Azrael's Twins

by V. J. Mortimer

  ‘Well I dinnae think killing the bairn is going to do much good, ya daft scarecrow. It won’t bring the dragon back no, will it?’

  ‘No, I suppose not,’ said Roland, who had stopped kicking to try to get out of McHavering’s clutches.

  ‘And if y’kill the bairn y willnae get to learn how he saddled the beast up in the first place, will ye?’

  ‘That’s really quite a clever question coming from someone like you, McHavering,’ said Roland, trying to spin himself round to look at the Scotsman. ‘Been working on that one a while, have you?’

  McHavering just smiled before lifting Roland even higher and then dropping him unceremoniously into a pile on the floor, legs splayed and an angry look in his eyes. For a moment Grady thought they were about to start fighting but then McHavering broke out laughing and Roland, realising just how silly he looked on the ground, did the same. Picking himself up Roland straightened his clothing and then turned back to Grady. ‘That’s actually a very good question from the Scots git. Just how did you get the saddle onto the viper? By my reckoning he should have toasted you the moment you entered his stall.’

  ‘I really couldn’t say,’ said Grady. ‘The dragon wasn’t very happy though, those chains were hurting her neck and the leg you had it on.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ said Roland with a look of surprise on his face. ‘I suppose he just told you, did he?’

  ‘I just told you it wasn’t a he,’ said Grady. ‘It was a she! She wasn’t very happy with you.’ Grady knew his tone had just overstepped the mark again. Looking down at the floor and trying to appear as meek as possible still didn’t prevent his mouth overriding the sensible course of silence as it opened again. ‘And she said you should learn how to say please.’

  ‘What!’ said Roland. ‘I should say WHAT?’

  ‘Not “What”, ya scarecrow. Were ye nae listening? The laddie said “Please” – not “What”,’ said McHavering, letting out a big belly laugh. Even Merritt had to hide his face at this point as he didn’t want Grady to see him laughing. ‘And didn’t I tell ye the lad has the gift? If he said the dragon was being hurt by those chains and that it’s a she not a he then ye best be believing him.’ Turning back to Grady, McHavering went on; ‘But just how did ye get that saddle on, lad? Roland is right. Ye should be toast by now.’

  ‘Honestly, I don’t know,’ said Grady. ‘It just seemed like the right thing to do. When I went in to the pen the dragon backed away and then looked up at the wall at the saddles and I just … knew.’

  ‘Well it was a pretty impressive piece of work whichever way you look at it,’ said Roland after calming down. ‘As far as we know you’re the first person to ride more than thirty seconds on a viper in over three hundred years.’

  ‘But that will be the last time Grady gets near a dragon for a while now,’ said Merritt. ‘I just needed to let you both know Grady won’t be joining you in the stables again anytime soon. He’s grounded for the next month.’

  ‘What!’ said Grady. ‘But Dad!’ The Hand cut him short.

  ‘Roland and McHavering will have to do without you for a while. I’m sorry Grady, but you broke the rules and didn’t even seem to think about what might have happened if it went wrong. You’re grounded. Period. For the next month your after school fun will be limited to studying in here where we can keep an eye on you. If detention with dragon dung wasn’t enough to teach you a lesson then detention with Dad might be what you need. In here every day for the next month.’

  Grady couldn’t believe what he was hearing! Stuck in a library for the next month! ‘But Dad, that’s so unfair!’

  ‘Yes, well it’s almost as unfair as Roland having to rebuild the walls in the stable, isn’t it? Or do you think that detention is worse than repairing the damage you allowed to happen with your thoughtlessness?’

  Grady again took a keen interest in the floor. ‘I didn’t know she was going to blow the wall out,’ said Grady, with a sour face.

  ‘A good reason for not letting loose a dragon then, isn’t it – not knowing what it’ll do. Next time, stop, engage brain, and think. Now, off you go and get something to eat. You’re probably hungry after your little jaunt on the viper.’

  Grady glanced up at his father and then at the dragon masters. McHavering gave him an understanding smile and a wink while Roland gave him a smouldering scowl. Grady knew he was beat on this one but still managed a convincing stomp to the door.

