Alliance

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4That night, Lumina was feeling better. Kinni had been healing her all day and now, finally, her magic was returning.

She sat up in bed. “Thank you, Kinni. I should be fine now.”

Kinni inspected her carefully. “You couldn’t move this morning.”

“You need to oversee the rebels. There’ll be a meeting tonight.”

“I won’t leave you here alone with that vampire nearby.”

“He didn’t attack me this morning,” Lumina said. “In fact, he got Pacaus to send for you and stopped Pacaus from entering my room …”

“Even so, he’s a vampire.”

Lumina couldn’t deny that. “True enough. But someone needs to coordinate with the rebels and clean up after last night.”

Kinni nodded slowly. “I suppose you’re right. Well, I’ll go and run the rebels, see what else we need to respond to.”

An hour later, a polite knock came at her door. “Phoenix? Are you okay? May I come in, and will you throw a pitcher or fireballs at me if I do?”

Lumina smothered a smile. “You may enter, Lothaire, although I don’t promise not to throw anything at you.”

The door opened a c***k, and the princess looked up and met her own eyes staring back at her. Lothaire, still in his princess form, stepped into the room. “You must be feeling better if you’re sitting up on your own.”

“I am. And thank you for this morning.”

He shrugged and sat on her chair by the unlit hearth, turning back into his humanoid self. “Well, we are on the same side, Phoenix. I remember the last time I slipped up a little too well.”

They fell into silence for a moment.

“There are some things you need to know about today,” he said, and told her about how her father and the Avadierish thought that she’d secretly been studying immortals.

“We’ll need to find some books on the subject,” she said, hands going limp.

“I didn’t mean to let on, Phoenix. I was just trying to figure out why you almost died.”

Lumina winced, remembering the chaos of last night, and how she’d nearly lost the general.

“I’m sorry,” Lothaire added quickly. “I didn’t think it would be a sore topic.”

She flicked her eyes upwards. “I almost died, Lothaire. Of course it’s a sore topic.”

“So … what happened?”

Lumina explained it all: the escape, the kraken, the dragon, the sharks, the mages and the dream t*****e.

Lothaire nodded. “Well, now we have a bigger problem. Everyone knows Milorth has allied with Bucansi, and they’re all expecting you to realise your phoenix powers so you can drive off Bucansian invasion.”

“And when they realise I ‘don’t have any’, my father will turn to the Avadierish for protection …” Lumina groaned.

“Well, the Avadierish were certainly aiming for that. Although considering the Bucansians wiped out an entire fleet, they can’t say they’re that much more powerful.”

“That’s right. But the sheer numbers in their navy force would make my father reconsider their offer.” She stared at the unlit hearth. “I need to tell Kinni about this.”

“You’re sure you’re up for that?”

“I used to go off to rebel meetings long before I discovered I had magic. I can do this …” She stopped suddenly, realising she had just admitted to being vulnerable.

Lothaire tapped his foot. “Oh, please, Phoenix, I know you don’t have that much magic at your disposal right now. You don’t need to pretend.”

Lumina’s eyes strayed away.

“Besides, I’m well sated on the grand prince’s blood.” He rubbed his stomach, smiling.

Lumina suppressed a tremor and climbed out of bed. “Well, I’d better be off.”

“I’ll be in the library,” Lothaire replied, “trying to figure out if there are any books on immortals. If not, then I’ll go to Milorth and have him conjure a few.”

“I could ask a few rebels to conjure them for us,” Lumina said.

Lothaire narrowed his eyes. “Considering I was human at one stage, I shouldn’t have forgotten that mortals can use conjuring magic.” He contemplated his deadly pointed nails. “But apparently, I have forgotten more than I thought.”

Lumina hoped she would never forget what it was like to be mortal, especially since she’d be queen one day.

***

At the rebel meeting, Kinni looked stricken when she learnt Lumina’s news.

“He’s going to try to get the Phoenix Princess to use her powers again, isn’t he?” asked Ishton, Pacaus’ brother and head of palace security, his eyes on the disguised Lumina.

“He will,” Lumina replied. “And if that doesn’t work, he’ll take the Avadierish up on their offer of using their great military might, thus inviting an invading army into our country.”

“And this time it won’t just be one fleet,” whispered Kinni.

Lumina nodded. This now begged the question: did she reveal her phoenix powers, or did she continue pretending she didn’t have them?

After the meeting, Lumina pulled Kinni, Ishton and Pacaus aside. “Do I reveal my powers to my father?”

Pacaus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Knowing him, he’d marry you to the grand prince the moment you do.”

Lumina swallowed.

“But if you don’t, we’ll have a worse invading force than before,” muttered Kinni.

“I need to speak to the general,” Lumina said. “Maybe he has some ideas about what we might do.” Then she remembered Lothaire’s comments about the books. “And can you conjure some books on immortals for me?”

Pacaus raised his eyebrows. “I wondered why the vampire spoke about immortals today. I suppose something must have come out when the messengers told the king about the attack last night.”

Lumina explained what had happened, but Pacaus seemed uncertain. “Well, we can conjure objects, but they don’t stay around for that long,” he told her.

“How long do they stay around for?” she asked, surprised.

“Three days,” Kinni said.

“Then I need to acquire books on the subject. Kinni, can I leave this with you?”

“Absolutely. I’ll send people out to scour the bookstores.”