24. Alfie

Having to face the hag in the morning was horrible.

She scuttled right up to me and leered at me, getting too close for comfort and assessing me with malevolent eyes. I didn't need a dragon inside me to have the instinct to shrink away from her.

"The spells are strong. It will take time to break them."

"What spells?" I asked.

From where he was standing on the other side of the room, Lord Somerville said, "You do not need to know what spells, Alphonse."

"Oh. But they're on me, aren't they? How do I know they're safe if I don't know what they are?"

"They are safe."

I should have stopped talking. I willed myself to keep quiet. Yet it didn't make a difference because my mouth was on a totally different system from the rest of me and I was about as nervous and unsettled as I had ever been, standing under the watchful eyes of the hag and my father.

"Who would put spells on me, though? That doesn't sound very nice and I'd rather they weren't there. Do you know who did it, Lord Somerville? Can't you get them to take them off me?"

My father drew himself up, looking pinched and proud, and I shrank down, realising I'd really annoyed him.

The hag cackled. "He put the spells on too deeply. He can't get them off, not easily. He's tried. They have been loosened."

I gawped. "You mean you put them on me, Father?"

"You are my son. It is my duty to protect you."

"So they're protection spells?" I actually felt a bit better about it, if they were. I didn't mind being protected. I suppose dragon elders are meant to protect their clan.

Then something occurred to me.

I blurted my question out before I could stop myself.

"If they're to keep me safe, then why are you taking them off me? Shouldn't you leave them on? I don't want to be hurt, and I know that nothing can break into the territory but I think—"

"Alphonse!"

My father's voice cut through me like a blade of ice. I stopped talking immediately.

It was as though he had frozen my tongue in place, and all I could do was look at him out of scared, startled eyes.

"I have told you before not to blabber. You will do as you are instructed and stay silent, is that understood?"

Somehow, miraculously, I managed to stop myself from speaking. I nodded my head and Lord Somerville turned his gaze from me to Madame Trevellian.

"The spells should not be damaged. I have not attempted to remove them."

She cackled again, and it sounded far too gleeful in the heavy atmosphere. I felt chastised and small, and the hag appeared to delight in it.

"Yet the spells are damaged, Lord Somerville. Perhaps it is to be expected. He is long past the age he should have shifted. Perhaps his dragon has attempted to get out already."

I clamped my jaws shut so I didn't blurt out my questions, but I had so many of them. I didn't dare to ask them, though. Already I could see how this would go. I didn't want answers from either of the two people in front of me.

Madame Trevellian circled me and my skin prickled as she walked behind my back. I didn't like not being able to see her.

My father was standing near us, though, and I tried to assure myself that she couldn't hurt me, not with my can elder right there, not with someone as powerful as Lord Somerville right beside us.

A little part of me stayed afraid, though, and goosebumps broke out over my skin. If he had put spells on me to stop my dragon getting out, I wasn't sure that Lord Somerville would protect me.

No matter how I tried to reason myself away from that line of thinking, it seeped into me again.

Even when Madame Trevellian leered at me and said, with absolute delight in her voice, "This is going to hurt, child," I glanced at my father and was disappointed.

He stayed where he was, watchful, taking note of everything that happened between us. He didn't interfere, though. He didn't stop her hurting me.

And it did hurt.

Something lanced into my chest, burrowing deeper and deeper inside me. I felt as though I were being stabbed and I lashed out but there was nothing in front of me.

"The spells are deep, deeper than that," said the hag, and the stabbing feeling got worse as whatever she was doing slid further into me.

When the pain stopped, sliding out of me, I looked down at my chest as though I expected to see myself bloody and a gaping wound right there. I looked exactly the same as ever. So I hadn't been killed then. That was good.

I was just concentrating on breathing and not being sick with the residual pain when Madame Trevellian approached me again.

I stepped back.

She laughed. "This is what needs to happen, boy. Those spells are deep. Deep enough to keep a dragon inside. You don't think we can break them easily from the outside if your dragon can't break them from the inside?"

"Why- why do you need to break the spells anyway? If they're on me to protect me?"

"They're on you to keep your dragon inside, child. To keep you human."

I frowned. That didn't sound right. That didn't sound as though it would help to keep me safe, since it meant I wouldn't be able to shift. Leaving me human and weak wasn't going to help anyone.

Lord Somerville's voice cut across us both. "No talk. Just do it."

The hag raised her hand again, and I looked at my father. "Wait, can't I wait until tomorrow?"

"No. It needs to be done as soon as possible. I need to know what you are."

"What I am?"

I blinked. I didn't understand. I was a dragon, right? Great Aunt Evangeline said I was a dragon. My parents were dragons. I had the enhanced senses of a dragon. I-I definitely was one, right? I hadn't heard of a Somerville not being a dragon before.

Although there had been Seren….

No, Seren had been born a dragon, he'd just lost it, that was all. Maybe he'd had these same spells put on him. I hadn't seen them on him, but I hadn't seen any on me, either.

I shivered. I didn't like to think of that.

Lord Somerville studied me and I was sure he could read all my little thoughts as he stared at me, making me feel increasingly like I'd done something wrong in asking. I'd known it was a bad idea to speak directly to him. Why couldn't I stop my mouth from blurting things out?

"Our clan has suffered two attacks recently. Our borders are weak and our numbers are few. We are an old clan and a venerable one, but such attacks will become more common until we demonstrate we have the power to resist. In order to protect us all, I need to know what you are."

"And then I'll have to learn to fight?"

He paused. "Yes. Yes, I suppose you'll have to learn to fight either way."

My tongue, which ran away with me at all times, suddenly failed me and I nodded. I was just bombarded by so many thoughts that I couldn't even articulate them.

My first thought was that I wasn't sure I'd like fighting. I didn't really like blood and I didn't want to hurt people.

My second thought was panic as it occurred to me that he might send me away to train with a curaidh clan, just like he'd sent Morgan away. I wouldn't mind so much if I was sent to the Hoskins clan and then I'd see Morgan again, but I knew I would never be sent there. And I was gripped by the fear that I'd be sent away without the chance to take Blaze with me.

My third thought was that I hadn't realised that our clan was in so much danger. I could feel the sincerity of my father's words in our bond, the need he had to know whatever it was he wanted to know. Our bond was bright with interest and power and… and maybe fear.

Was he afraid for me? Or afraid of me?

I shook my head. That was silly. Father was a dragon elder. He wasn't afraid of anything, least of all me. Me with no dragon and no power.

No, he was afraid for me and our clan. He wanted to protect us and keep us safe.

I tried to convince myself of that but I couldn't quite manage it. He'd been the one to put spells on me, spells to keep my dragon inside, and he hadn't ever told me. And he'd stood there and watched while the hag ripped through my chest and I thought I'd die with the pain.

No, I couldn't convince myself of it and, when the hag did the same thing again, I found it harder than ever to believe I was safe.