Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
There was a shrill screech that caused everyone to cover their ears. It lasted for what seemed like minutes. Leander thought it had to be midnight.
"So that's why you laughed at the midnight screech? There is no way we could miss that," Seth grimaced, his headache wasn't going away and this just added to the pain.
"No one could miss that scream," Bracken stated with concerned. "How long has that been going on?"
"Ever since Agad left... something here in the keep is upset or happy. I'm not sure which but other than the midnight shrieks everything is calm," Celebrant said openly.
The mourning had started for Axezeles. Everywhere in Wyrmroost dragons and others were mourning for Celebrant's lost mate. By morning light every dragon, even those in the other dragon sanctuaries, would know Celebrant had finally confirmed her death.
"I have a confession," Bracken sighed now that their hoax had been successful. "We have lied to you but we did it for a good reason. We needed the conspirators to think they have succeeded in part of their plan. We knew there were probably empaths around and we couldn't take a chance on them being confused as to your true feelings."
"What did you lie about?" Celebrant looked at the four of them curiously. Empaths? Why would they be of concern? He wasn't angry – yet.
Bracken looked at Kendra and nodded. She smiled at him then she turned and smiled at Celebrant.
Unleea stood next to Kendra and smiled at them both, she wanted to hear the story again too.
"Axezeles is alive and well in Fablehaven," she declared happily.
Again Celebrant staggered to a seat.
No, he wasn't angry but he was definitely confused – she was alive? He stared at the girl as she told him their story. He was trying hard to listen but his mind was processing the idea that she was alive.
Yes, empaths would have known he was faking if he had known the truth. He would have to guard his reactions when he left this room but he was grateful he was hearing the amazing news.
Seth pulled Bracken to the far corner while Kendra talked to Celebrant about how they found Axezeles.
"Bracken, can I get a little healing?" Seth asked softly. "We ran into a situation, nothing to do with our original search. It's important information though."
"Sure," he said and put his hands on Seth's shoulders.
Seth immediately felt better, the ache in his head subsided. "Thanks!" he breathed with relief and began to talk. "Unleea and I found out about an attempt to kill Raxtus. They set me up. The whole trip to New Mexico was a ruse to get the avatar spell in front of Raxtus. No wonder there was so much dragon magic there," he said shaking his head in anger.
"Kill Raxtus – how? Why?" Bracken asked softly, confused and upset.
"Whoever these people are they didn't want Raxtus to be able to spy on them. They felt Celebrant was suspicious of them. They were afraid that he would have Raxtus spy on them using his invisibility. They weren't worried about what kind of dragon he was. They knew he would be dead before he could invoke a new avatar. The avatar spell was supposed to kill him," Seth quickly told Bracken.
"What? How was I supposed to die from the spell?" Leander's incredulous whisper came in loud and clear.
Seth ground his teeth. "Crap! You weren't supposed to hear this." That was the trouble with invisible people; you didn't know where they were.
"Too late. Do you know how?" Leander whispered.
"Yah! I do," Seth admitted.
"Can we talk about this later?" Bracken interrupted, he couldn't hear Leander but assumed he was talking to Seth. "We need to deal with Celebrant and Axezeles at the moment."
"What I was going to say is that these guys I found aren't the ones responsible for her accident or the murder of your siblings," Seth continued. "We still haven't found the conspirators."
"Aughh," Leander uttered a frustrated and angry growl. He understood. He wasn't really in any position to ask for more information now.
Kendra, Celebrant and Unleea looked up at the two talking in the corner; Leander's growl had echoed in the room.
"Sorry," Seth apologized to them for the noise. "Watch it," he whispered under his breath.
Leander was upset and didn't trust himself to moderate his reply, so he was silent.
Bracken and Seth walked back to stand close to Kendra as she finished the story.
"Where is she now?" Celebrant asked anxious, excited and still a bit confused and concerned about the removal of her heart scale.
"She is with the Caretakers in the main house, she is in good health. They have no idea who she is. She invoked her avatar and is learning about the new world around her. She wants to see you but knows that it might be dangerous," Kendra told him.
"I want to see her too but we need to make sure everyone is safe. Your tracker still hasn't found any sign of Raxtus?" Celebrant asked sadly, concerned.
"He found one of Raxtus' scales in one of the swamps, it seems he fell asleep there and may have been driven away or left on his own but he has only been searching for a few days," Bracken told him. "He did find her though, looking for one he found another. That has been sort of a distraction in itself. He got back to work immediately after we got her safely to the main house.
"We haven't given up on Raxtus, we will find him," Bracken said establishing Leander's lead role in her discovery and continued diligence.
"Now that we have you informed about her. We need to get back to Fablehaven and help him out if we can. You need to find those responsible for trying to kill her and who killed Raxtus' nest mates. My best guess is either wizards or demons but you never know what some dragons will do if they feel threatened," Bracken told him. "Seth, you heard nothing of interest out there?" Bracken asked him to confirm to Celebrant what he told him.
"Nothing concerning her – sorry. It was a long shot anyway," Seth replied apologetically. "If demons were responsible back then we won't find anything here will we? Those responsible may even be dead or locked up in Zzyzx now, so much has happened. But word will spread and there may be more information later.
