(Path of the Dragon Mage: Exiled) 2. The Bastard Prince (Patreon)

Five years later

Corvus was woken in the middle of the night by a rough hand shaking his shoulder.

“You must wake, my prince. Quickly, now!”

“Wha—” Corvus pulled himself out of sleep as if rising from thick, sticky mud. Irritably, he pushed the hand away. His manservant should be better trained than to be so familiar with him. 

Blinking, he looked around. Why was his room so dark? Why hadn’t anyone lit the candles? He could not do it with his own lack of magic, so his servant was trained to do the task for him by hand.

The shadowed figure standing above him was not his manservant, the man who had replaced his childhood nurse after he’d turned ten. He was a grim-faced stranger who wore the blue and black uniforms as the king's vanguard.

He was not alone. Two additional guards stood by the door.

Alarm woke Corvus the rest of the way. He sat up. “What’s happened? Has the palace been attacked?”

He could not think of another reason why the king’s personal guards would be in his room. It would be madness to attack the royal family at the heart of their strength, but the demons who warred with their kingdom across the border were insane. 

He cast a glance beyond the open window. With no moon, the distant western mountains stood as darker smudges against a blue-black sky. Not a beacon fire to be seen.

Corvus had never actually seen an attack from the demons from across the border, but the histories he had read were quite clear. The beacon fires were to be lit at the first sign of a breach along the border. 

This was something else, then.

The guard’s expression did not so much as flicker. “Prince Corvus, you have been summoned to appear before King Orphus.”

The king? Since when had Orphus ever wanted to speak to him? Had something else happened? Could his grandfather be ill?

“Yes, of course,” he said, hoping his pause hadn’t been too long. According to his mother, rumors were flying around the palace that he was slow-witted as well as magically dead.

He rose and the guards excused themselves to wait outside. Corvus drew a comb through his unruly dark hair and dressed quickly in the best robes he could manage by himself. An official visit to the king usually meant intricate outfits that took three servants to wrangle him into. He hoped he would be granted leeway with the short notice… though no matter what his father would likely have sharp words later.

As always, Corvus paused at the dresser. Sitting atop in the place of pride was an intricately carved wooden chest. He flipped open the lid. There, resting on a silk pillow sat the gold and copper dragon egg.

As he focused his eyes, equally familiar blue text swam into focus above it.

ITEM: Fertile Dragon Egg

LEVEL: 1/???

RACE: Dragon

STATUS: Unhatched

Those words had not changed since the day, five years ago, he had picked it out of hundreds of others. 

Irritably, Corvus waved his hand to dismiss the text. Discreet experimentation proved that he was the only one able to see the odd floating words, but it annoyed him if left up too long.

It reminded him of his failure.

Five years of attempting to hatch his egg had yielded exactly nothing. Worse, it seemed he was the only one in the palace who had been surprised. Corvus was the only royal in the line without a hint of magical talent to his name. No one thought he had the skill to hatch a dragon.

Gazing at the egg, he felt a familiar mix of hope and growing despair. He knew he had chosen correctly. The egg was alive, and there was some odd magic surrounding it. What was he missing? Why couldn’t he hatch it? 

That was a mystery for another day. The guards were waiting.

Corvus kissed his fingers and pressed them against the coppery gold shell. “Grant me luck if you can.” 

As usual, it felt as if something pulsed back against his skin. A flutter of warmth echoed in his heart. 

He smiled.

The guards stationed outside his door bowed with half-curtesy, which was the proper respect for a second-generation prince. Corvus nodded in return and they made their way down the hall.

Their party was quickly joined by three additional guards who flanked Corvus’s younger cousin, Starella. Unlike him, she had managed to put on a full formal dress. She had probably used her magical talents to wake up faster and move quicker than he could. She'd even managed to pile her golden blonde hair in artful curls on top of her head.

She also clutched her dragon egg in the crook of one arm, like most girls would carry a doll. Her egg was midnight blue with a scattering of silver dusted across it, like stars.

As usual, Corvus focused on her egg. The text appeared over hers as well.

ITEM: Fertile Dragon Egg

LEVEL: 1/???

RACE: Dragon

STATUS: Unhatched

Against all odds, Cousin Starella had also managed to pick out a fertile dragon egg from the nesting grounds. 

Or, perhaps it wasn't totally unexpected. Starella seemed to effortlessly excel wherever Corvus failed. He supposed he should have hated her a little—his mother and father certainly spoke poisonous things about her, when they were not comparing his lack of progress. But Starella was the little sister he never had.

