Lucky Rabbit

“Grace Conroy,” Pandy said, just to make certain there weren’t a lot more Graces running around that she didn’t know about.

Louisa gave her a Look and said, “Yes, of course. Grace was one of my best friends, long before she met Bryan. She married a few years earlier than I did and moved to the Dunning estate, but we wrote at least once a week, and she returned to Knightmere for my wedding. When I showed her the gifts Fergus had given me, she immediately picked up that stone and commented on how pretty it was. I…” Again, her cheeks reddened. “I told her she could have it. That was all.”

All? The queen-to-be just gave away a rock that had been passed down through the royal family for generations, and that was all? Then why was Louisa embarrassed about it? Just because she knew she shouldn’t have done it? No, there was something the queen wasn’t saying, but Pandy had no idea what or why. They were letting all the secrets out, and they were under the protection of a powerful Air elemental, so…

Louisa glanced at her son again and Pandy thought she understood, at least a little. There was something Louisa didn’t want to say in front of Kaden specifically. But was it something important, or just something that two young women had said or done right before one of them got married that wasn’t meant for youthful ears? Accepting that she wasn’t going to find out, at least right now, Pandy said, “So Grace took it home with her? And you never saw it again?”

The queen shook her head, the color subsiding from her cheeks. “No, in fact-” Her lips tightened with uncertainty, but she continued. “As I mentioned, after Bryan died – as we believed at the time – I had a small group of Knights retrieve his notes and anything else that might help us figure out what he’d been working on. There was… more than the official reports may have indicated, but I felt that there was no purpose in revealing everything, not when neither Killian nor Nathaniel had been involved. Some things are best left behind closed doors.”

She looked a bit defiant as she said this, and Pandy suspected this wasn’t a strictly legal stance to have taken. When no one called her on it, she deflated a bit and went on. “I asked the Knights to search for the stone as well, since it really should be returned to the treasury. They found no sign of it. Upon learning that Bryan had been discovered alive, I thought I might ask him about that as well. Which brings me back to my original question.”

Turning to Augustus, she said again, “Where is Bryan Conroy?”

This time the chancellor didn’t turn the question aside. “I believe at least one Knight of the Royal Eagle has betrayed their oath to protect and serve only the royal family. The enemy always seems to be one step ahead of us. Yes, they clearly have more Bound than we could possibly have anticipated, but a Bound needs to spend years among humans before it can pass more than a cursory inspection. That’s an investment of power that few Dark elementalists are willing to make.

“It’s much more likely that most of these Bound are new. We’ve interviewed every person who had access to the royal family quarters during the time when the poppets of Princess Eleanor were placed there, and if one is a Bound, they are far more convincing than any I have seen before. That means someone – or multiple someones – have betrayed you.”

“So you’re hiding Bryan from me because…?” Louisa raised her brows.

Clearing his throat, Augustus admitted, “Not so much hiding as… using him as bait. I have entrusted him to one particular knight who has proven themselves to be singularly loyal. I assume our enemy would like to either take Bryan back or silence him. I also assume they have as many samples of his blood as they could possibly wish, so we have also, ah, extracted a few samples in order to confuse things a bit. Only my knight and a few of our most trusted people actually know where he actually is. They’ve also dropped hints leading to various incorrect locations, and now we’re waiting to see who goes where.”

To Pandy’s surprise, it was Kaden who objected. “Lian isn’t going to be pleased that you’ve placed his father in danger. I hadn’t heard about any of this before Lady Avington explained.” Here, he gave both Augustus and his mother looks that would be intimidating in a year or two. “But I’m sure Thaniel has sent a message to Lian by now, even if the news hasn’t reached him by some other means.”

Augustus sighed. “Apparently there is also some urgency in reuniting Lord Bryan with Thaniel, so I have no intention of prolonging this any longer than it takes to, ah, draw out the traitor. I promise to release Lord Conroy into the custody of-”

A swirl of wind swept away his last words as Caeli, the elemental Kaden summoned to protect their privacy, reformed beside the prince. Turning its white eyes to its master, it said, “One comes.”

Kaden frowned. “Who?”

The elemental’s head swayed from side to side, the gaseous hair swirling in agitation. “A warrior clad in Air and Earth, but their Air is weak. They leak.”