  ‘And don’t even think about …’ Merritt started to say.

  BOOM went the door, slamming behind Grady.

  ‘… slamming the door,’ said Merritt, much more quietly.

  ‘Y’ve a knack for the acting, Merritt, I’ll gie ye that. If I were the bairn I’d ha believed ye were angry. You too Ruffleneck,’ said McHavering, slapping the thin man on the back.

  ‘Ruffelbane, you philistine – you know I hate Ruffleneck! And what do you mean, acting? I am furious at the little brat.’ Merritt coughed politely. ‘Sorry, I mean little … little … oh, I can’t think of a nice word, but you know what I mean,’ said Roland.

  ‘Ach, I’ve seen ye more upset than that. Go on man and admit it. Ye’r impressed at the little … bairn even managing to get on the dragon in the first place, let alone hang onto it and get it to land.’

  Roland straightened himself up a bit before replying. ‘Well yes, it was pretty impressive. I know the dragon was doing most of the flying, but the boy is a natural.’ Turning to Merritt Roland continued. ‘He’s everything we thought he would be, Merritt. We may not have been planning on getting him onto a dragon so soon, but he looks every inch what we thought he would be, and everything we think we can do with him looks on track. Today was a bit of a surprise for all of us but if the boy can build on this sort of skill he’s going to be much better able to defend himself.’

  Merritt looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘And the viper? Will it do what you think it will?’

  ‘There’s nae telling, Vinnie,’ said McHavering. Merritt winced at his name being used that way. ‘If the legends are true then the viper should nae be able tae leave the young lad for long. The stories about vipers are a bit murky but they all say the same thing – the first person to ride the dragon is the only person who can ever ride it AND the dragon has to come at the call of the rider. Its nae clear how the thing works but the lad and the dragon now have a bond they cannae break. That’s his dragon now, Roland – ye cannae do anything aboot it.’

  As the door slammed behind Grady and the sound boomed out into the corridor, five heads shot out from the room at the end.

  ‘Grady!’ shouted Niamh, running down to him followed closely by Bree, Devin, Emily and Hugh. Quinn walked slowly down behind the group looking as though running was just too much effort. ‘What did they say?’ asked a breathless Niamh.

  ‘Grounded. For a month.’

  ‘A month!’ said Bree. ‘That’s so unfair!’

  ‘I dunno,’ said Hugh, laughing. ‘Roland was pretty upset and those stables were a mess! I can’t believe you only got a month!’

  ‘Oh, thanks so much for the support,’ said Grady sarcastically as he barged through the group and headed for the kitchen. His mother was standing at the range she had installed not long after they arrived from Avalon’s End. The smell of freshly made scones wafting through the air made Grady think of his old home and wet Saturday afternoons stuck inside playing games while their mother baked in the kitchen. ‘Why do you still do that, Mum?’ asked Grady testily. Right now he wanted to stay grumpy, and soothing scents didn’t help. ‘You know you could just get the faeries to conjure up some scones if you wanted to save the bother.’

  ‘Yes, you’re right, but that’s not the same, is it?’ said his mother, not responding to the angry note in Grady’s voice. ‘But right now I think you need some comfort food, so head out into the lounge. I’ll bring these through in a minute. At least with detention here for a month you can get some better cooking than you’d get at Roland or McHav
ering’s stables, don’t you think?’

  ‘How did you know?’ said Grady. ‘I’ve only just walked out of the room with Dad.’

  ‘Oh, the iWand is a wonderful thing,’ said his mother, pulling the little white wand from her pocket. A slim white cable trailed from it up to one ear. His mother must have been listening to the whole thing! ‘I could hear every word in there and I have to say you’re lucky it’s only a month.’ Grady started to open his mouth again but stopped when The Hand came up. ‘Say too much more and trust me, I can get the jury to reconsider the punishment and it could easily go out another month.’ Grady knew he was beaten on this one and stormed on through to the lounge. The rest of the children followed closely behind – Emily stealing a hot scone as she wandered through, having to juggle it from hand to hand as it cooled.

