Free The Child Prince (The Artifactor) by Honor Raconteur Page A

that she could work on Bel’s curse, but now she could properly restore the workroom. She puttered about, adding in worktables, re-arranging shelves, and the like, completely content with her own company.
    She didn’t realize how much time had passed until the clock inside chimed out the hour. Hmm? Had they really been gone for four hours? She stared at the clock face, feeling perplexed. Milby only had three main streets and a handful of shops. Even if Bel dragged his feet, enjoying his first outing in a decade, it wouldn’t take four hours to see the whole village. What on earth were those two doing?
    The sound of the main door opening echoed down the tunnel, followed by two male voices conversing. Oh, finally back? She stepped out to meet them. “Kip, you didn’t buy out the whole village did you?” she asked even before she rounded the bend and came into view.
    Bel shouldered a large bag stuffed to the gills, and Kip had a similar bag over his. They greeted her with a smile. “No, we left them a few socks,” Kip assured her with a grin. “Actually, what held us up was Prince Charming here flirting with Hana.”
    Bel shot him a glare. But more interesting, he also blushed a little. Sevana observed this with evil amusement. Hooo so he had a crush on the librarian’s daughter? He certainly wouldn’t be the first. Hana was Sevana’s polar opposite—petite, pretty and with a naturally sweet disposition to her. “Wouldn’t it be a little challenging for an eight year old to flirt with an eighteen year old?”
    “He managed,” Kip assured her, an evil tint to his smile.
    The little prince cleared his throat meaningfully and refused to be baited. “What actually held us up is that I don’t understand how currency works. Not really. I think we need to focus more on that, Sevana. Kip had to explain every transaction to me.”
    Dropping his teasing, Kip nodded in support of this. “Actually, that really was the holdup. He needs more practice with haggling and paying for things. He didn’t understand taxes at all.”
    She cocked an eyebrow at Bel. “You didn’t read any economy books?”
    “I tried,” he grimaced. “I fell asleep every time.”
    Well, economy was taught better in real life than through a book anyway. “Then I’ll teach you as we travel. Kip, I assume while you were loitering around flirting at the library that you found out where Pierpoint is?”
    “I did, actually. He’s on Tree-on-the-sea.”
    On the island? That remote island where only fisherman and birds chose to live? That island that she didn’t have a handy portal to? She groaned. “Stone the crows! Why would he live there ?”
    “Maybe, like you, he’s trying to avoid having visitors,” Kip suggested sweetly.
    She’d make him pay for that comment later. Sevana pulled up a mental map and thought it through. She had several different methods of travel aside from the clocks, they just weren’t as fast or as convenient. With a passenger along, it narrowed her options even further. But she could think of one that would work for this. “I’m going to have to use the far-see glasses.”
    Bel gave her a blank look, as he had no idea what she was referring to, but Kip just looked confused. “I thought you broke those.”
    “I broke my nose ,” she corrected irritably. “And no, they work fine. I’ve done some adjustments.”
    Raising a finger in the air to draw attention to himself, Bel asked, “Far-see glasses?”
    “Eyeglasses that when you wear them, they will take you as far as you can see,” Kip explained. “It’s an early invention of Sev’s. Works quite good, too. As long as you don’t focus on something solid. Like trees. Or buildings. The glasses will take you straight to them.”
    Hence her broken nose from the last time she’d worn them. She’d forgotten about that minor detail. “They can get us there quickly. The only thing is…Bel, you’re going to have to ride on my hip.”
    The twenty-one year old