Entwined Magic (Mr. Darcy’s Magic #4)

27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

C olonel Fitzwilliam’s message had been passed to Carlton House long before Darcy and Redmond arrived. The palace was surrounded by rows of soldiers, and cannons were being lined up. Several mages were setting up Wards, and others were working on possible defenses.

“We are here from Dymchurch Redoubt, Hythe, to report to the Prince Regent immediately.”

They were admitted at once. They found the prince eating and drinking port with some of his cronies, oblivious to the danger.

“May we speak to you privately, Your Highness,” said Darcy, trying not to be enraged by this blatant disregard for the prince’s safety.

“Leave us,” said the prince, with a sigh. As the door closed, he propped his head on his hand and looked at Darcy and Redmond with complete disinterest.

“Your Royal Highness, the contingency plan was for you to retreat to Scotland in the event of an invasion. I hope you have been given details of the attack. Napoleon is using balloons—”

“Pa!” The prince made a dismissive gesture with his hands. “We have been informed of this already, and plans have been drawn. Did you not see all the soldiers and cannons outside?”

Did the Prince Regent really think he could defeat an invisible flotilla by shooting at it with rifles?

“I mean no disrespect, Your Highness, but I doubt the cannonballs can reach the balloons. They are more likely to cause damage to us. And even our best sharpshooters cannot shoot at invisible targets.”

The prince laughed. “I appreciate your concern, Darcy, but I believe the experts have taken that into account. In any case, if the Imperial mages are trying to accomplish so many things, they will not be able to hold Concealment spells as well as control the Montgolfier balloons. The balloons will be tossed around by the wind, and when they come down, they will be easily spotted, and the people will shred them. If their goal is to bring the balloons down, where are they to land amongst the chimneys and narrow squares?”

It made some sort of sense, but the reality was far different.

“Your Royal Highness, there are plenty of open spaces for them to land in Hyde Park,” said Darcy. “But that is not their intention. They are using Elemental Magic to steer and disguise themselves. And they will use Elemental magic to attack. My guess would be fireballs.”

“Your guess ?” said the prince, as if Darcy had said nothing else. “Mr. Darcy, do you think I am going to abandon my palace and run to Scotland because of a guess ?”

He gave Darcy a smug look. “Besides, I have privileged information that, from that height, they will not be able to fire with any accuracy,” said the prince. “They cannot use an eye glass and cast fireballs at the same time.”

Darcy sought a way to explain that the Imperial Mages were more organized and cannier than the prince gave them credit for. How could he convey to the prince that the Royal Mages had been outmatched and soundly beaten without making them seem incompetent?

The door opened, and the prince was approached by an officer with an air of command. “It might be best if your Highness left the business of dealing with the balloons to us. We do not want to issue contradictory commands in such an urgent situation.” He turned to Darcy and Redmond. “As Janus Mages, I assume you have come to set up Wards around the Prince Regent himself?”

Darcy gritted his teeth. “It would be far simpler if we could remove His Highness to another position.”

“We cannot afford to put together an escort for his protection,” said the officer, “and we do not believe it to be necessary.”

Darcy shook his head. Providing protection to the Prince Regent would mean focusing all their efforts on building Wards for him, instead of trying to undo the Concealment spells the Imperial mages were using.

There was no way out of it. Being a Royal Mage meant they must protect the prince above all else. That was what they came to do, after all.

“If you will not agree to go somewhere safer, I have no choice but to remain here, along with Lord Redmond.” Darcy said, in a resigned voice.

“Capital,” said the prince. He turned to the officer. “You may attend to your duties. Rest assured I am in good hands.”

There was no time for further argument, no time to be lost. “Redmond, if you will assist me in shoring up the Wards?”

As it turned out, they had no chance to do anything at all. Without notice, the floor below them began to move. The furniture started to rattle and shake, and objects toppled off the shelves,

“An earthquake! Your Highness, we must leave the building at once,” cried Darcy. He was out of his depth. He did not know the best entrances and exits.

“Yes, yes,” said the prince. “We will go through this hidden door to the lower level and leave through a secret entrance to Regent’s Park.” He ran to a bookshelf and pressed a button. The shelves slid open, revealing a staircase going down. “That was the contingency plan. There are horses hidden there to take us away. You need to hold a Ward around us.”

Darcy did not know if the prince was using the Royal ‘We’, or if it included them. In any case, they had no other plan, and they needed to stay with the Prince Regent to protect him.

Once again, the Imperial mages had surprised them by using an unexpected method: Earth magic.

As they fled down the stairs, Darcy Bonded with Redmond and tried to hold the shield around the three of them, but it was difficult enough to stay upright as the stairs swayed and trembled beneath their footsteps.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the prince fumbled with the button that would open the door. “The latch has been displaced,” he said. “I do not know if I can open the door.”

