The Serpent's Chains

When I opened my eyes, I felt the thrum of magic tingling me from the inside out. I sighed and turned on my side. Grabbing my pillow, I hugged it and giggled, burying my face in the soft fabric and puffy down. When was the last time I'd woken up and felt this alive?

I couldn't remember.

I dressed quickly and headed to the prince's quarters. I wasn't his slave anymore but I still had my duties as his personal attendant until he told me otherwise or I had something else lined up. There was so much I needed to figure out without the binding of a slave collar but I couldn't do it all in one day.

Prince Cole arched an eyebrow as I came in. I bowed my head under his gaze.

"Your Highness."

"You're not required to be here." His voice was stern, almost dismissive.

"I still have my duties. You haven't dismissed me." I lifted my eyes and met his look. For the first time, I didn't feel the need to avert my gaze the moment our eyes locked.

For years, I'd forced myself into the required submission of a slave but I'd never felt it, not really.

The prince pursed his lips and his eyes lit up, like he was trying to hide a smile. "I won't have to. The king will require your services elsewhere and he outranks me."

"Services for what?" My voice was barely above a whisper and my stomach exploded with butterflies. No, more like bats. It wasn't the kind of gentle fluttering that made my toes curl. It was violent and nervous.

I looped my arms around myself.

The prince approached with swift steps. He put his hands on my shoulders and tipped my chin up with his thumbs. Our eyes locked and I gasped. There was something so... guilty in the depths of his gaze.

"You're going to be trained as a royal mage. Some of the most skilled mages in Telasia will teach you."

"It's a step up from being a slave and your personal attendant," I pointed out. "King Talis did say he'd elevate my conditions."

More than that, the idea of learning from trained, accomplished mages was a dream I never thought I'd see realized. I was self-taught in everything I'd learned but knew I could do so much more. I just needed the right guidance and direction.

"Was being my attendant so dreadful?" The prince frowned slightly.

"Not at all, Majesty!"

He chuckled and brushed his thumb along my cheek, leaving a warm trail in its wake. "You don't have to lie on my account."

"I'm not. Though, to be fair, my life before coming to the palace was easy to outshine."

"I will miss these little conversations of ours." The prince smiled humorlessly and ran his thumb along my cheek again.

I bit my lower lip. "There is a lot I don't understand about being trained by the royal mages and having my freedom inside the palace."

"Freedom?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Ah, yes. Your collar signified your servitude. Without it, you feel you are no longer bound." His fingers loosely rested against my clavicles where my former collar rested for so many years.

I found the weight of his touch comforting like I almost missed the collar. It was absurd to even think. How could I miss my shackles? The reality was, I didn't know how to live without it anymore. I'd have to learn.

"Are you saying that I'm still a slave?"

"No. I'm saying that some chains are invisible." He pulled away from me and flexed his fingers. The prince stared at his own wrists and twisted them from side to side, a strange look in his eyes. "I am sorry."

"You said that before, in the dining hall. What are you sorry for?"

My heart fluttered when his eyes met mine. Deep in the depths of his shining orbs, there was sorrow and regret. He put his palm against my cheek and my blood raced through my veins. I tried to inhale but my breath caught.

"Remember what I said about invisible chains. If you don't understand that now, you will."

The door to the prince's quarters opened and he immediately dropped his hand from my face. My pulse hadn't calmed down yet and I felt my cheeks and neck flare with crimson heat.

"Lady Sabine, the king sent us to help you relocate to your new living quarters," one of the maids said.

"Lady?" I glanced at the prince.

"From slave to noble overnight."

"What?" I gasped. I hadn't realized my status was that elevated. Royal mages were considered nobility. Being trained by them was one thing but becoming one was something else altogether. Is that what the king intended to make me?

"Come with us, if you please, My Lady," the maid urged, motioning to me.

"Your new life is calling. Best not keep it waiting." The prince flicked a dismissive wrist toward his door.

I bowed my head. "Your Majesty."

There was already a team of servants in my quarters packing up the clothes, shoes, accessories, and books I'd acquired since arriving. They were quick and efficient.

I followed them to the mage's wing of the palace. Outside the prince's wing, I'd only seen the throne room, dining hall, and ballroom. Trekking across the palace to the mage's wing, I realized just how big the palace was.

Gasping, I leaned against a nearby wall and fanned myself with my hand. A maid appeared beside me and handed me a chalice of water.

"Are you alright, Lady?"

I winced and nodded. "I'm fine. How much further?"

"The mage's wing is one more building over. We just have to cross the main courtyard." She pointed between two large pillars to the courtyard beyond.

The outdoor expanse of marble was wider than the prince's wing was long.

I'd never been afforded the luxury of physical fitness. Most of my life as a slave involved standing around and waiting for orders. That was one of the first things on my list to change with my newfound freedom.

I finished off my water and nodded. "Alright, let's go."

The maids brought me to my new quarters. If I thought my prior living conditions were an upgrade, I was unprepared for how well the royal mages lived. My bedroom and bathroom were nearly double the size as before. I had a parlor and my own library already partially stocked with old leather volumes and a desk looking out the window on one of the palace's flower gardens.

