The Witch's Retribution

Chapter 13

Xan rolled over in his small bed, the early morning light streaking across his floor from the cracked window. He barely opened his eyes to glimpse the beginning day before he sat up, his heart racing at the sight of a dark shadow looming in his doorway. Brown eyes still glazed with sleep closed again in irritation as he clutched a hand over his pounding heart, bunching the shirt beneath his fist.

"Good morning, Sire." Xan breathed. "Don't you know how to knock?"

"I'm a prince. We don't have to knock."

"Well, you should learn."

"Scared you, did I?" Liam crossed his arms, a large grin spreading across his face.

"Startled." Xan corrected, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "I wasn't scared. Didn't you give me the day off?"

"I did, and now, I'm not. We are going hunting."

Xan groaned. "Don't you have more important matters to attend to? What about the rest of the tournament?"

"Well, like you said Xan, I'm not king yet, and the tournament's been canceled. Obviously." Liam turned around, moving to leave, when he said, "it's my father's idea. This hunting party."

"He's awake?"

"Yes."

The word was clipped with suppressed anger, and Xan wisely kept quiet as he watched the prince leave the room. He laid back in bed, hoping something would keep them from tramping about in the forest all day. He would even take another angry sorcerer--although preferably one who wasn't his cousin--over another hunting party.

He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and proceeded to dress for the day before Liam could waltz back into his room, demanding and borderline angry at how slow he was moving. "So much for a day off." He grumbled, yanking his tunic over his head. Although, he was relieved. Lately, it seemed he was either getting every other day off or being sent away before noon. It was more than worrying.

"Today, Xan," he heard the prince call from the other side of the door, startling him from his thoughts, "before I start sporting gray hair."

"You mean you haven't already?" Xan asked with a cheeky smile as he stepped out of his room, fully clothed. A look around the chambers proved that Eldon had already left to attend to his daily rounds.

Liam glared at his servant. "Dealing with you, it's a miracle I haven't."

Xan shoved his feet into his boots. "So which defenseless animals are we killing today?"

"You, if you don't get a move on." The prince barked, pushing Xan out the door.

"I should be allowed to sleep in on my days off." He huffed as he obediently followed the prince down the empty corridor.

"I revoked your day off."

"Yes, I can tell."

"You know," Liam continued, almost too casually, "a lord came to me yesterday evening with an interesting proposition."

"Oh?" Xan had turned his eyes up to the cracked marble of the ceiling, but now, he looked at the royal blue tunic of the prince's back. He didn't really care about other lords--there were too many to keep track of anyway--but something in Liam's tone had him tensing.

"A Lord Adderman." Xan's blood turned to ice in his veins, but Liam carried on, unconcerned, "he wanted me to trade with him. He offered quite a bit for a certain servant of mine."

"Isn't that more like selling rather than trading?" It wasn't what he wanted to say, and he couldn't conceal the tremor in his voice, but he feared the prince's response.