The Sinuous Bargain of a Cowardly Prince (book one, The Shadowed Throne Chronicles)

We trek five hours in the sweaty heat of the woods, pressing through endless trees and bushes. The vibrant green of the forest remains brilliant, but nothing new marks our path. One could easily get lost in the repeating pattern of leaves and branches.

I lift my round flask to my lips and dump the last bit of water over my dry tongue. Hopefully we get to the Tallup’s swimming grounds quickly, because the weight of exhaustion is starting to crush my resolve.

Ronan taps my shoulder, and before I can turn to face him, he’s shoving his own metal flask to my chest. The hollow sound of liquid sloshing inside the container makes my dry throat itch.

My fingers wrench around the nozzle, then I pause. “Aren’t you thirsty?”

My servant chuckles, then claps my back. “We will arrive soon. The water there should be drinkable. I can wait.”

My heart swells in my chest, beating warm. I nod my thanks, then I cherish the cold, fresh water as it flushes past my lips and down my throat.

Thirty minutes later, Pluto stops walking. He reaches up to grab a knot in a large elm tree, then hoists himself onto a low-hanging branch. His legs fan out like a frog’s as he perches, looking beyond the path. He smiles.

“Just through here, friends, is where we will find your Tallup.”

The elf drops from the branch, then races down the path, his messy, long braid whipping around behind him like lightning. I can’t tell if he’s excited, tired of walking, or maybe something in between, but as he runs, something inside of me wants to run, too.

Ronan beats me to it. He darts off ahead, his feet panging against the moist dirt, short brown hair swishing about his head.

I take a deep breath and a smile crawls up my cheeks. Then, I run after them.

My body is weightless as I whiz through the trees, down the winding path. Ronan shrinks ahead of me, gaining speed on the downward slope. My heart thuds in its cavity, energized by the muscles carrying me to our destination at last.

Pluto and Ronan wait for me, each sitting on two large, moss-covered boulders. Beyond them is a glassy pond—about the size of a castle’s moat—that twinkles under the sun.

I lean forward, hands on my knees. My breath starts to catch up with me, hot and dry. I don’t know that I’ve ever had such an exhilarating run; we were taught to ride horses from a young age, not sprint or jog. My stamina is almost non-existent.

When Pluto sees me, he tilts his head up and smirks. “Catch your breath, Prince. You’ll need the energy to lure yourself a Tallup.”

As my breaths start to slow, I stand up straight. “So how’s it done?”

The elf pivots off his boulder, landing on the pond’s pebble-littered perimeter. Then he faces the water, and suddenly starts to strip.

I don’t know where to look—up? Wow, yes, the sky is quite ordinarily blue. Ah, and the trees are still green.

Pluto snorts. “Quite the prude, aren’t you?”

My neck stiffens at his jab, though he isn’t wrong. The only person I’d seen in the nude was myself, and even then, it felt wrong to look at my lanky reflection. I lower my gaze back to him. His skin is pearly and blemish-free, his back long and bony, stretched and flexible. Truly a creature of the forest, meant to swing through the trees. Ether must have a similar build...

Heat burns in my cheeks, and I have to shake my head to extinguish the flood of indecent thoughts about Ether that suddenly make my heart race. I’ve only just met her, and while she’s a beautiful creature, I have no right to imagine what she might look like beneath her scrappy clothing.

The elf turns, hiding a smile. “You must remove anything impure from your body before entering the sacred water of the forest.” His voice runs smooth, as though the words he now speaks hold a certain weight to them. Had he read my mind just now?

Ronan begins removing his clothing, too, dropping his flask and dagger to the ground. His limbs and chest are covered in flat tufts of dark hair, matching the wooly brown on his head. He skitters into the water, feet disturbing the sanctifying surface of the pond.

They both turn to look at me, wading waist-deep so they’re covering their genitalia. Neither shiver, so the water must be a comfortable temperature.

“Alright, give me some privacy please,” I laugh, removing my leather boots. The men obediently disappear beneath the surface.

The rest of my gear comes off easy, unlike my usual royal garb. No laces to be undone, just a humble shirt, vest, pants, and undergarment. I toss everything into a small pile, run my fingers through the short curls of my hair, then dash across the small round pebbles and plunge ungracefully into the cool water.

