Ursa Hincken’s basement was sprawling and nearly empty. Moonlight filtered through narrow windows set high in a stone wall, making shadows dance with the stiffness of a crab and the passion of a pouncing lion.

No actual crabs or lions called the basement home, but a friendly mouse lived in a barrel on which spiders built their webs. The basement also housed Rexson’s sons, who had named the mouse Twit.

Lying beneath their blankets on mattresses of straw, the boys were pressed up against the wall farthest from the bear prowling outside.

The beast swatted a window and let out a deep growl. The youngest prince watched it pull back a massive paw. It had never before acted as though it wanted to get in.

Ursa’s bear frightened Hune in particular. He was only eight years old, but he’d never met an animal he didn’t like before this.

Hune clutched his blanket tight. His voice shook. “Valkin?”

The crown prince extended his arm, blind until he found his glasses. He grabbed them and sat up. “That thing can’t hurt us.”

Exhausted, Neslan had his eyes shut tight. “Hune, the windows are so small you couldn’t fit through them.”

Valkin shook his blond head in frustration. Like their father, he and Neslan were telekinetic, and he observed, “If the windows were a proper size, and the blasted beast weren’t there, we could get Hune out.”

Neslan sat up with an exasperated expression that just broke through his grogginess. “What would happen then?” he asked. “Do you think Hune would find someone to help us fight these people? Darryn’s upstairs. He’s a sorcerer. He said everything would be all right if we behave, but he has a cruel look. He’d hurt us if we tried to escape. You got us into this, Valkin. Don’t make it worse than it is already. You had to find out where those squirrels were going, didn’t you? What they were up to?”

Valkin jumped to his own defense, as he’d been doing for the past month every time this argument started. “Did you ever see squirrels act that way? Run one by one, in a line, spaced a minute apart?”

“No,” retorted Neslan, “because Ursa was making them do it. Mother always told us not to go past the birches.”

Hune piped from the floor, “I wanted to follow the squirrels too, and you came with us. It wasn’t Valkin’s fault. Those people tricked us. Valkin, why do you think they did it?”

“They want something from Father, I suppose.”

Neslan nodded, and the moonlight glinted off his fair head, expos- ing the concern on his face. Every time Valkin proposed that motive, Neslan grew solemn. “It’s about Father,” he agreed. “But what if they want something he can’t give? What will become of us? We’ve been here for weeks.”

Valkin scowled. “Forty-one nights. I’m counting each one.”

Neslan rubbed his eyes. He knew Valkin’s restlessness, and he told him, “Father will get us out of here. Don’t do anything foolish. You’ll make things harder for us or get hurt. We’re uncomfortable enough. Do you want them to tie us up?”

“Of course I don’t!”

Neslan crossed his arms. “What are you planning to do? I know you’ve been thinking.”

The crown prince glanced at the wooden staircase against the eastern wall. It lacked a banister and led to a door, the basement’s sole entrance. He said, “I’ve been thinking that when August brings us food tomorrow, you and I could pull her legs out from under her and send her down the stairs, or off the edge. Then we could take the key and get out.

“I figure,” Valkin continued, “that it’s not a good idea. I don’t know how to escape from the mansion, for one thing, or sneak past the bear. And then there’s August. She’s not like her sister. She says she had no idea Ursa was planning to kidnap us, and I believe her. She says she has no magic. I believe that too. Those things can happen. Look at Hune.”

Hune stared at the ceiling.

“If August has no magic,” Valkin said, “then she can’t defend herself against us, can she? Attacking her seems cruel after all the time she’s spent trying to cheer us up, and the little cakes she brings, and the stories she’s read.”

Hune was horrified. “We can’t hurt August!”

“We could warn her, though,” said Valkin. “We could threaten to make her fall if she doesn’t hand over the key.”

Neslan raised his eyebrows. “But we wouldn’t. Don’t you think she knows that? And if she does hand us the key, what’ll happen to her afterward?” He shivered. “I don’t like Ursa one bit. I know they’re sisters, but they don’t get on the way we do. August wasn’t raised with her. I’m sure Ursa would harm her, or Darryn would.”

Hune pulled his blanket to his chin. “I don’t want to make Ursa angry with her sister.”

Neslan assured him, “None of us wants that. Right, Valkin?”

Valkin sighed. He hated the basement, hated everything about it. “Right.”

Neslan grabbed Valkin’s arm. “I trust August. If there were some way to escape from here, she’d help us. Don’t you see that?”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Valkin admitted. “Maybe you’re right.”

Hune scratched an itch near his elbow. “August doesn’t want to keep us trapped here. She’s afraid the bear will eat us.”

Valkin grinned. “The bear would eat one of us at most. It could kill us all easily enough, though.”

Hune’s voice turned pleading. “Don’t make August give us the key. Ursa might feed her to the bear to pay her back!”

Valkin shook his head. “Ursa’s not that evil.”

“Please, don’t!” Hune urged.

Valkin’s forehead creased in thought. “I still say Ursa wouldn’t feedher to the bear. But Ursa would be angry, and she can hurt August other ways. Listen, I want to get away from here more than both of you.”

“I doubt it,” Neslan grumbled to the floor.

“But I don’t want to leave August in trouble,” Valkin continued. “It doesn’t seem right somehow. Darryn and Ursa are using us, right? To get something from Father. Would we be any better if we used August to get free, and she was hurt in the process?”

Neslan frowned. “All I know is my stomach aches when I think about it.”

“Then we agree?” piped Hune. He finally sat up; his blanket set- tled about his waist. “None of us will take that key from August?”

“Not me,” said Neslan. Valkin sighed. “Me neither.”

“Nor I,” said Hune, though without magic he would have found it next to impossible to steal the key. He felt comforted by his brothers being in league with him. His heartbeat slowed.

Book one of the Herezoth trilogy is FREE on Kindle Thursday when The Magic Council: The Fight for Home launches on Amazon! Grab them both!