365 Days of Drabbles: Day One Hundred-Twenty Six and Twenty Seven

[jeriendhal]

For avanti_90 "Someone gets turned into someone else's shadow."

* * *

She bowed to her father-in-law. "I've returned from the cave of the dragon mother, your Highness."

He nodded, tenting his fat fingers. "What did it have to say?"

"Quite a bit, mostly about cows. But she also told me the Strix River was struck by blood magic. Anyone who drank from it at that time is at risk."

"Blood sorcery? How interesting."

Well, interesting wasn't the way she'd have put it, but she wasn't a king, and only very recently a princess. "Anyway, where's my husband? I need to speak to him."

"Not here."

"Where then?" Then she caught sight of the king's shadow, projected against the wall from the fireplace. It was not shaped like the fat king at all, but held the slim, strong form of her handsome prince.

And it was raising its hands, as if in warning, or terror.

"He went off hunting," the king said mildly. "I expect he'll be gone for quite some time."

"I see." She smiled fixedly. "I should return to my rooms, your Highness. I confess I'm very tired."

"Sleep well then." He waved her off, and she fled as quickly as she dared.

How do you rescue shadows? she wondered.

Comments

[rix_scaedu]

So, was the blood magic down to the king or the magic user he's working with?

Can the King commit treason?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

"If the President King does it, it's not a crime."

[rix_scaedu]

The British may have relevant case law on that...

[avanti-90.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is getting fascinating.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Oh darn.

All right, we're gonna need a wizard, an alchemist who still has eyebrows, some of the contaminated water, and a sample scraped from the shadow with a moon metal-- silver is good, platinum is better, but if you know a really sharp dwarf you may be able to lay hands on some selenium.

[seawasp]

That's bad.

The question is whether the King himself was directly involved, or whether he was affected by the blood magic in the water and became what he is now. Or whether that's actually the King at all.

She needs help.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Yes she does.

As for the rest of your questions, the answer is hazy. I'm inclined not to give the Handsome Prince an evil dad. ITOH the evil chancellor is such a cliche...