Page 30 of His Greatest Treasure

“He’s my brother! I told you that, didn’t I? I’m always talking about him.”

Alfie sounded surprised, and I had to admit, “You do talk about him.” I didn’t want to mention the admiration I could hear in his voice when he did. “But you never actually said he was your brother.”

“Oh. Well, he is. My brother, I mean. You’d like him. He was sent away, though. Father wanted him to learnto fight.”

“What about Morgan? Did he want to go?”

“No, not really. Maybe he might have wanted to go if someone was going with him, but he was scared to go to acuraidh’s castle all alone. I asked if we could go together but Mother went so white and her bonds drew so tight that I thought they might snap. She was petrified of us both going, so I didn’t push it.”

There was a lot of information in just that one little answer, and I tried to file it all away. Alfie spoke of bonds as though that was something I should know about, and I was going to have to ask him about it. That wasn’t the most important question, though. Right now, Alfie seemed concerned that Morgan was out there all alone.

“But nobody else went with him? Couldn’t one of your cousins have gone?”

“I don’t know. Father never mentioned it. He only wanted Morgan to go.”

I couldn’t help the tartness that crept into my voice as I asked, “Does your father always do what he wants, even if his clan doesn’t like it?”

“He’s our elder.”

“So?”

“So he’s in charge! He protects us. He has to keep everybody safe and it’s a great responsibility. He’s got to maintain all the protections around the borders.”

“I don’t think he does that. I didn’t feel any of his spells there until yesterday.”

Even if they had been there, they’d obviously not kept me out. Or that bullet. I’d only felt very old spells and the ones I could now identify as coming from Glimmer, the Guardian. He’d layered them up and up over the past two days, building a boundary so thick that it was practically a fortress. I hadn’t gone too far away from the woods, so I didn’t know how far these protections stretched. I doubted they covered the whole, vast territory. It would take one dragon weeks to cover that much ground and the spells would need to be constantly refreshed. I doubted that Lord Somerville had added any serious protections to the borders for a long time.

Alfie, though, wasn’t so sure. He suggested, “Maybe they were invisible?”

“Perhaps.”

Alfie fidgeted and his movements tugged on our joined hands. He still hadn’t let me go. Actually,that made me feel better and I wasn’t so bitter about anything while I was sitting there with the sweetest, kindest person alive. I tried to change the subject so that we wouldn’t argue.

“Tell me about the bonds your mother has. They sound interesting.”

From the relief in Alfie’s voice, I’d say he was just as keen to make sure we didn’t argue about his elder. I knew that I was probably never going to agree with him, but I also knew that dragons felt a deep loyalty to their clan and their elder on a visceral, primal level and it meant that Alfie probably wouldn’t agree with me, either. I was keen to avoid that particular argument.

“It was only the ones with me and Morgan that went funny at the thought of us both leaving. They sort ofclenchedas though she were trying to hold us tighter to her. I think it’s got to do with my older brother.”

As he said ‘clenched’, he gripped my hand tighter to illustrate what he meant.

“It’s about Morgan?”

“No, not Morgan. Myotherolder brother. Lord Somerville’s first-born son.”

“You’ve never mentioned another brother.”

Alfie shrugged. “I never met him. He died before Morgan was born. I don’t think he was that old. Probably only around my age.”

“How did he die?”

“I have no idea. Nobody will tell me. They don’t like to talk about Alexander at all. Sometimes it’s as though he’s a big secret that they’re scared people will find out about. I always get the impression that everyone’s thinking about himallthe time, but nobody will say his name. I think he did something.”

“What?”

I had to admit, I was curious despite myself.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it could be bad, though, because the bond he had with Mother was just like the one she has with me and Morgan.”

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