by AJ Sherwood
Gisa was one of his practice partners when Lisette taught him a spell. She was one of the youngest mages in the castle (not including Cameron) although he hadn’t dared ask her age yet. Much older than him, regardless. He answered her as he loaded up a plate with anything that looked delectable. Which was pretty much everything. “Going good. You up for practicing more tonight?”
“Hmm, I actually have plans. But Carla made noises about helping you learn a few things.”
“Carla?” Cameron had no idea who that was. He’d met most of the mages in the clan so far, but not all. He was given to understand they had six in total; he’d just not met the others.
“I’ll introduce you to her,” Baldewin offered, snagging two of the rolls. “She’s sitting right over there. Let’s get some more names and phone numbers in that phone of yours, shall we?”
“Sounds great.”
Gisa shooed him on with a smile. “I’ll help you train tomorrow, though, okay?”
Remembering at the last second, he used one of those German-English crossover words. “Super.”
Gisa high-fived him for that.
“Hallo, Carla, Velten, can we join you?” Baldewin inquired as he strode for the nearest table.
“Sure, do. I haven’t had a chance to meet Cameron properly yet.”
Cameron took in the woman that had answered—Carla?—and gave her his best smile. “Yeah, I got brief names and faces and nothing really stuck. Hi.”
“Hi yourself.” The man waved him to the chair across the table from him. “I’m Velten. Wilkommen, young mage. We’re very happy to see you.”
“Dankeschön,” Cameron responded and was proud of himself for mostly saying that correctly. From what he could see, Velten was definitely dragon, and another one of those good-looking types. He stole a few glances as he set his plate down on the table and got situated in the padded chair.
“I’m Carla,” the mage introduced herself, with a nod of the head to him. Her dark hair swayed over her shoulder and she pushed it back, keeping it out of her food. “Nice to meet you, Cameron. Lisette mentioned you’re taking well to the lessons. Do you enjoy it?”
“Love every second of it.” Cameron tried not to sound like a giddy five-year-old with a new pony, but he was pretty sure he failed. “It’s like this incredible puzzle where you can put all of these different pieces together and come out with different results. I haven’t had this much fun since I was introduced to Legos.”
Carla laughed outright, shaking with it. “Oh my god, that is the best description. I need to use that. So often, you know, people assume we use magic because it’s necessary. The books and movies always have us doing magic for some grand purpose. But few of them convey that it is fun. The creation of anything with magic is wholly satisfying.”
“Yes, exactly. I’m still reveling in it. Lisette mentioned each magical clan sort of had their own specialties? Can I ask what your clan’s specialty was?”
Baldewin cleared his throat and gave Cameron a pointed look. “I can see how you keep walking away from a conversation without getting anyone’s numbers.”
Oh. Ohhh yeah, that was the goal when sitting down with these two. “I would have remembered. Eventually.”
Baldewin shook his head and explained to the other two, “He’s meeting people slowly and trying to get contact information for everyone. Carla, you especially I think he should be able to contact.”
“Absolutely, I’d love to teach him what I know too.” Carla immediately pulled a phone out of her back pocket and opened it. “Cameron, give me your number first.”
Cameron quite happily did so.
With some smugness, Cameron went to the dining hall after his magic lesson that afternoon and didn’t get lost in the process, thank you very much. He could neither confirm nor deny needing Baldewin’s map once.
Dinner was easier this time as he recognized more faces, knew more names. People invited him to come and sit, and he was happy to do so. They talked more of game night, and asked how he was settling in, do you have anything you’re not sure about? Can we help with anything?
Cameron warmed to their obvious interest and concern. Their sincerity was clear, and he basked in it a little. People were just so welcoming here. And friendly. And cool. Cameron wanted to be friends with all of them.
While lingering over an after-dinner coffee, Dieter came and touched him lightly on the shoulder. “Cameron, may I have some of your time?”
“Sure, what’s up?” Cameron turned in his chair, tilting his head up to face him better. He didn’t know Dieter well; he’d talked to him maybe three times, all in passing. But he knew Dieter to be Alric’s right hand and well respected.
