Inquest

by Emily Thompson

  Twist closed his book, switched off the light, and then curled up under the warm covers. As he slowly drifted off, his imagination put faint, colorful lights in the dark ocean outside the windows, like dancing pixies in a garden, until his eyes fell softly closed. His dreams flooded in like a warm wave, with ships and talking fish, and a confusing game of chess with an octopus in a sunny underwater glade.

  Twist awoke suddenly to the sound of a startled scream. He sat up quickly, his eyes still blurry from sleep, and struggled to make out the source of the sound. A small, furry, black shape flew haphazardly away from Jonas as he sat upright in bed and gave a disgusted tone. Kali lifted her head, blinking her eyes lazily.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Jonas demanded of the thing he’d thrown.

  The small black fox scurried away to the other side of the room, catching its balance, before looking back at him. Then, the fox vanished into a cloud of smoke that quickly took the shape of Vane’s human form, fully clothed in purple silk and black cotton. He rubbed at his shoulder and gave Jonas a pitiful look.

  “What did you throw me like that for?” Vane asked in a whine.

  “What were you sleeping in my bed for?” Jonas bellowed back at him.

  “You’re all warm when you’re asleep…” Vane muttered, sulking.

  “Right, that’s it,” Jonas growled, getting to his feet to advance on Vane.

  “Now, now,” Vane said quickly, his eyes wide and his hands up as he backed away.

  “It’s very early,” Twist muttered, checking the time on his pocket watch. It was just past five in the morning, by Melbourne time.

  “See? You’re disturbing Twist!” Vane yelped an instant before Jonas came close enough to take a swipe at him. Vane vanished into smoke again before the fox reappeared, racing under Jonas’s bed.

  “Get out of there!” Jonas yelled, dropping to his knees at the side of the bed to look for the fox.

  Kali sat up and gave an enormous yawn.

  Twist thought of rolling over and covering his head with his covers to drown out the sound of Jonas’s violent declarations and the frightened yips of the fox under his bed, but he realized quickly that it would be fruitless. He knew that the battle wasn’t likely to end anytime soon. All hope of falling back asleep now was surely lost. It might be best to leave them to it.

  He got to his feet, threw on a pair of trousers, put a blue waistcoat over his shirt, and stuffed his feet into his boots, while Jonas tried to attack the fox under his bed with Twist’s walking stick. The tool didn’t seem quite long enough as Vane continued to yip at him fearfully. Kali got up to follow Twist out of the room.

  Twist pressed his ear to Myra’s door but heard no sounds from within. Feeling that it would be rude to wake her, he decided to let her sleep. Then he and the tiger walked down the long hallway together, in the deep silence of early morning, and found the salon empty. The lamps were all dark, and the only light was the dim blue glow of the sea that seeped in through the window wall surrounding the salon.

  Twist stepped up to the glass and looked up to find a faint glimmer of early sunrise on the surface, so very far above him. Looking down, the sea floor was lost in endless shadows. The abyss below was so dark that Twist almost thought he could see tiny, flashing, colorful flecks of light in the depths. He rubbed at his eyes to clear them.

  Twist heard a ticking sound on the glass and looked to find Kali standing with her nose almost against the window, pawing at it anxiously. Twist frowned, unable to see anything on the window, or beyond it, that Kali would find interesting. As he looked, however, his eyes detected the same tiny, colorful lights again. This time, the illusion appeared to be very near. Twist knelt down beside Kali and struggled to focus his vision into the dark water.

  After a moment of concentration, he realized that the light wasn’t an illusion at all but a tiny, glass-like animal in the shape of a narrow bell, which had flashing lines of bright color running up and down its little body. Mesmerized by the alien sight, Twist watched as more of them appeared when he focused on them. In moments, Twist saw that there was a rather large cloud of the creatures passing by, filling the sea with tiny glimmers of color.

  Kali seemed to relax once Twist had noticed the apparition, but she too stared intently at the lights as they flickered by. The brighter the sea became in the filtered light of dawn, the less and less Twist could see of the glassy animals. He was silently grateful to Vane and Jonas for waking him up in time to see such an extraordinary and subtle display.

