The King & the Stable Boy

XVII: The Medic's Mate

Noah

"Okay so, maybe we should use-"

Ramos was interrupted by Malick bursting into the study.

"The one you have been waiting for has arrived." he announces, strutting into the room.

"I thought you said you didn't want to make a big deal out of your birthday," I say, wrinkling my nose at the medic.

"I didn't. You all wanted me to have a feast, so I figured might as well be merry about the occasion the entire day."

"Have you sniffed anything out of place?" Ramos questions.

"No. All I smell is flowers." Malick plops down on one of the chairs in the room.

"Maybe you got one of the gardeners," I tell him.

"That wouldn't be so bad, there are a few people in that department I wouldn't mind ravishing." he winks at the pair of us as we scrunched our noses up in disgust.

"I feel bad for your mate," Ramos says. "They have to put up with a sex crazed jokester, who would cost lives if he wasn't able to save them. Even while on the job, he's too busy ogling the nurses."

"Hey!" Malick turns a playful glare on the butler. "Anatomy was just my favorite of the sciences, no need to be so judgmental."

Ramos rolls his eyes and I shake my head at the pair of them.

"Call for me when you're both done bickering. I need to go see if I can find my mate."

I wander through the narrow corridors of the servants part of the castle until I finally hit the much wider main hallways that led to the huge mahogany doors that marked where the royal quarters began. Pushing open one of the one's to William's, I walk into the corridor, the hall already much warmer than the rest of the castle.

It was the spring, so it was strange for him to have any furnaces going at this hour.

I kept walking, using my heightened scent ability to pinpoint his exact location, and walking into the room I nearly screamed.

William stood in the center of the empty stone room, ablaze.

Noticing my presence, he turns his head to me, smiling.

"My mother placed me in charge of your training for the day. She said I could begin or continue with any lesson I please, so today, I must train you in the most vital area in order to be able to walk amongst all of our people. It won't be easy for you, you're at a disadvantage, but I can change that."

"What may I ask, is the title of this lesson that requires you to be in partial phoenix form?" I question.

"Immunities. The royal family typically is only shape shifters, so this lesson has never had to be taught. With the changing of the laws, however, it is necessary. It would make you unkillable essentially, well by all ways but guillotine. If all goes well in these lessons, I can train you to the point where silver and wolfsbane aren't deadly to you, but able to inflict wounds, that won't heal as quickly as others. For those cases, I've also brought in a faun from Hazelwrenn. He is to teach you how to use music to make the elements bend to your whim. Today, however, the focus is solely fire immunity."

"How am I supposed to-"

"Do you trust me?" he interrupts.

"Of course," I say without hesitation.

"Good." Mischief sparkled in his eyes, the door behind me suddenly slamming shut, and before I knew it he came flying at me.

Frozen in place, not even a scream emitted from me as the mass of fire shot towards me.