The men pop their heads up, both of their locks a shade darker after absorbing water, and beads cling to their foreheads. Ronan’s eyes are wide and bright, his lips dipping into his cheeks. Pluto wears a similar expression, his eyes a cool shade of blue.

“Feels great, eh?” Pluto reaches over to me and cuffs my shoulder with a warm hand.

I nod. My body immediately feels more energized, more alive now that the water has cooled it. When was the last time I went for a swim? When I was six? Seven?

We swim out to the center, where none of us can feel the sludge of mud and algae of the bottom, and we have to flap our arms and wave our legs to stay afloat.

“Okay, elf. Catch us a nice fish so we can be on our way back,” Ronan says, his voice twanging with impatience. He seems to be struggling.

A part of me wishes to swim for hours in this calming pond, drinking in the private luxury of freedom. But I should know better—the forest is no place for a prince. A sigh breaks through my lips, but I’m sure no one hears.

“Sure,” Pluto sniggers, his mouth curling upward. His eyes look at the water’s lulling surface, seeing beyond. “Please don’t interrupt,” he says, and his pointed ears twitch slightly as he takes in a deep breath.

"Be still, don’t have haste.

The creature lurks within—

A dark force meant to thwart you.

Mysterious and powerful, it seeks to own your soul.

Hear the calling in your heart—

Its beating is the answer,

A protection from evil.

Nwatahim dativhali."

The tune of Pluto’s song rings across the water and the trees surrounding us seem to echo it back. Its melody shocks me, stiffens my jaw. The song is strangely familiar to the one my mother used to sing for me when I was a child...

“Aha!” Pluto’s ears flatten back and his eyes marble with a swirling combination of blue and green. Underwater, his hand points to something invisible at the pond’s muddy bottom.

Ronan puts his face under and looks around, then disappears into the depths. After a few seconds, he returns to the surface with a large brown fish flopping frantically in his hands. Its glossy eyes are filled with confusion and panic, and somehow it wriggles from his grasp, splashing back into the water. Ronan’s expression is a blend of surprise and fury.

Pluto’s nostrils flare as he silently laughs, his eyes twitching in their sockets. “That, my little fairy friend, was a carp, not a Tallup.”

His joke seems to anger Ronan further, because he growls and leaps on Pluto, grabbing for his neck. Inaudible curses flurry through his lips as he wrangles the blond creature, but the elf just laughs.

When their skirmish is over, Ronan swims back to shore and wrenches his clothes over his wet skin, groaning in frustration.

Pluto looks into my eyes, his blue spheres bright and serious. “Can you feel the presence of the Tallup, Prince?”

"Feel? I-I don’t know.” In an attempt to give him a better answer, I stretch my leg and wiggle my toes, hoping to touch something.

The elf shakes his head, then presses a hand to my chest. “They are magical creatures. They can only be found by those who possess magic.” He drops his hand back into the water.

My heart sinks. “I know that.”

“Allow me to call them once more,” he says softly. Then, he sings his mournful song again. This time, I’m sure I know the melody.

“What song is that?”

Pluto twitches, alarmed. His eyes flash to green. “A spell. It removes or applies energy barriers. We often use it to find creatures that don’t wish to be seen.”

I shake my head. “My mother used to sing it when I was younger.”

“Impossible. The song can only be replicated by our kind.” His thin eyebrows descend over concerned eyes. “As far as I know, you’re the first human to understand it.”

There’s no doubt it’s the same song my mother sang. His second rendition confirms this. But how did she know the elven tune, when she had been bound to the castle while my father’s consort?

“Do you sense the Tallup now?”

I’m not sure what exactly he’s asking. Since I was little, I’ve never been interested in learning magic. My mother would always say that my face reminded her of my father when he was young, so she begged me to not blemish it with magic as the mages did. I know I don’t have the power in me to use it, not yet.

Right before I can shake my head, my arms twitch at my sides, my legs go stiff, and I quickly fall beneath the surface.

I float in a stasis at the bottom of the pond, surrounded by darkness and cold.

“My lovely boy,” a familiar voice echoes around me. At first, I think it must be Bernadette’s, but then it speaks again and my heart twists in my chest.

“Are you ready to face the world, my son?”

“Mother?” If I could cry, I would. Her voice is full and alive again. Is she here, in this pond? “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”

“You will, with time,” she says. “But you must be patient and embrace the magic within you.”

