The female crossed her arms and started to tap her booted foot against the stone, clearly not glaring at me. The prince seemed to be watching me afraid I might turn and leave, I walked up the last steps and pasted the clearly annoyed female elf. I stepped over the mark on the ground left by the doors when they were closed. I looked around the entryway. Large was my only thought for it. There were chandeliers hanging in a circle casting shadows all over the room. The floor was polished but it had a rug in the center that covered most of the wood. There was a maid who had picked up a vase to clean under it very quickly.
There was a loud crash as I stepped through the doorway. The maid was standing with her jaw open staring at me. For a moment I wondered if my horns were still the size they grew to when I was in monster form. I turned to face the female elf that had stopped tapping her foot. She let out a huff then ran down the stairs. The door guards watched her go like they didn't know what was going on. The prince still didn't say anything just started down one of the hallways.
I didn't much feel like standing in the main doorway like a tourist until someone came for me, so I started after the person who I would think should be showing me around. I caught up to the prince before he actually entered the hallway. I was focusing on him to keep out the voices I could hear one strongly and it was tempting to listen but I focused on what was around me again. I had to stop myself from gawking at all the stuff.
There was a rug that ran the length of the hallway. There were doors, these cut wood not giant leaves, spaced along the hall. I kept pace with the prince who seemed to have a destination in mind as he walked. I wanted to stop and actually look at some of the artwork but the prince seemed preoccupied. "What happened back there?"
That got his attention. "Oh, you entered the main doors without an invite. It is unlikely you are a close blood relative of the royal family. Not impossible, though." He shrugged as he turned and started up another set of stairs. The place was huge and seemed to be laid out to confuse anyone who hadn't grown up here.
The prince waved off other people who seemed to want to approach him for one thing or another. When they saw me they tended to follow behind. We were getting quite a group, and I was starting to get a little nervous. What if the prince was wrong? What if one of these people knew what I am? What if failing whatever test the prince had set up causes them to learn what I am? Would they think I had bewitched him?
The prince opened a door and held it open for me. I hesitated as the other elves were whispering like a hard breeze through the leaves of a tree. The prince gave me a real smile, his eyes sparkling with mischief. He was a charmer. I should really keep an eye on him. I moved into the hallway behind the door. I hadn't realized I couldn't see what was behind the open door until I stepped through.
The sound from the hallway didn't follow me through, I looked over my shoulder to see the shocked looks on the faces of the elves behind me, as the prince shut the door. "Sorry, that door has a similar lock as the front door. Word travels fast around here."
"So they can be invited in?"
"Sure, but it has to be at the doorway, every time. That door is more restricted, only a member with rooms behind it can invite someone who isn't family inside. Only members who have rooms are able to move through the doorway without a spoken invention. Except, if the person is the bond of a family member. Since we don't know for sure who the owners of the other six rooms are right now, you could still be either a long lost direct descendant, or bonded to one of them, or bonded to my mother, I guess." He opened the last door on the right. There were double doors on the room at the end of the hall. I didn't have to guess twice to have a good idea who's chamber was behind that door.
I walked into the prince's apartment, it was at least three of my houses put together. There was a table with chairs around it in the center of the room. There was a fireplace on one wall that looked like you should be able to see through to the other side but something was blocking the view. Everything was craved to within an inch of its life. It didn't look gaudy it actually seemed a little understated compared to everything else I had walked by. There was one door on each wall; they were all closed.
"I am the only one that can open this door from this side." The prince had moved through the room to the farthest door. He opened the door and there was nothing but black beyond. "It isn't a trap. The door supposedly opens just fine for anyone on the other side. No one has been able to test it for almost ten generations now. What I can tell you is that I can invite anyone in until I am blue in the face and the black would still put them out. Just like if you try to enter the shield without a key. Everyone but the owner of the room and their bonded mate. So this is the one that would prove I am bonded to you." The prince didn't look back as he stepped through the black.
I knew he wanted me to follow him. I reached out and touched the black barrier. I knew it was meant to do more then just keep people out of the prince's room. Him being bonded to me opened a small door to me but it wasn't going to let me through. It didn't trust me, the bond was one sided at the moment. It did let me see what it wanted, what the bond was in an emotional sense. I pulled my hand back, whatever the blackness was it knew I was a demon. Then again I got an impression that it didn't care other than that it could in a limited way communicate with me. I had to make a decision. Not about completing the bond, it didn't care about that part exactly.
