Page 41 of A Monarch's Fall

“Yes,” Arvid agreed, “A rebel military base is certainly safer than any highly regarded educational institution could ever be,” he mocked.

“Percy is safer with her coven than she ever could be with any others,” Mable countered.

Arvid held his hands up again and smiled cheekily.

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said before, gently removing my hand from his elbow, “I am sure you will be well taken care of, Percy. Do not fret,” he reassured me before turning and walking down the steps and returning to the cart. He waved happily to me as he reversed the cart and manoeuvred to drive down the long gravel road and away.

“Percy,” Mable called my name, and I turned back to her.

“Mable,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“You’re nervous,” she stated.

I nodded.

“I don’t know what to expect,” I told her honestly.

“I understand,” she said and held the door open further for me. “Come inside, out of the cold.”

She stepped back to allow me to enter.

I looked back at the retreating cart as it got farther and farther away before turning back to Mable.

Arvid wanted answers, but so did I.

Chapter nine

Command Centre.

Selene Borealis

If he wasn’t careful, my father’s new favourite enchanter would find himself disembowelled.

“…and so you see -”

“What I am understanding is that you don’t have any answers for me,” I interrupted the bumbling fool.

“Well, ah, yes,” he answered, not at all apologetic enough. “These matters, they are not well known, it’s so fleetingly rare to meet a bonded soul and all the sources of the Guild are near-enough archaic,” he spluttered his explanation as if I was unaware of the rarity of my situation, or of the class of magic I was requesting.

“Are you not the kingdom expert ofThe Measurable Effects of Enchantments on Soul Bonds and Uncovering the Facts Behind the Green Knight's Tale?” I questioned. I had been near enoughdelighted when I learned that Father’s new Royal Enchanter was one Dennis Aqua.

The Dennis Aqua, who was apparently the most knowledgeable on all things enchantments and soul bonds, whose work I had just referenced and had thoroughly researched a year prior. It felt like proof of the Gods that just the enchanter I required was already under my father’s commission. However, it appeared that perhaps the Gods were less in the giving of favours mood, as Dennis Aqua was surely some practical joke, a punishment for the crime of disbelief, or perhaps they wanted the entertainment of watching me tear the pompous, useless fool apart. The males of the witching covens usually weren’t as annoying as most other men. Unfortunately, Dennis had the ego of a man far more talented and physically commanding than he himself was.

I awoke unable to feel Percy through our bond, despite every attempt, and I had panicked that it might have meant the maze had taken her from me. Then I learned that she had escaped the maze unharmed, Ardens’ servants having witnessed her and two others fleeing into the hillside. If my enchantments were enough to disrupt Percy’s experience of the bond, enchantments could surely be disrupting my experience also. As a soul matched pair, I had hoped it might be possible to extinguish whatever interference was taking place between us.

“I am, yes. There is no one better,” he boasted. The audacity of such a statement, when he had proven himself less than useful to aid me in the exact field of enchantment magic, which he claimed to be an expert in, angered me further.

I stepped towards him, enjoying the way he stepped back.

“Tell me how it is possible that one could kill me through my soul match link using magic, but you cannot so much as tell me if enchantments are to blame for this silence, never mind counteract such enchantments if they were present?” I asked asI backed the short, squirming man into the corner of his study. He wasn’t much older than me, but there was a frailty about him that made him appear older, like the character of a man three or four times his age had been dumped into a younger man’s body. It was unsettling. I wanted to rip his throat out if only to permanently escape the disturbing way he made me feel.

“Using soul bonds to harm has been the majority of any magical works actually practised on soul bonds in all known accounts for nearly a millennium. What you are asking is new works. Before your account of the effects of your own privacy enchantments on the soul bond, we did not know that such enchantments had any impact. We will continue to try new approaches,” he replied.

He attempted to straighten his back as if to be taller. Pathetic. He was about as tall as Percy.

Percy.

Why couldn’t I feel her?