you should be grabbing your things and leaving,” Kat retorted glibly.

  Tam gave a disgruntled noise before turning back to the room, and hurriedly gathering the few belongings they had—including the red dress Eli had stolen from the shrine the night before.

  “Alright. Our remaining things are at the Opulent Opal, and everything else should already be in Daxaria. We shipped a lot from Junya,” Tam explained.

  Kat nodded in understanding before her eyes moved over his shoulder. “I recommend leaving out the window. The guards may be in an oily heap on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, but they are a spiky heap what with the swords and spears.”

  Tam glanced over his shoulder at the window. “I guess it’s a good thing that everyone will be disorganized and exhausted from the chaos yesterday.”

  “Mhm. Now get going. Give my love to my boys, snap Antony out of his bad mood, and tell Eric I’m fine.”

  “Did you write a letter you’d like me to pass along?” Tam ventured before attempting to stifle a yawn. He still felt like he could have slept for another entire week.

  Kat stared blankly at him. “Right. A letter… That would’ve probably been good…”

  Being the responsible adult present, Eli once again weighed in a little more briskly. “Would Harris like us to say anything to his wife and sons?”

  At this the Daxarian queen perked back up. “Yes! He said to tell her in as much detail as possible about the fires. And explain that he dedicated the palace one to her.”

  Eli, Tam, Luca and Penelope took a beat to stare at the queen in silence at this.

  “Fine. How will we find the ship we need to take?” Tam pressed while gesturing Penelope over to himself.

  “Bong is waiting for you all in a hackney one street north of the palace,” Kat explained while following her brother and his group into his chamber as they directed themselves toward the window.

  Tam took a moment to stoop down and pluck up his mother the chicken. Kraken then revealed his decision about whether he planned on going or staying by leaping up onto the windowsill and peering down from the second story down to the street below.

  “Penelope, Luca, hold my hands. Eli, if you could take my mother and my arm we can go into the void and I’ll get us over to that dark alley without people seeing us. Kraken, did you want to come with us, or—”

  The fluffy feline leapt nimbly onto one of the carved stone dragons that lined the walls, then proceeded onto one of the elaborate balcony ledges below, before he found his way into an ornamental tree, the palace wall, and disappeared behind that.

  “You’d never guess he was almost thirty years old…” Kat observed, openly impressed.

  Tam gave a half smile in agreement, then locked eyes once more with his sister.

  “Don’t get yourself killed. Your husband’s grumpy enough.”

  Kat sighed. “Yeah… Yeah, I know. Now get on with it. I want to see this magic of yours that everyone has been dying to know about for decades!”

  Tam rolled his eyes at his sister as he proceeded to hand his mother to Eli, then seized both of the children’s hands. “Penelope, the void is a little bit scary, so feel free to close your eyes.”

  The little girl’s mouth wrinkled stubbornly, but Tam noticed she gripped his hand a little tighter nonetheless.

  “See you soon,” Tam tilted his head with one last smile to his sister, then allowed his black, silvery aura to sweep away himself and everyone that touched him into the dark embrace of his void.

  *

  Kat stared at the space where her brother, Eli, and the children had just been standing dumbly, before she hesitantly stepped forward, and peered through the window down toward the alleyway that Tam had been mentioning before.

  It took another moment or two, but eventually, she watched them file out of the alleyway and head north as per her directions.

  Letting out a low whistle, she shook her head in disbelief.

  “How the hell was he so bad at hide and seek all those years…?”

  Sighing, Kat turned back to the chamber room door and casually made her way out of the room, but not before pausing thoughtfully beside the tousled bed Tam and Eli had shared.

  “Pfft. She’ll probably be pregnant next time I see her knowing our family’s talent for procreation,” Kat laughed to herself. “I’ll take bets with Harris when it’ll happen. Though I wonder if they actually are married like Harris was saying. I really couldn’t tell before. I’ll feel bad for da if they are.” Clasping her hands behind her back, Kat turned her head and planted a kiss on Pina’s fuzzy cheek. “Come along. I think I’m going to have to ask you to work your charms on the emperor and see about making him less of a royal arsehole.”

  The familiar purred, her lips curling upward in a smile.

  “Don’t gloat to Kraken too much if you end up being the one to rule over Zinfera, hm?”

  While Pina was far quieter than Kraken, she was known for being magnificently daring in her own way. And despite the fact that she and Kraken had learned to respect one another, there apparently was still a bit of a rivalry between them.

  The Daxarian queen and her familiar proceeded out of the room and down the abnormally quiet palace hall. Kat knew she might wind up spending a bit of time in a Zinferan cell for impeding on the emperor’s orders; however, she planned on pointing out that she wasn’t much use fighting dragons when hungry and tired.

  “Hopefully this stupid war can wrap up soon,” she murmured to both herself and Pina while slipping a leg over the long wooden banister she intended to ride down to avoid oiling the bottom of her boots.

  Pine mewed in agreement, and sunk her claws a little more deeply into Kat’s dark blue jacket she had donned that day in preparation for their journey down the stairs via bannister.

  And then the witch and her familiar whizzed down in a most improper fashion to check on the state of the emperor’s armed guards feeling a mixture of weariness, and perhaps a little sadness at having to say goodbye to her family yet again.