  “Beautiful, aren’t they?” a calm voice asked.

  Startled, Twist turned quickly to see Hala seated on a settee not far from him. He hadn’t noticed her there before nor heard her arrive. She was dressed now in a white sari with fine black accents that mirrored the tattooed lines on her purple skin, while her long black braid lay like a python around her lounging form. Twist turned hastily to tuck the front of his shirt into his trousers. He wondered how awful his normally messy hair looked and passed a hand over it quickly.

  “Yes, lovely,” Twist muttered, looking back to the tiny, colorful apparitions in the water. “Do you know what they are?”

  “They’re a kind of jellyfish,” Hala said. “You can only see them when the sea is dark, but they’re there all the time.”

  Twist gave a thoughtful tone. He was somewhat distracted by the fact that he was alone with her. Although he had always found Idris mysterious and alien, the presence of this djinn felt oddly more powerful and strange to Twist. He also realized quickly that thinking of something to say to her was far beyond his abilities.

  “You’re a very curious dragon slayer,” she mentioned thoughtfully.

  Twist shuddered at the sound of the word ‘dragon’ against his skin and turned to find Hala looking at him appraisingly in the dim light. His heartbeat quickened, and he glanced away from her into the shadows of the salon. “Am I?” he muttered.

  “Most of the men who hunt for monsters are more…I don’t know. Imposing.”

  “I don’t hunt monsters,” Twist offered, wishing dearly that she’d stop staring at him. “I was simply attacked by one and forced to defend myself.”

  “Why did he attack you?”

  “I don’t know,” Twist said with a sigh. “He said something about wanting to sell me to someone and then started throwing magic at my friends, and grabbed me, and before I knew it I was hanging upside down by his claws and holding a bomb in my hand. I just…reacted,” Twist said earnestly to her. “I didn’t mean to kill him. I simply meant to not be eaten.”

  Hala watched him speak with a deeply pensive expression. “Who was he going to sell you to?”

  “I don’t know,” Twist said again, with another sigh. “He never actually said.”

  “Well, who would pay for you?” Hala asked lightly.

  “No one,” Twist said, shaking his head. “I’m not valuable to anyone, except maybe to my companions. But all of them—well, most of them—were with me at the time. Jonas was in orbit, held captive by the other drag—” Twist halted himself sharply, feeling an angry wave of energy begin to mount like a halo over his skin in anticipation of the word. He forced a cough hastily, to clear the sound of the half-formed word. Hala, however, didn’t seem to notice any of his discomfort.

  “Ah, I see,” Hala said, nodding. “Your companion was held captive, so you didn’t remember him.”

  “Well, not exactly.”

  Hala looked to him with a curious light in her mahogany eyes.

  “I never forgot Jonas when he was taken with the spell,” Twist said quickly. “Neither did Vane, or a young Sighted boy we know. Everyone else forgot him. They even fought with me when I insisted that he existed.”

  “But you’re human,” Hala said.

  Twist looked to her silently. With a cold unease, he suddenly remembered that he still had no real explanation for why the dragon’s spell hadn’t worked on him.

  “The magic of Zéphyrin and his brothers holds comp
lete dominion over mankind,” Hala said, staring at him again. “Only nonhuman creatures have any ability to combat it. The spell naturally wouldn’t work on a kitsune, but it had to work on you.”

  “Jonas and I…” Twist muttered, thinking through the few threads of logic he had. “Our Sights don’t work the same on each other as they do on other people. I can feel him,” he added, absently reaching up to the nearly unnoticeable buzz at his neck. “I can sense what he feels and where he is, without even being in the same room with him. I have, ever since we met. I think that’s why the spell didn’t work on me. It’s like we’re connected somehow.”

  Hala stared at him wide-eyed. “Neither of you have sensed this sort of connection with anyone else?”

  Twist shook his head.

  “How old are you?” Hala asked, her eyes narrowing in thought.

  Twist stared at her as a chill broke over his skin. “Why would you ask me that? The beast I slayed asked me that.” Standing silently at his side, Kali gave a low, anxious tone as she watched him.

  True alarm washed over Hala’s face. “Do you have the watch, or does Jonas?” she asked, almost in a whisper.

