The Plan
The whoosh of a portal sounded out in the garden and the two ladies stepped out of the portal. Dorothea clapped her hand on Panshad’s hand, “Well done, you got us exactly to His Highness. You are steadily improving. Why don’t you practice daily and come visit me? I can show you some things with water magic after we assess your aptitude, of course.” Panshad smiled down at the old woman, “I can only come if His Highness allows it, Miss Dorothea.” Panshad looked to me expectantly with a light in her eyes that bordered on pleading. I smiled at her, “Of course you can go. I would like you to learn and improve your magic. Since you have finally found someone who could train you, I would love that for you.” Panshad smiled and clapped, “Thank you, Your Highness. I would hug you if I could.” I smiled at her, “You can hug me, I regard you as sister.” She ran up to me and hugged me tightly, “I am so grateful to you, Your Highness. I must go see to the rest of my duties.” I shook my head, “You may take the rest of the day to figure out what you are wearing to the party tomorrow. You will be sitting with Alexandra and I.” She smiled at me and her eyes lit up, “I will go see Ms. Grace to see if she can make me something real quick. Thank you, Your Highness.” She walked quickly towards the castle to seek out the woman who made clothes for the castle occupants.
I turned to Dorothea and gestured for her to walk with me, “How did you find my young witch?” She smiled up at me, “Poor thing needs a lot of teaching. It’s too bad I didn’t know about her sooner, she would make an excellent apprentice. I will have to make do with teaching her at an older age. How old is she?” I thought back to the little girl who came to us and remembered she was about eight at the time, “She’s going to be sixteen in a couple of weeks.” She grunted, “How long has she been without instruction?” I sighed, “Her mother was about to start her instruction when she died. She was given the wind aptitude test by her mother and Vanessa gave her the fire aptitude test.” She nodded, “So she still needs the earth and water then. I can give her the water as that is my specialty but I will have to see if my stupid sister will spare young Panshad some time to give her the earth.” I furrowed my brows, “Do you think she would listen if the request was made from my brother?” She sighed, “Maybe but I believe after meeting young Alexandra, she would highly regard a request from her. I will bring it up with Alexandra while we are on our way here tomorrow.” I nodded at her, “It still frustrates me that Panshad might have become one of the great witches in Vellum had there not still been an intense hatred of fae amongst the people.” She nodded, “Fortunately, with people like our heiress in Blackwood, things might change in the future. I can see where she might affect change in Vellum. It’s perhaps why The Order is after her.”
We reached my office door and I opened it and gestured for her to come in. I had already asked my top spy to meet us there and he was already there. He bowed at me when I entered the room, “Your Highness, I am here as requested.” I gestured to Dorothea, “This is Dorothea. She used to be part of The Order and has been a valuable source of information for us.” He nodded at her, “Nice to meet you, Miss Dorothea. I am Yarrow, the head spy here.” She smiled at him, “Likewise, hunky man.” She winked at him and strode across the room then sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of my desk. I sat down at my desk as well with Yarrow sitting down next to Dorothea. I pulled out the paper where I drew up my plan and handed it to Yarrow, “This is what I was thinking about in regards to The Order. Read it through and let me know if you think this is feasible.” He read through it and looked up at me, “Are you sure this is wise?” I nodded, “I think so but I need your input after Dorothea reads through it.” He handed the papers to the old woman who stroked his hand as she took the paper from him. She wiggled her eyebrows at him then puckered her lips and made a kissing sound. He cleared his throat and looked off away from her. She read through the paper and giggled, “Looks like you and I are on the same page. I think this is the best course of action. I will assist with this for sure.” Yarrow shot her a look that was a mixture of shock and anger, “I don’t think it is wise for him to do this himself though.” She sighed, “No offense to you and your men but you lack the airs that is required to do this task yourselves. This is something none of you can learn. His Highness is the best fit for this job.” He sighed, “Fine but I wonder if he can have an added protection. I don’t want him going in blind, I have been spying there for quite some time.” She shook her head, “You can look from the shadows but His Highness will have to go undercover on his own. I will swing by to see Vanessa to see if she can make you something similar to what His Majesty has. It needs to be less conspicuous though.” I nodded, “My thoughts exactly. I had thought to borrow the one from my brother but his is too ornate and recognizable if someone were truly paying attention. Not to mention, I don’t want him to know what I am doing. He will try to stop me or go in my place.” Yarrow grunted, “Then you both would be foolish.”
I brushed off his comment which is normally not like me but I was more focused on getting things ready quickly. I would set off to go undercover in The Order the day after tomorrow assuming that Vanessa could deliver quickly. I looked at Dorothea, “Can you ask her for discretion? I don’t want Alexandra to know anything that I am doing.” She nodded, “That would be best. Vanessa is likely to agree.” I had the strong belief that if I were to go undercover within The Order that I would be able to root out who the prominent families were quicker than just observing. What troubled me the most is this assassin that they have trained on my beloved. I would give anything to ensure her safety, I would fight him to the death if I had to. Dorothea asked, “In regards to the assassin, I would like to find a way to capture him if we could. I have a plan for that but I’m not entirely sure you would like it.” I furrowed my brows knowing what she was going to talk about, “No.” She sighed, “It would be the best way to protect her.” I grunted, “By putting her in danger? Are you off your rocker old hag?!” She shook her head, “Did you ever stop to think that Alexandra may want to catch her assassin? You think she might want this to be over as soon as possible. Cut The Order off at the knees. We can set a trap where she is completely safe. All I ask of you is to seriously consider it. Maybe even ask her what she thinks.” I rolled my eyes, “Fine but only because I value her opinion. I won’t bring it up to her myself but you can communicate it to her when I give you the signal. Does that sound good to you?” She nodded, “All I ask.”
Yarrow sighed at the exchange, “So you are seriously proposing that the future Queen be used as bait?” She smiled at him, “It’s the best way to stop them and perhaps we can hear straight from the horse’s mouth just what he used as the blood source for this latest threat.” I hadn’t thought of that, Alexandra wasn’t the only one in her family that was in danger. For all we knew, this assassin was taking their blood without them knowing it. It was troubling that he could even break into her room. A thought dawned on me, “Dorothea, how are you at barrier magic?” She sighed, “Not too good. That falls under earth magic. I can do it but it won’t be sustained for long. You want me to put a barrier on Blackwood manor?” I shook my head, “I don’t think you have that amount of magic right?” She shook her head, “Nope, I can only put up a barrier about the size of my cottage.” I nodded at her, “I just would like you to put the barrier in her room. Would that work? At least for a time?” She nodded, “I can sustain it for a few days until Z comes around. I will see if she will put the barrier for a longer amount of time.” I leaned back in my chair, “Okay well, if you will do so tonight, I think that would be best.” She nodded, got up from her chair and opened a portal. Before she walked through it, she turned around to wink at Yarrow, “Hope to see you again real soon, hunky.” She walked through the portal. Yarrow turned to me, “I will do my best to help you implement your plan but I must caution that one of the prominent families seem to have a deep seeded hatred of House Batiste.” I dismissed him and he walked out of the room when the click of the door brought a thought to my head. I had hoped my hunch was not true but I would soon find out.