Also, she did not seem to be able to see the strange floating text. It gave him a sliver of hope that he had some sort of edge. 

Starella smiled in greeting and stepped beside him with a poise that was unnatural to a twelve-year-old girl.

“What did the guards tell you?” she murmured.

Not, ‘What is going on?’ Or ‘Do you know why we were woken in the middle of the night?’ Starella was a true princess who demanded information, never asked.

“Only that the king wants an audience,” Corvus replied. “I don’t think there’s been an attack or anything.”

She nodded once. “They told me the same.”

He looked pointedly at the egg. “You can’t take that with you to see the king.”

“My mother said it’s our duty to hatch it however we can.” Her grip tightened on the shell. “I want to show my dragon how much I love it and want it with me all the time.”

“What if you drop it?” he teased.

She gave him a scornful look. “It’s a dragon. It could survive a little fall. Besides, I would never drop it.” 

I might, Corvus thought ruefully. It seemed he was always losing things between his fingers, especially when people were staring at him, expecting perfection. 

Corvus heard raised voices echoing from down the hall well before they reached the audience chamber. He exchanged a started look with Starella, who turned and gestured. At her silent command, a zephyr of air brushed by his cheek and whistled down the hall, returning back to her by the time they had time to take three steps.

“It’s aunt and uncle,” Starella said, reading the information told to her by the wind.

Corvus already guessed that much. The walls were thick and the words still indistinct, but he recognized the dark timbre of his father’s voice and the shrill, protesting tones of his mother. That they were arguing was not unusual, but to do so in front of the king…

Corvus quickened his step. One of the guards reached out to grab the back of his collar to slow him.

Shocked that he had been touched in such a familiar fashion, Corvus whirled on him. The guard paid no heed and didn’t bother apologizing as he stopped to knock at one of the servant’s entrances. “Prince Corvus and Princess Starella, your grace.”

The door unbolted itself to allow them entry.

The last time Corvus had visited the king in an official capacity had been when he had chosen his dragon egg. On that day, he had been admitted through the royal receiving room. Now he and Starella were led through one of the common doors.

His father and mother stood at either side of the large chamber. Father on the right of the king’s throne, mother on the left. Though it was in the small hours of the night, Father was dressed in his most formal robes—the ones he used to adjudicate at the royal courts. His gaze toward Corvus held a slight note of disdain, but that was nothing new.

His mother was flanked by no less than five of the royal vanguard. Her short, blood-red dress was wildly inappropriate for an audience with the king. She had also painted on thick makeup which made her look both younger and softer. Streaks of black trailed from her eyes from tears, though she currently stared at her husband in cold anger.

What, by the egg of the first dragon, had happened?

Court protocol carried Corvus forward. He and Starella crossed the hallway and fell to their knees in front of the king, palms open—although Starella had to carefully place her egg to the side in order to complete the gesture. 

Thankfully, King Orphus did not have them wait for long. He flicked his fingers in an indication for them to rise.

“Prince Corvus, stand by your mother. Princess Starella, you may take your place at the audience booth.”

It was only then that Corvus realized that if this had been a court, his father would be placed at the spot of a prosecutor, his mother as a defendant, and the king in the judge’s seat.

Which meant he had just been asked to stand with the accused.

“Mother,” Corvus whispered as he joined her. “What’s going on?”

She shook her head and glared across the hall so viciously that if her talent had been with fire instead of air, Cipherus might have been scorched.

Vesper spoke in a carrying voice. “Your father insists on wasting our time. As usual.”

Corvus cringed and cast a glance at Orphus, hoping to convey his mortification. He couldn’t read the expression on the king's stony face.

“We shall see about that,” Cipherus replied smoothly. He then crossed to the center of the room. “Since we are all here, may we begin?”

But there was new movement at the entrance—the proper receiving entrance this time and not the commoner's door. The stone wall glowed briefly red as if lit from within. Then it melted neatly away.

Corvus’s aunt Sunli strode in, looking put together but grumpy from the late hour. Striding up the length of the room, she bowed in full curtesy to the king but did not wait for his permission to rise. As the king’s favored child, she could get away with informalities.

As soon as she was on her feet, Sunli rounded on her brother. “What is the meaning of all this?”

“I’m sorry, sister but I’m afraid this was a matter which could not wait,” Cipherus replied calmly. His lip ticked up as if he were fighting back a smile. “I have discovered treason.”

Corvus opened his mouth to ask, but his aunt spoke first.

