SAND TRAP

XI

It was at this moment that several things happened in very quick succession. Ipris stood. The king in Torval's body, who Mainu decided to continue referring to as Torval for the sake of convenience, murmured faintly, "Ipris." A deafening thundercrack echoed through the room. Mainu yelped, because he was terrified of lightning. In the brief glow of the lightning bolt that crash-landed on the hill behind the castle, King Enri's enraged face was illuminated in all its gory detail in the doorway. Ipris screamed.

Immediately, Mainu jumped in front of the princess. "Parcalanir!" he incanted, holding his staff with two hands. A glowing shield spread from it on either side, separating them from the king.

Enri chuckled darkly as he approached. His fingers sparked with magic. "You had best get away from her," he said.

"Make me," Mainu shot back. He was sure he could hear his heartbeat.

The king's bloodshot eyes revealed the spell he was about to use before he even said it. Still, it caught Mainu by surprise. "Atva!" Mainu braced himself as the iridescent sphere of deadly magic crashed into his shield, a mere hair's width from his exceedingly mortal hands. He grimaced but barely managed to hold his ground, forcing more magic through his staff and into his wavering defenses.

Enri growled in frustration, but before he could try again, Torval emerged from the shadows and said, "It's over, Val."

"How dare you call me that?" the king spat, whirling on Torval and gathering another sphere of magic.

"I recreated the spell. It's only a matter of time."

"You idiot," King Enri scoffed. "You've been working on it all this time, only to tell me?"

"I figured it was only fair," Torval grinned.

"What reason do you think I have to keep you alive?"

Torval gave Mainu a very meaningful look. As Enri lunged at his manservant, Mainu grabbed Ipris's hand and launched his shield at the king, bolting for the door. Torval scrambled out of the way to follow, and Enri was slammed into and nearly through the wall with a gut-wrenching thud. He recovered unnaturally quickly. "You won't get away!" he roared, and a magical beam whizzed by Mainu's ear, knocking a pedestaled bust to the ground.

Torch flames fluttered in the wake of the frenzied chase. They bounded between patches of moonlight streaking through the windows, avoiding the occasional startled guard and snoozing servant. "I need to get past the moat," Torval panted, glancing over his shoulder at the furious king before somehow quickening his pace down the hall. "It's the only way I can fix this."

Ipris nodded with purpose. "Follow me," she said. "I know a shortcut." She took the lead around the next corner and darted into a dusty study that seemed to double as a secret stash. After they wove around paint jars and leaning towers of remarkably proficient paintings, the door on the opposite side of the room led them to the main stairway.

They hurried down the stairs, but the echoes of their footsteps were soon joined by another pair of feet. The king was still on their tails. "Atva!" he cried again, and Mainu had just enough time to pull Ipris out of harm's way as they leaped off the last stair. It was a straight shot to the front doors, but just when the king seemed to be slowing down, Ipris tripped. Enri caught up and grabbed her wrist with a murderous look in his eyes. "Time's up," he said.

"Bakis!" Mainu replied, and the king stumbled back and clutched his head, stunned.

In a harsh whisper, Torval said, "Get out of sight. I have a plan."

When the king next looked up, Torval, Mainu and Ipris were running out the front doors of the castle. He stormed after them into the pouring rain. Before long, and much longer than anyone could have reasonably expected given the amount of exercise the young mage got, Mainu lost steam, leaning over his knees. King Enri uttered the killing spell one more time, and Mainu's eyes widened, but it was too late. He collapsed and the king let out a wicked laugh.

While Torval flew to Mainu's side, Enri went after Ipris, following her over the moat's bridge. She fell to her knees on the other side and silently sobbed into her hands, and the soaked grass parted under the king's feet. He smiled. "You've always been a thorn in my side, Ipris. Any last words?" She didn't speak.

With a victorious cry, the king lifted his hands, magic pulsing between them. And then, someone touched his shoulder. He tensed and started to pull away, but just before Torval was about to lose contact, the two of them were surrounded by glittering light. The illusions of Ipris and Mainu dissolved, and Mainu watched in awe from his hiding place behind a rose bush as the light grew brighter and brighter. If the sun had been there to see it, it would have been outshone.

Shielding his brow, Mainu saw them: Two souls, one purple and one red, hovering above the fallen forms of Enri and Torval respectively. Magic surrounded the spirits and surged between them like electricity. Mainu's eyes stung, but he couldn't look away. He'd never seen such powerful and intricate magic in his life. Ipris clutched him, her eyes tightly shut, and he held her in his shaking arms.

Everything stood still for just long enough that Mainu had to worry if something had gone wrong, but finally, the souls crossed the short distance between the king and manservant's bodies and found their rightful places. The light was gone in an instant, and Mainu blinked at the darkness, now impenetrable with his ruined night vision. The rain had slowed to a trickle.

"Is it over?" Ipris said.

"I hope so," he replied.

Iridescence pierced the dark, illuminating King Enri's face from below. Even from a distance, he looked distinctly different. He was calm, determined, and full of life. "You got me fat, you coward," he spat at the ground.

The true Torval stood, chuckling. "Very clever, your Majesty," he sneered with an overdramatic bow, "but how do you think this changes anything? You're still no match for me." He got into a ready stance, but his face fell sharply when his hands stayed dark.

"Oh, you thought I would let you keep your magic at all? That's rich." Torval backed away, and it was Enri's turn to laugh. "I'm not planning to kill you. Things are back to the way they should be." With the danger long gone, Ipris let go of Mainu and dashed across the moat to tackle the king in a hug. Mainu summoned some magic to light the way and followed her.

"Ipris," Enri sighed, hugging her tight and running a hand through her hair. "My little princess. It's been so long." His smile turned into a grimace as he held back tears.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, indignant.

"You know I couldn't. I'm so sorry."

Torval scoffed, and Mainu shot him a dirty look, magic blazing. At that, the manservant took another step back, and that turned out to be one step too far. As if he had stepped into quicksand, he vanished, falling into the moat with a yelp and a short splash. Pointed snouts, angular enough that Mainu recalled they belonged to crocodiles and not alligators, emerged from the water, and Torval was gone in an instant. A shoe floated to the surface of the water, surrounded by thrashing green tails and bursts of crimson. The fact that that type of large reptile was the more aggressive of the two was unfortunate, Mainu thought. For Torval, at least.

Ipris, Mainu, and the king exchanged glances. "That's for the best, I suppose," Enri eventually said matter-of-factly. "Good riddance."

As dawn began to break, a voice called out from the castle's entrance. "Enri? Is that you?"

The king's face lit up. "Caecia!"

He was about to dash to her side, but Mainu said, "Your Majesty, wait. What are you going to tell her when she asks what happened?"

"The truth. She deserves it. The whole kingdom does."

"It's a little outlandish, isn't it?"

Enri winked. "Real life is outlandish sometimes. I'm the king, I'll convince them."

As the king embraced the befuddled queen at the top of the bridge, Ipris took Mainu's hand and squeezed it. "You were amazing," she murmured.

Mainu flushed. "You think so?"

"You were a real knight in shining armor." And with that, she kissed his cheek.