Magic & Mirrors Read online

  Lucius would have preferred to charge in with the element of surprise, but he had missed his opportunity.

  The wizard waved at the mirror. “Your brother appears to have stolen your wife,” he commented with a sneer. “I guess you weren’t satisfying her once I left.”

  “You aren’t going to steal my brother’s body,” Lucius said. He unsheathed the sword and pointed it at the wizard’s throat. “I will kill you first.”

  “Ah, but you won’t, will you, not while the one you truly desire is trapped in my mirror.” The wizard sneered. “Perhaps you’d like to see him.” He waved his hand at the mirror and the image of Philippe and Julianne vanished. In its place appeared Harry, who was sat on a stool with his feet up on a table.

  Lucius instinctively glanced at the furniture in the room, finding it empty, of course. He understood now why Harry had found it so disconcerting to see someone only in a mirror.

  “Harry?” he said as he approached the mirror.

  Harry jumped and nearly fell off his chair. “Lucius? Is that you? What are you doing here?”

  “Rescuing you, of course.” Lucius tried to touch Harry in the same way that they had done when their positions were reversed.

  “It doesn’t work,” Harry said. “I have no presence on your side. If I did, I’d have knocked out him weeks ago. He’s planning on stealing your brother’s body now.”

  “So I gathered. But how are you?”

  “Bored,” Harry replied. “That git won’t even provide me with a pack of cards to help me pass the time.”

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” Lucius assured him.

  “The only way to release me is to smash the mirror, which will trap you inside it.”

  Lucius didn’t need the reminder. “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “You haven’t got a choice.”

  “There’s always a choice.” Lucius raised his hand as if to touch Harry’s cheek. “I couldn’t leave the man I love in a prison.”

  Harry lowered his gaze. “Most people would think a prison is the best place for someone like me.”

  “Your pardon has been issued,” Lucius told him. “You have a clean slate with which to start over, and I would very much like it to be with me.”

  “I think maybe I would like that too,” Harry said. “I’ve had a lot of time to think since I got trapped in this mirror. I’m sorry I laughed at your suggestion of marriage.”

  “Then you’ll marry me?”

  Harry leaned as though to kiss Lucius, even though they couldn’t touch. “Yes, Lucius, I will.”

  “Then there’s only one thing left to do,” Lucius said as he rounded on the wizard.

  The wizard hadn’t been idle during Lucius’ talk with Harry. He was brewing up some sort of trouble in the large cauldron at the side of the room.

  Lucius launched himself at the wizard, but he was too late to stop him from drinking the potion.

  The wizard grinned as half a dozen copies of him appeared out of nowhere. Lucius kept his eye on the one by the cauldron, only to see him vanish in the blink of an eye.

  Lucius had no way of telling which one was the real wizard. Each of them appeared as solid as the rest. He picked a wizard at random and charged across the room. The wizard disappeared the moment he tried to make contact with him, leaving Lucius grasping at thin air.

  One of the wizards ran at him and Lucius braced himself for impact. Once again the wizard he faced was one of the fakes and disappeared, leaving Lucius to stumble into the mirror. Luck was with him and the mirror didn’t fall, but it had been far too close for his liking. One false step and he would be taking Harry’s place.

  The wizard had clearly decided to try the same tactics as Lucius, being to trick his opponent into smashing the mirror.

  Lucius moved across the room, well away from the potential prison as he tried to determine some way of finding the real wizard amongst the duplicates.

  He attacked one and then another, but each time his sword went through the wizards as if they were not there. He was sure he had tried all of them at least twice, but without success. Surely the spell had to wear off soon.

  Lucius glanced at the mirror and saw Harry standing by one of the shelves. He was pointing at something, but from were Lucius stood he couldn’t tell what it was. He made his way to the shelf and tried to determine just what it was Harry was showing him.

  He read the labels as he fought off the next wizard. Ageing potions, youth potions, neither of which he considered to be any use to him right now. Then he saw one labelled Madness. He had no intention of drinking it himself, but perhaps he could find a way to make the wizard drink it, just as soon as he had unmasked the real one.

  Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw one of the wizards flicker. It was only for a moment, but enough to let Lucius know that the spell was wearing off. He grabbed the potion from the shelf and ran straight at the nearest wizard. He flickered as Lucius approached, as did another to the left.

  Lucius scanned the room and finally spotted the one wizard who didn’t blink out of existence. He had to be the real one.

  Then they flickered again and the real wizard was gone. Lucius realised that he was swapping places with his doubles. No wonder he hadn’t been able to find him as he attacked one after another. He was moving around the room by magic.

  Keeping one eye on the real wizard, Lucius knew he didn’t have much time to spare. As soon as the spell ended, his chance would have gone.

  He ran at the double nearest to the real wizard, then at the last moment he changed course and grabbed the wizard round the neck. “There you are,” he said. “Now drink up.”

  Lucius poured the madness potion into the struggling wizard’s mouth and stepped back to see what happened.

  Around them, the various duplicates vanished instantly.

  The wizard screamed and raised his hands, as though fighting off some invisible monster that was attacking his head.

