Page 111 of The Mage and His Stolen Prince
“Ah, right.” Cyril straightened, though he kept one arm around his wife’s waist. “As a representative of the Council of Evil, I have witnessed your misdeeds and your power. You have far exceeded your master and his master before him, so I hereby declare you, Wilde, Lord of Grimnight, a Great and Terrible Evil.” He dropped the formality to add, “But don’t tell anyone I’ve granted this title to you knowing you were plotting your own defeat. It would reflect badly on me if anyone thought I was beinggood.”
I bowed my head to acknowledge the title but didn’t thank him. Thanking him implied he helped me with a plot the council would never approve of. My reasons might be rooted in self-interest, but the result would reinforce a Kingdom Defense Spell keeping evil out of the Desolated Lands, and none of them would be pleased about that.
“How long until the champions arrive?” Lucinda asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “A few hours, at most.”
“Tell us the plan.”
“We’ll make it easy for them,” I explained. “Allow them to walk right into the lair.”
“Isthatwhy your minions seemed so incompetent?” Cyril muttered.
“Yes. I have some magical safeguards to make sure no one gets hurt, but it’ll be easier if they’re never in danger to begin with. Once they arrive, I’ll give my spiel, Delilah will make her plea to my ‘inner goodness’, and I’ll surrender to them.”
“That’s it?” Lucinda asked, her lips pursed into a thin line. “It’s not very exciting.”
“And you’re sure it’ll work?” the queen asked.
I frowned. “It was your daughter’s idea.”
“Yes, and I love her dearly, but she is a bit of anoptimist. A Great and Terrible evil would never simply surrender, and I doubt you can trick something as powerful as the Kingdom Defense Spell. You’ll need to be truly defeated for their quest to count.”
My heart sank. Did she mean I had to offer my own life in exchange for Treasure’s? Wasn’t there any way for both of us to survive the story?
“Don’t worry, dear,” Lucinda said, taking my hand and squeezing it gently. “You simply need aprofessionalto help you plot out a grand finale.”
I glanced at her husband. He’d tried to poach me as his apprentice before, was that what she meant?
She caught my meaning and cackled, the sound a mix of joy and menace. “Oh, honey! I didn’t mean him! You let him plot your story, and half of them will end up dead. No, no, you need ahappyending, which means you need—” she paused dramatically and placed her hand over her chest “—a romance novelist.”
She looped her arm through mine and dragged me out of the throne room, Cyril and the queen trailing behind us. “There’s so much to do and so little time! You’ll need a costume change, a new script, a new stage! And we’ll have to have a twist at the end, of course. Every good story has a twist. This is going to be more fun than I’ve had in years!”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Trey
Several Hours Later
The City of Traumstead
Approaching the Lord of Grimnight’s Evil Lair
“Where’s Wilde?” Maximus asked, the last person I expected to care.
“He had something to do,” I said. “Important mage business.” I hoped it was a lie, but it tasted like the truth. The last thing I wanted was to walk into the Lord of Grimnight’s lair and find Wilde on the wrong side of the fight.
Maximus snorted and shook his head, disapproval in every hard line of his face.
“Why do you dislike him so much? What has he done to earn your hate?”
For a long time, I thought he wouldn’t answer. We picked our way around the trees growing in the roads, stepping carefully over the disturbed cobblestones. The city felt different somehow, though I couldn’t remember what it’d felt like before. There was almost a … freshness to it. Like a room that’d been recently aired out.
“There’s something wrong with him.”
I paused, waited for Maximus to do the same. The others tromped ahead, discussing the final details of our plan. “What do you mean?”
His brow furrowed in frustration as he opened and closed his hands, trying to grasp the right explanation. “Like a piece that belongs to adifferent puzzle. He slotted himself into our group easily enough, but he doesn’t fit the whole picture.”
Was Wilde part of our quest the first time? I had flashes of him walking beside me, his hand in mine as we wound our way through the trees. Another image of his eyes burning with anger as he fought … someone. The taste of ink suddenly flooded my mouth, and I choked, trying to spit it out. It faded as quickly as it came, just another half-formed memory.