Kaden muttered a word that made his mother click her tongue in disapproval, but she stood and picked up her crown, placing it back on her golden hair as she spoke with the iron tone of one used to being obeyed. “Augustus, you will have that man to me before tomorrow night. Caeli, let them in.”

Caeli’s ‘limbs’ twisted sickeningly as it vanished into a final gust of wind. Augustus came to his feet, so Pandy stood too, feeling uncomfortable as the only one still sitting. As soon as she did, Augustus tilted his head to murmur into her ear. “Elementals tend to regress under pressure. Caeli is saying one of the Knights needs to speak with us, though I’m not certain about the rest.”

The whole group turned toward the door, and Kaden took a single step toward it before a single loud bang shook it in its frame. “Kingsman, you’re needed,” a voice croaked, and Augustus took off, crossing the room with a speed that indicated he might well have used magic to hasten his steps. When he threw the door open, the silvery form of a Knight of the Royal Eagle stood there for an instant, then toppled forward. Augustus grunted as he caught them, immediately lowering the armored figure to the plush green carpet. Pandy hurried forward, already casting Minor Heal toward the fallen knight.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 20 HP.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 20 HP.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 18 HP.

Minor Heal failed.

Minor Heal cannot restore more than 15% of total body mass.

Oooo, that’s gotta hurt.

Pandy’s eyes widened, and she shifted her gaze from the scrolling words to the body Augustus was kneeling over. He’d somehow managed to remove Sir Bailey’s helmet, revealing a pale, plain face with short blonde hair darkened by sweat. No, not sweat, or not just sweat. Blood.

As Pandy’s spells took hold, the knight groaned, but she didn’t sit up. Instead, she rolled onto her side, clutching her arms across her abdomen, her expression a rictus of pain. Still, she managed to gasp out, “Oratory. Gone. Couldn’t-”

Augustus’s expression was one Pandy had only seen glimpses of before. No emotion showed in the frigid gray eyes behind his glasses, and not even the new curls of his hair could soften the sharp, tense line of his jaw. “Well done, Bailey,” he said. Looking up at Pandy, he asked, “Can you help her?”

Pandy shook her head, feeling helpless. “There’s something else wrong. We need to get the armor off.” She cast two more heals, one of which succeeded, and one which failed.

Without a word, Kaden pushed past her, crouching on the other side of the wounded knight. He pressed his hand against the center of Bailey’s breastplate, muttering something Pandy couldn’t understand. Instantly, the solid metal armor that had encased the knight vanished into a swirl of wind, coalescing beneath the young prince’s palm. His hand closed around something, forming a white-knuckled fist, and he lurched up and back as a gauntlet-shaped rush of black blood flooded out across Bailey, Augustus, and the beautiful carpet. Sir Bailey’s left arm was missing from the elbow down, only a slurry of stinking sludge remaining in its place.

Augustus didn’t even hesitate. Tearing open his coat, he ripped the belt from around his waist, using it as a tourniquet around the stump, which was gushing fresh red blood. With quick, practiced movements, he secured the belt and used the coat as a pad, which he pressed against the ragged end of the limb.

Pandy almost wished she could faint, or vomit, or something, but instead she cast Minor Heal over and over, wondering almost absently why the wound didn’t seal up or heal over. No, she couldn’t regrow the limb, since it was too large for her spell, but she should be able to stop the bleeding.

Sir Bailey had lapsed into unconsciousness, but Augustus still labored. Even between his efforts and Pandy’s, blood continued to seep from the wound. Pandy’s magic was keeping the knight from dying, but there was no way someone should have been able to survive losing that much blood. How had Sir Bailey even made it here from wherever she’d been injured?

Augustus cursed, low and growling, as the tourniquet he’d applied slipped off, along with a fresh flow of blood and some thick, black glop. He yanked his hands back, looking up at Louisa and Kaden. “It’s cursed,” he said, and Queen Louisa’s hands grasped at her skirt, lifting the fabric away from the encroaching bloodstain as if it had suddenly become something far more perilous.

Kaden took a single step backwards, his face as white as fresh snow, but snapped out, “Caeli, summon the High Priest. Now.” A burst of wind was his answer.