  ‘It’s so unfair,’ said Grady, sitting down by the window and staring out down the hillside towards the forest.

  ‘What’s unfair, Grady?’ asked Emily as she tried to nibble the scone. ‘You did destroy half a stable and get the palace guard called out to try and rescue you.’

  ‘All I did was try to ride a dragon. It’s not like I blew up the stables deliberately.’

  ‘That was pretty cool though,’ said Quinn. ‘They’ll remember that one for a while – the dragon riding, not the stables bit. But you’re right though. They are being a bit unfair.’

  Niamh looked surprised at the comment. ‘What’s unfair about being given detention for what he did? Seems pretty fair to me.’

  ‘What?’ said Grady, rising to the comment. ‘You’re meant to support me, Niamh!’

  ‘Stables get bits blown off them all the time, Niamh,’ said Quinn. It’s an occupational hazard with fire-breathing dragons round the place. It’s just seems like a funny sort of punishment to give you.’

  ‘So what are you saying?’ asked Bree. ‘That he shouldn’t have got detention?’

  ‘No. I think he should have, but a real detention – not being sent to his room, which is pretty much all they’ve done.’

  ‘So why do you think Grady didn’t get a real detention then?’ said Bree.

  ‘You should probably ask someone else that,’ said Quinn. ‘But don’t you think it’s a bit odd that all the punishments you guys have had since you’ve been here have been pretty lame?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Niamh. ‘Grady had to shovel dragon dung and I had to go running round setting up all the targets and being a general dogsbody for the spell casting team. That’s not exactly getting away lightly.’

  ‘It’s interesting though that now your detentions are all over you still seem to be doing the same jobs without anyone telling you to. And I notice, Niamh, you seem to spend a lot of time getting training from Ms Pussywillow after everyone else has finished. And you look like you’ve had a crash course in dragon care from McHavering and Roland, Grady. Isn’t that a bit odd?’

  ‘Maybe they’re just trying to help us catch up with what everyone else knows around here?’ said Niamh. ‘Maybe they’re just being nice? It does happen, you know.’

  ‘Maybe they aren’t being straight with you. Maybe you need to think why they’ve sent Grady to study in a library for a month,’ said Quinn, rising from his seat. He seemed to be getting angry for no particular cause. ‘Everything else seems to have been done for a reason lately. Maybe you just need to think about what they are trying to push you towards this time. The libraries round here aren’t just safe little places where the books are. Books have power and when you put as many together as we have in this castle – especially the magical ones – you need to be careful. They shouldn’t just let you run free. You should have someone to help you.’

  ‘Someone like you, I suppose?’ said Niamh.

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Quinn. ‘There are things I’m sure you’ll want to know, but you need to know where to look to find them.’

  ‘If it were me,’ said Devin brightly, ‘I’d want to know why I was here in the first place.’

  Everyone stopped and looked at Devin in surprise. She had a way of asking the difficult questions despite not seeming to have too many lights on at times. They all looked startled at the question – all except Quinn.

  ‘That’s a good question, Devin,’ said Quinn. ‘A really good question.’ With a dark stare at Niamh and Grady he turned and swept past Grace nearly knocking the plate full of scones, jam and cream to the floor.

  ‘Well! That’s the last time I offer him scones,’ said Grace with a scowl. ‘I really don’t know why you let him hang round with you guys. He never seems to smile and since you’ve turned up here he just seems to be getting more and more unhappy.’

  ‘We don’t know why he hangs round with us either, Mum, but he does know his way around the castle better than anybody else. He’s been able to show us all the shortcuts and it’s amazing what he can find in the library,’ said Niamh as she shovelled down a mouthful of warm scone.

  ‘What sort of things?’ asked Grace with interest as she sat down on the side of the sofa.

  ‘Heaps of stuff about the history of Avalon – and the really old books, like the manuscripts in the reference only section of the library, you know – the places you can only get to if you have notes from Gilly? Come to think of it, we never seem to be able to go to the library without Quinn turning up.’

