The Errant Prince Read Online Free Page A

get in between them," Tamsen said, passing Myron the first bunch. "Be careful and don't damage them."
    "Yes, highness," Myron said brightly. Tamsen huffed irritably but didn't correct him.
    Hanging the bundles didn't take long, though Myron had to stretch for most of them even with the aid of the chair. Tamsen continued to boss him around, glowering every time Myron called him 'highness' in response. Myron probably shouldn't have been baiting Tamsen, but it was entirely too amusing to see Tamsen's face turn pink.
    "What do you want to learn?" Tamsen asked, sounding unenthused as he dragged Myron's chair back to the table. He brushed stray bits of plants off the table, letting them fall to the floor.
    "I'd like to learn how to conjure light," Myron said. He was certain that would be simple, so a good trade for binding plants for a few hours.
    "Light?" Tamsen repeated, his brow furrowing in confusion. Myron had managed to startle him again. "You can create sophisticated constructs, but you don't know how to conjure light?"
    "I can pick something else," Myron said, shrugging. He'd already told Tamsen he wouldn't explain his haphazard magical education, not without Tamsen explaining why he'd left.
    "No, that's fine," Tamsen said, waving him off, though he still looked puzzled. "Outside."
    "Yes, highness," Myron said. That wiped the puzzlement off Tamsen's face, replacing it with his usual scowl. Or usual to Myron, anyway; there was every chance Tamsen was nicer to people who weren't trying to drag him back to Rishaw.
    He led Tamsen outside, noting the morning's clouds were almost completely gone. That was good; he wouldn't get rained on if he slept outside again. Tamsen led him through the garden, away from the woods. There was a small meadow beyond the garden in the front of the house, and Tamsen stopped a few dozen paces into the grass. He sat down and gestured for Myron to do the same.
    Myron sat down, tucking his legs in to settle cross-legged in the grass. So far, this was nothing like the handful of lessons he'd received in magic before everything had gone to hell in his youth. Those had all consisted of being locked indoors with a stack of books, a lot of memorization, and hellish quizzes every time he so much as ran into one or the other of his parents.
    "I need to know what you know about magic," Tamsen said. He fidgeted, twisting his fingers in the grass in front of him.
    "Not much," Myron said. He wasn't going to be tricked into telling Tamsen anything, though he didn't think that was Tamsen's intent. "I know the basics of casting. The constructs are the most complex I can do."
    "Constructs are complex," Tamsen said. For a moment, Myron thought he was going to ask again. He didn't though, just let go of the grass and held his hands out, palms up.
    Tamsen's magic felt fresh, bright and clean, with no outside magics warping or affecting it. There would be no other magics this remote. The energy Tamsen had let out hovered above his palms, steady and true. Myron couldn't see any light, could only just feel the magic, but as he watched, the energy started to glow. It grew brighter slowly, and Myron had to look away when it grew too bright to look at directly. The light abruptly winked out, the feel of Tamsen's magic disappearing at the same time.
    "Wizard light is simple." Tamsen dropped his hands back to the grass, tangling his fingers in it again. "Put the energy out there, then make it show itself."
    "How do I do that?" Myron asked. His brow furrowed as he tried to recall if he'd heard of anything similar in his readings. "The making it show part, I mean."
    "How do you make magic do anything?" Tamsen asked, which was useless as an answer. "Do something small, in case you screw it up."
    Rolling his eyes, Myron copied what Tamsen had done. Holding out his hands, he fed a small amount of energy into the space above them. Holding the energy there, he tried to make it show itself.
    Myron yelped, startled, when the energy