Charmed Vengeance

the side so he could eat and write at the same time. “You’ve spent the most time with Tiana, has she mentioned wanting anything in particular?”

James squinted at his plate. “I’m not sure I could eat.”

He picked up his fork and stabbed the mutton. “Now that I think of it, she’s mentioned wanting a mechanical peacock more than once. Also, no one has a mechanical unicorn. We could do that—or a flying horse … what are they called?” He took absent bites of meat and vegetables as he spoke.

He must be hungry after all.

“Pegasus? You think should seek out a unique animal for her menagerie? I think that should be amusing enough.” He rubbed his chin. “Where do we even start?”

He poked at his own food. They ordered mutton, but his tasted like chicken—whether it was the fault of the cook or the serving girl, he was unsure.

“We go where they make the best clockwork toys in this realm.” James continued making unconscious inroads in his food.

Steven made a face, fork paused halfway to his mouth as he tried to recall where that might be. “Switzerland?

New Bern, North Carolina.”

Steven’s eyebrows rose. “And you know this because?

Father ordered toys there for Elise, when she wanted that little bird, remember?” James downed his drink. “I can’t remember which shop, but it shouldn’t be difficult— unless you want to go to Switzerland. I’m sure the toys there are nice, too.”

“North Carolina is closer.” Steven made a few notes.

Peacock. Pegasus. New Bern.

Where this sounded easy, he had a feeling there was much more to it. There always was with Tiana. As much as he wanted to dismiss what his father said about both his mother and uncle wishing him dead, he needed to heed it.

After all, these were the people who conspired to oust their own family from the throne and exile them.

“How will we get there?” he added.

James made a rude noise over the rim of his glass. “It’s called an airship. Maybe you should spend more time paying attention in school and less time reading philosophy books under your desk. I don’t suppose you brought any money?”

“Money?” He had his sword, which currently looked like a pen, in his shirt pocket. Books, maps, and a few items for bribes occupied his rucksack. But money? He hadn’t thought to ask his father for that. Steven reached into his trouser pocket. “I have some, but it’s not enough for us to take an airship across the United States. I suppose we could cut through the Otherworld.”

Apprehension crept through him at the idea. Given there was a chance someone might hope to kill them, staying in the mortal realm could be safer. Then again, it may not.

James shook his head, scraping bits of meat off his plate with his fork. “The queen’s going to have spies everywhere. I can’t shake the feeling we’ve walked into a trap. We should avoid the Otherworld. Even now she’s probably told everyone that you’re on a quest and you know how everyone loves a quester.” He rolled his eyes. “She’ll have a guaranteed stream of gossip on our progress.”

“Yes, everyone does love a quester,” he replied dryly. Love was a relative term. Where some people liked to aid questers, plenty liked to toy with them, which was perfectly permissible as long as you didn’t actually impede them. Impede was also relative.

“Also, we should try not to request quest aid, since that’s begging for gossip.” James polished off his food then took a forkful of meat from Steven’s plate.

“True, but how do we do things, then? Should we return to the house and get some money?” Not asking for quest aid meant avoiding any of their people who might assist them with things such as airship travel.

James shrugged. “The same thing any boys our age do when they want to go somewhere and don’t have the coin. We gamble or work our way there.”

“I think we should work for our passage.” He scooted his plate out of James’ reach. The idea of James gambling made him queasy. James couldn’t beat Charlotte at cribbage—even when he used magic.

The serving girl refilled their drinks. “You’re the young princes, right? The ones on the quest?” She shot them a winsome smile and giggled.

And so it began. Steven had hoped they’d have some time before the Otherworld gossip mill started moving. “No, that’s not us,” James lied blithely. “I wish I was a prince.”

“Oh.” Her face fell. She took their dishes and left. “Smart. If people do figure us out we should say we’re headed back to the Otherworld.” Steven lowered his voice.

“I can’t shake the feeling we’re missing something … it doesn’t make sense. Out of all the things she could have me do this seems … ludicrous—especially if she wanted it to lead to my death.” A quest couldn’t be designed to end in certain death, but plenty of people accidently perished while questing.

“She doesn’t make sense.” James lowered his voice, his words bordering on treason. “I have to say, sometimes I wonder if Noli’s right … ”

Of course, if Queen Tiana was insane she’d have to be a mad genius, since everything she did was so cold and calculating despite her pre-occupation with amusements. She wasn’t a very good queen—the mishaps with the sacrifices only two of many small instances compounding the matter. Instances no one would mention if they valued their life. Still, even if no one would say it out loud, Tiana wasn’t a fraction of the queen her sister had been.

“Well, we should return to the Otherworld before we’re missed.” James said this loudly as Steven left some coins on the table.

“Yes, we should,” Steven mumbled. He wasn’t very good at play-acting. Anything was better than mentioning their actual unspoken destination, the Grand Central Air Terminal. They’d stay far away from Jeff’s airship. It wasn’t as if he could explain everything to Jeff, and well, as much as it pained him to admit it, unless they had swords Jeff probably could kick the stuffing out of him.

“I can take you boys as far as Chicago,” a grizzled man with a medium-sized commercial passenger ship told them. “From Chicago you can get to North Carolina much easier than from here. We leave in the morning. I can’t offer you money, but you can have a place to sleep and three meals a day in exchange for being our kitchen boys.”

“We appreciate that, Captain,” Steven replied. It was the lowest position to be had on a ship like this, but it should only take a couple of days to get to Chicago.

The captain held out his chubby hand. “It’s a deal then. Welcome aboard.”

Six All in a Day’s Work

“Get out of here.” A burly man picked up Kevighn by the scruff of his coat and unceremoniously tossed him out of the opium den into the early morning light. The air whooshed out of his chest as he hit the cold pavement.

Kevighn had forgotten why they threw him out in the cold. Perhaps it was because he was out of money. Gambling hadn’t been as good as he’d hoped. He brushed himself off and skulked back toward the Saint Louis Air Terminal. A new day brought new ships. If there were no positions to be had here, perhaps he could work his way toward a larger city. Chicago and New York were both good options. Los Angeles and San Francisco were also ideas, but those cities made him think of Magnolia. Denver and Atlanta were gateways to smaller stations which could also suffice.

He stumbled into a seedy bar in the cargo terminal— the perfect place to find employment. Even though he had no coin and it was dawn, he ordered a mug of ale. That was what everyone else drank.

“Looking for anything else, sailor?” The human serving woman had seen much