“Treason?” Sunli turned to take in where Corvus and his mother stood. Her light blue eyes flicked to him and then away. “Vesper? Treason? That is absurd.” She looked at the king. “Father, there is no reason for Corvus and Starella to witness this.”

“On the contrary.” Cipherus’s silky voice was him at his most dangerous. “This matter includes the boy, too.”

Me? Corvus thought, freezing. What have I done? 

He wasn’t a traitor. He loved the kingdom and was loyal to the king. Was this because he couldn’t do magic yet?

Sunli swelled in indignation. The stones under her feet crackled and snapped with dangerous heat.  “The day we hold a trial of treason for a child—”

"Prince Corvus is one year from his majority, when he will be expected to take on adult duties," Cipherus said smoothly, "Which makes this matter more urgent than ever."

The king waved his hand, and his daughter instantly fell silent. 

“Continue, Cipherus. Although I warn you that this had better not be a waste of my time.”

Cipherus bowed. “As you say, Father.” He then gestured a guard forward. He wore not the doublet of the king’s vanguard, but the normal uniform of one of the palace enforcers.

The enforcer bowed before them with his fist over his heart. “My lords and ladies. My grace. Over the last few weeks, the guards have noticed a troubling pattern where Princess Vesper has not immediately been available to take messages or receive summons. With Prince Cipherus's permission, we investigated further. Today we witnessed her, along with her maid, leaving the palace grounds. Later, my men intercepted her within the town.”

“I am not a prisoner here!” Vesper’s voice was sharp. “I am an adult, and I should be allowed to come and go from my own home as I please!”

Corvus glanced in surprise at his mother. He had never been outside the sprawling palace grounds, though he had been shown drawings and could see the tops of distant commoner buildings from the high balconies. Everything he ever wanted was here. Why would anyone leave?

Cipherus ignored his wife’s outburst and turned back to the guard. “And a later search of her rooms found what?”

“A… notebook, my lord.” The guard seemed both reluctant and embarrassed. “With several personal letters inside.”

“Love letters, you mean.” Cipherus withdrew a slim book from the deep pockets of his robes. “Written in my beloved wife’s handwriting to… several recipients.”

Corvus stepped back in shock. Was his father saying what he thought he was saying? His mother was not screeching denials as she normally did during their regular arguments. She was crying again. Tears ran through the dark, heavy makeup under her eyes and made black trails down her cheeks. 

“Nothing happened,” she said. “I only wrote those letters to… to make you jealous!”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“You never pay attention to me!” she yelled, and the wind twisted her voice into a shriek that could cut glass. “And even if I did, adultery is not against the law!”

“No,” Cipherus replied coldly. “Adultery is not against the law, but passing an illegitimate child as one of the royal blood, is.”

No one was unwise enough to gasp, though several of the guards shifted uneasily.

Corvus felt like a hole had opened up under his feet, like he was falling and falling with no sign of the ground below.

“Brother,” Sunli said, “that is absurd. Corvus is you in miniature. You as well, my King.”

“Yet he has no more magical talent than a commoner, and the temperament of a scholar, not a leader.” Cipherus looked to the guard. “The inn where you found my wife is often used as a way station for the scholar guild, is it not?”

The guard nodded. “Yes, my prince.”

Corvus felt all eyes in the room land on him. No doubt, they were studying him for his father’s likeness. The king was one of them.

His mother’s hand fell to his shoulder, pulling him back to stand against her. It would have been a comforting gesture except her fingernails dug in like claws. 

“Corvus is your son!” Vesper declared.

“Is he?” Cipherus asked smoothly. “Or did you lay with a man who shares my looks?”

Outraged, she opened her mouth, but the king rose to cut across them both. A gust of air at his command whipped both their words away. 

“That is enough! I will not be privy to your bickering.” He then addressed his son. “Whatever strife between you and your wife is your fault, alone. Vesper was chosen from our most loyal noble family with natural magic to compliment yours.” He sneered. “It is a simple thing for any man to keep a woman happy. The fact that you could not is a testament to your failures. Not hers.”

Cipherus flushed red, but he could not contradict the king. He bowed. “As you say, Father.”

Sunli stepped forward. “May I also remind Cipherus that there were blood tests performed hours after Corvus’s birth to certify his standing in the royal house.”

“Tests which were performed by the healers of Vesper’s family’s house,” Cipherus replied. “I demand a retest.”

“For what purpose?” Sunli demanded, exasperated. She stepped close to Vesper, putting herself in silent support of the other woman, though she did not go so far as to comfort her. Instead, she rested a hand on Corvus’s other shoulder. Unlike his mother, her touch was steady and comforting.