“If you would step aside, Your Highness, I will use a spell.” He turned to Redmond. “Hold the shield.”

Before Darcy could step forward, the floor trembled again. There was a metallic click and the door swung open. Darcy was grateful for it. He did not want to expend more effort using magic than he had to. He was already tired.

A scene of disorder greeted them. Soldiers and servants in livery were running around in all directions. No one even noticed the Prince Regent.

“Over here,” said the prince. “Stay with me. Is the shield still working?”

“It is, Your Highness.”

They had just reached the column when the ground beneath them lurched. The column swayed. The prince gave a cry of terror as it toppled in his direction. Instinctively, Darcy threw up a net around it, trying to hold it back, hoping to allow the Prince Regent the time to escape.

"Quickly,” he said, between gritted teeth. He did not know how much longer he could hold the net. His magic was weakening. “Go with him, Redmond.” Darcy held on, every muscle in his body straining.

The prince ran out of the column’s reach towards the wall with the secret entrance. Just as he reached it, the ground gave a shudder and slanted, and the prince fell to the ground. The wall began to crumble.

Darcy let go of the column, darting out of the way as it crashed behind him. He threw out a Ward to prevent the bricks and masonry from falling onto the prince. It was weak, but Darcy held his breath, hoping it would succeed.

It toppled over with a loud crash, sending a plume of dust into the air.

Darcy stared at the spot where the prince Regent had been. The lower part of his body was covered with rubble, but his head and shoulders were unharmed. Darcy ran over, his legs shaking with exhaustion.

"Your Highness!" shouted Darcy. "Your Highness!"

Darcy felt for a pulse. At first, he thought there was none, but then he felt the faint echo of movement beneath his fingers.

"He's alive," he said. "Just barely. We need to dig him out. See what you can find. There are plenty of objects around that we could use. Maybe some pieces of wood or metal?”

While Redmond was gone, Darcy built a Ward around the prince, something that would prevent anything else falling on him.

Redmond returned with a large piece of paneling. They lodged it under rubble and tried to shift it, but the paneling cracked and broke. Darcy felt the prince's life draining away the longer they kept trying.

"Go to the garrison for help. Hurry. I will strengthen the Ward.”

There was a rumble. The building shuddered and pieces of plaster rained down on them.

"The ceiling! Wards!! Hurry!!"

They Bonded frantically, and Darcy screamed out a spell just as the ceiling collapsed.

Miraculously, the Ward held, protecting them and the Prince Regent. They were surrounded by debris. Above them, there was a gap, showing the sky.

The terrible weight of so much rubble pressed down on them.

"The bubble is too big," said Darcy, trying to stay calm. "We need to move closer to the Prince Regent so we have a smaller area to maintain."

They made their way through broken pieces of Ming vases, paintings of former Prime ministers, and broken decanters, moving inch by inch, trying not to shift the rubble, until they found somewhere to stand, an arm’s reach from the prince, where the bubble was small enough to control.

If the Imperial Mages did not attack again, they might stand a chance of surviving this.

Darcy lost track of time. He did not know if hours or minutes had passed as they moved closer to the Prince Regent. The bubble was their whole world, the only thing between them and certain death, the only thing keeping the Prince Regent alive.

At some point, Darcy began to lose hope. The prince had not stirred at all. What if all this was for nothing and he was already dead? He was tempted to go and check his pulse, but he could not risk tipping the fragile balance. There was no choice but to continue.

Darcy had no more reserves. How much longer could he hold on? Stars were dancing in front of his eyes, and the edges of his vision were turning dark. His whole body was shaking with the strain of maintaining his position. If only there was some way to rouse the prince, to discover if he was alive, but he could not spare his breath to call out to him. His magic was running dry. If a French mage attacked him now, he would not be able to lift a finger to defend himself.

His eyes met Redmond’s, and he saw the same exhaustion and despair mirrored in the boy's face, along with the recognition that, sooner or later, one of them would buckle under the strain and the whole edifice would topple and crush the three of them.

The Prince Regent was dead, and his Elizabeth was gone. She could not possibly have transported herself over such a great distance and survived.

His legs were shaking so badly, he could no longer stand. He sank to the floor, and Redmond followed suit. Darcy had tried so hard to protect the palace, but it lay in ruins around him. The Prince Regent was dead. All was lost. Everything was gone. It was all over. The Kingdom had been defeated.

He was not sure what to do next. It was his duty to report the Regent's death, but he could not bring himself to move. He was too weary to think rationally. He wanted to sink into a sleep of magic fatigue, but he used all his will to force himself awake.

Only the thought of Elizabeth kept him going. He could not give up, for her sake. He would fight until the end, even if that meant draining the last bit of blood out of him.