"We did find a dwarf controlled by a narcoblix. I need to confirm what he was up to, but I don't know his physical location. I put a shadow in his mind and he will sleep for a while. If someone finds an unconscious blix let us know who he is. Maybe he will lead us to other's that might be important," Seth said.
Celebrant nodded his head confirming he understood the information.
"Are we going to spend the night or go home?" Kendra asked Bracken as she wearily sat down.
"Let's stay the rest of the night. We can leave in the morning." He smiled at her obvious tactic.
"I have rooms for you," Celebrant offered courteously.
"Thanks, I'm pretty tired," Kendra yawned.
"Me too," Unleea rubbed her eyes, sat next to Kendra and snuggled sleepily against her. Kendra put her arm around the little girl.
Celebrant continued to be a cordial host and personally took them to their rooms on the second floor of the Keep. One room for Kendra and Unleea but Seth and Bracken got individual rooms.
Fortunately for Leander, Seth's room was set up with three beds.
"Ok, spill it," he whispered to Seth.
"Can't! Bracken isn't here – we could be overheard. Try again in the morning or on the way home," Seth whispered back smugly as he crawled under the covers. He yawned and closed his eyes. He really didn't want to tell Leander anything until he had talked to Bracken about it first.
Ugh! Leander thought frustrated.
He felt his stomach grumble with hunger but couldn't hear it. He raided Seth's pack for food. As he wrapped his hand around a granola bar it disappeared, he could feel it but he couldn't see it. He opened his hand and the bar reappeared and fell from his hand. He picked it up again with just his fingers and it seemed to float in midair. If his hand didn't wrap all the way around it was still there but as soon as his fingers touched his palm whatever was in his hand was gone too. This was the first time he had eaten when he was invisible. He was amazed at the effect, but he absolutely didn't understand how it was happening.
He wondered if it was a new ability, a part of his new avatar's skills or something he had never noticed before now. When invisible in his dragon form, things didn't disappear when he grasped them. But as a human his clothes disappeared when he did, maybe he emitted a cloaking field around himself. He felt kind of alien and science fictiony, this wasn't 'normal' but it was so cool. His whole body churned with his excitement at his new seemingly magical/non-magical skill.
He held the food between his fingers so he would see it then tried it invisible, he finally got the hang of eating invisible food. He watched in the mirror and had to stop himself from laughing, as the food disappeared into his mouth. He finally worked out how to eat something and keep it invisible the entire time.
He ate until he felt his stomach wasn't going to grumble all night long.
He curled up on top of the covers of the bed next to Seth who was now snoring lightly. He fell asleep quicker than he thought possible being as excited as he was; strangely comforted by the familiar smell of dragon sulfur.
The next morning Celebrant joined them for breakfast in his human form, he was unusually quiet as they ate a wonderfully prepared meal.
If anyone had been watching Seth carefully he seemed to be eating twice as much as anyone else. Half of the food he was taking disappeared mysteriously before it reached his plate.
"Hey! Leave me some," Seth whispered a complaint when the fourth consecutive piece of bacon disappeared. A short whispered laugh hit his ear but the next piece of bacon made it to his plate and so did the next. He didn't know how Leander was doing it but it was a neat trick and also irritating.
Leander was enjoying their sleight of hand tricks almost as much as he was enjoying the breakfast feast. The food became invisible as he wrapped his hand around it, an amazing sight to see if you were looking. He still didn't feel anything different or magical about himself. He sat down on a bench against the wall and ate the food he had taken from Seth. The courage potion he had taken earlier made his empty stomach feel funny and the food was making him feel better. He listened to the conversation as his stomach somewhat soothed with the food.
"No one has come forward with news of an unconscious person," Celebrant told them. "The blix's companions may have found him already but if anyone else sees them I should hear about it.
"I'm coming to Fablehaven," he announced. "I have to see her and I can help her acclimate to this world better than anyone." His words seemed serious and subdued but there was an anxious excitement to his demeanor.
Great! Leander thought unhappily, now they will both be there.
"Um, okay, when?" Kendra said and looked at Bracken. She thought he looked like he expected the announcement.
Bracken nodded not at all surprised by his statement.
"I will come at the end of the week. I'll need to set up a story to explain my absence but I also want to start the investigation here. There are a few that I trust implicitly that will also be interested in the outcome of such an investigation," he explained.
"I don't trust anyone here except you," Kendra said to him while staring at her plate.
"I think I can trust Axezeles' mother to organize a search for her daughter's killer," Celebrant replied smoothly.
"Oh… well, I guess that would be true," she said and, looked up at him smiling.
"The helicopter will be in the forest in an hour. We need to leave shortly," Bracken said as he pushed back his chair and stood up. "I apologize again for the deception."
"Thank you for the entire series of events," Celebrant said happily. "I couldn't have asked for a more interesting night or more wonderful news. The sorrow made the happiness sweeter."
Leander was silent during the helicopter ride to the airport. Seth kept looking around wondering where he was. He had let them know he had gotten on board but he hadn't spoken since. Sitting on the floor near Kendra and Unleea, Leander brooded, though anyone else would have called it pouting.
He was surprised and yet unsurprised that his father never told Raxtus that he had a living grandmother. He wondered if she even knew about Raxtus or knowing about him had never wanted to meet him. Oh well, he sighed, just one more reason to stay human.