“Pleasant enough, thank you,” Zéphyrin said. The satyr glanced over the others and then paused, looking confused.
“My lord…” he toned hesitantly, “I was told to expect two human men. But here I see only the one,” he added, pointing to Jonas. Everyone but the satyr glanced at Twist.
“Damn it…” Twist muttered, wishing dearly that this sort of nonsense would soon end.
“The other one fell ill,” Hala said gently to the satyr. “He will remain on the ship for now.” Jonas moved to question her, but Twist silenced him with raised hand and a listless shake of his head. It would simply be easier to let the goat have his illusions.
“That’s bad luck,” the satyr said gravely. “Well, there’s no reason to leave you out here in the cold,” he said, turning around to face the gate.
He held out both arms, still holding the tall spear up above him. Almost instantly, and without a word from the satyr, the gates gave a loud creaking sound and then began to swing inward slowly. Fully expecting to be astonished, Twist watched eagerly to see the world on the other side of the wall appear through the opening doors.
A full and bustling city stood inside, which seemed to be made entirely of treasure. Tall, multistory buildings with arches, verandas, and gleaming golden domes clustered together as busily as the streets of Hong Kong, but with all the design, lavish decoration, and grace of Paris. Dragon-headed fountains stood in open plazas, surrounded by cobblestone streets of etched gold. Beside the roads and buildings, emerald grasses waved in the gentle wind under golden trees with gleaming leaves of ruby and sapphire. Blinking diamonds as large as melons stood on the tops of golden streetlights and seemed to glow gently in the dim of twilight, while windows also glowed in colorful light.
Naturally, the city wasn’t populated by human beings. Shimmering, colorful dragons prowled on huge, shining claws beside gryphons, goblins, centaurs, satyrs, and even a few giraffes in earnest debate. Sparkling pixies flitted to and fro overhead, while clearly inhuman men and women—some of them with skin as richly colored as Hala’s—strolled leisurely about their own mysterious business. Trolls pulled passenger carriages, like the rickshaws Twist had seen in Japan, through the shining streets, and minotaurs in golden armor walked with purpose in their hoofed steps, much like the proud constables he knew from London.
Twist stood just inside the gates beside his companions as the doors closed again behind them; he couldn’t manage to hold a single thought for more than an instant as his mind struggled to accept the staggering amount of impossible wonder all around him. He looked at Jonas to find pure astonishment on his face as his powerful gaze flew through the golden streets.
“Did you know this existed?” he asked Jonas on a hushed tone.
“No idea at all,” Jonas answered, shaking his head. “This is…well, it’s…”
“It’s wonderful!” Myra asked excitedly. “I had no idea there was a city this beautiful in the world. And just look at all the myths walking around,” she added brightly to Twist. Twist chuckled, delighting in the sparkling joy her touch sent pouring through his Sight.
“You’d be surprised how many myths can be found in this world,” Zéphyrin said with a saddened sigh. “Why my brothers wish so dearly to leave is beyond me.”
“Should we hail a cab?” Hala asked, eyeing a passing troll and his carriage.
“Yes, let’s,” Zéphyrin said with a nod.
In moments, they had all climbed aboard a golden carriage that would have easily sat ten people on two wide, padded benches that faced each other under a canopy of silver and diamonds. Myra’s excitement tingled up Twist’s arm from their entwined hands as the massive troll began to carry them down the street at a swift trot. Jonas pulled the little glass bottle out of his waistcoat pocket and held it up carefully for the tiny Skye inside to see.
“Just look at this place,” he muttered softly to it, while Skye stood up and pressed her little hands against the glass, staring in wonder at the city. Hala smiled at him but said nothing.
“Oh, it’s such a lovely day,” Myra said wistfully, twirling her parasol on her shoulder. Twist smiled at her and let his attention slip into her bliss.
“So, Twist…” Zéphyrin said, sitting across from him with a thoughtful expression. “May I see your pocket watch?”
All of Myra’s delight fell from Twist’s thoughts as his heart began to pound and fright raced up his spine. He felt Jonas’s gaze fall on him and was grateful for the steadying effect of it.