  Lucius stepped back as the potion’s effects became more evident. The wizard stumbled around the room, crashing into the table and his cauldron, sending the contents of the latter spilling across the floor.

  “Try to get him to come this way,” Harry shouted.

  Lucius had already come to the same conclusion. “Over here,” he shouted at the wizard.

  The wizard lunged in his direction, stumbling again as he continued to fight off his imaginary adversaries.

  Slowly, Lucius lured him across the room, until he was closer to the mirror than he had been so far. He taunted the wizard with jibes and threats until the wizard charged at him with full force.

  Lucius dove out of the way at the last second, leaving the wizard barrelling towards the mirror, sending it crashing to the floor.

  The mirror smashed, and a moment later Harry appeared in the room. Lucius scrambled to his feet and ran to Harry, pulling him into his arms.

  Once again the mirror didn’t stay in pieces, it reformed itself, this time with the wizard trapped inside.

  * * * *

  Lucius and Harry approached the mirror with caution. The wizard was still bumbling about, but just like Harry had been unable to affect the real world from within the mirror, neither could the wizard.

  The madness potion didn’t seem to last as long as the spell to create the duplicate wizards, and after a few more minutes the wizard seemed to come to his senses.

  He stalked across the room and glared at them. “Do you think this prison can hold me?”

  “Oh, I think it can,” Lucius replied. “In fact, I intend to ensure that it does.”

  The wizard ran over to a shelf filled with ingredients and started grabbing bottles and items.

  “Quick,” Harry grabbed one side of the mirror. “Help me get this out of here so he can’t concoct some way to escape.”

  Lucius didn’t waste any time in following Harry’s suggestion. For as long as the mirror reflected the potions lab, the wizard might be able to brew up a way to escape.r />
  Making sure they didn’t drop the mirror, they carried it out of the room and closed the door.

  The wizard still had the ingredients he had grabbed in his hands, but the disappointment and fury on his face told them that he didn’t have everything he needed.

  “I think we should put a cloth over the mirror as well,” Lucius suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”

  The wizard laughed. “Sooner or later I will get out of here. Covering me up won’t work and you know it. Some curious fool will take a peek underneath and I’ll be waiting to enlist their help. The poor imprisoned wizard, held captive by those who are prejudiced against the practitioners of magic. All I have to do is ask them to smash the mirror and release me and voila.”

  “The mirror itself should be able to warn anyone against doing that,” Harry pointed out.

  “The mirror will be under my control,” the wizard replied. “It might be talkative when I’m not around to control it, but it knows better than to defy me when I’m here.”

  Lucius shook his head. “I don’t intend to leave the mirror sitting around for anyone to find. It’ll be placed in a nice deep dungeon, where you’ll spend the rest of your life.”

  “Now I’m trapped in here, the spell keeping people away from the island is broken. It’s only a matter of time before someone comes here and finds me.”

  “Not if I permanently seal the dungeon as soon as you’re down there,” Lucius countered.

  “And when someone realises that the stone is different and breaks through?” The wizard seemed to have an answer for everything. “Sooner or later you or your brother is going to find themselves back in a mirror, and this time you won’t be wandering around the other mirrors. I’ve spent the last two months figuring out a way to close that little loophole. You’ll be nothing more than my reflection, watching as I take over your kingdom.”

  “It won’t happen,” Lucius said. “I’ve no intention of leaving you to be found by some unsuspecting innocent.”

  “You’d risk taking me back to your castle?” the wizard asked. “That’s a very long journey from here. The spell moving the island is also broken, so there won’t be any short cuts for you. Anything might happen between here and your kingdom.”

  Lucius frowned. He hated to admit it, but the wizard was right. It would be far safer to keep the mirror here. “Then I guess this is our new home. Is that all right with you, Harry?”

  “I go where you go,” Harry replied. “Happy ever after, right?”

  Lucius gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Then it’s settled. This will be our new home. We’re fairly close to a stretch of mainland, and I’m sure we can find people to work here.”

  “How are we going to pay them?” Harry asked.

  “I’ll send word to Philippe, formally abdicating my throne in the Kingdom of Cinders. He’ll no doubt be delighted to find his position made permanent. I’ll also ask him to send me funds to establish a new province here on the island. In the meantime, there are plenty of items in the castle that can be traded for gold.”

  “You’d give up your throne to stay here?” Harry questioned.

  Lucius took Harry’s hand and raised it to his lips. “I’m giving up nothing that I would regret. You are all that I want.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Harry said. “This will be our home from now on.”

  Lucius hugged him, reluctant to let him out of his arms. “We’ll marry as soon as we can get a priest here. You’ll be my husband and help me run this province.”

  “It’ll make quite a change from assassination,” Harry said. “Are you sure no one will recognise me here?”

  “I don’t believe so, and if they do, what of it? You’re not the man you once were. You gave up your freedom, knowing it might be for the rest of your life, to save me and my kingdom. That makes you my hero.”

  Harry rested his head on Lucius’ shoulder and sighed with contentment. “Well, this hero is tired and in desperate need of a proper bed.”

  Lucius chuckled. “Then you shall have one. Let’s get this mirror locked away somewhere safe until we can secure it in a dungeon, then we’ll sleep and see how things look in the morning.”

