She blushed, and murmured, "I mean...will you...go back to...being the heir prince?" She studied the covers of her bedspread as if they were immensely fascinating.
Zelgadis studied her just as intensely, face expressionless. Carefully, he said, "Lina, I was miserable as the heir prince, and they tried to kill me when they saw me in my chimera form. If I became a prince again, I'd be even more miserable than before."
Lina held her breath, sensing that he wasn't done speaking, and nodded tightly at him, urging him to continue.
"That wouldn't stop me from taking back the title; despite what my family and my people have done, I would take up the title of heir prince again if they needed me. But..." he smiled slightly at her, and shook his head. "...But...they don't need me. They have Tannec."
Lina was loath to argue with him, considering how well the conversation was going, but a detail nagged at her. "Would you really want to leave the kingdom in Tannec's hands?" she asked doubtfully, making her low opinion of him known in her voice.
Zelgadis's response was calm and cool. "He's made my life miserable as both a human and a chimera, he's egotistical and stubborn, he charms all the women, and he can act without thinking...but he also is kind to his people, he's not afraid of the public spotlight, he's able to make hasty and crucial decisions if needs be, and the public loves him. My father hopefully will be on the throne for a good, long time, and until my father thinks Tannec is ready for the responsibility of ruling, he'll stay on the throne. My father will make sure Tannec becomes the perfect heir I couldn't ever be, with the added benefit of being able to use magic," Zelgadis said softly, absently rubbing the sheets.
"..." was all Lina could say to that stunning speech.
Zelgadis didn't quite grin, and his lips barely moved, but Lina was sure from the sparkle in his eyes that he was amused at her silence. "I know you don't see those qualities in him yet, but believe me when I say he'd make a better heir prince, and eventually a better king, than I ever could me." He took a deep breath and added, "So, no, I'm not going to become the heir prince again."
A great weight she hadn't known she bore lifted off Lina's shoulder's at the confirmation, and she felt tears prick her eyes before she blinked them back. Why am I so happy? It's just Zel... I shouldn't care this much about his decision... To hide the confusing emotions she was feeling, she said briskly, "Well, now that I know, it's time to prepare for the reversal spell."
Zelgadis nodded, and both of them got up, stepping outside of her bedroom. Excitement began to build in the pit of his stomach as it hit him that he was about to turn human...
Lina studied the list she'd written of the ingredients they needed for the spell, while Zelgadis read the list again over her shoulder. "Lets see...I'm pretty sure we have most of these ingredients already on us, but a few of these are pretty darn rare."
"And some of these we simply don't usually carry around," Zelgadis added, and pointed to one ingredient in disbelief. "How come we have to use rose petals and peeled grapes?" he murmured, one stony eyebrow raised questioningly.
"How should I know?" she retorted. "Anyway, I'll work on the first half of the list, and you work on the second half. Let's meet back in my room once we've found everything." So saying, Lina ripped the list in half and handed the bottom part to him. He nodded in understanding, and went off to find rose petals from a garden, while Lina tried to find the kitchen to get peeled grapes...
I was away for too long, it seems. Who knew they could find the right book and spell so quickly? But it's my fault for not considering this development more carefully. I should have taken that book out of Rezo's collection a long time ago. Why didn't I remove it sooner? It's quite an oversight on my part.
No matter. I'll simply have to keep them from completing their tasks...
The stranger chuckled to himself, and hurried off down the halls after Lina.
I'm being watched... Lina's instincts were screaming it to her in loud, obnoxious voices. But she couldn't get a fix on where she was being watched, or how...
The hallway had statuary and plants, but nothing big enough to hide an entire person. Plus, there weren't any revealing patters of footsteps. The hallways were dead silent when she stopped, and even when she was walking, she made the only noises. She couldn't even hear the squeak of doors to signal the unknown watcher entering the rooms. And she knew doors, no matter how quiet, made some noise in such silence as she was walking in.
There seemed to be nothing, so why were her instincts telling her there was something there? It made no sense!
Still... maybe... She turned and shouted, "Who's there?!" down the hallway, her face obviously angry and a little annoyed. One eyebrow was twitching spasmodically, and her hands were curled into fists.
Nothing. Dead silence. Not even a dust-ball stirred. Lina sighed, ran a hand distractedly through her hair, and tried to prevent an embarrassed blush. She hoped no one had heard her.
Lina continued to walk down the hallway, and told her instincts to go to L-sama; they didn't seem to be working. Without her consciously realizing it, though, she continued to keep her senses open, wait...for something...
It came several minutes later. A wind built up and caught Lina, slamming her into a nearby wall with a painful crunch. She slid slowly to the ground in a daze, wondering what the hell had just happened. The world whirled before her eyes, and for just a brief moment she swore she could see a person in a cloak standing against a nearby wall. It shimmered out of existence in the next second.
Whatever had attacked her wasn't waiting for her to recover enough to potentially counterattack. A fireball shot straight at her, and she barely managed to flatten herself on the ground in time.
Now it's my turn... Lina thought grimly, and chanted, "Demona Crystal!" Tendrils of fog floated out of the floor around her, and hardened abruptly into hard-packed crystals of pure ice. She shook her head to clear it of the last of the dizziness, and glared at the space around her. "That was really low, attacking me without warning," she stated calmly, only a hint of how frustrated and irate she was in her voice.
No response again. Lina gritted her teeth. The ice hadn't caught anything, as she had hoped it might. She couldn't see anyone or anything to attack, so spells that were designed for a target she could see were now useless. There goes ninety percent of my spells.
Something tugged at the list still gripped in her hands, and snatched it away before she could react in time to save it. Oh no... Zel's cure! The list disappeared into thin air before her eyes.
