Rowan crouched in a ledge above one of the older, more irregularly carved passageways of Shivran Aerd, wings half-spread and body pressed to the cool stone, fingers curled around the lip of the ledge. All he had to do was sit in the dim corridor and wait; he knew that Kin would be passing this way any minute, since he'd been tracking her all over the Aerd off and on that morning, and he loved to annoy Kin! She always threatened to incinerate him-- and she could, certainly-- but she never would. Scorch him a little, maybe, but not incinerate him. He could handle a couple burnt feathers-- though they smelled terrible, they'd always grow back just fine!-- in exchange for the stupidly stunned look on her face when he pounced her. Besides, the prestige with other Aerd-brats would be priceless if he were the one to take her unawares not once, not twice, but this would make three times, if he succeeded! This was so much more fun than stealing his sister's clothes while she was in the shower, which is what he'd done yesterday.

Of course, that hadn't involved nearly so much sitting still for nearly as long. The boy tried to keep himself entirely quiet, but it was hard work! He liked to be moving, not sitting in one place for even a few minutes-- he was, after all, only twelve, and a highly energetic twelve, at that! Every little thing seemed to be trying to get him to move: his foot itched, his wing twitched, his hand cramped, a muscle complained in his side, a stray hair tickled his nose... all were conspiring against him! Only the picture in his imagination of Kin's face as he launched himself at her kept him resolutely in place.

Even then, he had to keep himself occupied somehow while he waited, or he'd just give up in boredom! So, he surrounded himself with darkness-- the black mist of his magic, or Majyck as his exasperated teachers were always saying it was spelled-- and, ignoring the chill of it and the faint scent of rain that always accompanied it, tried to coax patterns out of the gray-blue sparkles that filled it. At least the faint wind-sound remained that: faint, since the invocation was very, very slight. Otherwise, he might have alerted someone to his presence, and that would ruin everything!

Finally, finally, the sound of footfalls and voices distracted him from his impromptu game-- he'd managed to coerce the sparkles into the image of his mother, though it was only vague, and had no color or depth to it; he could create illusions well enough, but controlling the manifestation of his Majyck to such a degree was more difficult, and less versatile. No matter how difficult it had been, though, at the unmistakable sound of Kin's voice, irritable as always, it all dissipated into nothing, leaving behind only a lingering sense of dampness and cold. Rowan grinned wickedly and wriggled a little farther back in his nook, feet braced against the wall, legs bent and ready to launch him out, wings spread and waiting.

"I don't see why we have to go," Kin was grumbling. "Again."

"Now, now," her twin brother, silver Gin, was soothing. "The Aerd-Lady has her reasons. It's not as if it will be boring, after all."

"I still wish she'd pick someone else. It's not as if I even like dragons, and Szeretet-Sperare did fine last t--"

They passed beneath him, and Rowan sprang! For one beautiful moment, he was in the air, diving for Kin, and the golden-furred vulpyr's face was exactly as he'd imagined it: blank with shock and disbelief as she half-turned towards the movement she'd caught out of the corner of her eye. Then the moment ended, and he crashed into her, sending them both sprawling across the stone floor.

"Kin!" Gin cried, startled.

"Brat!" Kin snapped, recognizing him somehow despite the lack of light and the speed at which he'd tackled her. Before she could grab a hold of an appendage to keep him there, though, he'd spring-boarded off her belly and sped away, wings beating like a blur in the wide tunnel, already escaping.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Kin shouted after him, but he hardly heard her, laughing his head off and racing for some safe haven where she couldn't find him or catch him, quite content to get lost in the tunnels under the Aerd, and quite heedless of where he was going.

"I got 'er again!" he crowed to himself once he was well out of earshot, and still flying. "Yes, yes, yes! The guys're gonna be so jealous!" It was something of a game amongst the low-level, unbonded and largely unsupervised Aerd-brats to see who could get the best jumps or jokes on the important people around the Aerd, and Kin was something of a favorite. Perhaps it was the element of danger involved, since she had such a temper-- or perhaps it was just the temper! Soft-spoken Gin hardly ever got tackled from a dark corner, or found frogs in his bed, or got big chunks of salt dumped on the sly into his stew.

Hardly anyone bothered the Aerd-Lady, though. She may have been important, and she was certainly public, but she was scary-- and besides, it was almost impossible to catch her anywhere, to play jokes on her! Rowan, who fancied himself the bravest of the Aerd-brats, had even tried once or twice, but he'd never been able to find her, or track her, or even find any of her things.

Except, of course, when he wasn't looking for her.

He rounded a corner, still congratulating himself on his well-planned attack, when he flew smack into someone big, sturdy, and berobed. Rather than both of them going sprawling, Rowan bounced back as if he'd hit a wall and landed on his rump on the floor, hair a mess and wings askew. He rubbed at his head with a little groan of "of", then looked up to see just who-- or what!-- he'd run into.

The glittering eyes beneath the raised hood told him enough.

"The Aerd-lady!" he squeaked. No amount bravery was enough for an unexpected meeting with her, and rather than stick around to see what kind of answer she might have for reckless boys who ran into her in dark hallways, he scrambled to his feet, summoned up a black-and-blue wind to speed him along, and sped away as fast as his wings could carry him.

He thought he heard her chuckling behind him, but he was too busy being glad she wasn't chasing him to bother to be indignant just then! He could be insulted later, now he just wanted some distance between them! And he got it, thankfully, without a hitch.

Unless you counted finding his way back to his room again....

Chapter Two

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