“Alric and I want to go over your family line with you,” Dieter explained.
Oh right, Alric had mentioned that. Tracing Cameron’s family line might help them track down other mages not in his immediate branch of the family. Considering how vital that was, Cameron had no problem helping them. “Okay. Lead the way. It was nice chatting with you guys. See you at game night?”
“Game night,” the table chorused in agreement.
As Cameron kept in step with him, Dieter explained in his gravelly voice, “We have a genealogy room specifically for ancestry research. It’s right above Gunter’s research room, in fact. Some of our records are so old there is no copy of them, although we’re attempting to rectify that by scanning them in digitally.”
“Backing things up is never a bad idea,” Cameron observed.
“That’s part of our reason.” Dieter took the next hallway to the left and started leading them down. “The other part is that we’re trying to share what information we have with the Ice Clan. We’re not always on good terms with them, but in this, we have a shared passion. We want to find the mages of this generation. Tracing their families is one of the best ways we know to go about it.”
“Fair enough. I’m surprised you didn’t look at my family before this.”
“We did, in fact. But I believe it was six, seven generations ago. No one was magically active then.”
“Huh. Does magic skip generations like that?”
“It can. It’s part of what makes this so frustrating. And why very little is guaranteed.”
Cameron ruminated on that for a moment, turning it over in his head as he went down a set of stairs and into yet another hallway that looked similar to the one he’d just left. “Alric mentioned once that because I was a twin, he was sure that Cassie had magic too. Is that a genetic rule?”
“It seems to be. Twins are always magical. It’s very, very rare for us to see a male mage who isn’t a twin. It does happen, but I think I’ve only seen it twice in my lifetime.”
“Duuuude.” Cameron let out a whistle. “That’s saying something. I can see why this search has been so frustrating for all of you, then.”
“In older times,” Dieter’s expression turned wistful, “it wasn’t so problematic. Magic was alive and recognized then. If you were magical, you had a clan to go to. Dragon clans at the very least. We didn’t have to hunt for mages like we do now. It was far easier.”
Cameron didn’t know how to respond to that. Except to say, “Well, maybe my family has more mages than I suspect.”
“We all hope for such to be the case.” Dieter flashed him a smile before he opened the door and ushered Cameron in. “Hoheit, we are here.”
“Excellent. Cameron, welcome. Do you have a little time to spare?”
Remembering what Baldewin had said before, Cameron made sure to use a compliment. “I always have time for a handsome man.”
Alric flushed a little. He sat at a polished wooden table, a laptop in front of him and a stack of very old books next to him. Cameron’s compliment wasn’t baseless, as Alric did look yummy. He wore a dark grey cable-knit sweater that did delectable things to his complexion and made Cameron’s fingers itch to card through his hair. Maybe he’d find a way do that.
“Then please, join me.” Alric ind
icated the chair next to his.
Cameron did so, but warned, “I don’t actually know that much genealogy off the top of my head. Halmeoni’s the one who keeps track of it for my family. If you really want to dive into this, it’s best to get her on the phone with us.”
“But isn’t it late, where she is?”
“Nah, it’s only early afternoon. She’s most likely watching TV.” Cameron leaned a little into Alric’s side so he could pull his phone out of his pocket. Why yes, he did do that deliberately. And Alric smelled amazing. “I like your cologne, by the way.”
A trace of color painted high on Alric’s cheeks, and he couldn’t seem to quite meet Cameron’s eyes. “I’m not wearing any.”
“Is that right?” Cameron wanted to pinch his cheeks, and ruffle his hair, and maybe squeeze him. How did this man stay adorable like this? It killed Cameron slowly that he couldn’t mess with him like he wanted to. They’d need to be a little closer, Cameron judged. “Then definitely don’t wear any.”
Alric turned a little redder.
Mindful that Dieter watched them—and the man’s eyebrows were in his hairline, eyes amused and a little wide-eyed—Cameron decided to let Alric off the hook. For now. Hopefully he’d gotten his point across that he liked what he saw. He pinged his grandmother via chat. Poke.
