Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (23 page)

“
Well, why haven’t we used that before?”

“
Um, we forgot about it.”

“
How does someone forget about something like that?” She stomped angrily and put both hands on her hips, giving me a disapproving glare.

“
Sorry? Um, if it makes you feel better, I made your room much larger.”

“
You think a larger room will make me happy? After
you
nearly drowned me today, then without warning or sufficient preparation,
you
introduced me to both of your parents - twice! And in all the months we’ve known each other,
you
wickedly avoided telling me that
you
grew up in a dark elf village?” I winced each time she put an emphasis on the word “you” and I knew I had some making up to do.

“
You have a private tub that always keeps the water in it warm…”

Maya paused
, thought about it for a second, and then a broad eager smile crossed her beautiful face. “Ok…you’re forgiven!”

As we were
arguing, the twins put the warhorses away in the stalls with plenty of feed and water. With Rosa and Nia still asleep in my arms, I led everyone inside and showed the twins to their room. They were extremely happy and surprised that they had a room to themselves. I took Rosa and Nia and put them both to bed before checking in on the twins again. Apparently, they didn’t know what the beds were for. They were trying to sleep on the hardwood floor and my explanations didn’t seem to make sense to them.

After a long
discussion that was going nowhere, I gave up and went for the direct approach. I scooped them up one at a time and placed them in the beds like you would do for a child. I even had to tuck them in. Dragons are incredibly smart, so seeing two that couldn’t figure out a bed was rather funny. After making sure they knew where to find the washroom, and the kitchen if they got hungry in the night, I departed. On my way back to my room, I found Maya in her nightgown leaning against the hallway wall, a smirk on her lips.

“
I love the changes that you made to my room. But I have to ask, why did you add a double bed? Is that your attempt at a not-so-subtle invitation to share it with me?”

C
rap. “No, nothing like that! Just felt like you would like the extra room…”

She
smiled one of her evil smiles. “Well, too bad, then. Seeing that it is your birthday, I was going to let you join me. But since you added it just for me, it will have to stay just for me.”

Then she went back into her room, winked at me and closed the door
softly. I began to mentally reconsider my long-standing contention that dark elves are not naturally evil and sulked into my room. Nia was snoring softly on the windowsill. She’d had a very long day though, so I didn’t mind the noise. I had made my own room larger as well, with my own larger bed too. I cleaned up quickly, then dived under the covers and was soon asleep.

I woke up to the sound of my door opening slowly
. Then a few seconds later someone slid under the covers with me. I knew right away it was Maya just from the smell of her hair, which was still damp and fragrant from trying out her new bath. Silently she glided next to me and wrapped an arm around my chest. Her head rested on the back of my neck. I laced our fingers together and we stayed like that. Her breathing slowed as she fell asleep. I could feel her breath on my bare back, and it felt good. With her there, I was completely comfortable and very contented…all in all, it had been a great birthday.

Alex

The next morning, I woke up with Maya still wrapped around me. I really hope that one day soon we won’t have to do this in secret; I love her being here with me. Although, if anyone else wakes up before we do, we’re toast. Rosa has made this rule clear, even if we don’t do anything. I rolled over to face her, finding that she was already awake and smiling at me.

“
Good morning, beautiful. I thought I didn’t earn your company last night?”

“
Well, it was your birthday, and I felt this was a good gift.”

“
The best, thank you.” We kissed briefly before agreeing that we needed to get moving so the others wouldn’t notice.”

Once Maya
snuck back to her room and we were both dressed, we started our morning rounds. She went for Rosa and I woke Nia. Once done with my morning ‘unwrapping of the pixie’ routine, we joined Maya in the twins’ room. Maya was in her drill instructor mode, “Rise and shine! It’s a great day for training!”

The two of them were wrapped in their blanke
ts just like Nia always is, but Nia is much easier to pick up and shake free than they are. “Do I look like that every morning?” Nia giggled.

“
Yes, but you’re cute; this is just sad and pathetic. It looks like they are trying to strangle themselves with the blankets.”

Maya
stepped up to us after trying to wake them. “Well, poking and yelling isn’t working, any other ideas? Bucket of cold water?”

“
That could work, but hot water would be better.”

“
Why?”

“
Well, sliver dragons are similar to white dragons, they like it cold. So hot water would be more of a shock.”

I
grabbed a vase of water and used an enchantment to make the vase hot to heat the water. Once good and hot, I poured a little on each of the young dragons. The reaction was quite hilarious. Both of they were screaming as though it was ice water and were trying to get away from it, but wrapped as they were, they couldn’t move.

