Hugo didn’t get up. He looked at the old woman threatening to throw him out of the window she had just created. He sighed and said, “I refuse to believe my father didn’t tell you I would be here. I am living here for the next month. You had to have seen the extra guards outside the orrery.”

She stared at him in shock. Eventually she frowned and twitched her fingers. The ceiling closed up again. “You are no fun. You are a little brat is what you are. You clutter up my orrery with your things and enormous bed and you don’t even have the decency to be scared. I really could throw you out the window, you know.”

“I am sure you could,” Hugo said lazily. He didn’t want to let on how much that idea terrified him. “I doubt you want to anger my father though. Don’t worry, I will stay out of your way while you do your work. I promise to be polite for the month I am trapped in here, as long as you promise the same.”

It looked like the old woman ate a lemon. She reluctantly said, “Alright then. Just don’t bother me while I am working and I suppose we can get along.”

Hugo nodded and the old woman got to work. Now that he was fully awake, he could remember her name, Crone Fern. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to call her crone though. It seemed like a title, but it could just be riese being mean. He had just promised to be polite, so he would avoid names for now.

Her entire attention was focused on the growth in the middle of the room. Hugo stared at it last night before he went to bed, and he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Magical, of course, but it didn’t look like any plant or machine he had ever seen. It vaguely reminded him of The Mother. Thankfully, it didn’t glow and pulse like the symbiote. That thing creeped him out.

Fern carefully cleaned the growth and adjusted its central shaft. Then she gestured to the leaves above, and the entire ceiling opened up. The morning sunlight streamed in, hitting the growth in the middle of the room. The leaves had reflective magic, and they focused the sunlight onto the center of the room. The room grew warmer and the growth took on a greener tint.

Thankfully, Hugo’s bed was on the edge of the room and out of the way of the heat. While Fern was doing whatever she was doing, Hugo went to the bathroom and got ready for the day. Shortly after he came back out, she closed up the ceiling again.

“That’s all I need to do for today. I will come back again when the moon is out tonight. We won’t have to see each other more than twice a day as long as those idiot guards don’t use up the shield. The last time they wasted the burl’s magic it took me six hours to refill it. Those morons. Anyway, I am off. Please don’t touch the burl while I am gone,” Fern said.

Hugo nodded, understanding blossoming in his mind. The burl in the center of the room was the source of the grove tree’s magical protection. No wonder this room was heavily protected. Crone Fern was maintaining the one thing preventing everyone from being overrun by monsters. Hugo resolved to be even nicer to her. Despite her terrible attitude, she was protecting everyone.

The next few hours passed very slowly. He had promised his father that he would be good and stay in here, but his growling stomach convinced him to go to the door.

It wouldn’t open.

Every time he touched the correct spot on the vine door, it flashed red at him. The magics powering the door wouldn’t let him out. He was trapped in here. There were no windows, not even in the bathroom. The slight breeze in the room came from small gaps in the leaves, but other than that the room was locked down tight. This wasn’t just for his protection, it was a jail cell as well.

He banged on the door to get the guard’s attention. No one came. He yelled. No response. He was starting to panic. He forcibly told himself to calm down. He had four domains. Any one of them would help him get out of here if push came to shove. He just needed to calm down and wait for someone to arrive with food. They might have forgotten to bring him breakfast, but there was no way they would miss two meals in a row.

It was a few hours after lunch time that the door finally opened. It was the huntmaster, carrying a bundle of wooden staves. Hugo leapt from his bed and said, “Don’t shut the...” But it was too late, the door was closed again.

Ramin looked back at the door and said, “What?”

“Something is wrong with the door, I can’t get out. No one has brought me food and when I tried to leave or yell for help, no one came,” Hugo said.

“Oh shit. Your dad must have forgotten. Hold on a second,” Ramin said. He turned back around and opened the door again. He shouted out to a guard to bring them food and closed the door again.

“Wait. How come I couldn’t leave?” Hugo said.

“You aren’t keyed to the orrery security. There are only three people on the tree that have access. Me, your father, and Crone Fern. It’s why we put you here. The magic protects the burl like a vault, and we can’t let just anyone have access,” Ramin said.

“I need access too. I have to be able to leave in an emergency. What if there is a fire, or an assassin cut’s his way in?”

“No, this place can’t catch on fire, even if a drake sits on top. And no assassin on the wheel can break into here. You are totally safe, trust me,” Ramin said and placed his hand on Hugo’s shoulder.

He rolled his shoulder to push him off and said, “I am not some child sent to her room as punishment. I am a princess of the Brambled Wood and our only hope for the future. I need access to the door.”

“That’s just not possible. Granting anyone new access requires approval of the entire council. Even your father didn’t get access for a week after the king and queen died. We have to keep this room secure and limit those with access. There is no way we can ask them to grant you access and let anyone know you are here,” Ramin said and shrugged.

Hugo swore, using the worst riese swear word he knew.

“Language! That word is not fit for the mouth of a princess,” Ramin said.

“Hey, you taught me that word,” Hugo said.