Swans swam across a pond and a peacock strutted over the cobblestones outside.

One of the maids opened all the windows in my new quarters letting in the warm air and the scent of magnolia blossoms and herbs from the surrounding gardens. The other servants carted my belongings in, hanging the clothes in the closet and the books in the study. They even brought me new clothes and some bathroom items.

Once they were gone, I took a deep breath and sat at the end of the lavish, silk-tasseled, green comforter at the end of my new bed. A heavy canopy was tied to the twisted, wooden four posts of the bed and a breeze ruffled the pale green, gossamer curtains.

All the furniture came with the rooms. As the prince's personal attendant, I felt like a guest in the adjoining room. It was all part of his domain.

Here, in my very own quarters with my freedom, I felt even more like a stranger in the palace. Now, I was in the king's domain and everything here belonged to him. The bed, the clothes, the books... did that mean I belonged to him too?

***

"How did you do that?" the king's royal mage looked down his hook nose at me, his beady eyes crossed behind his spectacles.

"That's the potion you tasked me to make." I held up the swirling, blue potion he'd given me a recipe for.

A healing tonic for perforated organs that couldn't be worked on by a healer's hands.

"I see that. But how did you imbue it with magic? You didn't draw from an elemental source." He tapped his forefinger on his desk, his lips a thin, firm line.

The king's personal mage, Reinier, started teaching me a few days after I relocated to the mage's wing. The king wanted to make sure I could reach my full potential. He was so impressed with what I could do, he put his best mage on the job.

"I don't draw my magic from the elements. I draw it from here." I pointed to my heart.

"Spirit magic. I've heard of that but it is rare in Telasia. And yet, you've mastered it so naturally."

I set the potion on his desk. "This should be tested before used in a medical application."

"The palace has mages dedicated to healing tonics and salves. Your skills will be put to much different uses. I just need to make sure you are accomplished in the basics." He steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair.

Reinier's office was full of books and tables covered in herbs, liquids, vials, and other supplies for mixing ingredients and imbuing them with magic. He was the prime spell creator for the king and did a lot of magical experiments. I'd seen a few explosions since I got there.

"Have I passed all the entry-level tests?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you want to report on my potential to the king, then stop giving me kid spells to play with."

Reinier grinned and nodded. "I'm pleased to hear that's your attitude. He rose and strode to a bookshelf behind his desk. I'd never seen him take a book from that shelf. They were all old, leather-bound volumes, dusty and musty.

Several of them were bound with chains and locks.

He pulled down a large tome with chains securing it in an X across the cover and a giant, iron lock in the shape of a dragon's head. The keyhole was the dragon's mouth.

"Study this text." He plopped the heavy book in my arms.

I grunted and stumbled under the weight. "What about the lock?"

"Part of your task is to figure out how to unlock it." He chuckled and motioned to the door.

As I carried the book back to my quarters, I heard Rosalie's voice down the hall. Her footsteps hurried to me.

"What is this monstrosity?" she tried to take the book from me and groaned, handing it back immediately. "Is this some new form of torture?"

I laughed and shook my head. "No. Reinier's advanced reading assignment. I told him I was tired of the kid stuff and I wanted to learn more advanced magic."

"You go! Way to put your foot down. Drop that thing off real quick. It is a beautiful day out and since Reinier has let you out of your studies early, I want to have a lunch date with you."

I dropped the book in my study and rejoined Rosalie in the corridor. She looped her arm through mine and we headed to the main hall where a sliding door opened into the magnolia tree gardens.

As we walked through a small courtyard separating the mages' living quarters from the rest of the mage's wing, Prince Cole came into view, crossing the same courtyard. One of his eyebrows arched and his lips twitched.

My stomach fluttered and my heart rapidly hammered against my chest. I'd only caught sight of him from a distance since relocating.

The prince nodded to me and continued on his way. It seemed like we had no reason to talk to each other now that I wasn't waiting on him.

I sighed. Why did my heart have to go crazy at the sight of him? I didn't miss being at his beck and call but... he always encouraged me to be honest about my thoughts and feelings. He was the first person in my life since becoming a slave who didn't shut me down or write me off at every moment.

"Do you miss him?" Rosalie's words broke into my thoughts.

"What? Who? Miss... what now?" My cheeks flared.

"My brother. You worked for him for a while. I imagine you two got to know each other."

I cleared my throat. "Princess, while you were always eager to make a friend of me, His Highness did not carry that same desire. I waited on him. We weren't friends."

The princess gave me a look like she didn't believe me.

Morganna was already sunning herself on a patch of moss in the garden. Her blue scales glittered as her body rose and fell with her massive breaths.

Talon was the largest and most impressive of the dragons but Morganna was no doubt the most beautiful.

A breeze tossed the tree branches and the bright, yellow magnolias danced in the air. The strong scent of herbs wafted through the garden. This was where Reinier and the other mages got a lot of their medicinal and magical plants.

Rosalie and I sat at a two-person patio table, a meal already laid out for us and servants standing nearby.

"So, how are you enjoying palace life now that you can really enjoy it?" Rosalie giggled and held her wine goblet up like she wanted to toast.

I clinked my goblet with hers. "I have no complaints so far."