“
We’re up, we’re up!”

“
Please, no more water!”

They were awake but still
tangled in the blankets. Maya took the warm water from me and held it above them with her evil smile.

“
Well, what do you two have to say for yourselves? Training starts today and you two are still in bed.”

They scrambled out of bed
. “We’re sorry, Mistress, it won’t happen again. We just never slept in a real bed before and never had such a good night’s sleep.”

Maya
smiled warmly. “I know, and if we weren’t short on time for the next few weeks, I would have let you both sleep all day. But for now, it’s time for you four to get to work in the kitchen.” She turned to me and Nia. “And what are you making for us today, Master Chef?”

“
I don’t know yet, suggestions?”

“
Eggs, bacon, and sweet cakes, please!”

“
Ok, never mind, Rosa picked for today.”

“
I was surprised that she doesn’t have a hangover.”

I sighed
, “Well, once she figured out that I can cure them, she probably never will again. But for now, Dawn, Dusk, please get dressed and meet us downstairs.”

“
Um, Mr. Alex, what should we be wearing now?”

“
There are robes, undergarments, towels, and footwear for each of you in the closet. See you soon.”

We were
downstairs in the kitchen doing the prep work until they joined us. It took us a bit to familiarize ourselves with the new kitchen. I even added some perches so Nia didn’t have to fly when stirring a pot.

“
Master, this is great! I have places to sit and still work.”

I collected the bowls that we would need
. “I thought you would like them.”

“
But, do I have to use them?” She was looking a little coy.

“
Well, no, you can still fly if you like.”

“
No, I mean can I still sit on your shoulder? I like it up there.”

“
Of course, you can. I only added the perches so you have a place to work from, not as a place you must stay on.”

“
I’m glad.” She then took her normal place on my shoulder. Less than a minute later, the twins arrived. They both were in white robes similar to mine but had black cuffs and neckline to represent staff of the Enchanters Hall.

“
Mr. Alex, we are ready to work.”

“
Glad to see you both. But the first lesson is that cooking is not work if you’re doing it right.”

They both nodded
. “And today, I’m going to do something different. Seeing that Rosa wants a very easy breakfast compared to what she normally wants, I won’t be helping.”

All three of them were in shock.

“Instead, Nia is in charge.”

Her jaw hit the floor
. “But…but…but!”

“
You can do it. This is practice for you as much as it is for them. Besides, you taught Rosa already. I got everyone up early so you have plenty of time, even if something goes wrong. So, chop-chop, Rosa is very hungry.”

“
Well, this is a fine way to treat your bodyguard, Mr. Alex! But then, I doubt you were in any peril last night,” Nia smirked and flew off giggling into the kitchen. Ouch! Pixie blackmail alert!

It took a little longer than we were
hoping, and we lost a mixing bowl in the process, but that’s fine. They all came out of the kitchen with smiles on their faces, food in their hands, and joy in their hearts. I would say that my plan to make them friends worked just fine. We all sat down to a good meal with almost nothing burnt. The larger table worked out great, it was like having a large family over, and I think everyone felt the same way.

After everything was cleaned up
, Nia and Rosa went to the lab to work on their stuff. The rest of us made our way to the training grounds. The twins were surprisingly athletic and were almost able to keep up with Maya as they did their run, for a short time anyway. I spent my time with the new warhorses to see what they could do. As it turns out, that’s quite a bit. Their strength and size made them powerful, but their skills, training, and uncanny intelligence made them truly special. I put the mare back in her stall but allowed the stallion to follow me around, just to see what he would do.

Once the twins were almost dead from Maya
’s exercises, I took mercy on them and rounded both of them up, as well as Nia. I gave Maya a quick squeeze goodbye in her training armor as she headed off to train her guards. The twins stood there breathing heavy and soaked with sweat, and looking generally pitifully bedraggled.

“
Please don’t make us run anymore, I don’t think we can take it.”

Nia and I started
laughing. “Don’t worry; I’m going to feed you guys.” They both let out a sigh of relief. “Don’t relax yet, it’s still a mile walk to the food.” Their expressions went right back to the way they were. “But if you would like, we could ride there and I do believe he can take all of us with no trouble.”

“
Yes, please!”

We got some strange looks on our way to lunch
. Mind you, I would think that a man, two identical twins, and a pixie riding a pure white horse would be odd. I couldn’t tell who was having more fun, the twins or Nia. All of them were laughing and enjoying the trip through the crowd of astonished residents. Once we arrived at Central and everyone was on the ground, I sent my horse home, and yes, he knows the way by himself.

