The king, however, looked at his remaining son with thunder in his eyes. His face promised retribution for the naughtiness.
Richard blanched and turned away from his parent to speak to one of the wizard elders gathered there.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bound to Meet
Priscilla held Jackie's hand as they were led through the halls of the palace. Hours after Aeron had left Layel's safe house sealed envelopes bound by his seal had appeared in their packs. The two nymphs' orders had come in two different sets of papers. The first set had told them to wait at the hall with the guys until he picked them up to do some project for him. He didn't give any details of the project or warn them how long they'd have to wait on him, but after a week of kicking their heels, both girls started to show their tempers. Priscilla ransacked the library and read all of Layel's collection and began spouting off an endless stream of did-you-knows and trivia questions until she finally found a fact one of the others didn't know, then she'd gloat over it. Jackie took to stomping around the house when she wasn't demanding that all the trees around the property go against her in hand-to-hand sparring for hours on end. A few days in, he'd dropped in and refused to answer any of their demands for explanations about his plans for them and just insisted that he'd returned to tell all of them that they weren't to go anywhere outside of the palace's walls until he came back and gave them their marching orders. Both Cillean and Daerick shrugged at these orders and went into their rooms without being seen again. They had clearly adapted easily to the tenuous plans for their future and gone into their rooms to enter hibernation so they wouldn't be bored while they waited, but the two nymphs didn't have that option and had been forced to wander around the echoing rooms and try to make up games to play with each other. It had been nice, of course, to see each other after so long, but a person got bored of a place more quickly if they know they were stuck in it. When Aeron had dropped in, he'd approved Darien's release from the cell but specified the wizard was to be trapped in the grounds as well, and he took to practicing his magic when he was alone and fighting about his decisions and the quality of his character when Jackie entered the room. Layel did his best as a good host to soothe his guests and keep them as occupied and happy as possible, but it was a difficult task he made no headway in.
By the time Aeron had come back, Jackie had practically leapt at the chance to leave. He hadn't told her any specifics of his plans for her right now, preferring instead to have the illusion of mysteriousness, but he had said it would be safe for Priscilla to come along for now if she wanted. The younger girl hadn't waited for his permission and had tagged along after them both with her long-since repacked bag in tow, but his approval of her coming made it a smoother process setting up to leave. The portal was planned to be set up just beyond the safe house grounds to maintain the integrity of its secrecy spells, but he stopped in the front hall instead of walking on. "I'm going to need to speak to each of you first," he said.
He roused the hibernating vampires and gave both of them further details on his orders in the privacy of their shared room. When he came out, the others demanded, as strongly as one could demand anything of their prince, that he explain the vague meaning of all their individual orders, but he refused and insisted that he'd tell them what they needed to know only when they needed to know it. The wizard especially complained at his high-handedness but subsided at a reminder that the cell was still available for his use again if he couldn't respect his elders. The point that in dragon years at least Aeron was barely the equivalent of a year older than Darien didn't seem to matter much. Still Layel at least asked for clearer orders and was eventually taken aside and briefed in person, though he returned to the hall looking more confused than ever before. Finally he insisted it was time to go and any other concerns the group had could wait. The nymphs were both cheered up by this sign of action and trotted along after him into the portal fires he instantly summoned for the three of them where he'd pulled the two nymphs along with him to supposedly go on a joyride side trip, whatever that meant.
They all materialized in the grand salon of the main palace building. Aeron tread along without waiting for the girls, so they ended up jogging after him to catch up. He could have set them down in the room he actually wanted to be in, but it was a royal policy to reserve the royal privilege of portal use for those of royal blood or mere citizens in more urgent cases, and, while he tended to stretch that tradition as much as possible, he still mostly saved that as a gift for those actively carrying out his orders or for his most-favored retainers. Slowly, they went on foot deeper and higher into the palace. Pris stared at the walls that were solid gold in this section and had no undecorated plaster in sight. Her eyes grew wide as saucers and she began to cling to her big sister. Everyone knew the deepest part of