Zéphyrin, seeing his distress, put on a comforting smile. “I don’t mean to take it from you. I don’t even need to touch it, if you wouldn’t like me to. I would just like to see it.”
Twist shivered and told himself it was because of the cold air. He took the watch out of his pocket slowly—focusing to keep his fingers from shaking. He couldn’t even imagine why Zéphyrin’s request frightened him so dreadfully. It wasn’t at all an outlandish one. Not unhooking the chain, Twist held his watch on his palm and glanced up to Zéphyrin as the dragon and the djinn both leaned forward to peer at it. Twist held himself still against the sudden instinct to flee.
“That’s amazing,” Zéphyrin said, his red eyes glinting in the sunset. “I can’t sense anything at all.”
“Neither can I,” Hala said, sounding highly impressed.
“What are you looking for?” Jonas asked, his voice deceptively calm.
“The one who placed that charm did a magnificent job of it,” Hala said, smiling at Twist. “Even its existence is perfectly invisible, as well.”
Twist shivered again. “What charm?” he asked, his fingers closing over the engraving on the cover of his watch as he clung tightly to his last few fraying threads of denial.
“Come now,” Zéphyrin toned smoothly. “You weren’t even slightly confused when the satyr at the gate couldn’t see you. You know what we mean.”
“No one has ever done anything to my watch,” Twist said, fighting for composure. “It has never been out of my reach, even for a moment, in my entire life. I think I would have noticed if anyone put some kind of magical charm on it. I don’t know what all the damned satyrs are playing at—”
“Careful,” Hala said with a hushed tone. “Don’t say too much.”
“Why the devil not?” Twist snapped. Hala’s expression changed to one of surprise. Twist closed his eyes and pulled back his emotions before looking back to her. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right, little one,” Hala said softly to him. “But you need to understand, if you truly don’t, that you must be careful of what you say. Even with that charm, it’s dangerous to speak of the events of your birth.”
Pure confusion washed all of Twist’s words away, while Myra’s feelings and the buzz in his neck changed to mirror his own. Sitting beside Hala, Vane leaned closer to peer at Twist curiously.
“Yes, you might be set upon instantly, if your voice managed to escape the charm,” Zéphyrin said, nodding. “It’s best not to say anything about it at all.”
“Who do you think he is?” Vane asked the dragon.
“Please don’t be offended if I don’t answer you directly,” Zéphyrin said to Vane. “Suffice it to say, he is far from an ordinary clockmaker.”
Twist fell totally silent as he slipped his watch back into his pocket. The idea that an ancient djinn or powerful dragon knew anything about his birth simply wouldn’t fit in his mind. Surely he was still just as much of a nameless and abandoned child as he’d always been. They must have him confused with someone entirely different. The anomaly of the satyrs being unable to see him could be easily chalked up to magical strangeness, after all. But then, what about Storm, the pink-eyed little boy who could trespass in dreams? He’d also been unable to see him…
Myra reached out to gently nudge his face up to look at her. He found a warm, soothing, soft smile on her copper face, just before she leaned in to kiss him lightly on the cheek. The awareness that the others in the carriage were probably watchin
g this brought a blush to his face, but Myra only smiled deeper to see it.
“I know you like to think that you’re ordinary, darling,” she said softly to him, “but you really should put that notion away. You’re simply too extraordinary for it.”
Twist stared back at her blankly as the full implications of her statement splashed haphazardly through his mind, washing away all his jagged thoughts. The unbelievability of the words she’d said were lost to him in the casual faith with which she had said them. How could he ever respond to her?
“Jon,” Vane muttered earnestly to Jonas, “don’t you feel jealous when she says things like that to your lover?” Myra shot the fox an incredulous glance.
Jonas heaved a sigh, his annoyance rumbling loudly in the buzz in Twist’s neck. “Oh yes,” he responded, his voice thick with sarcasm, “I die a little bit each time.” Twist suppressed his snicker as best he could, while the clearly oblivious Vane gave Jonas a sympathetic look.
“I’m going to miss all of you when you go,” Zéphyrin mentioned wistfully.
