22. Alfie

All through the night, I kept pulling up my bond with Great Aunt Evangeline to check that she was okay. It was always there, thank goodness. While we had our bond, she was still alive.

By the time morning came, I was tired and wasn't feeling any more optimistic than I had the day before.

It was only then that it occurred to me that she'd said she could see all my bonds, the way I could see hers. That meant she could see my bond with Blaze. There was no way she'd be able to miss it. It shone a bright orange-gold, blazing like fire, and it was the strongest and thickest bond I had.

Oh dear. Great Aunt Evangeline knew my secret.

That didn't make me feel any better, to be honest. Although I didn't feel too much worse. She hadn't sounded angry about it, so maybe she wasn't cross with me.

Maybe she wouldn't tell Lord Somerville, either.

That would be the best thing for me. If Great Aunt Evangeline got better and then we could talk about bonds and she could explain them to me, and I could look through her bonds more carefully and see what they were like, and then I could show her my bond with Blaze and tell her all about him, about how small and sweet he was, about how pretty his eyes were, about how my stomach began to tear itself apart when we were together but it tore itself apart more when we were apart.

I had terrible cramp inside me by then. I'd learned to live with the feeling but I wished again that Glenwise were here. He'd be able to do something about it and make me feel better.

The castle stayed silent, almost like it was in mourning all over again. I wanted to ask about my brother Alexander, but didn't know who to approach. I couldn't ask Mother because it would upset her.

Eventually, I decided to risk asking Aunt Silvia. I hurried up to her studio where she painted and knocked quietly on the open door.

Aunt Silvia looked round at me and gave a small smile. "Come in, Alfie. Take a seat."

I did as I was told, but I was too restless and I stood up again almost immediately.

Aunt Silvia had this way of looking at me that made me sure she could see more than she let on. Her eyes were silver, just like mine, but they had a knowing glint to them. Her artist's eyes were very observant.

"What is it you want to know?"

"Oh, um, well, you see—"

"We'll never get round to talking about it if you spend that long building up to asking me."

As she said it, she gave an ironic smile, and it made me chuckle weakly. At least I didn't feel really foolish for my blurting out rubbish.

"I wanted to know."

"Know what?"

"About Alexander."

"Ah. I'm afraid we've been forbidden from talking about him."

"Oh."

I'd known that was a risk because I'd spent my whole life hearing his name and not being able to learn anything else about him at all. I don't know why I was so disappointed.

I needed to know, though.

"Was he- was he banished?"

"No. What makes you think that?"

"Nobody really talks about him."

Aunt Silvia glanced around, peeking into the corridor outside. When she spoke, her voice was low so that only the two of us could hear.

"But we say his name, Alfie. And he is in our records."

I felt a flash of guilt for making her talk about this, considering her own son would be scratched from our records soon. As soon as anyone got around to it. Normally, though, it would be Rhod who did all that work, but he was gone.

It seemed like everyone was going. My stomach cramped again at the thought of them all being out there, alone.

Dragons stayed in clans for safety, we had elders to guard us from ridire. So many of my clan had just… left.

The only one who I knew was safe was Glimmer, because he was so strong. And because Blaze had heard him talking to somebody. At least he wasn't alone.

I asked, "What, um, happened to Alexander?"

"He died."

"I know that. But I don't know what happened. Dragons don't get sick, so he can't have been ill. Something bad must have happened to the clan or he must have left."

Aunt Silvia had gone pale and she looked around again as though expecting someone to burst from the walls and strike her down.

"We can't talk about him, Alfie. I'm sorry. It's been commanded."

"By Lord Somerville?"

She nodded, and she looked so afraid that I didn't have the heart to push her on the subject. She'd spent nineteen years afraid of my father – longer, actually – and I suppose it wasn't fair of me to expect her to suddenly defy him now.

I nodded and left, heading downstairs.

Slowly, over the course of the day, the whole clan came downstairs and gathered around. I longed to be outside with Blaze.

No, that wasn't quite right, because I liked being here with everybody. My cramping felt better throughout the day, and I liked being around my family. I just wished that I could have Blaze here with me, too. That would make everything better.

Around us, the castle was prepared for the arrival of my tutor.

I wasn't prepared for her arrival. It happened so suddenly.

One moment I was there with everyone else and the next, Lord Somerville swept into the room and said, "Madame Trevellian has arrived. We will greet her in the grand hall."

I followed the rest of them out, feeling odd about being back in the grand hall after we'd all gathered there when we were under attack. It made me feel like we were under attack again, even though that was silly.

I felt so odd and flustered that I pulled up my bond with Blaze and looked at it. He was burning as a flame right then, I could tell. Our bond became more fire-like, flickering and warm, when he shifted.

For the first time ever, I wondered whether my bonds would change when I shifted. It had never occurred to me before. Shifting had always seemed so distant, something I'd do one day but not now. Well, I guess one day had finally arrived, because Madame Trevellian entered the room.

We were all lined up either side, trying to give the impression that there was a lot of us even though we were a pathetically small group in such a large hall.