The response was in seconds. Poke. What’s up, favorite grandson?
Dragons want to trace our family tree, Cameron typed back. Call?
Halmeoni broke speed records, she called so quickly. Cameron bit back a chuckle as he accepted the call and Facetimed her. “Hey, Halmeoni. This is King Alric”—he panned the phone so she could see Alric—“and this is Dieter. Meet Noh Ha Na.”
“Lady Noh,” Dieter responded with a polite inclination of the head. “I’m honored. Is this a bad time to ask for your help? We can do this on a different day.”
“No, no, I was just watching boring television. This is far more interesting. And important. Cameron mentioned to me the importance of genealogy when it comes to the magical clans. Just one moment, I’ll fetch my books. How far back do you need to trace?”
“It’s not a matter of how far back,” Alric explained. He took the phone from Cameron so he could prop it up against the stacked books. “It’s the side-branches. We’ve looked at your family before, the main descendants, but no one showed any talent.”
“This was about six generations ago, Halmeoni,” Cameron tacked on. “And we’re not main, right? You told me that once.”
“No, dear, we’re a side branch,” her voice floated back to them. “Hold on one moment, I’ve got this all in binders; I can fill in the gaps, I think.”
Yeah…this was going to take a while.
Cameron blew out a breath, a little nervous about this whole idea. Baldewin and Ravi had talked him into coming out onto the playing field with them. Apparently, back in the old days when they had lots of mages and dragons, they had their own sport. They’d explained the rules, and it kind of sounded like Quidditch and soccer combined. The dragons had a ball they tried to get through multiple hoops around the field, goalies guarded each one, and mages flew with the dragons, both trying to knock the other players in the air off-kilter, but get their own balls in through the hoops. It sounded totally fun, but now they didn’t have enough people to form two teams, which was sad.
At any rate, they wanted to both give Cameron a chance to fine tune his magical control by throwing a ball around and give them all a chance to cut loose and have a little fun. Cameron perched up in the stands next to one of the goals to give himself the right vantage point, and both Baldewin and Ravi were in full dragon form. He’d not seen Baldewin’s dragon form before. It was rather impressive, truth to tell, sort of matching the man’s human form. He looked solid, like a scaley bulldozer, his skin so dark in hue to look blood red. Stretched out, he could probably measure a football field in wingspan alone. Cameron felt like taking a picture, then gave into the impulse of snapping a shot of them lazily doing loops around the field, ready for Cameron to get the massive red ball into the air.
The ball was built for abuse, that was obvious. It was made of metal with a thick rubber coating. And it still had some questionable dents in its sides. Cameron sucked in another breath, and spoke the spell. “Vente anti gev adi.”
The ball shot up straight into the air, soaring high above his head. Ravi shot past him in a blur of blue, snatching up the ball and heading straight for the goal.
Cameron had been told Ravi was the fastest in the clan, but Baldewin was no slouch in that department either. He chased right on Ravi’s tail, almost biting at it. No wait, he was biting at it.
“No biting!” Ravi called back.
“There are so many bad jokes I could make,” Cameron laughed, watching them zoom for the goal. “Oh my god, seriously. It’s a shame they can’t hear me up there otherwise I’d let loose.”
Ravi got the ball into the hoop, Baldewin having to swerve at the last second to avoid sending himself into the same hoop. Then they looped around in a tight circle, and the ball was tossed back to Cameron.
This too, he had to use a wind spell for, as the ball would flatten him or break an arm otherwise. Cameron aimed the spell dead center of the ball, batting it back. “Vente anti gev adi!”
It went harder and farther than he intended to, and he winced a little. Cameron was channeling the fresh mountain air to power the spells, and it was strong today, gusty. He’d misjudged the power level a little. It was a two in power, sure, but a storm was coming in, and so it was edging closer to a three. Maybe a 2.5 or something.
