The Dragel's Song III

by Chera Carmichael

  ~*~*~*~*~*~

  Several minutes later, he stepped out, toweling his hair. It’d been impossible to resist the chance to take a quick shower, especially when Dexter had mentioned Calida and the others. He wasn’t about to meet potential members of an extinct race while freshly out of his pajamas and sporting a bedhead. That would make a terrible first impression.

  “It’s about time,” Dexter snapped, smoothing a hand over his hair. He’d tied it back with leather cord while waiting and had been pacing the floor as he waited. Tall and imposing in a silky dress shirt, his black pants displayed a tiny silver emblem near the left hip—denoting it as being from Hellebore Amory, the leading manufacturer of reinforced dresswear for dueling masters.

  That detail nestled itself in his head as Neil ducked away from the irritated gaze. “Couldn’t shower last night,” he muttered, wishing he didn’t feel compelled to offer an excuse. He tossed the towel on his bed and rummaged through the laundry to find a pair of socks. It took another minute to shove his feet into boots and soon, he was all but jogging down the hallways to keep up with Dexter’s long strides.

  At one point, Dexter looked back to see what was keeping him and sighed. “Excuse me,” he muttered, draping an arm around Neil’s shoulders. “Don’t look at your feet, just focus on something ahead and remember to breathe. No one can see us, so please do not panic.”

  The instructions didn’t make sense until they moved.

  Remembering to breathe was actually difficult in the following minutes. Neil felt the air slip out of his lungs once more and if he hadn’t been staring straight ahead, he would have looked down. He couldn’t feel solid ground beneath his feet, but he was aware that they were moving much faster than humanly possible.

  “Turn your head to the side if you can’t breathe,” Dexter murmured. “If you pass out on me before we reach—I’ll strangle you after I revive you.”

  The threat was made sarcastically, but Neil wasn’t about to push his luck. Turning his head to the side, Neil discovered that it did make breathing easier. Dexter was also right, because no one stared at them as they blew past. He wondered what kind of spell was cast, but was found himself distracted by the fact that Dexter’s magic was now comfortable and soothing, the opposite of the oppressive aura he remembered from Teacher Terius the day before. Out in the open, it seemed brighter and more expressive, almost playful as they glided down the halls at whirlwind speed.

  Dexter’s magic was completely different from Benjamin’s too, Neil thought. Benjamin’s magic had been warm and friendly, when it had danced around him. He’d distinctly felt the impression of friendliness and kindness from the freshening charm that had been cast after that first encounter in the hallway.

  His musings were interrupted when they came to an abrupt stop in front of a suite door with a temporary nameplate fastened to the front. He stumbled, but was steadied by the firm arm around his shoulders. Dexter glanced at him before he raised a hand and knocked sharply on the door, twice.

  There was no answer, but the door slid open to admit them.

  Dexter’s arm dropped from around his shoulders and he was ushered inside. Stepping past the threshold, Neil was nudged past the entry way and into a cozy sitting area, with color-matched furniture. The scent of cinnamon hung in the air and soft music played somewhere in the background.

  Neil waited to feel something—anything—that would warn him about this entire bizarre scenario but there was only a sense of calmness that settled around him. He tried to dredge up feelings of worry, concern or distrust, but each time, they faded away. Neil shook his head, unable to understand why when Dexter reappeared beside him, bearing a glass of water and small bowl of fruit.

  “Here,” he said, stiffly. “Have a seat, I’ll find the others. They were here a few minutes ago. Don’t go in the kitchen.” He pressed the glass of water into Neil’s hands and set the bowl of fruit on the low table between the chairs.

  Neil sat down with the glass in hand, wondering what was in the kitchen and where exactly it was. He sniffed the water and decided to drink it. Dex disappeared from view through one of the three hallways branching off of the sitting room. Neil could still hear him talking.

  “Calida? Ty? I found him and I’m back.”

  There was no immediate answer. Neil soon relaxed enough to sit back on the sofa, finishing the glass of water. He exchanged the empty glass for the bowl of fruit and frowned when he realized that no utensils had been provided for the neat cubes of colorful fruit. He puzzled over it for a moment, then set the bowl back on the table.

  “Dex?” a new voice filtered out from the farthest hallway. “We’re over here. Thank Arielle, you’re back. She doesn’t want to take her morning potions, would you please come and convince her?”

  Neil traced the voice to the speaker and found himself staring at a very tall man with heterochromic eyes. The left iris was a beautiful, vivid purple, while the other was bright gold. It was too late to stop himself from staring, because the moment he entered the sitting room, Neil was painfully aware of just how tall he was.

  “Neilson Hewitt?” he inquired, pleasantly. “Hello. You look exactly as Calida said. She’s not up as yet, but she’ll be here in a minute. She’s been talking about you since last night. I’m Tiberius Baronsworth. Call me, Ty. It sounds less pretentious.” Ty offered a hand. “Dex was here a minute ago, wasn’t he? I thought I heard his voice.”

  “He was,” Neil said. He shook the proffered hand. “He brought me here—to see Calida? It’s nice to meet you.”

  “I guess he’ll circle around in a minute then,” Ty said. “At least he remembered to play host. Can I get you anything?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Good. Oh, Dex! Calida—would you?”

  “Of all mornings, she has to be picky today?” Dexter muttered. He’d appeared in the doorway just in time to see the handshake. He stalked off in in the direction where Ty had come from, muttering the entire way.

  “I hope he hasn’t been like that the entire time,” Ty said, amused. He chose a seat opposite of Neil and seemed to shrink in on himself, to perch on the edge.