Cipherus sneered. “Of course you wish the boy to be legitimate. Starella has already shown talent in multiple disciplines of Air and Earth. There is no doubt she is a true born heir.”

“Of course I have no doubt, you fool. I gave birth to her, myself,” she replied dryly. “That is an advantage of being a woman.”

Cipherus stabbed a finger in Corvus’s direction. “That boy is not my son.” 

Corvus stared back, jaw clenched and eyes hot from tears, his pulse a distant roaring in his ears. Being used as a weapon in his parent’s fights was not uncommon. His father had been unkinder with his words in private before, but this was in front of the king and all the guards. By noon, the entire palace, from nobles to servants, would know exactly what his father had said.

Now would be a great time for his magic to show up. Dropping his gaze, he glared down at the stone floor and willed the earth to shift, for fire to heat the stone, water to bubble up… or even the slightest breath of air to move the dust. 

Nothing happened. Nothing ever happened.

The bickering had started again. His parents had forgotten all decorum and were yelling ugly accusations at each other.

Mother insisted that the guard was lying, that she had only gone out of the palace to take some air. That she tried and tried, but no matter what her husband only saw the worst in her…

Father, meanwhile, accused his wife of acts that Corvus only sort of understood, and definitely did not want to hear in context to his parents.

“Enough!” the king roared again. The building shook down to the foundations with his displeasure.

Silence fell. The king let it build, glaring from Cipherus to Vesper and back again. He seemed to be coming to a decision.

His silver gaze fell on Corvus, held, then fell away.

“Cipherus, I suppose you have brought someone you trust to run the test.”

He hastily bowed. “I have. Scholar Fornill is a distant nephew to your aunt. He has a hedge-made artifact that has been proven in trials to tell the blood truly.”

Again the king’s eyes landed on Corvus. He remembered seeing this look before: Like Corvus was a bug the king was considering whether to squish.

“Father,” Cipherus said again. “The boy is fifteen and has never shown a hint of talent. To let this farce continue would be an embarrassment to the royal line. A tree cannot grow strong if it is left unpruned.”

Corvus looked away and found Starella staring back from her quiet spot in the shadows. She cuddled her dragon egg close.

Now, he wished he had brought his own to hold, if only to feel the soul-deep warmth. Why had he left it behind? 

“So be it,” the king snapped. “Do what you must.”

Cipherus gestured to the walled entrance, which opened under his power. Earth and water washed away the bricks to sand. On the other side stood a reedy man dressed in the midnight blue robes of a scholar. He entered and bowed low in full supplication to the king.

“Yes, yes.” Impatiently, Orphus waved him to rise. “Get on with it.”

Corvus was too young to remember the test on himself, but he had once read the method and was not surprised when the scholar approached him with a long silver needle.

A needle, which had the faint outline of a blue glow he'd only seen with dragon eggs.

Immediately, Corvus's gaze snapped to it. Text swam before his vision.

ITEM: Blood Tell's Needle

DESCRIPTION: A magical artifact used to diagnose disease and medical ailments. Will also reveal bloodlines to its wielder.

DURABILITY: 51/100

He had never seen anything like this before. 

"Wait—" Corvus started to say, but before he could protest, the scholar grabbed his hand and pricked one finger with the Blood Tell's Needle. 

Corvus yelped, more out of surprise than pain, but caught Cipherus's scorned glare.

The scholar rubbed the droplet of blood across his own palm before he walked across the hall and did the same to Cipherus. He made a point of not making a sound.

The needle flashed briefly blue in Corvus's vision before fading.

Turning, the scholar bowed low again to the king, holding the needle out as if it were a fine sword. “This boy shares no blood with Prince Cipherus.”

“That is a lie!” Vesper’s denial howled through the palace with the force of a gale.

The king stood. Instantly the wind died from a hurricane to a whisper. The air tasted heavy with his power.

Everyone fell to their knees; guards and the royal family alike. Only Corvus remained standing… and not out of bravery. Shock had simply frozen him in place. All curiosity about the needle fell away.

He’s not my father?

Was that why he couldn’t do magic? Why Cipherus seemed to despise him? Had he always suspected? But if Cipherus wasn’t his father, who was? And what would happen to him now?

“Father,” Cipherus said, still on his knees. “I formally petition for a divorce and for this boy to be removed from the line of succession.”

The king nodded once and shot the still standing Corvus a dark look. “Your petition is granted. Guards, take Vesper and her son away.”