Origin (Scales N' Spells #1) - A.J. Sherwood Page 0,49
past several decades,” Warin pointed out with a sigh. “He takes on too much responsibility, sometimes. He blames himself for not finding mages before this. As if he failed us by not doing so. I suppose right now, he does give off that impression.”
And then some. Cameron had seen him smile, though. And laugh. He’d been great fun on the two times they’d been out together. But then, that sort of made sense, in context. Of course Alric would be in lighter spirits. Cameron’s arrival had given him hope. Up until now, he’d likely felt he was in a dark tunnel and even the light at the end was just an oncoming train. Everyone dealt better with a bad situation when they at least had hope to cling to.
“It’s not that he struck me as this too-serious guy,” Cameron sought to explain to them. “He was fun while hanging out with me. I guess I didn’t expect a dragon to play Dungeons and Dragons.”
“Oh.” Sasha snorted, lifting her cup to her mouth for a sip. “Yeah, the irony of that still amuses me. Ravi was the one to bring the first edition book home, so many years ago. Took a while for it to catch on—the rules are rather intense—but people had fun playing it. I’m not sure how Alric got pulled in.”
“Ravi,” Warin stated confidently.
“What am I being blamed for?”
Cameron tilted his head back to see the dragon standing right behind him. “Corrupting Alric with DnD.”
“Ohhh. Yeah, that was me.” Ravi plopped down in the seat next to Cameron’s, a slice of cake in his hand. “I accept blame for that. Cam, Lisette wanted me to assure you, he’s good now.”
For a second, that didn’t connect. Then Cameron spotted Alric across the room and saw him turn to speak to someone. He displayed no sign of the pain from before, his movements far less stiff and more fluid. Oh good, so she had taken Alric aside at some point and done something to help him. A spell or a potion, who knew? Cameron made a mental note to ask later, as he was curious on the how-to. It was a relief, frankly. Cameron had hated seeing Alric be in pain and yet smile as if nothing was wrong.
“Did he overdo it again?” Warin asked in dismay.
“Yeah, I think this was more a leftover of saving Cam from the kidnappers,” Ravi confided. “We’d mostly gotten the kinks worked out after that fight, but it wasn’t something to be fixed in a day.”
Cameron listened to this exchange with intense interest. “Does Alric normally overdo it?”
Sasha waffled a hand back and forth. “He’s generally sensible enough not to. But sometimes, he gets in this weird mood where he has to prove something, or do something on his own, and he’ll reinjure himself. Drives us all crazy. The reason he’s got four retainers is because it takes four of them to support him.”
“Gunter doesn’t count,” Ravi denied, biting into his cake with relish. “He’s too much of a dungeon dweller. He’s only useful when Alric needs to send someone out to research.”
Cameron hadn’t met Gunter yet, only heard him referenced several times. He’d have to find a moment to do so. Right now, he didn’t want these three sidetracked. He was getting an entirely different view of Alric through their perspectives, and it fascinated him. “Four retainers? I know about Baldewin, but who else?”
“Me,” Ravi lifted a hand briefly in the air. “And Dieter, and of course Gunter. Dieter sort of inherited the position, as he was the previous king’s retainer. He helped Alric take over the role and then just stayed. Sometimes the only person Alric will listen to is Dieter. Alric chose the rest of us.”
“Indeed I did.” Alric came to stand at Warin’s side, looking them over with his mouth curled at the corners, indicating he was pleased to see Cameron surrounded by dragons. “Ravi I chose for his fighting prowess. You’ll discover he’s the fastest in the clan.”
“You chose me for my good looks and stunning personality too!” Ravi protested.
Alric’s eyes cut to him with such a deadpan expression Cameron snorted a laugh. Ignoring the dragon, he continued, “I asked Baldewin because I can trust him, and we’ve known each other so long that we can anticipate how the other wants things done. It’s turned out to be a very good decision. Gunter, I needed his mind. That said, he’ll surprise you by how well he fights.”