My first sight of my tutor was a shock and I was glad she wasn't looking at me because I didn't think I'd be able to keep my surprise and revulsion off my face. Her hair was long and lank, hanging in clusters, threaded with slimy green tendrils. My instinct was to shrink back in case she touched me.

Luckily, she was looking straight at Lord Somerville as he sat on the dais.

She hobbled straight up to him, leering up at him with her repulsive mouth open. Her voice somehow sounded slimy, too. I shuddered and, beside me, I was sure Mother shivered as well.

"It's been a while since I was welcomed into Somerville territory, Lord Somerville."

"Indeed."

"I thought I might be invited back sooner."

Lord Somerville looked down at her, disdain and fury in his face. If I'd been on the receiving end of that cold look, I'd have shrunk backwards, away from the power and the ice in his face. The hag, however, met my father's eyes and didn't flinch.

He looked very regal as he replied, "Did you?"

"Yes, I thought you might want me to draw some power out of that little whelp of yours."

"We had another tutor teach him."

"And look how he turned out," spat the hag. "Weak and silver and a traitor."

Lord Somerville stood and I nearly took a step back at the power that radiated out from him. I don't know how the hag stood there without quailing. I began to see that she was powerful too, in her own way.

That didn't give me any comfort.

She twisted her head, taking in the line of us one by one until she reached me.

"Is this the one?"

"My son, Alphonse Somerville."

I opened my mouth, managed to say, "How do you do?" and then went silent. She was walking over to me. She scuttled like a crab, her black cloak dragging along the floor, dusty and dirty at the hem and thick with slime at her shoulders where her hair draped over it.

She leaned close to me and I struggled to stand still, refusing to lean away from her. I wanted to step back but thought it might be rude.

Her breath rolled over me, though, in fetid clouds of toxic fumes. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to wrinkle my nose and grimace at the rotting smell.

"So you are the next one?"

Behind her, Lord Somerville asked sharply, "You know what he is?"

She peered into my eyes, and I held her gaze, worried for some reason that she'd leech my soul from me as I did it.

I'd never had such a visceral feeling of foreboding before. I wanted to shiver with it but held myself still, clenching my muscles and hoping nobody noticed the tiny shakes of my hands.

"No," she said, and her breath swamped me once again. "I will need time with this one."

"How long?"

She leered at me, and I wasn't sure if it was a smile or not.

When she answered, she kept her eyes on me, answering my father but not showing him the respect of looking at him. That made my skin prickle with unease, and by that point I was as uncomfortable as I had ever been.

She spoke slowly. "How long I need depends on how strong your spells were."

I knew I should keep quiet but my mouth was the first thing to get un-afraid enough to work, more's the pity. It was a big disappointment to me that, even when I was overwhelmed, I could still manage to dig myself into a hole by talking too much.

"What spells?" I asked.

She cackled. "Old spells, as old as you are."

"What sort of spells?"

"Ones that conceal something valuable."

"From who? Do you mean spells inside the castle?"

"Spells that serve—"

"Enough!" Lord Somerville's voice cut through the room like an ice pick, sharp and ringing with its strike.

Madame Trevellian turned to face him at last, and I breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't looking at me any more, although I tried to do it subtly so as not to offend her.

She smiled up at my father, all horrid teeth and malice. I didn't like her being inside out territory, and I certainly didn't like her being inside the castle. Something about it seemed a bad idea.

"The boy asks questions," she said.

I huffed. I wasn't a boy. I was a young man.

"You are not here to talk to him."

"You want me to train him."

"I want to know what he is."

"He is—"

Madame Trevellian began to speak and it was as though I heard everyone in the room hold their breath. There wasn't a sound. As she hesitated half-way through that sentence, she commanded the attention of every single person there.

Whatever she was about to say was important. It was what she had been brought here for, I was sure of it. Just that one sentence.

"— very polite."

The energy in the room sagged.

That was not what she had been about to say.

Around me, the rest of my clan shuffled their feet and looked down, studying their shoes and their fingers, rather than look at the hag. Or maybe it was me they didn't want to look at.

It was an odd feeling, to stand there with everyone's attention on me. I usually hated being the centre of attention like that but, in this instance, I felt sorry for them.

Whatever was going on, it was upsetting all of them.

From the corner of my eye, I saw my bonds shimmer with light and realised that all of my bonds with my family were glowing brightly. They looked so strange, almost as though they were all growing. They looked harder, like streaks of gold, a bit like Glimmer's bonds with everyone, which were like blades of steel. My bonds looked suddenly very protective.

More than anything, I wanted to get away and talk to Blaze. I wanted to tell him about my bonds and see what he had to say. He was so clever and he made me feel calm, which helped me to think things through properly.

I had to wait to be dismissed, though. Lord Somerville and Madame Trevellian talked a while longer, arranging that she should train me in the grand hall each morning.

"I will be here to observe," said Lord Somerville.

"I need to be alone with the boy," she said.

"That is out of the question."

"Do you want me to work or not?"

"I will be here."

That was the last word. Lord Somerville let some element of power into his voice that I'd never heard before, and even the hag didn't argue with him. She smiled, and I nearly gagged at the sight.

I wasn't looking forward to the morning.