  ‘Go on,’ said Grace, getting more interested by the second.

  ‘Whenever we turn up in the main library, Quinn always seems to appear out of nowhere – it’s almost like he follows us. And he seems to know all about the Twins, even if he hasn’t seen them like us,’ said Grady.

  ‘You’ve seen the Twins!’ said Emily. ‘You never told us!! No one gets to go to the vault or see the Twins. What were they like? Were they as amazing as everyone says they are? You guys are SOOO lucky!’

  ‘Well, they were beautiful. And a bit eerie too,’ said Niamh. ‘There was this amazing door sprite on the way in and the walls have all this really old magical stuff, swords and things, all over them. But it’s not like we knew much about it before we went. We didn’t grow up with these things so we didn’t know what we’re looking at half the time.’

  ‘But Quinn seems to know just about everything about everything we mention – the Twins, the swords. He says he’s never been in the vault but he knows a lot about all of it,’ said Grady, with jam trickling down his chin.

  Grace looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling and saying, ‘Well, maybe he just likes to read a lot and show off a bit to the prince and princess.’ Patting Grady on the head she stood up. ‘Eat up, anyway. If Quinn isn’t here then there’s all the more for you vultures!’ As she walked out to the kitchen Niamh couldn’t help but see the look in her mother’s face. Sometimes her mum was great at hiding what she was thinking, but this time Niamh could see unasked questions about Quinn on her mother’s face.

  ‘Do you think Quinn doesn’t want you studying too much in the library without him around?’ said Emily after Grace had gone.

  ‘Dunno,’ said Grady. ‘Don’t care either. He can be as creepy as he likes about the library for all I care. But I’ll tell you one thing; I can’t believe they won’t let me go back to the stables for a month. At least you can keep practising your spell casting, Niamh,’ he said, shooting a grumpy look at his sister.

  Niamh had been quiet since her mum had left the room. She thought about Devin’s question, and Quinn’s response. She thought about the things they had learned and been told, but began to wonder about what the adults, and Quinn, hadn’t or wouldn’t tell them. An idea began to form in her head. ‘Grady, didn’t Dad say the library will give us any information we really need? That if we ask for a book it will bring it to us?’

  ‘Yeah I remember, but so what? That’s not going to help me much doing boring study.’

  ‘What if we could help you find the things you need to ask?’ said Niamh. ‘What if we gave you the questions and you get the answers for us? The library could be really useful if
we know what questions to ask?’

  ‘What sort of questions, Niamh?’ asked Bree.

  ‘I don’t know yet,’ replied Niamh; ‘But … ummmmmm … well, it will have to be about the Twins for a start. Quinn seems to be very interested in them and perhaps we should also think about Balthasar? I mean, we know he can do some nasty stuff and he came after us at Avalon’s End, but why? He could have killed us but he didn’t, so he obviously doesn’t want us dead. So what does he want? How come he showed up at school in front of Grady and me? Grady and I have been here for a while now but honestly, it’s like trying to learn a new language living here – we don’t know half the stuff you guys do cause you’ve been doing magic all your life and we’re just starting. We’ve been really busy just trying to catch up. Maybe we need to slow down a bit and think?’

  ‘You’re the thinker in the family Niamh, not me!’ said Grady, laughing and spitting out some crumbs as a result.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Grady,’ said Niamh. ‘If we want to find out what’s going on we’re going to need all the brains we have – even the little amount you have.’

  ‘So what do we do then,’ said Grady, throwing crumbs of scone at Niamh. I’m not going to think up the questions but if I’m stuck in the library I suppose I can help. But I’m not copying huge chunks out of books for you lot. I’ll be there forever.’

  ‘Use your iWand, Grady!’ said Devin.

  ‘My iWand?’ said Grady. ‘How?’

  ‘Of course!’ said Bree. ‘Grady, you can use your iWand to scan the pages out of the books and send them to us. We can use the wands to print them out and go through all the pages between us.’

  ‘The iWands can do that?’ said Grady.

  ‘Of course they can, silly!’ laughed Devin. ‘Didn’t you read the instructions that came with it?’