"What have you done?" asked the mimic, the moment she appeared."What do you mean?" she asked, turning to look at it.
The mimic no longer looked like a monster. It stood on two legs, and was very much humanoid. While she couldn"t tell if it was a man or a woman, it no longer looked as it had.
"What happened to you?" Aella said, taking a step back and looking around the room. Nothing else seemed to have changed.
"Nothing has happened to me! You put on that cloak, didn"t you!" it cried, stepping towards her with a hand on its head.
"More like it attached itself to me," she corrected, standing firm with a frown as it walked around her, studying her new attire.
"I"ve never seen it do that before. It"s always fled everyone who tried to catch it. Even the first king had trouble with that. He could tell it was intelligent, but never could get it to cooperate. You realize, with that thing, you can see through almost all magical illusions, and no one can tell you have magical things? It completely messes with your aura!"
"Is that why you look almost demon, instead of like a mimic?"
The mimic froze in its place, with a look of surprise and horror.
"What did you say?" it whispered.
"I said, you look more like a demon, than a mimic," she repeated, annoyed at having to repeat herself.
"That…that can"t be possible!" it cried, backing away from her until it hit the wall.
"Why not?"
"I…I was once a demon, but I was transformed into a mimic. I can"t look like a demon! I"m a mimic!" it screamed at her.
She c.o.c.ked her head to the side as it held itself and shook, glancing around wildly. She could see the outline of a mimic over its demon form, and the mimic form was salivating like crazy, leaving sticky strands of goo everywhere.
"Alright," she said with a shrug, stretching. It was late. She was tired.
"Alright?" it whispered, freezing again.
"I can see you as a mimic. You act like a mimic, so you must be a mimic," she said. "I"m getting pretty tired, as it"s so late out. I"ll be sure to bring you something to eat when I come back."
"When you come back?" the mimic said, staring at her. She wondered if there was a magical something in one of the chests that could fix its broken mind, but didn"t really want to take the time to try and find something.
"I"ll be back sometime soon," she promised, then thought about her room. An image of her room appeared in her head, but she stopped before stepping forward into the image. Someone was sneaking through the shadows, with a dagger. Unfortunately, as soon as she paused to watch the scene, it began to fade. She knew the image was only there to allow her to pick where she wanted to teleport to, but it was frustrating not to be able to see what happened when the hopeful a.s.sa.s.sin found her bed empty. Focusing on the room for a second time, brought that image up again, but the same thing happened. The moment she tried to just watch the figure, instead of stepping forward to teleport, the image faded.
Pulling her short sword out of its scabbard, she focused on the room again, and stepped forward, stabbing the sword into the a.s.sa.s.sins back, as she teleported behind him.
Noticing a figure by the door, she stepped to the side to avoid the dagger that was thrown at her, and threw the dagger that appeared in her gloved hand at him. It hit him in the throat, and he slumped forward. The dagger that was in his throat disappeared and reappeared back in her hand with a sigh of satisfaction, before returning to the form of a glove.
Aella pulled the short sword out of the back of the body beside her, and wiped it clean on the back of his shirt, before sheathing it. She checked her door, and noted it was locked from the inside. She had left it unlocked when she left, so she could get back in, but had never antic.i.p.ated someone breaking in and trying to kill her. In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. There were too many people who didn"t want her as the king. She should lower her standards; this was way too obvious.
Searching the bodies, there was nothing on them to find, yet she was surprised to find they were both women. That made sense if the king had been male. The women would have easily been able to get close, presumably to share his bed, and then they could have killed him. Laughing to herself, Aella wondered how many headaches she was causing for people.
Propping the two bodies up against the end of her bed, she decided it would be too dangerous to sleep here, but she knew somewhere no a.s.sa.s.sin would think to look for her.
Stretching after a wonderful nap, Aella sat up and looked over at the figure that was sitting in his chair watching her in amus.e.m.e.nt.
"Do you even sleep anymore?" she asked, pulling a knee up and resting her elbow on it.
"Not since they trapped me here," answered the first king.
"Tell me about the mimic," she said, scooting over to the wall and leaning against it. There was plenty of time for them to talk before she had to show back up to spar with her new guards.
"I see you"ve equipped yourself quite well. How did you convince the cloak?"
"I asked my question first," she said with a smile.
"Fine, it wasn"t always a mimic. It had been an a.s.sistant to a witch discovered in the north. She was deemed too dangerous and killed. Her a.s.sistant attempted to use some of her potions to escape, and ended up getting changed to a mimic. I placed it in the treasury room, until I could decide what to do with it, when the blasted thing ate one of my magical rings. I had my court mages curse it to remain in the treasury, until I died. If I had known I would end up here, I would have allowed it to be killed, or released. Part of the curse made it unable to eat anything not living, so the rest of my treasure would be safe. If you weren"t wearing that crown, it would have tried to eat you."
"Yet, you told me I could hide people in the…in there," she said, with a small smile.
"Ah, I may have forgotten that the mimic was there," he admitted with a laugh.
"So, what else may you have forgotten?" she asked, dropping the smile.
He cleared his throat and stood up. She watched as he began to pace back and forth across the room.
"You have to keep in mind, it has been a very long time since I was placed in this room. The world outside has undoubtably changed a lot. I have only a short time with any king that might make it to me, to tell them what I think is the most important, before they have to head off to be crowned. You are the first king that has ever managed to find your way back to me. The most important thing for me to do, when the new king arrives, is to give him, or her as in your case, the key to the treasury."
"So, I am the first girl king?" she asked.
"That I am aware of. If there were others, they didn"t live very long, or didn"t come see me."
"They sent a.s.sa.s.sins to kill me last night."
"The Advisory Council no doubt enjoys their power, and probably don"t want to put up with a king that actually wants to be king."
"They call themselves the Advisors, but I understand what you mean."
"I don"t mind answering any questions you may have, if I can answer them. Have you heard anything about the heroes?"
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"Only that a few of them were spotted near the border."
"That"s unusual. Normally they are almost to the castle when a new king is crowned. Perhaps that is why they sent the a.s.sa.s.sins, because it doesn"t look like the heroes are in a hurry to come kill you for them."
Aella thought about that for a moment.
"Has a king ever gone out to challenge, or take out the heroes before they could get to the castle?" she asked.
"No. Every king that has fought the heroes, has done it from the castle," he responded, turning to look at her thoughtfully.
"To take advantage of the bonuses they got from the castle," she added with a nod.
"If the Advisory…Advisors are so keen on getting rid of you, I doubt they will like the idea of you leaving the castle. You"re a trained killer. They won"t be able to kill you as easily if you leave."
A smile teased in the corners of her mouth as she nodded. "That"s an excellent reason to leave, and possibly take care of the heroes when they are least expecting it."