"No..." she moaned softly, and slumped once more against the wall. Rage unfurled inside of her as she thought, How am I supposed to defeat an enemy I can't sense? I can't dodge if I don't know what's coming!
All she could do now was go back to her room and try to think up a way to explain it all to Zelgadis...without getting seriously maimed in the process. She stumbled to her feet, ignored the throbbing pain in her left arm and her right ankle, and trudged back through the halls.
Zelgadis glanced with satisfaction at the rose petals now safely inside one of the many hidden pockets in his cloak. One down. Excitement curled briefly within his chest.
As he turned back towards the entrance of the garden, he saw a ball of bluish-white light gathering not a dozen steps from him. He stared at it a moment in confusion. It looked like a light ball, but it felt more like...
He threw a hasty shield of magic around him as the bluish light suddenly split and shot off in all directions, filling the air with hot blue flames that could melt even his stony hide. It pushed at his shield, pulsing against it harder and harder...till his shield cracked and let in the rock-melting fire.
It seared at his skin, burning as almost nothing else could. He barely kept a cry from escaping his lips as he automatically squeezed his eyes tightly shut and curled up into a compact fetal ball.
The flames didn't last long, and died away, popping and hissing in ways that made his skin crawl even worse than it already did. Zelgadis glanced up through bleary, singed eyelids at the world around him. The garden was now a pile of ash, and the scent of fire and smoke was everywhere. But...was it his imagination...or was a person in a cloak standing against the wall? He blinked to try and clear his watering eyes, and looked back at the spot. The vision of a cloaked person had disappeared.
Zelgadis groaned and rolled painfully over onto his back. Someone cast Burst Flare, I'm sure of it. They chose the right spell; if I hadn't thrown up that shield, I'd be ash right now. As it is... He glanced down at his body, and winced. Everything was singed, and his clothes hung off his body in strips. Enough was left to protect his modesty, but he knew the only reason he had any clothes left at all on his body was his cloak, which had burnt off completely.
Wait... The cure! He looked down at his hands...and saw only black remains of the sheet of paper... Oh no...
He got slowly to his feet, depression weighing him down, and trudged dejectedly through the hallways of the castle, back towards Lina's room.
She's not going to believe this.
Lina flopped on the bed. Her arm and ankle were throbbing again; it seemed she was going to need a professional healer to fix her injuries this time. Doing it on her own would take a lot of power she didn't want to waste, not when another enemy was out there.
One worry nagged at her. Why wasn't I killed? My enemy had a clear advantage over me, and was exploiting it to the nth degree. He...or she...could have killed me then. Why didn't the person?
Twenty minutes later, the door to her bedroom slammed open, and in walked a limping, burned Zelgadis. Most of his clothes had been burned off, but she barely noticed; it was obvious he was badly hurt.
"Zel! What happened to you?!" she gasped, sitting straight up...and instantly regretted putting any pressure on her left arm.
He saw her wince, as well as the many scratches and bruises, and concluded that whatever had attacked him had gotten to her as well. "Someone attacked me," he said shortly, and sunk onto the bed near her. "Is the book okay?"
"Yeah, I checked when I got back," Lina nodded shortly, and then gestured at him as she visibly slumped in relief. "You too, huh? Did something happen to your half of the list, by any chance?" she grumbled, laying back down on the bed.
"Yeah. It got burnt up when I was attacked," he said, nodding and looking at his hands. Softly, he asked, "What happened?"
Lina folded her hands over her stomach and recited as calmly as she could what happened. Undertones of self-mockery and disgust laced her tone, though she tried to repress it. Once she'd finished, Zelgadis told her what had happened to him.
She was frowning delicately and biting her lip when he finished. He thought he knew why; Zelgadis shook his head at her. "Lina, don't blame yourself for what happened. It's nearly impossible to predict an enemy like this. Besides, he managed to get rid of my half of the list too. Besides, the original spell from the book is still there."
"..."
"Anyway, if we're ever going to move again, we'd better try and heal ourselves till we feel well enough to find a healer, or till someone finds us," Zelgadis suggested.
"...Fine, fine," Lina sighed, and carefully sat up using her good arm.
He nodded in satisfaction, and looked down at his shirt. It would be a lot easier to heal himself without the shirt on, but...with Lina sitting there...
While she rolled up the sleeve of her left arm, Lina warned out of the side of her mouth, "Take off your shirt and heal yourself before I get frustrated and do it for you." She didn't bother to look at him to see whether he'd follow through, and chanted a healing spell, letting the warm light in her hand sooth the wounded arm.
It was all the prompting he needed, as Lina had accurately guessed. Blushing as red as the roses he'd been picking earlier, he stripped off the tatters of his shirt and began working on the worst of the burns.
They worked this way for several minutes in complete silence. Finally, Lina asked hesitantly, "Why didn't the enemy kill us? It could have."
Zelgadis thought about it for a moment, and finally said hesitantly, "I think it was trying to destroy the lists. Once it got those, it was content to leave us alone."
"That makes sense," Lina sighed as she continued to heal herself. "I guess it's good we threw tons of protection and ward spells on the book. I have a feeling it's the only reason we still have it."
The two fell into companionable silence this time, and neither bothered to break it.
The watcher cursed fluently in several languages, and glared at his numb hands angrily. After he'd taken care of their lists, he'd tried to get the book. He hadn't expected it to have so many powerful spells on it, and had stupidly reached for it blindly.
Damn it, I should have checked for spells... As it stands, I won't be able to use my hands for another day, and I won't be able to attempt to break those spells till this numbing wears off. What a delay.
They'll probably turn Prince Zelgadis back into a human before I'm able to take the book back.
He sighed in regret. I didn't want to kill him; he's such a lovely specimen. And Lina is so beautifully strong; killing her would be a shame as well. I've tried to prevent the necessity of their deaths, but now I guess I'll have to...