Healing Fire by Sean Michael Page A

through the guards who stood at the doors to Jules’ rooms, asking to be allowed to take his charge out, citing a need to expand the prince’s horizons for health reasons. He was waiting anxiously to find out if they would be allowed.
    It had been months since the attack, and the interlopers had been driven far, far away. He didn’t see why they would be denied. Still, the prince had never been allowed out before, and now the physicians were beginning to appear, one after another.
    There was a knock at the door. After checking that Jules was curled up in bed, Lem strode to the door. “Who goes there?” he called out.
    “Treva. I am here to attend to the prince.” Another witch.
    Lem opened the door, looking sternly at her. “I must search you.”
    Treva, who had to be older than the stars themselves, rolled her eyes and grinned, baring sharp teeth among all the wrinkles. “As you will.”
    “What are you going to do to him?” He demanded as he ran his hands down her body, searching through her voluminous robes for anything that might harm his prince. The female was bones and skin, and he doubted she could hurt a fly, in this form or another. Except perhaps for her magic. “Answer me, wise mother. What will you do to him?”
    He would offer her respect as long as she intended no harm to his charge. His charge. Jules was so much more than that, but he could never let anyone know.
    “Most likely offer him a lemon candy and tell him to stop living in his books, child.”
    Lem had to bite his lip not to laugh at her words, and an idea sparked inside him. Perhaps Treva would be an ally in his quest to get Jules out of the castle.
    “Treva?” Jules’ voice rang out. “My nurse?”
    “Yes, Jules, it is her. We’ll be there momentarily.” He put a hand on Treva’s arm, staying her for a moment. “I have requested permission to take my prince out into the world. He needs color in his cheeks.” More color than just whenever he made his prince’s flesh swell and explode.
     “Oh? Oh, that will never be allowed. The protections here were put in place so he would be safe. He will never be allowed outside this castle.” Her eyes were so sad.
    “But he is a prisoner here!” Lem wanted to kidnap Jules himself and run away with his prince.
    “We’re all prisoners to our castes. Each of us.”
    “Yes, wise mother.” He bowed his head to hide his desires from her, knowing his eyes might give him away. “Come, please.” He led her to the back room where Jules kept himself hidden.
    Jules offered the old nurse a warm smile, pushing from the bed and hugging her. Lem was pleased to see that there was someone else besides himself who Jules liked and, he thought, who liked Jules. His prince had too few people in his life who cared for him.
    “Are you ill, Little Prince?” the old one asked.
    “Bored, Treva.”
    “I want to show him the mountains, wise mother. Teach him to fly. He is a prince. He should be allowed such indulgences.” Oh, no. The words had left him unbidden. He hadn’t meant to trust her so far. He didn’t know her enough. What if she reported his heresies?
    “You’ve been filling your guard’s head with stories, haven’t you, Prince?”
    Lem could not risk Jules, and he answered before his prince could. “He has done nothing wrong, wise mother!”
    “Oh, child. He’s not in trouble. How I wish your mother was still alive.”
    “My mother?” Lem blinked at her. He had no memories of his mother. And what he had of his father was colored only in the man’s disappointment in him.
    “She was a student of mine, many years ago.”
    “My mother was a witch?” He wasn’t sure what he should think of that, and whether he should be sad that she was dead now.
    “She was a healer, much like the queen.”
    “Do all healers die young?” Lem knew the queen had only lived a few years past Jules’ birth.
    “Many. It is a hard thing, to learn not to sacrifice yourself.”
    “There are so many