The troll-drawn carriage came to a stop under one of the tallest buildings in the city. It stood easily two hundred feet high and was in the shape of a gigantic mushroom with a solid gold stem running up to the top. The dome seemed to be made of some clear crystal that was dotted with orange and yellow, while large patches appeared to be open to the sky, but at such a height, it was hard for Twist to tell.
“The court is up at the top,” Zéphyrin said, gesturing to the dome.
“How many stairs is that?” Jonas asked, aghast, as he put the little glass bottle back into his waistcoat pocket after holding it up for Skye to see from inside.
Hala laughed as she climbed out of the carriage. Myra rose to follow her, but Zéphyrin asked her and the others to remain seated.
“Don’t worry,” Zéphyrin said, smiling. “There aren’t any stairs at all. We can’t have just anyone wandering into our presence.”
Hala said something to the troll, and the hulking creature nodded its tiny head to her before releasing its hold on the carriage. Hala then stepped back into the wide, open plaza around the base of the mushroom building. For a moment, Twist thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Then, it became undeniable that Hala’s form was growing.
In a matter of a few steps, she had grown to five times her natural height while the rest of her form grew to match, keeping her proportions in check. She stopped and turned to look down at them as she continued to grow to a height well above the top of the mushroom before she stopped. Twist and the others stared, open mouthed, while Zéphyrin chuckled lightly to himself at their reactions.
Hala then reached down and took the golden carriage canopy daintily in her now-enormous purple hands. Everyone but Zéphyrin let out startled sounds, and Twist grabbed on to the edge of his seat as he felt the whole carriage lift swiftly into the air. Before he knew it, the carriage stopped moving again, though it still swayed ever so gently. Twist realized quickly that it was now resting in Hala’s hands, held level with a balcony at the outer edge of the mushroom’s dome.
“Thank you, Hala,” Zéphyrin said, getting to his feet to hop off of the carriage and onto the balcony. “Come along,” he said to the others.
Vane moved first, followed quickly by Jonas. Twist stopped and offered a hand to help Myra to step down from the banister around the balcony. Once everyone had gotten off, the gigantic Hala bent down to place the carriage back on the ground before her enormous form wafted away into a tower of shimmering purple smoke. The smoke moved quickly, shooting to the balcony, before it cleared suddenly to reveal Hala—back to her usual size—standing beside Zéphyrin.
Jonas shook his head and began to clap his hands. Vane joined him, prompting Twist and Myra to do the same. Hala laughed and gave them a quick curtsy.
“It was really no great thing,” she said easily, her wide smile not at all bashful.
“I couldn’t do it,” Jonas countered. Hala, already turning away, laughed again.
The others followed her under the glistening orange drapes that framed the entrance to the balcony. Stepping onto the open, golden, circular floor under the dome, Twist looked immediately upward to the immense empty space over his head. Colorful dragons flew in through the openings in the dome and perched on a wide circle of amphitheater seating that rimmed the floor. There were already easily over a hundred of them.
Twist’s nerves tightened as he realized that they were all here specifically to judge him. He felt Jonas’s anxiety rise as well and noticed that he walked very close to Twist as he and the others followed Hala and Zéphyrin. There was a short, raised platform in the center of the floor, and Zéphyrin was heading straight for it. Twist’s hand tightened on Myra’s. She silently smiled to him and rubbed at his arm with her other hand.
“Please stand in the center,” Zéphyrin said, stopping at the edge of the circular platform. “Just the two of them, I’m afraid,” he added gently to Myra.
Myra released Twist’s hand and stepped away, taking her calming emotions with her. Twist glanced up to see that many of the creatures, which had been chatting before, were falling silent now to watch him. His chilled blood pumped faster as his heart began to race. He recognized the scent of panic on his own quick breath. Before he could even find any courage to master, a warm hand fell to his back, the rough fingers pressing gently to the base of his neck. White calm filled his mind, blinding him to his terror instantly.
“Don’t show fear,” Jonas whispered as he stepped forward, leading Twist onto the platform. “You’re innocent, remember? You and I were both just defending ourselves.”
Twist nodded, suddenly unable to find his fear in all the fog. There was a tension underneath the calm, but it only made him more aware and attentive. Jonas let his hand fall away but remained close as he put his goggles on over his eyes. Twist took full control of himself in the fleeting moment before his true feelings returned to him.
