The Imperial Sorceress

Chapter 7

Sleeping outdoors has never been to my liking. The hard ground, the bugs, and the campfire never get hot enough. Well, the last one this time wasn't true. I was almost asleep when I felt a strong heat coming from the campfire.

"Lady Dominica, Lady Dominica." I looked at the campfire where between the flames I saw the face of Lady Rosario.

"Rosario?" I asked.

"Finally, I have been trying to contact you for two days. I need you here. The prince was worse. If we don't do something, he doesn't have much time left."

The captain and Ludovica were saddling the horses. We had been using one to push Basto's cell and the other one to help us with baggage. The duke hadn't provided us with more horses. I approached Basto's cell, he looked at us going from one place to another.

"Basto, we need to go now. Someone was sick. Can I trust you will behave until we arrive?"

"Who was sick?"

"The prince of the empire," I said and he responded looking away and staying quiet. "Goodness, you still don't trust me and you have good reasons not to. But a child in my charge could die, I need to get to the imperial palace as soon as possible and leave you here with the guards and Ludovica isn't a possibility."

He stayed quiet for a few seconds more until he opened his mouth. "How old is he?"

"Thirteen years old. Please," I begged.

"Okay. I won't try to escape ... for now."

I opened the cell and he followed me. The horses were ready and the captain was giving the last orders to his soldiers. I mounted and Basto followed my lead, but immediately I felt a terrible pain in my back and head. He had fallen to the other side of the horse. He got up quickly and the pain disappeared instantly. I knew he was hard but I hadn't realized until I could see how quickly her pain was fading.

"Is this the first time you ride a horse?" He nodded. "Okay, give me your hand." He doubted for a second but he gave it to me. I helped him up and then put his arms around my hips. "Now, you have to hold on tight." I noticed as he grabbed me with all his arms. "It's not, you know what, it doesn't matter. Giddy up!"

We headed to the ancient ruins of the wild witches of the West. We would need at least until the next sunset if we were riding a horse. The ruins had an old witcher thrower and it was faster than other ways.

The ruins were hard to find if you didn't know what to search for. I saw the old log cabin between the trees.

"Ostendit senex." Each one of the logs that were part of the cabin started to fly and create a big circle structure with a membrane in the center. "We dismount here. Tie the horses."

Basto tried to go down and he fell again. The pain was less than the last time at least. I downed and gave the rain to Ludovica. I took a piece of paper from my bag and wrote instructions so that men could find the horses. I used a spell and the piece of paper flew away. Basto didn't stop looking around. He was analyzing the situation. It was clear that his brain was constantly searching for an exit. He noticed that I was looking at him.

"I said I wasn't going to try to escape. I don't want the boy to die," he said.

"A surprising change of attitude," I said.

He looked away. "Life is something precious, especially if it's of someone so young."

I could avoid making a small smile. "You speak as if you would be so much older than him."

Ludovica and the Capitan approached us.

"My lady is all ready. We can jump."

"Wait, we have to jump into this thing." The legs of the captain shook uncontrolled.

"Something similar, and we have to do it all at once. If you don't want to control a bubble for yourself." My words didn't seem to calm the captain but at least, I was sure that he would be attentive to my orders. "Okay, hold each other's hands, and when we are inside the bubble let yourself be carried with your head up."

I held Ludovica and Basto's hands, and Ludovica held the captain's. Basto and he gave each other a look of mutual contempt and held hands.

"Fac nos avolare." From the membrane of the structure appears a big transparent bubble and it approaches us. "Let the bubble absorb you and don't use force."

Basto's eyes opened when he noticed he would be the last to be absorbed by the bubble but I held his hand tighter and after a duel of glances which I felt like a long conversion about his promise, my promise, and my capacity to control the bubble and capture him before he could go very far, he didn't try anything. I like the way we were starting to understand each other.

The bubble flew up and all of them started to spin around. The first time in a bubble is hard, especially if you have a bad balance. Besides, I couldn't give them time to get used to the height. The captain and Ludovica seemed terrorized. Basto was calming probably because he wasn't noticing that if something was wrong he couldn't fly like a bird.