“
Well, who’s ready for lunch?”

Really
, I shouldn’t even ask anymore. Whoever said girls don’t eat much is insane. As always, they were starving, so I led them into the dining hall. But when the twins entered and saw all the people milling about, they froze in a panic.

“
Ok, you two, the reason you’re here is to get used to crowds, so let’s go.” Nia and I each took one and practically dragged them over to our normal table with Lin and Julia. We sat the twins down with their backs to everyone else so they only had to look at our table. Julia was acting like her normal self and gave her normal greeting. Lin, as usual, was more inquisitive.

“
Hello, you two. Who are your friends, new staff?”

“
Sort of. This is Dawn and that’s Dusk.” I waited ‘til they were done greeting each other. “They’re dragons.”

“
Huh?”

“
Dragons.”

“
Where?”

I m
otioned to the twins. “Right here.”

The twins waved and
nodded their heads. “He’s right.”

Julia and Lin
looked at each other, and Lin snickered. “Really, Alex, you’re not fooling us with a wild story like that, we’re druids you know.”

Dawn looked at me
and smiled. The pupils of her eyes changed, from the normal sliver-tinted human appearance to a vibrant silver and green vertical bar with a midnight black center. She reached out and grasped Lin’s hand under hers and allowed just the skin on the back of her hand to change to scale.

Lin
’s eyes bulged drastically as she looked down at the hand holding hers and then up into Dawn’s face. “Draconus Argentis,” she whispered excitedly to Julia. “A real, live silver dragon. Our books say they are almost…” She was about to say “extinct” but caught herself beforehand, thinking it might be rude. By this time, both human girls were holding Dawn’s hand and stroking the scales with great animation. Jules even leaned in to get a closer look at Dawn’s eye pattern, and Lin flipped open a small sketchpad and started drawing.

Ok
, this was not the reaction I was expecting, and poor Nia was laughing so hard she rolled herself off the table. Fortunately, she was quick enough to snatch a soft bun on the way down and used it like a pillow to break her fall. After a minute or so, the girls calmed down. Nia got off the floor and Lin and Julia released poor Dawn’s hand, which they had trapped in the name of science.

They started asking the twins all sorts of questions, most of them silly
. I could see that Dawn and Dusk had been elevated to the status of newest, most interesting friends in an instant. The dragons, on the other hand, were looking uncomfortable and scared. Hyper young teenage girls are apparently not in the wilderness dragon survival manual.

“
Lin, Julia, please calm down, you’re scaring them. Neither of them has had any real contact with humans, so this is all new to them. I brought them here so you two could help them to better understand normal life.”

“
What can we do to help?”

“
Take them out with you guys, talk girl stuff; just be their friends.” The twins were both smiling cautiously, clearly not knowing what I was getting them into. Lin and Julia also seemed to like the idea.

“
We can do that!”

Lunch was going
great. I stayed quiet and just watched as the girls had fun. Julia sat between the twins with Lin across from them. They were talking up a storm, and even though the twins probably didn’t know half of what they were talking about, they seemed to be having a great time. After a half hour, they were even asking the druids questions. Sadly, our great time came to an end as my least favorite person made a visit to our table.

“
Hey, scumbags! I hear you have more staff.”

All of our good moods
went in the dumps. Naton and his goons were back again; they always show up when we’re having a good time. Somehow, I was regretting not bringing my hammer this morning. But what am I worried about? I have Nia and two dragons as backup. Let alone my own strength.

“
Go away, Naton. There’s nothing for you here.”

“
Ah, but you see, I’m in search of some new slaves. Sadly, my last ones died from burns, and then I heard that you registered two more for your pathetic hall. You know the Fire Tower has a rule that we take priority on all new servants, so I’ll be taking these two. And, oh look, they’re twins.” Well, that wasn’t going to happen. But he still continued, “So why don’t you two come with me quietly, or I burn all your worthless friends.” He reached out and cuffed the back of Julia’s head.

Well
, apparently the last time I beat him didn’t sink in. This time when I stood up, his two goons tried to grab me and pin my arms - bad idea. They may be big bad fire wizards, but they weren’t exactly big bad men. In fact, I don’t think either of them was more than a hundred pounds. So they ended up flying over a table and landing in a heap. When they got up, they didn’t stick around.

“
Get back here, you cowards! He’s only one stupid enchanter! Fine, I’ll deal with him myself,” he groused, drawing himself up like he was about to do something epic.