  “What watch?” Twist asked in desperate pretense, his breath quick and his heart now racing. The blue dragon, Kazan, had asked about Twist’s brass pocket watch—listing its design in detail without having seen it. Kali gave another anxious tone, looking quickly between Twist and Hala. Hala’s eyes moved to the pocket of Twist’s waistcoat and the chain that hung out of it.

  “It’s a small, handmade, brass pocket watch, with the image of a sun engraved on its cover,” she said in a hushed whisper.

  Twist felt cold sweat run down his spine. His instincts stilled his form, blanked his face of emotion, and informed him instantly of every exit out of the room. “What the hell does my watch have to do with any of this?” he asked, his soft voice cold and taut. Hala stared back at him for a long moment, still as a statue, while thoughts swam turbulently behind her eyes.

  “You don’t know the legend.”

  “What legend?” Twist demanded.

  Hala smiled slowly, warmly, as if a brand-new thought had suddenly occurred to her.

  “You don’t know the legend, and you are still alive. Your ignorance must be protecting you both.” Twist began to ask for clarity, but Hala held up a hand to silence him as she shook her head. “No,” she said gently. “I won’t undermine the sacrifice that has kept you safe for your entire life.”

  “What?” Twist balked. “I’m far from safe!”

  “You’re safer than you realize,” Hala argued. “I will not tell you anymore. Do not ask me to.”

  Frustrated, frightened, and confused beyond reason, Twist gave an exasperated groan, looking away from the djinn. Kali made a small sound and nipped at Twist’s hand. When Twist looked to her, he found a somehow very concerned and sympathetic hue in the tiger’s bright brown eyes. Twist petted at her brow, and she moved into his touch. He gave a sigh and tried to let Kali comfort him in her simple way.

  “Are you all right?” Jonas asked Twist at breakfast. He spoke softly while Myra chatted with Hala and Zéphyrin, who had recently discovered her charming nature.

  “I’m fine,” Twist muttered, jabbing with a spoon at his bowl of oatmeal as if it had wronged him. At his feet, Kali gave a sound and looked imploringly at Jonas.

  “Now, now,” Jonas said gently to Twist. “We’ve talked about this. You’re not allowed to use that word until you know what it means.”

  “Whatever,” Twist grumbled, stuffing a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth so that he wouldn’t be expected to talk for a moment.

  Jonas gave a sigh, looking to Kali. “I wish you could speak. If you could, you might be able to tell me what the hell I missed.”

  “Maybe he’s cranky because you woke him up too early,” Vane offered. He sat across the table from Jonas, well out of reach.

  “It was you who woke everyone up, not me,” Jonas snapped at him.

  “I was asleep!” Vane declared, affronted.

  “Yeah, on my bloody pillow!” Jonas growled.

  Twist took a slow, calming breath as he felt the weight of Jonas’s attention slip off of him. Kali made a stern sound and nipped at Jonas’s elbow. When he looked to her, she glanced pointedly at Twist. Twist frowned, watching this. Jonas gave a sigh.

  “Yes, yes, you’re right,” Jonas said to the tiger, clearly mastering his patience as he looked back to Twist. “So really, what happened?”

  Twist eyed Kali ungratefully. “You’re honestly taking orders from a tiger?” he asked Jonas flatly.

  “I am when she’s right,” Jonas responded. “Twist, why won’t you tell me what—”

  “It doesn’t matter!” Twist snapped, tossing his spoon at his oatmeal in frustration. The metal clattered loudly against the porcelain.

  “Is everything all right, dear?” Myra asked Twist gently.

  Twist rubbed at his face with a hand. “Yes, fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Jonas gave a sigh.

  “Oh, leave me alone!” Twist yelled at Jonas, startling him. “I can’t stand your incessant meddling. I should have just left you in orbit!” The others at the table looked to Twist with alarmed expressions. Twist felt his frustration boil over suddenly into embarrassment, making it impossible to remain. “Excuse me,” he muttered, getting to his feet.

