“Hey, One Arm, catch!”

Aaron glanced up to see Edward throwing a ceramic mug at him as hard as he could manage. His hand automatically reached up to retrieve it from the air before it smashed into his face.

Edward looked annoyed that it hadn’t shattered across his nose. Some of the other men smirked but many of them accepted Aaron into their ranks, but Edward would have been a lieutenant instead of Aaron and having the new guy promoted ahead of him did not make them friends.

“One arm, Derrick wants to see you in his office,” Edward grumbled. So that was his game. He wanted Aaron to come in with cuts all over his face to speak with the captain, a captain who would expect more from Aaron than he did from the other men.

Aaron was done eating anyway. He stacked his dishes together and stood. He almost expected something else to be thrown at him, but he walked out of the great hall with people sniggering behind him. He didn’t mind the taunting as much as he used to. He had shown that he had a clear head in the face of a dragon and that had given him Derrick’s respect. It was enough.

He had not been to Derrick’s office often, but he found it unnerving to be sent there. A knot of worry began to grow in his stomach. Derrick usually brought men into his office to promote them or to discuss behavior that he would like to change. Had he done something wrong? Had Christian told him that they had gone all the way to that little village to take the man’s body home? He had himself so worked up that his hand trembled on the handle of Derrick’s door.

He opened the door to find that Derrick was not there. A table sat in the middle of the small room, which was pushed up against the only window that Aaron could see. Papers and a few scrolls covered the desk, along with two tubes that were used to convey messages via pigeon. There were a few chairs around the room, and one behind the desk.

Aaron closed the door. He didn’t want to be in there alone. It felt like an invasion of privacy. He closed the door and leaned against the wall, waiting. He couldn’t help thinking about Hailey. His mind seemed to drift towards her whenever he had a spare moment. She had been so uncaring of anything or anyone else except for the princess. It was like they had started a relationship. He had finally started courting her, and then nothing. It was as if it had never happened, as if he had never taken her in her arms and felt her finally start to have feelings for him.

He sighed and leaned against the wall. Why would Derrick send him here if he wasn’t here himself?

“You waiting for Derrick?”

Aaron turned to see a gorgeous woman striding towards him. She had bright red hair pulled back into a short braid. She was tall for a woman, almost as tall as he was and her green eyes danced with mischief. He straightened and bowed. He had never seen a woman in a military uniform before, and he had to admit, it looked good on her. She moved with a lithe grace of someone who has spent years swinging a sword.

“Don’t bow to me. We’re the same rank. You must be the new guy, right?” She walked past him, pushing the door open and then dragged a chair close to Derrick’s table and lounged, leaning back in her chair. “You going to stand there all day or you going to come in? He’ll be here soon.” She grinned conspiratorially. “The captain is usually late to all of his own meetings.”

He found himself wondering who this woman was and why no one had mentioned that the woman who was in the king’s army was gorgeous. They had only mentioned that she existed. He came into the room, feeling uncomfortable.

“I heard what you did with the dragon,” she said, glancing at him as he dragged the chair awkwardly forward with one arm. “Very impressive. I wish I could have been there for that battle. I was stuck at the manor biting my nails and hoping that all of my friends wouldn’t be dead by the end of the day.”

“Thank you. I don’t think I was that brave, really. My friend was in danger and no one was doing anything to help her.” He sat stiffly. How did she make a hard wooden chair look so comfortable?

“That’s right. You’re friends with the new royal mage. Too bad about the other guy. People say that the princess would be up and walking around if he were still here.”

He suddenly felt defensive. “She is trying.”

“I’m sure she is, but it’s experience that makes the difference sometimes. She shifted in her seat. “It’s like soldiers who have never seen a battle. Once they have been in a battle and we know they won’t freeze up and forget how to use a sword, they’re that much more useful.”

“You might be right. She really did miss having the other mage here and she didn’t get all the training she should have.” He almost felt guilty agreeing with her, but Hailey wasn’t perfect and Gillian was paying way more attention to him than Hailey had in the past few weeks. “So, why haven’t I met you before this?”

