Steal My Heart

Dani stared up at the prince, trying to stop the shaking that had started some time when they were in the water. She lived by the sea, sure, but that didn’t mean she knew how to swim. And that water was cold! And now the prince was acting all tender, did she look that pitiful?

She probably looked like a drowned rat, or mouse as he seemed to like calling her.

“You, are bad luck.” She finally managed to get out around chattering teeth.

Wulfram let out a bark of laughter, his hands moving down along her shoulders. He was breathing heavily, just as soaked as she was, but there was a confidence to him still, a strength. “I could say the same about you, little Mouse. I’ve never fallen so many times, through so many surfaces, or been chased by skeletons. Not before I met you.”

Dani couldn’t help a small, breathless laugh. “I would have been fine on any of those floors without your weight! Or that of your guard! I hope he’s okay at least.”

“I do not weigh that much.” Wulfram traced his fingers along her arms, amber eyes fixated on her in the dim light. “We should try to swim out of here, we have to be close to the docks, and we both need a healer.”

“Go ahead.” She challenged, and looked around for a rock or shell that would work as a glowstone. The little beach cave had plenty, and she picked up one at random. She clasped the rock in both hands, trying to ignore the tingles his touch sent through her skin, so much like the tingles sent through her by that amazing wine.

“You want to stay in here?” Wulfram frowned, his face clouding at the idea. “It’s not safe, and you need a healer. I swear I won’t throw you in the dungeon.”

“I’m sure there’s a way out other than swimming. I just need some light to find it.” Dani blushed. The last thing she wanted to do was admit that she didn’t know how to swim. Or that the idea of being pulled under by one of those skeletons terrified her. She had seen one jump down after them! What if it was lurking, just beneath the surface of the water? She closed her eyes tightly against the idea, shoving the dark imaginings away to focus on channeling energy into the stone. They needed more light than what was coming in through that narrow opening. It didn’t look tall enough for even the smallest sailboat to get through. Maybe a raft could make it through, if the person on it laid flat.

She focused her energy on the rock in her hands, imagining her magic pushing in to fill the squared off sides, imagined it pushing out into a glow to illuminate the darkness. Her head began to pound, her shaking getting worse as she channeled her magic.

The glow came slowly, reluctantly. When she opened her eyes it barely illuminated the space between them. So she focused harder, channeling more magic into it. Her vision blurred, and she swayed on her knees as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Wulfram was right there though, his big hands moving to steady her. “Careful now. Why are you so against swimming out of here little mouse?”

“Stop calling me that. I’m fine.” She let the glowstone settle into a steady glow, illuminating five feet around them. It wasn’t much, but it made the cave seem less threatening, dancing off the shiny bits of rock, shell, and general harbor junk that littered the beach.

“But you look so much like one right now.” Wulfram laughed, his hands warm against her arms as he held her steady.

Dani felt a small laugh bubble up from her as she looked him up and down. “You’re too big to be a mouse, I’d say you look more like a half drowned rat, or maybe a wolf.”

Their shared laughter echoed through the cavern, a little manic as the fact that they had survived really settled in. By this point they should have been dead countless times over.

“Fine, drowned wolf.” Wulfram grinned, looking down at her. “But you’re avoiding the question. Why are you so against swimming out of here? Don’t tell me you can’t swim.” He touched his thumb gently to her lower lip.

As the silence stretched, and her face turned red, his smile faded into a look of shock. “You can’t... can you? You can’t swim. No wonder you panicked.”

“I didn’t panic.” Dani pulled away, nearly falling down as another wave of dizziness passed over her. She really shouldn’t have forced her magic right now, but she wanted the light.

“You did. But we can rest for now, we’ll want to get out of here before the tide comes in though. Can you make the light any brighter?” The man actually seemed concerned! His humor fading like someone had doused it with water. Hah! They were plenty doused alright.

“Not with how I feel right now. My magic... isn’t all that great.” She admitted apologetically. Dani was lucky to have had any training in magic at all, most people in the Rats Nest didn’t get any. But there had been an old woman that had taught a few of them that showed talent some tricks. She was long dead now though, so her training had stopped with the simple light spell.

“That’s alright then, let me help. I have some magic of my own.” He smiled at her, as if all the city didn’t know the royal line had mage blood running through it. The crown was proof enough of that.

But Dani thought about the things she had forgotten about or missed already today, and decided not to comment. She hadn’t know his name, hadn’t remembered it was Queens Day, what else had she missed? What else had she forgotten? What was wrong with her? Her shoulders slumped, and she held out the rock. “Alright, here.”

Wulfram set his hand against the stone, his own amber magic seeping into it. It swirled with hers, creating a marbled effect in the stone. The light warmed slightly, becoming more like sunlight than the blue glow her own magic had offered. It didn’t completely overpower the blue. Another wave of dizziness overtook her as her magic glowed brighter in stubborn defiance, not willing to be overtaken by the amber magic.

Wulfram didn’t even break a sweat. But his magic more than doubled the light that came from the glowstone. “That should help people find us too. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.”

“It’s still daylight outside, I don’t think the glow is that strong.” She closed her eyes for a moment to try and calm the spinning of the room.

“Everyones magic is unique. Like a signature, if you know what to look for you can recognize it. Activating the crown would have triggered some of it, but creating light, especially in something so crude as a rock, takes much more. It’s almost like a beacon. Do you need to lay down?”

“No, I’m fine.” Dani let out a slow breath. She refused to be anything other than fine, even though all she wanted to do was curl up and try to sleep through the pain and humiliation of her failed attempt. Sleep likely wouldn’t come any time soon. Even if he let her go, which she doubted, Reshi was going to tear her a new one after that stunt.

She opened her eyes, and froze, staring past him.

Their combined light had illuminated two massive statues, one male and one female, standing to either side of a door carved from solid stone and embedded with jewels and seashells. Each statue wore a crown of gilded seashells, but they didn’t look like any royalty she had seen. The man wore a simple wrap around his waist, more a short skirt than proper pants, and the woman was wearing a wrap shirt and long skirt. If someone walked down the street in that outfit, no matter how bejeweled they were, they were likely to be mistaken for a whore! Her belly button was in plain view, and the top left little mystery to her curves!

But they were bejeweled, necklaces hung around each of their necks, his of gold and teeth, hers of pearls, gold and shells. On opposite wrists they wore bracelets of twisted gold and gemstones, much like the ones that Dani and Wulfram now wore, with gemstones the color of the other statues eyes. Each one carried a stone spear with ornate metal blades, rusted from their time in the sea air, the tips barely grazing the roof of the cavern.

“Holy mother of the seas...” Dani whispered.