  Chapter Nine

  They locked the mirror in an empty windowless room. There were no objects in it and the walls were bare, so there was nothing the wizard could use to try to escape.

  The next item on their agenda was finding a bedchamber. They knew where the wizard’s room was, but they were in firm agreement that they didn’t want to use that one.

  Instead they checked rooms until they found one with a bed that wasn’t too dusty. Harry dropped onto the mattress with a groan.

  “Ah, a bed, how I’ve missed you.”

  Lucius chuckled as he climbed in beside him and gathered Harry into his arms.

  “I’m too tired to fool around,” Harry muttered. “I might not have needed food or sleep while I was stuck in the mirror, but I need both now.”

  “Do you want me to find you some food?” Lucius asked. “I’m not sure how wise it would be to eat anything the wizard had in stock, but there has to be something on the island that’s safe.”

  Harry shook his head. “Food can wait until morning. Just hold me, please.”

  Lucius wrapped his arms around Harry and within moments Harry was asleep. His loud snores made Lucius smile, but they didn’t keep him awake for long. His own journey had been long and tiring, and he was ready to sleep himself.

  Harry was the first to wake the next morning. He rolled over and gazed at Lucius as he slept.

  He was in bed with a king, and this time they were both there together, with no magic keeping them apart.

  His old life as an assassin seemed little more than a dream, as though it had happened to someone else. He had no idea what he was going to do with his life, other than being Lucius’ husband, whatever that entailed. He hoped he was up to the task.

  Harry tore his gaze away from Lucius and looked around the room. Although he had been too tired to do more than glance at it last night, it seemed different now. It was cleaner and brighter. At first he thought it was just from seeing the chamber in daylight, but he soon discarded that thought. The dark panelling on the walls was now white and the thin layer of dust on the furniture had vanished.

  The furniture which had been plain but adequate for two tired men the night before, now seemed luxurious and opulent.

  It was almost as if he had woken up in an entirely different room.

  The spell over the castle must have been far more powerful than they had realised. Now it was broken, the castle had been restored to the glorious sight it must have been before the wizard had taken up residence.

  Harry hadn’t noticed that Lucius had also woken, not until the king pressed against him. He glanced down and the wicked grin on Lucius’ face banished all thoughts about the differences in the castle.

  “No blindfold this time,” Harry said.

  Lucius gave him a mock frown.

  Harry chuckled. “Maybe I’ll let you blindfold me again in the future. I might even let you tie me up.”

  Lucius looked like he was about to choke on his tongue and Harry laughed louder.

  “But not today,” Harry said as he pulled Lucius closer. “Today I want to see you and have the freedom to touch you wherever I want.”

  “And where do you want?” Lucius asked.

  Harry grinned as he placed a hand on Lucius’ chest. “How about here?”

  Lucius moved Harry’s hand to undo the buttons on his shirt, then placed the hand back, this time on his bare skin. “How about here?”

  “That’s good,” Harry replied as he ran his fingers through the wiry hairs covering Lucius’ chest. He eased the shirt from Lucius’ shoulders and kissed the skin as it was revealed. He licked Lucius’ neck and sucked the skin into his mouth, fully intending to leave his mark on his royal lover.

  Lucius groaned and grabbed at his own cock through his clothes. “Ah, Harry, th
at’s…”

  Harry pushed Lucius’ hand aside and replaced it with his own. “Oh, you’re close, aren’t you?”

  Lucius nodded and fumbled for the ties of his pants. Harry’s attempts to help him weren’t much better, but between the two of them they managed to free Lucius’ cock.

  Harry was torn between the urge to ride Lucius or suck him, but in the end the lack of oils in the room swayed him towards the latter. He bent down and took Lucius’ cock into his mouth, teasing the tip with his tongue as he sucked at the end.

  Lucius continued to moan and Harry delighted in drawing forth the delightful sounds of his pleasure.

  “Turn round,” Lucius urged. “I want to do the same to you.”

  Harry froze. If his cock could have hardened even more than it already was, Harry was sure it would have. As it was, he was already aching and on the verge of making a fool of himself. He suspected he would come the moment Lucius’ lips touched his cock.

  “Don’t you want that?” Lucius asked, clearly misinterpreting Harry’s hesitation. They would have to work on their communication skills.

  Harry sat up and removed his clothes as fast as he could. Lucius took a few moments to finish undressing as well, and when they were both naked Harry positioned himself so that Lucius could suck him at the same time he returned the favour. He took Lucius into his mouth and picked up where he had left off.

  The sensation of Lucius’ lips around his own cock almost tipped him over the edge before they had even got started. It took every ounce of willpower to stop his climax.

  Just as he had on the ship, Lucius took his time, tracing every vein and ridge with his tongue. Harry took his cues from Lucius and savoured every inch of Lucius’ cock. He licked, sucked and stroked the entire length, and when he was done, he started all over again.

  Harry reached behind Lucius and slipped a finger between his buttocks. He wondered if Lucius would try to stop him. They hadn’t talked much about who would do what to whom in the bedchamber, and Lucius had said nothing to give Harry the impression he would be prepared to let Harry take him this way.