Page 14 of His Greatest Treasure

The thought of Blaze in my bed made my face flame with the memory of my dreams and what I’d doneaftermy dreams. I really hoped fire spirits couldn’t tell when someone had, um, you know.

Blaze saved me from my embarrassment by gesturing at the basket I’d left on the floor by the door.

“Is that food?”

I grinned. My new friend was always hungry. That was okay. I’d like to feed him.

“Yes, it is. Help me get it onto the table. Then we can decide what you else you want me to bring out here so you’re comfortable.”

“You’d bring me something else?”

I looked around me. “Well, yeah. You can’t stay in here like this forever. You need something much nicer. I can bring some more comfortable chairs and some blankets. Do you need a bed? Oh no, you said you didn’t sleep, didn’t you? But you do like to shift into your flame form? Well I guess you need some kind of fireplace then, huh?”

“An oil lamp would be ideal,” he said.

“I’ll see if we’ve got one. If not, I can order it.”

The smile he gave me made me feel like I had given him the world. Wow, I really needed to be careful here otherwise I would get a really big head just from doing the most basic kind things for my friend.

I waited until Rhod was leaving his office for the day before I rushed over. I had known that he was in there but I didn’t want to go in and ask him about it while he was working. Also, I wasn’t sure if my father would be able to hear us talking from his office nearby, so I’d loitered until Rhod was leaving to go upstairs and change for dinner.

Then I struck.

“Good evening, Rhod,” I called.

He looked startled for a moment before his face settled into a sort of nothingness. He was very good at that. I hardly ever knew what he was thinking. I would think he was as cold as my father, except our bond was much gentler than almost any other I had. Rhod was one of the few others who had a bond with everybody in the clan, and it was thesame gentle, light little thing, almost like he was just monitoring them but didn’t want them to notice.

That made sense, I suppose, since he was my father’s Personal Assistant and he organised everything. As far as I could see, he did all the actual arranging of things and got everything sorted whenever one of the elders had an idea.

Now he looked at me with a professional blankness and he spoke with polite indifference. “Good evening, Alfie. What can I do for you?”

I wished I could do the same but I had never got the hang of it.

“It’s not anything really. I just wanted to be able to order something online, that’s all.”

Rhod gave a nod. “I’ll have the family credit card sent up to your room.”

I should have left it there. However, I’d been working myself up about this for a full two hours and so all my nervous energy was still balled up inside me and it needed somewhere to go.

It came out in words.

“I’m going to order an oil lamp,” I said. I nearly groaned at the look of alarm on Rhod’s face. Before he could ask me what I wanted it for, or suggestthat maybe I wasn’t allowed one, I blurted out, “I’m only going to use it outside. I won’t hurt anything in the house and I’ll be really, really safe. I’ll take extra care. Besides, I’m a dragon so I won’t burn. Well, I might burn if I’mmebut I won’t burn that much and I’ll heal again really quickly. When I learn to shift, I’ll never burn. But I can’t wait until then to get my lamp! I need it now. I promise I’ll be really good and I won’t set anything alight at all.”

Rhod was staring at me, his blank look firmly back in place. At least he didn’t look so startled any longer and maybe he’d let me have my lamp.

“I’ll ask Lord Somerville to authorise it.”

“You don’t need to do that! They’re not that expensive.”

“It’s not the expense,” began Rhod, and I knew exactly where he was going with that. It was because I was too young to be playing with fire.

Except I wasn’t young at all!

I was nineteen and I was grown up and nobody believed me when I told them that.

Suddenly, I felt angry. I tried not to feel angry, just like I tried not to feel proud, because both of them made me look more like my father and I feltless like me. However, the anger surged up inside me and I scowled.

“I’m allowed to order what I want. Father said so.”

---