  Tossing his napkin onto his plate, Twist rushed from the room with what little dignity he had left. He walked aimlessly, needing only to be somewhere else, but ended up in the salon as if out of habit. The moment he saw the settees by the long windows, his memory of the morning’s conversation stung at his mind. He snapped his eyes away and went up the stairs to the balcony that hung over half of the room. Finding a high-backed green velvet chair that faced slightly away from the windows—placed beside another chair and a small brass table, nestled in a corner of tall, full bookshelves—he threw himself into it and buried his face in his hands.

  As the violent torrent of his emotions began to cool into a low simmer, regret wafted up to the surface. The hurtful and untrue words he’d said to Jonas echoed in his darkened thoughts, in the imagined voice of a spiteful child. He knew well enough that he hadn’t truly been angry at Jonas but was simply running from the uncomfortable and disturbing implications of the morning’s conversation. Even now, his mind recoiled from every aspect of it.

  Twist closed his eyes, letting his hands drop to the armrests of the chair, and took a few long, deep breaths. He’d have to collect himself before he went to apologize to Jonas, if he wanted to do it properly. He cleared his troubled thoughts away from his mind, letting them clutter up the edges, and tried to focus on the silence he’d created. After a few moments, he felt his heavy heart begin to lighten, and the effort to push away his distracting emotions began to grow easier and easier. Twist finally opened his eyes, feeling like himself once again.

  “It’s all right,” Jonas’s voice said from close beside him.

  Twist jerked in surprise, turning to find his friend sitting in the chair beside his own, his posture relaxed and his face calm. Twist was grateful to find that the rest of the salon was still empty. Even the crowd of goblins that usually moved about at the edges of the space were still absent. When Twist looked back at him, Jonas’s purple eyes glowed softly and snapped into alignment with Twist’s automatically. In all of his effort to focus on calming down, Twist hadn’t even noticed the buzz that now purred gently at the base of his neck.

  “What’s all right?” Twist asked hesitantly.

  “I know you’re not really mad at me,” Jonas said with a gentle smile. “Don’t let any thoughts of needing to apologize add to your worries. You’ve got enough as it is.”

  Twist nodded, glancing away. “How long do you think it will be before we can read each other’s minds completely, then?”

  “At this rate?” Jonas toned, mocking an anxious air.

  “Well,” Twist said, gathering his pride
to look at Jonas directly, “I am sorry. You’re right. I’m not upset with you.”

  “Why won’t you tell me what is upsetting you?” Jonas asked, leaning closer. “I mean, if you have a good reason, then by all means, keep your secrets. I just can’t imagine what could have happened this morning to cause you so much trouble. I might be able to help, if you just tell me.”

  Twist looked at him silently for a moment, trying to figure out why Jonas wanted so desperately to solve Twist’s trouble. “It’s because you can feel it, isn’t it?” he asked finally. “When you’re upset, I feel it every time,” he added, his attention slipping to the buzz in his neck for a moment. “I keep forgetting that you are in the same situation, only with my emotions instead.”

  “You’re also my friend,” Jonas mentioned lightly. Pride bloomed awkwardly in Twist’s troubled heart to hear him say something so flattering, so directly. “So come on,” Jonas continued. “Give me a reason for your silence, or tell me what the hell happened.”

  Twist sighed and closed his eyes. “It’s just…” he began, wincing as the memories surfaced again. He forced himself to go on, relating the events of the morning as calmly as he could. Jonas listened quietly, though his expression mirrored Twist’s own confusion when Twist conveyed the fact that both Kazan and Hala had brought up the subject of Twist’s age.

  “So Vane’s big blue friend asked the same thing Hala did?” Jonas asked, once Twist had finished.

  Twist nodded.

  “But what does your age have to do with anything?” Jonas asked.

  “That’s exactly what I want to know!” Twist said, tossing his hands in the air as his frustration returned. “More than that, they both went on to ask about my pocket watch.”

  “What? Why?” Jonas asked, his confusion growing sharply.

  Twist shook his head. “I haven’t a clue. But both of them asked about it directly, asking if I had a brass pocket watch with the image of the sun engraved on the cover, in those exact words. It was in my pocket on both occasions, and there is no way that either of them saw it, even for an instant, before they asked about it.”