“Whatever, let’s work on what I came here for,” Ramin said and gestured to the bundle of thick wooden staves. He brought them over and laid them all out on Hugo’s bed. “These are all the best woods I could collect for your weapon. The challenge rules state that you need to use only your own efforts and the magic of The Mother. You will need to make your own weapon. I have some wood that would be good for a mace, some that would be better for chainsticks, and this one would be good for a quarterstaff. So, what do you want to make?”

Hugo looked at the assembled pieces of wood. He had no idea where to start. He looked up at the huntmaster and said, “Do we know what Bijan will be using? Maybe I can create something designed to counter his weapon?”

Ramin nodded, “The regent’s brother did a reading. He promises it is correct this time. Bijan will be wielding the Orc’s Bane. It’s an enchanted shortsword. It’s one of The Mother’s lesser creations. Its main magic is a blessedly sharp edge. It also has the ability to glow brightly, but not enough to blind.”

“So, a sharp shortsword. Maybe I could create my own glaive? The longer reach should be effective against his shortsword. As long as I keep my distance, I am peachy. Plus, I just spent a month training with a glaive against riese-like enemies. It’s like my secret weapon,” Hugo said.

“That's not a bad idea to start. But you will have to learn not to block. Orc’s Bane will cut right through your weapon. You will have to learn an all new style,” the huntmaster said apologetically.

“It’s that sharp?”

Ramin shrugged, “Magic.”

Hugo rubbed his temples, “So I have to learn an all new fighting style that relies on not blocking? And I can’t get hit either, of course.”

“You can get hit once or twice. The sahar we will paint on your body is powered by The Mother. It is strong enough for a few blows before it will be overwhelmed,” Ramin said.

“I saw the other two fights, they were able to absorb more than one or two blows,” said Hugo.

“The Orc’s Bane is very sharp. The only thing that can stand against it is one of the Mother’s greater gifts. Something we sadly cannot afford, even if anyone was willing to sell,” Ramin said.

“What about recharging my parent’s weapons? Can we afford to do that?” Hugo asked. He had already thought of a few strategies with the flail that would be fun to try out.

“That takes time, time we don’t have. Besides, your parents have spent the family’s coffers already. We are already all in on this challenge. And don’t ask about using their weapons with low charge. If the magic runs out, The Mother’s creations will break. You would automatically lose the challenge. The Juniper family might even have you exiled for wasting The Mother’s gifts.

That was just great. His parents had really screwed him over. They spent everything on themselves and didn’t leave anything for Hugo. If this fight was to the death, he would already be running away.

Still, having the king and queen as your parents was useful. It might be just the thing he needed to stop the hedge mages and Deva. He just had to stick it out for one more month and win the competition. It would be tough, but he could do it. He just had to come up with the right strategy.

...

“Come on, Lina. You can get this. It isn’t about speed, it’s positioning,” he said.

Hugo groaned and swapped weapons. He had been training every day with a variety of weapons. He started each sparring match with a long wooden glaive. The huntmaster came at him with a shortsword that had paint on its edges. Hugo was trying to parry the shortsword without getting paint on his weapon. Once the glaive got hit, he swapped out for a bow staff. Then a quarterstaff, then a eskrima stick.

The spar wasn’t going well. He had failed more parries than he had succeeded.

When Hugo got down to the smallest stick, the huntmaster stood back and said, “That’s it for today. You won’t see me tomorrow, just the crone and a guest. Your father has a ritualist coming in to teach you, someone from Fontein. He doesn’t know who you are or why you are here. He just thinks you are trying to pretend to have The Mother’s gift instead of being soulmarked. Don’t tell him anything and it should be fine.”

Hugo nodded and he was left alone again. It had been a very lonely week. He got a day’s worth of food each morning when the crone came in (that was her title, not an insult). The huntmaster snuck away for a few hours each day to train him. Other than that, he was alone all day long. He took the time to practice his various domains. It was so boring.

For the last few months, Hugo had been trying to figure out his relationship with his parents. It was clear that his mother hated him for some reason, but his father was harder to figure out. He had been so kind to Hugo on the mountain, but then sent him away to the forest. Darius was overjoyed to see him alive at the challenge, but then he locked Hugo in the orrery. The man seemed all over the place with his affection.

After a week in the orrery, Hugo knew which one it was. The man was only concerned with himself. If he actually cared about his daughter, he would have visited her at least once. Hugo was so bored up here. Every day that passed without him visiting his only daughter increased Hugo’s conviction. His father only cared about Hugo because he needed him. He needed his daughter to win the challenge so he could be king and was willing to pretend a love he didn’t feel.

That meant that Hugo couldn’t count on parental love to get things done after he was king. He needed to have an agreement in place ahead of time. He spent a great deal of time thinking about how best to negotiate for what he wanted.

Eventually, he asked the crone to pass on an invitation to his father. The temporary regent was supposed to come visit tonight.

A knock sounded on the door. How polite. Hugo mentally prepared himself and said, “Come in.”