I placed my hand back on the barrier. I won't hurt him, as long as we are both in the army. I felt the key around my neck warm a little like it does when I walk through the main barrier. That wasn't the only thing the barrier wanted. I would never hurt a child mine or otherwise. I didn't understand the problem until the demon in me growled at my eternal promise. The key cooled against my skin and the demon retreated against my oath. I could break it, but I was pretty sure the demon could not break it for me unless I agreed. The same feeling I had gotten when I had taken my oath not to kill.
The barrier seemed to vanish under my hand, and I stepped through into the prince's private chambers. The magic that kept everyone out also did something to keep the room clean. Everything was right where it belonged and it smelled faintly of fresh flowers. It was a little amazing. The prince closed the door behind me. Why was I afraid to look at him?
The oath would prevent him from killing me. That is all it would prevent and you can do a lot and not kill someone. I didn't feel in danger with him. From what I just learned of the bond I was pretty sure he couldn't hurt me.
"I am guessing that is your more relaxed form? I am starting to get used to it." I reached up and touched my longer horns. I sighed and pulled my shirt off so it wasn't ripped as I stretched my wings. I didn't have to wonder if he liked the view, but I put those feelings out of my mind as I turned and looked around the room.
I noticed his weapons weren't tethered here. They must be in one of the other two rooms. The bed was large enough for three people and I wondered how he could stand sleeping in a tent when on a mission if he was used to something like that. The prince put his hand on my shoulder as I looked at the bed. "Lay down for me, we have awhile."
I don't know why but I laid down. But I laid on my stomach on the fine, soft comforter. The prince rubbed my shoulder down to the joint were my wing connects to my back. He was very careful not to touch the joint itself, as he started rubbing out words very gently careful to stay on the bones in the wing. I don't think I have ever felt more safe or relaxed.
I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep until there was a loud banging on the prince's bedroom door. The prince cursed under his breath as he sat up. "Sorry, my father most likely." I looked over my shoulder at the prince in confusion. I knew it was his father, the shield told me. It should have told him too but I guess he hadn't heard? The prince didn't see my confusion as he was looking at the door.
I stood and tucked my wings in so that I could put back on my shirt. That was twice now without meaning to that I had fallen asleep. The prince was watching me now as the pounding started again. I couldn't place what I was reading on his face. I was pretty sure there was yelling going on, on the other side of the door as well. "Are you going to answer it?"
"Not anytime soon if I can help it. He probably just wants me to open the council chamber door since mother hasn't been able to leave her chambers for the past two months. Though maybe not as the door has just been being left opened." I stopped and looked at the prince. Then I went over and touched one of the walls. There had been something about healing in with everything else.
I closed my eyes even though I could see the questioning look on the prince's face. The spell seemed focused on the person banging at the prince's door. It didn't really have a mind behind it, it wasn't alive. It just was. And it would continue to be for as long as the family existed. There were layers of the same spell all through the palace. I could see it now that I focused. It was actually all the same spell, so since it let me see it here. I could now see it everywhere in the palace, it drew me a very detailed map. There were still places off limits to me and they were just dark pits in the map, but there clearly weren't many. I was classified as not a threat, and a member of the family. I found it odd and wondered if you could be a member and a threat. The spell responded by showing me quite a few faces of members who were threats to the family. One looked a lot like the prince but his hair was silver like a normal elf not the golden sliver of the royal family.
Why was he a threat? The spell supplied the answer. The master chamber at the end of the hall was nearly twice the size of the prince's. Only one room was still blacked out to me. There were two sitting rooms. Apparently once the prince had been born his father was included in the family list even though he hadn't been bonded to the queen. He still won't be able to enter her private chambers but he could enter the wing and the first sitting areas in the rooms. After the prince turned ten the spell started noticing changes in the king's behavior. Food brought differently, time spent in different places, not things that would cause the reclassification on it's own. Not until the queen slowly started getting sick. The spell had very little ability to heal. All it could do was provide the cells the energy they needed to protect and heal themselves.
I pulled my hand off the wall like it had been burned as the pounding came again. The prince was dressed again but clearly not much time had actually passed. I had to do something, his mother was dying.
