Page 29 of Enchanted Kingdom
The man lounging on the chair just outside the bookshelf was now very much awake. He lowered his feet which had been propped up against the wall. It was dark, but a lantern sat on the dusty floor next to the chair. It didn’t let off a lot of light, but what it did let off was enough for us to see each other.
“Hi.” I placed my hands on my hips to distract from the fact that they were shaking. “And who the hell are you?”
CHAPTER12
“Aguard,” was the response he gave.
He looked to be about my age, and he had brown facial hair, but it was too dark in the hidden hallway to really tell much more than that.
“For whom?”
I could see his body tense up. “For you.”
I crossed my arms. “Well that seems suspicious when my actual guard is right outside the door.”
He stood up and gestured for me to head back into my room.
“After you,” I said, just sure he would slam and lock the door—shelf—whichever, in my face.
He went in first, while I followed.
Now that I could see better, I found that he was quite broad. He wasn’t tall and skinny like Wallace; this man, whoever he was, was used to using his body for something. He had a rugged air about him, from the dark facial hair down to the angle of his eyebrows.
I looked directly into his green eyes. “Seems if you really are my guard, you probably shouldn’t be sleeping on the job.”
A lone eyebrow went up at the same time his lips twitched. “Seems you’re probably right,” he whispered.
He had a nice enough voice, and thus far seemed like he didn’t intend to do me harm. Then again, he was Enchanted, so it was hard to be sure. My hands were no longer shaking, but they were sweating instead.
“I am about to use some magic so we can talk freely,” he said quietly.
I took a step back.
“Not on you, Jorah. On the room. A sound barrier. So no one will overhear,” he explained.
I took another step back but before I could say anything, he opened his hand and forest green magic crackled out of his palm and into the air. Then it travelled around the front door and wall, and just as he said, formed a barrier between us and the wall. A green web of magic was clinging along the wall of my room.
I couldn’t help my curiosity. “How long will that stay up?”
“It’s a weak one so until an object or person touches the barrier, or until I remove it,” he explained. “Now, where were we?”
“Who areyou?” I repeated.
“Owen Raikes. At your service.”
“Why are you my guard but also hiding behind that wall?”
Owen crossed his arms. “Because it wasn’t the king that sent me. I don’t work for him.”
“Who do you work for?”
“The princes.”
Was this some sort of messed up dream? I was just becoming more and more confused.
“Wallace is creepy as hell,” Owen explained. “The princes believed that the king had him watching you once his magic didn’t work on you. The king suspects you have Iron Will.”
“But his magic didn’t work on me only the one time,” I argued.
