Chapter 9

Theo and Draco rolled along in the prisoner's cage that was being pulled by a pair of matched bays. Arms wrapped around his knees, Theo was trying not to cry.

"There, there," Draco soothed, patting him on the arm. "Don't forget Hermione is out there. She won't rest until she saves us."

That was just what Theo was scared of. He was so sorry that he'd let Draco and Hermione rescue him from the Tower. He'd known they were coming, but he hadn't foresaw leaving with them, he could have stayed behind and they wouldn't be in danger now.

Theo knew that he needed to sleep so he could get a sense of what was going to happen next in his dream, but he was too uncomfortable for sleep to even be possible.

"And at least they seem to be taking good care of our horses," Draco was busy trying to find the positive in all this. This wasn't the first time that he'd been captured after all. Generally, someone sent a ransom demand to his father and a weregild demand for however many knights he had killed and then he was freed. He'd killed eight knights this time, he mused with pride.

Theo made a noncommittal noise at that.

Hermione followed the kingsguard that had captured Theo and her prince for three days. She could not find a place to make a move and then the walls of the capital city came into view. As she watched Theo and Draco disappear across one of the eight bridges into the city, Hermione was swallowed by despair. How was she ever going to save them now? The last thing she wanted to do was inform his royal highness King Lucius of Draco's little misadventure, but it seemed more and more likely that that was what she was going to have to do.

Theo and Draco were not thrown into a dungeon or jail as they were anticipating. Instead the guards dragged them into the palace and into one of the highest towers there. Draco felt that it was somewhat ironic considering where they had found Theo in the first place, but Theo was not amused. When food was delivered, Theo dropped it out the window into the river that was several hundred feet below.

Draco raised an eyebrow, but didn't complain about Theo's actions, continuing to test the security of the room that they were locked in.

After a while, Draco asked, "Do you really believe that your father would poison us?"

"Absolutely," Theo replied. "Or give us something that would have us attack each other in our delusions or a hundred other awful things that potions are capable of doing. I had a book on it that he gave me once called Potions Most Potente. I don't think he realised what he had given me in that selection of books, for when he saw me reading it when he returned on his next visit it was quickly dragged away from me." Theo didn't mention how his father had broken two of his fingers for holding onto it when his father had demanded that he turn it over. Theo had never made that mistake again. "My father is a violent man. I am very concerned about what he might do."

"All the more reason to try to escape," Draco commented, as he looked in the drawers of a wardrobe for things he might fashion into a weapon.

Theo merely nodded.

Hermione had managed to get into the royal city, but she had no idea where in the palace Theo and Draco were being held or how she would ever manage to get them out. It seemed that the only thing that she could do now was send an owl to King Lucius informing him of the dire situation that they now found themselves in.

She would most likely lose her place at Draco's side, but it was better than her losing her place because he was dead. She had to give him up soon anyway to the Princess to whom his marriage was going to be arranged, perhaps it would be best if she didn't travel with him that long anyway. It would only get harder and harder to leave one another every mile travelled.

She got a room above a tavern that faced the palace and learned that a festival was being held as the King of Nott's heir was turning one year old and was still healthy and strong and their young Queen had been delivered of a second son not two weeks previously. Hermione asked if the King had been married before and steeled her face at the answer.

"Why, the King has been married three times before, but only the first Queen bore him a child but sadly she and the babe didn't make it through even the first night." The old man dried chipped mugs as he spoke to Hermione, a thoughtful expression on his face

"How awful." Hermione could not help but imagine poor Theo, only hours old being taken away and secreted in that isolated tower and if Theo's death was a lie, then what else in this story was a lie. Did the King of Nott kill his wife in her childbed?

"Queen Cassandra was much beloved," the barkeep continued. "Some say she predicted her own death. Her family were nobles from the far south of the kingdom and they were reputed to be seers and oracles."

"Oracles," Hermione injected the word with all the doubt she could muster, she was horrible at divination herself, despite knowing that it was a well-respected school of magic. "I always thought such a thing was rubbish myself."

"Be that as it may, the good Queen's great grandfather made prophecies for the King's grandfather when we were at war with the Arch-Duchy of Hogwarts. It must have been a hundred years ago now, some of those prophecies led to Nott's victory and the old king rewarded his prophet's family with riches, a castle and noble titles. The family did rather well for itself until after the Queen's death. Many went into hiding or exile after that."

This story sounded more and more suspicious to Hermione, had the King killed his wife and then wiped out the rest of her family, a family known for its gifts of prophecy and foresight? What prophecy could she have made that would have led him to do such a thing?

Hermione knew that she needed to reclaim her pair of princes before they met the same fate. She wondered when she had started to think of Theo as hers, perhaps the night she'd discovered the two of them curled into one another and hadn't felt jealousy, only longing to be in the middle.

Sighing, she ordered another ale for her room and carried it up the stairs, and sat on her bed, sipping it as she drowned in frustration. She stared at the castle trying to come up with a plan that would get the three of them safely away from Theo's father.

The loud pop and sudden arrival of a small battered elf in front of Hermione caused her to cry out as she spilled her ale all over herself.

"You are friends with Master Theo, yes?" The little elf inquired nervously.

"Yes?" Hermione answered, worried that this was a trap.

"Good, good. You must help me save his life. Tippy can not save him alone."

Hermione, unwilling to turn down an ally, readily agreed and began to listen to the little elf telling her what the King had planned for his eldest son.

Hermione's blood ran cold.

Theo was sleeping against the wall while Draco kept watch over him. The young man's curls had fallen in his face and Draco had to restrain himself from pushing them back from his face and kissing him. This wasn't the time for that, not for a first kiss anyway. Draco could wait.

He knew that it wasn't sustainable for the two of them to not be eating while trapped here by Theo's madman father, but they could go a little longer before it became too pressing.

A pop sounded and a little elf stood there with the food tray, but then looked at Draco with a solemn expression and sat a wrapped bundle on top of the tray and then disappeared with another pop. Draco carefully walked over to the tray and unwrapped the bundle.

Staring back at him were two crystal daggers, the dark magic pouring off them in waves. They had once belonged to his Aunt Bellatrix, the mad Duchess. There was only one way that the elf could have come to have these. It had met up with Hermione. Draco wished that he had better control of his magic. He would tell her that he had the knives. They were long and wicked. The blades were cursed that the wounds would never close until the recipient of the cuts was dead or killed by the poisons that dear Aunt Bella had dipped them in.

He knew what to do with them.

The King of Nott just needed to appear.

Draco would save himself and Theo.

Hermione had just given him the tools he needed to do so.