The ball almost went out of bounds—which said something; this field was the size of five football fields combined, at least—but Baldewin was in the right position to catch it. He caught it handily and started to swoop for the goal, forcing Ravi into defense. Or at least, that was likely his goal. It didn’t work out that way as Ravi zoomed past him, swiping the ball out with a knock of his nose and catching it before it fell more than a few feet.
“Ravi!” Baldewin growled in frustration, chasing after him. And as close as he was to Ravi’s side, he couldn’t seem to quite get far enough ahead of him to actually snatch the ball back.
Cameron sniggered. Ravi was definitely good at this game. No wonder he’d been so excited when asking Cameron if he wanted to come play. Baldewin had probably come along just for shits and giggles, but he was totally into it now. What would it be like to have two full teams again? To be able to play this properly with them? Cameron was almost wistful thinking about it, but really, there was a good chance in the near future, it wouldn’t be just a pipe dream.
The more he stayed here, the more he interacted with everyone, the more certain Cameron became. He was in the right place. He loved it here, and the friends he’d made were awesome. The magic called to him strongly, no doubt about that. He probably would stay for that reason alone. But it was times like now, when he got to play a game of ball with two dragons, that really sold him on the idea of staying.
Ravi got the ball in through the goal, and Cameron snapped out of the thought, focusing more on the here and now. Baldewin growled again in frustration even as Ravi tossed the ball back to Cameron to get it back into play.
This time, Cameron got a better feel for the wind, on how much to channel into the spell. He had better control over the ball as he shot it back into the air. “Vente anti gev adi!”
Perfect. The ball went up precisely between the two of them. Not that it helped Baldewin any. Ravi still beat him to it, basically twirling mid-air like a ballerina, claw swiping the ball handily out of the air before he tucked it into his chest and shot off for the goal.
Baldewin didn’t even try to chase him. He flapped massive wings, hovering, then dove for Cameron.
Cameron let out a squeak as Baldewin caught him up in a strong grip, lifting him out of the stands completely. Cameron clung to him in a death grip, but Baldewin had him, tucked in safely against his chest.
“I call advantage!” Baldewin stated smugly.
“That’s not advantage, that’s fucking cheating!” Ravi snarked back, looping back with the ball still tucked into his chest. “Put him back!”
Now that Cameron was up in the air like this, flying, he couldn’t imagine getting back on the ground. It was exhilarating up here, the wind caressing through his hair like a lover’s hand, ruffling his clothes and putting a wide smile on his face. “Baldewin, don’t you dare. Two on one, Ravi! Man up!”
“Oh, you’re both going down,” Ravi promised with a feral smile on his face.
Alric stood on the balcony and watched the three play with a faint smile curving up the corners of his mouth. It had been ages since anyone used the field, so that alone made him happy. But seeing Cameron out there, using his magic just to play, was a relief. The man who’d been so adamant about not being a mage was now out there using wind spells to play ball with two dragons. The thought amused him.
And it was a relief, too, to see Cameron getting along so well with them. Alric wanted him to form close ties here, to make friends—to fall in love with someone. As a king, he needed to keep this mage. As a man, it was bittersweet in the extreme to watch Cameron laugh and play with his clanmates and know that eventually, Cameron would fall for someone. That he would have to watch it happen.
As hard as it was to watch in some ways, as much as it twisted at his heart, this was good. Cameron needed this sort of fun interaction. Alric had no intention of interfering with it. But it didn’t hurt to watch, right? Cameron’s obvious joy and amusement was too captivating for him to walk away just yet.
“There’s my wandering student. I wondered where he’d gotten off to.” Lisette came to stand at Alric’s side, shaking her head. “He’s a bit too green to be using wind spells like that. Although I suppose it’s good practice.”
“He seems to be doing rather well at it.”
“Hasn’t sent the ball out of bounds yet, at least.” Lisette pursed her lips, judging. “Ah, I say that, and he nearly does. Well, judging how much power to draw and use is part of it all. And he can’t kill anyone with that ball, so I suppose it’s fine to let them have their fun.”