“Magic within me? But there is none!”

“Ah, my sweet boy. You remembered my song, proving that magic still lives in you. Can’t you feel it?”

I shake my head, squinting into the murkiness. “No! I can’t feel it. You told me to never learn magic. I listened to you. But then, Xavelor, he—”

“Shh,” she whispers. “Your time has come. The energy is swelling in your soul. Don’t push it away any longer. It’s there. It always has been. Recognize it.”

The water turns to ice around me, and I bristle under its sudden prickliness. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

But there’s no response. Her warm, kind voice is gone and I’m hovering, alone, in the abyss.

Anger wells in my chest, and accompanying it is a strangely alienating sensation. How could she have hidden this from me? My life could’ve been so different! I wouldn’t be so pathetic!

What if that wasn’t really her? my brain rationalizes. This thought calms my heart a little. If not my mother, then who?

A shiver shudders its way through my limbs, hot and acidic despite the sheer cold engulfing me. With this comes a strange pulse that starts at my core. It’s like a second heartbeat, but both subtle and somehow more powerful at the same time.

Has it always been there? It feels like it belongs, as though it’s filling a hole I didn’t know was there before. Is this... magic?

My mother’s song bursts into the void, her sweet serenade becoming one with the water. My arms prickle with goosebumps, and once again I feel as though I could cry. I miss her.

Then, one by one, fish begin to appear all around me. Glowing all sorts of colors—blue, green, red, yellow. Swimming comfortably between my legs, around my body, circling me as though my body is a beacon.

Tallup. These are most definitely Tallup.

My fingers stretch toward a red one, and it settles purposefully in my hands, its body rubbing against my palms. After a few seconds, the life leaves its eyes and it rests in my grasp, dead.

One blink and I’m back at the surface. Pluto’s still there, treading water. His eyes tell me he’s worried.

A smile tugs at my lips as I look down at the fish that’s limp in my hand, and I raise it in the air to show the elf. The fish’s scales glitter beneath the sun, dancing hues of orange and red.

His eyes widen. “Well this is new.”

“Magic,” I say proudly. “I can use magic.”

Pluto cracks a smile. “Congratulations, buddy. That makes three of us.”

I make a face at this, then notice the elf is glancing toward shore. I follow his gaze to my servant, who’s tossing pebbles into the water.

“Ah, Ronan served my brother before,” I explain, turning back to Pluto. He lifts a brow. “He obtained magical pills from the royal court’s mages to make it easier for Xavelor to use magic in battle.”

Ronan continues tossing pebbles into the water, a bored look on his face.

“Ronan!” I yell. My servant perks up like a dog, his eyes aligning with mine. I hold up the fish, the smile on my lips widening.

He scrambles to his feet and cups his hands around his mouth. “Congratulations, Your Majesty!”

Pluto chuckles, dipping his head in Ronan’s direction. “Let’s head back to shore?”

“Yes,” I laugh.

We swim back together and get dressed.

“Will you be able to make it back alone?” Pluto’s voice doesn’t sound particularly concerned, and I wouldn’t want to force him to walk back with us, so I nod.

“Ronan’s been in and out of the magical forest with Xavelor, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.” I reach out a hand and Pluto shakes it. “Thanks for helping us out. Do send us news of any developments concerning the elder elf should any problems arise. That was my first priority, after all.”

“My pleasure. I still don’t know what Ether is needed at the palace for, but I think she’s in good hands,” the elf says while smiling. “If I find out anything happens to her—prince or not—I will make you suffer.”

“Calm down,” Ronan scoffs. Pluto scrunches his nose. “Ramiel wouldn’t hurt a fly. You should be able to judge that much, at least.”

Pluto smirks. “Oh I know, I just want to make sure he knows his place.” His eyes flash to blue. “Also, you owe me a trip to the palace for my help. I want to see Ether.”

The king would not like that very much. But I still nod, not knowing how else to respond.

Satisfied, the elf backs away, then scales a tree. He looks down at us, his expression filled with amusement. “See you again soon then, Prince.”

Once he disappears, Ronan turns to me. His eyes are tired, but still have their undeniable spark. “Ready to go home?”

A chuckle comes from my throat. It has been a long few days, and I really can’t wait to share my news with Ether.

“Yeah, let’s head back.”