  The overwhelming presence in the room faded to nearly nonexistent and Neil found himself breathing easily once more. He mentally catalogued the exit and what details he could remember from the blurred walk over. If he had to run, he’d only have one chance to do it and—the weight of Ty’s stare drew his attention. Reluctantly, Neil met the two-colored gaze. He was surprised to find nothing but honest warmth and a touch of curiosity present.

  Before the silence could turn awkward, Ty looked to the table where Dex had set the fruit bowl. He frowned for a moment, before understanding dawned. There was a twitch of his fingers and two long skewers appeared, neatly presented on a clean napkin. “Sorry about that. We tend to use our claws most of the time. Please help yourself. Calida’s had everyone out of sorts, since her little scare yesterday. Thank you very much for assisting her.”

  Neil resisted the urge to shrug. “It wasn’t really anything. I was nearby, that’s all.” He picked up the skewers and stabbed at several chunks of fruit, needing his hands to be occupied before his nerves decided to reappear.

  “It was more than enough. I do hope we can return the favor in some way.” Ty said, smoothly. He turned to see Terius hovering just out of sight. He perked a brow in silent question.

  “I thought you said you stocked the entire pantry,” Terius grumbled. He stood in the doorway, a spatula in hand, wearing a full-length apron over expensive business wear, his brow in a dark furrow. Outside of the imposing official Noir uniform, he looked rather ordinary and harried. “I can’t find any of my spices.”

  “Spices?” Ty echoed. “Which ones?”

  Terius opened his mouth to answer, when he caught sight of Neil. He wrinkled his nose and the turned away, abruptly. “Never mind.”

  Ty watched him disappear and shook his head. “I bought everything that was on the l
ist that you gave me, check again, love.”

  Terius muttered something in answer.

  “Ignore him as well,” Ty said, chuckling. “They’re always grumpy before Calida gets up. She tends to bring out the best in us.”

  Stabbing another skewer through the fruit, Neil sat back on the sofa. “What—exactly am I doing here?”

  “Ty, he doesn’t know,” Dexter said. He reappeared, towing a sleepy, pink pajama-clad Calida behind him. She yawned and shuffled behind him, content to be led by her sleeve. “Cally, just wake up already.” He led her over to Ty and gave her a slight push into the other man’s arms, before standing off to the side. “He didn’t have a clue why I was there. He thinks we’re all extinct. Said he said he hasn’t got a mentor too, that no one came. Says he doesn’t have any magic either and I felt that.”

  “No mentor?” Ty pulled Calida onto his lap, cuddling her. He looked to Neil. “No one at all? No one ever contacted you?”

  “No one. Never. Is that a bad thing?”

  “That depends. What about your parents? Did they never tell you what to expect? Any other family members?”

  “I’m a temporary kid,” Neil said, lightly. “My foster parents only want my monthly government allowance. They don’t like magic and if I hadn’t solicited Noir, I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself.”

  Ty frowned. “That’s—troublesome,” he said, at last. “Hewitt is the name you took on, then? Their name?”

  “Tch. As if they would let me use their name,” Neil shook his head. “Hewitt was on my birth certificate. I saw it once.”

  “Do you know anything at all about your birth parents?”

  “Child services said I turned up with a diaper in a cardboard box with nothing more. Not even a blanket.” He tried to keep the bitterness from his voice, because that one detail had always bothered him. If his parents had cared, surely they would have given him a blanket or a shirt or something. They wouldn’t have left him outside in a box like some forgotten object.

  “I’m sorry,” Ty said, delicately. “Could you give us any more information?”

  “That’s all I know,” Neil said, stiffly.

  Ty nodded. “I’ll check into that, then, if you don’t mind. We dragels tend to take care of our own and something terrible must have happened for you to be left here on your own.”

  Neil doubted that, but he didn’t bother to voice his opion. “So what exactly am I here for—how can you all be dragels?”

  “Calida explains it best,” Ty said. He rubbed Calida’s arm. “Are you up yet, loveling? I know you can hear all of this and it would help if you could spare a moment for your new friend.”

  “Those potions were awful.” she yawned into his neck. “I am never waking up if all you’re going to do is dose me with things for my own good. I don’t need to taste—is that tea?” she straightened up at once, sniffing the air.

  Dexter returned with a small tea tray in hand, bearing steaming cups of coffee and unsalted biscuits. “That’s the second one this month,” he said, setting the tray down. “The second one, Ty. We can’t ignore this. Mentors don’t just—vanish. Someone is actively targeting us.”

  “We’re not ignoring anything,” Ty said, firmly. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to do and some of us are handling the stress a bit better than others.” He turned to kiss Calida’s nose. “Up you go, darling.”

  “Is there juice?” Calida slid off of his lap. She kissed his cheek and rubbed a hand through her messy hair. She looked at the tea tray then back up at Dexter with a pleading look. He muttered something and turned on his heel. She beamed after him, before turning that brilliant smile to her young guest. “Neil. Hey there,” she moved around to join him on the loveseat and immediately hugged him.

  “Er,” Neil froze when the hug lasted longer than polite moment. “I’m-”

  “It’s good to see you again,” she pulled away and scooted back a few inches to give him some space. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you since yesterday. I think I drove them all a little bit crazy.”

  “A little, loveling?” Ty shook his head. “Much more than that.”

  She ignored him, reaching out to take Neil’s hand instead. The sleepiness seemed to have vanished in an instant as she studied him, her dark eyes intense. “You know, I wondered what was wrong yesterday. I couldn’t figure out why you couldn’t understand me yesterday, since I wasn’t speaking a different language.”

  Neil stared at her.

  “I was speaking our native tongue,” Calida said. She laced their fingers together and scrap of warmth passed between them, magic and friendship wrapped in one. “Welcome to dragel life.”