Augustus returned to work, attaching the belt much higher up on Sir Bailey’s slowly melting arm. He rolled the unconscious woman over onto her back, extending the limb out and away from her body. “We’ll have to cut it off if the priest doesn’t arrive before it reaches here,” he said coolly, indicating the line of the belt around the knight’s bicep. “I’ve seen what happens when a curse reaches the trunk of the body. If she survives, she’ll thank us for our mercy.”

Pandy wanted to ask what a ‘curse’ was in this context, but she was too busy casting Minor Heal over and over. Was her spell making new blood for the woman, only to have that same blood pour out immediately after? <Minor Heal. Kappa? Minor Heal. What should I do?>

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 12 HP.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 9 HP.

I don’t know.

The only thing I can think of-

No, you’d just both end up dead.

<Minor Heal. What?>

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 11 HP.

…

You might be able to hold it off like you did the poison from the Bound spiders.

This feels oddly similar.

But if you fail-

But Pandy wasn’t paying attention any more. True, she only knew Sir Bailey in a superficial manner, but she liked the other woman, and more importantly, she could tell that Augustus was breaking apart inside as his cousin slowly dissolved beneath his hands, in spite of his composure. Pandy wasn’t going to allow the knight to die if she could do anything about it.

<Cast Innate Magic. Stop the curse or whatever from hurting Sir Bailey anymore,> Pandy thought, then sank to her knees as someone ripped out her spleen out through her left nostril.

Innate Magic successful.

Halted Death Curse on Sir Bailey.

Three hundred and eighty-six uses remain before level 24.

Maintenance cost -7 Mana/sec

Well, that was a choice.

This was not like halting the effects of the poison. That had been annoying, since she needed her Mana for other things, and she’d definitely been worried about running out of Mana before finding a way to cure Augustus. This, however, felt like someone had stabbed a needle into some non-corporeal part of her and was now pulling a thick thread with occasional knobby bits in it through the hole. She gasped, and Augustus looked up from his gory task.

“Rabbit?” he asked, the cold detachment vanishing from his face. He reached a bloody hand toward her, and she flinched away. He quickly shuttered the wounded look in his eyes, but Pandy saw it and shook her head.

“Hurts,” she said, hating the whimper in her voice.

“What does?” he asked, one hand on Sir Bailey’s shoulder, and the other lifting toward Pandy once again.

“Curse,” she managed, feeling like she was speaking through a mouthful of broken glass. A wave of cold was seeping through her from the spot where the thread continued to pull out her innards, and she shivered, her teeth chattering.

“Rabbit,” Augustus said, half-rising, his tone a cross between warning and worry. “What have you done?”

Pandy shook her head, and her vision swam. “Look,” she choked out, her status sheet up so she could watch the inevitable creep of descending Mana. Fortunately, her Mana pool had fully recovered from the activities of the night before, but it was already back below half. She hadn’t done the math, and she should have. She could have cast Minor Heal dozens of times, but at seven Mana per second, she had less than two minutes before she’d have to start drawing on her Corruption Points in order to hold the curse at bay. She should release the spell, but Sir Bailey’s pale face had finally relaxed, and her eyelashes were fluttering open.

“Sir,” the knight croaked.

Augustus cast one last agonized glance at Pandy, then focused on the woman crumpled on the floor. “Bailey,” he said, putting that calm and self-assured mask back on. “We’ve sent for a priest. Don’t-”

“It’s Daedelus, sir,” Bailey said. “The traitor. He cut my arm. Removed the chain. I used the potion you gave me. Came here. But-” Tears overflowed from her eyes, streaking the blood on her cheeks. “Sorry, Gus. Sorry.”

The corners of Augustus’s mouth pinched so tightly that they grew white, but he said, “You did fine, Bai. Now relax. The priest will be here soon.”

Sir Bailey’s head rolled to the side, and she smiled at Pandy through her tears. “Take care… of him. He’s a nitwit, but-” She gasped, the tendons of her throat growing taut as she strained for air. Pandy was almost out of Mana.

<Cancel Innate Magic,> she thought. <Cast Minor Heal. Use Corruption Points.>

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Sir Bailey for 20 HP.

I’m sorry, Pandora.

The thread pulled the rest of the way through Pandy, taking the last of her strength with it. She swayed, toppling sideways, casting one more Minor Heal as she fell. The last thing she saw was a close-up view of the thick, luxurious fibers of the rug.

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