Gillian stretched her neck. “I’m usually in the throne room. I have been following the king around forever.” She shook her head. “He’s really not doing well, you know?”

Derrick finally entered his office, looking flustered. “Aaron, Gillian, I have an assignment for you two,” he said.

So that’s her name, he thought.

The dragon smashed into the castle, destroying more spell books, in it’s flight. Hailey couldn’t get any of her magic to work. She couldn’t get her shield in place. The dragon was about to breathe fire and…

“Hailey, are you well, child?”

Hailey gasped awake, blinking and looking around. She had fallen asleep on the rug in front of the princess’s bed. Her heart raced. She did not want to be caught sleeping like this. She needed to be awake. She had things to do. A puddle of drool had been absorbed by the rug. She moved her skirt to cover it and tried to make herself look like she hadn’t just been sleeping as the king made his way to his daughter’s side.

“I’m fine. Thank you, jour majesty,” she said, rising to her feet and curtsying.

“You look almost as bad as me,” said the king, chuckling. His laugh turned quickly into a cough. He was so pale. His wispy hair had thinned and there was a gray pallor to his skin. “I am kidding, you know. A young thing like you cannot possibly look as bad as I do. He finally made his way to the chair before the princess’s bed and sat down.

“Have you been sleeping well?”

“Of course, your majesty. My rooms and my bed are more than sufficient.”

“That is not what I asked.”

“I am young, she said. I can get by.”

He looked at her for a long moment, as if he were trying to decide whether of not to argue with her about that, and so she changed the subject before he could go on about sleep. Why was everyone asking her that.

“I found the part to the book that I was looking for, but one of the words is missing. I don’t know if I will be able to use this or not, but if I can get the spell itself to begin to work, then I will know whether or not that word will be something I need to figure out or not.”

“Do you mind if I take a look?” The king held out a hand, but Hailey hesitated. “I’m old, child, not a fool. I won’t damage anything.” He took the page in trembling fingers and looked at it. “Where does this fit in with the spell?”

Hailey stood and walked to the princess’s dressing gown which was covered in Hailey’s books and papers. She tripped on the leg of the bed as she came back and almost stumbled into the king. She caught her balance at the last minute and sat down.

She opened the book and laid it across her lap. The charred page that she had been looking for for days worked as a bookmark, reminding her where in the book the spell was. Carefully, she drew it out and handed it to the king. “I think the components of the spell will work but I don’t have the raw power that I need in order to perform the spell.”

He looked over the spell as if he had seen these books before and maybe he had.

“I think I just need one more mage and I could make this spell work.”

“It sounds very much like you are on the right track, not that I ever performed any magic myself, other than the power of the heir, and that magic is different.”

“How so?” Hailey still didn’t know enough about the power of the heir and what she was trying to restore to the kingdom.

“It just works. Even when I’m sleeping the borders are there. I don’t have to concentrate or wave my hands around or gather strange ingredients from all over the kingdom.”

That was true enough. “And you can feel the border all the way around the kingdom?”

“Yes.” Something in his voice mad her think that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. There might have been something he wasn’t telling her. She wanted to know if he knew about the creature who had killed that man, if he could sense magical creatures coming through, if he knew all of that because he was so connected to the kingdom, but she also didn’t want to pepper him with questions. He was the king and he covered all of her expenses.

“I unfortunately have other matters to see to,” he said, “But I do hope that you get some sleep soon.”

“When I was a young man, my father died. He should have left me with more time to be a young man and enjoy myself. At least that’s the way I looked at it, but when I became the king, I took the job very seriously. I stayed up nights worried over all the details of the kingdom. As soon as I took care of one thing, another thing would pop up. I wore myself ragged, trying to take care of everything and eventually I became ill and couldn’t do any of it. My advisors had to step in and handle everything while I recovered, but they couldn’t handle everything. I was the king and I had no time for me to be sick. It took me weeks to recover because there were so many things for me to attend to that I could not remain in bed.”

She looked up at him, understanding what he was doing.

“My point is, that yes, you are young and you might not think anything of skipping a few hours of sleep here and there, but it does eventually catch up with you.”