“Brothers,” Zéphyrin called to the creatures around him, his voice ringing loudly in the air. “I have brought the accused. Shall we begin?”
Hala, Myra, and Vane all stood to one side of the platform, while the dragons seemed to fall into order, all facing Twist and Jonas with calculating eyes. One huge, shimmering, brilliantly blue dragon crawled forward on massive silver claws. A wild white mane and beard swayed around its doglike head, while the beast’s yellow eyes were trained on Twist and Jonas with a sinister fire.
“Which one of these monkeys killed my brother?” the blue dragon bellowed in a Chinese-sounding accent. Twist grabbed Jonas’s arm as he felt himself begin to faint. Jonas took his shoulders, holding him on his feet. The contact on his Sight cooled his fright again, and Twist managed to steady himself.
“Please,” Zéphyrin said, holding up a hand. “Neither of these men are accustomed to our kind. Take human form if you wish to address them. This will take much longer if we make them faint from fright.”
The blue dragon let out a growl that shook Twist to his core. Then it burst with a sudden explosion into thousands of tiny, shimmering flecks of blue. The flecks fell to the floor and disappeared, leaving a man standing on the golden floor, just below where the dragon had been. The man had short white hair, glowing yellow eyes, and pale skin with clearly Chinese features in a deceptively young-looking face. He was dressed in a suit of the same shimmering blue that his scales had been, though the cut of it was very angular and foreign to Twist. The man stood, arms crossed, staring at Zéphyrin unkindly. “Better?” he sneered.
“Thank you, Kunlun,” Zéphyrin said with a shallow nod.
“God forbid I frighten my brother’s murderer…” Kunlun grumbled as he stepped closer. “Now which one is it? I can smell the blood.”
“Twist, the slayer, is the smaller one,” Zéphyrin said with a gesture. Twist shifted uncomfortably under this new title. He’d also thought that being openly called small was something he’d left behind in his school days.
�
�You. Human,” Kunlun said, pointing at Twist as he stopped a few steps away from the edge of the platform. “Are you prone to nightmares?” Twist glanced at Zéphyrin, suddenly unsure of all protocol. Never mind the strange question—was he even allowed to respond?
“The blood is thick on his skin,” Zéphyrin said to Kunlun. “Our brother is sure to get his revenge for himself. We needn’t concern ourselves with that.” Jonas and Twist both looked to Zéphyrin sharply.
“He’s more my brother than yours, Zéphyrin,” Kunlun spat at him. “Kazan and I—”
The dragon paused as Twist sucked in a sharp breath against the sudden, violent sensation that burned over his skin at the sound of the slain dragon’s name. Jonas put a hand on his shoulder, spilling the cool fog over him with a deeply soothing effect.
“You see?” Zéphyrin said with a gesture to Twist as he regained his composure. “The little one has a powerful Sight in his sense of touch. It’s only been a few days, but our brother is already affecting him.” Twist dearly wanted to ask Zéphyrin what he was talking about, but the sheer number of eyes on him kept him quiet.
“Well, at least that’s something…” Kunlun muttered bitterly. “But as my brother’s closest kin, I still demand full retribution. No man had dared to kill one of us for generations.”
“There were two deaths,” a deep voice called from the crowd. Instantly recognizing the Welsh accent on this new dragon’s voice, Twist looked up to find a huge, red dragon with fully black eyes glowering at he and Jonas down its long, pointed snout. “What of our brother who was killed on the ship?”
“If you have an issue to discuss, Draig,” Zéphyrin said, “then please approach the accused.”
The red dragon moved instantly, taking to the air on wide, bat-like, shining red wings. It flew toward Twist and Jonas at tremendous speed. Both Jonas and Twist backed away instinctively while animal panic burned up Twist’s spine. Coming to only a few yards away, the dragon’s form burst into a thick cloud of red smoke. As it began to dissipate, a man walked out of the cloud, dressed in a smart, modern, burgundy suit with a black cravat and waistcoat and a black bowler on short hair that was as red as his scales had been. He stopped beside Kunlun and fixed Jonas with depthless black eyes.
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