I pulled the door open before the prince could react. The blackness was one way, I could see the face of the man I had seen in the spell, he could not see me. He crossed his arms like he wasn't going to move out of the doorway. That was foolish, even if I was his son, his son was a trained fighter, he on the other hand didn't look like he lifted anything heavier then a fork. If our diet wasn't just fruits and veggies I was very sure he would be overweight, as it was he looked like a twig.
I stepped out and around him. He moved to grab my arm but another step took me out of reach as I marched toward the door. There were quite a lot of people in the hallway, but the king didn't have permission to invite them in, it was his adult son's apartment not his and he was classified as a possible danger to his son because of what was happening with the queen.
He rushed in front of me to block the door to the hall. "I don't know who you think-" He cut off with a yell as I kicked his feet out from under him. He was the king, I doubted very much anyone had done that since well before the prince was born. He needed a good thrashing, but not from me. I stepped past him. The guards in the hall had drawn weapons facing me as I moved. They seemed nervous, they knew I was a master after all. I stepped past the entryway to the prince's apartments and I learned the real reason why the guards had hesitated. As I walked through the door.
I was classified as a member of the family. You cannot attack a member of the family within the palace. The shield here was not just one barrier, it was the whole place. The two people that had lunged for me disappeared. The shield didn't hurt them, it just removed them. It hadn't removed me because when I tripped the king because I had been challenged first, well closely enough for the shield. It hadn't removed the king because he had only blocked me not attacked me. I ran down the last few feet of hall, not the direction the guards had expected me to go.
I reached out and opened the door, there was a gasp up the hall. I wasn't sure why they had to know family could open just about any door. I left the door open, I heard the king stand back up, he was coming after me. I was sure he was now worried that I might be able to do what no one else could. I jumped over the furniture between me and the next door. The king started after me but I saw the prince grab him out of the corner of my eye as I opened the next door.
I didn't look around as I ran straight for the next door. I knew the guards could no longer see me but the king and his son could. I stopped and put my palms on the double doors that lead to one of the few rooms I couldn't see in.
I felt the spell respond. Listen, I thought, I knew the spell could hear me but pieces of it could only be manipulated from certain places. I don't want to hurt the queen but your healing won't work against this poison the body won't expel it on its own. Let me heal her. I heard a click and the doors disappeared into the blackness as they opened inward.
I moved through carefully, I was pretty sure the shield wasn't going to give me any more sight than it deemed that I needed to do what I said I was going to do. I felt the key around my neck warm and it seemed to give off a faint glow. I pulled it out as I stepped through into the dark. I was sure normally the room would not be dark at this hour, it was only a trick the shield was playing on me to keep the secrets of it's master. I heard the doors click closed on their own behind me. I moved as fast as I dared through the room. I prayed it was laid out about the same as the prince's room.
I found the bed and the light of the key fell onto the queen's sleeping face. She didn't look good. Elves were normally pale, she was ghostly white. Her lips were blue and eyes looked sunken. If it wasn't for her breathing I would have thought I was too late.
I wasn't a master healer by any means, I had field medic training and that was about it. I had seen this poison before though. It was slow acting even on humans, on Islee and elves it would probably take years. For the queen to look like this the king must have been dosing her for quite a few years. If the shield spell was right he had been killing her since the prince turned ten.
I didn't like to touch people, I was worried about how they would feel if they found out that I was a demon, even half demon. I was pretty sure the queen would rather be alive to feel gross than be dead and not feel anything, I hoped. Placing my right hand on her forehead and my left hand on her arm, I focused and did something that I knew I really shouldn't do without more formal training.
I had seen the poison pulled out of a little human girl who had eaten the berries without knowing better. It was a good thing I had gotten more sleep than normal. I was careful, focused on doing the same thing to the queen that I had seen one wizard do once. I had been doing other things at the time the wizard was working as well, but my memory was very clear on what the overall task was. The shield was only putting up with it I am sure because it couldn't let anyone else in here and the queen at this rate would die anyway.
If she died while I was trying to save her my key would be fine. I was very sure my heart would not be, even if I didn't know the prince's relationship with his mother. I felt the shield doing the only healing it had as I worked on removing the foreign material that the body just couldn't expel on its own.
I didn't think that much time had passed when I slumped to the floor laying half on the bed where the queen still laid. Her breathing was better, I could tell that much. I wasn't sure I had gotten it all. She would need to see a real healer but I was sure that her body would recover to the point of being able to function. To the point she could see a healer.