The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans (3 page)

“We’ll
be fine, we had a nap,” said Julian. “Alys promised treats when we
get home, too.”

“Ooh,
maybe I should take your statements at your flat, then,” replied Murielle
with a grin.

“You
could,” said Julian, quite seriously. “You know they love it when we
have guests.” Their brownies seemed to thrive on extra work, so their
friends had taken to leaving things there to be mended, dropping in for random
visits, and generally abusing poor Alex’s inhospitable nature by forcing him to
enjoy having friends.

Julian
loved it, and he knew Alex secretly did, too.

Murielle
grinned. “Let me see if they can spare me, then, things seem to be mostly
wrapped up here anyway.”

“You’d
be welcome, too,” said Alex, but Mary Margaret waved them off.

“My
Mister will be by in a bit with some food for us, and then we’ll get the
weekend crew in to start cleaning up once they release the crime scene in a few
days,” she said. “You need to rest, and so I don’t plan to see you
until I call you in, all right?”

Julian
nodded. “Yes, ma’am. You’ll call me if the plants need me, though,
right?”

“I
will, I promise,” she said.

“Ye
ain’t quite done here, yet, anyway,” said Con’s voice, from the vicinity
of Alex’s ankle. “I had me a good look around, and there’s something
you’ll be wanting t’listen to.”

“Just
me, or both of us?” asked Alex. Con hadn’t been visible when he started
talking, but, he was now, with a tinkling trio of Horace’s damaged feathers
hanging down the front of his clothing, looking huge and gaudy but somehow
fitting in with the rest of the little curls and bits of metal holding the
scraps of cloth and leaf together.

The
earth sprite thought about this for a moment. “Both’s probably best,”
he said, gesturing. “C’mon, it’ll take yon agent a bit to get free.”

Julian
quite liked the little earth sprite, and not only because his timely
information had helped save their lives. “Will you come back with us for
dinner?” he asked, following the small faerie. Con always seemed to move
faster than the eye could quite follow; his gait and pace looked like a
leisurely walk on stubby little legs, but his actual progress kept up with Alex
just fine.

“Would
that be a guest’s invitation?” asked Con cheerfully. “If so, aye, I
always do like a bit of tea an’ bread at yours.”

“Of
course,” said Julian, and Alex echoed the sentiment.

They
stopped by the unfortunate bed of ex-clover, the plants splashed with darkened
red and the earth nearly black where the blood had soaked it. “Now,”
said Con, walking over the crime scene without leaving a trace of himself,
“listen right here, but down.”

Alex
nodded, taking Julian’s hand in his, with his watch fob held between their
palms. He’d explained its use to Julian, and now Julian thought of the green
gold as plant tendrils cradling the strange fruit of the volcanic diamond. He
felt that new sense sharpen, and when Alex held up his tuning fork, Julian
smiled and pinched the tines the way he’d been shown, starting up a soft, clear
tone.

The
plants here were in much worse distress than the greenhouse plants had been,
physically damaged as well as magically. Julian’s heart contracted, but he
couldn’t do anything for the ones in the middle of the crime scene or Lapointe
might have his head. Instead he pushed that aside as Alex was teaching him to
do, learning to recognise the feeling and move past it. He sank his awareness
deeper into the earth, following a very soft, quiet thread.

“Oh,
there’s a seed!” he blurted out.

“It’s
very powerful, they must have put all the charge they got into it,” said
Alex. “Can you tell what it is?”

“‘Tis
wormwood,” said Con.

“That
would give really strong protection, or it could also be for a binding,”
said Alex worriedly. “I’ll let the techs know it’s there, do you think we
should dig it up?”

“No!”
said Julian, then his brows knit. “Oh, it doesn’t want you to,” he
said, flushing a little. “Which probably means you should.”

“Ye’ll
put a crimp in somebody’s plans if ye do,” said Con, with a wicked grin.
“That’s all I found that ye hadn’t already covered. Good job with yon
pretties, by the by, I thought some of those were gone for sure.”

Julian
practically glowed at the praise, which felt very sincere coming from a real
faerie. “Th- um. I’m glad you think so?” he fumbled, remembering
almost too late that fairies didn’t like to be thanked.

Con
just looked amused. “Ye’re starting to think of me like a person,” he
said.

Julian
nodded. “Yes, I suppose that’s it. Fairies were just something for tales
and traditions for me before I met Alex, I hadn’t really interacted with any of
them. Now that you’re real, it’s hard to remember to do some things
differently.”

“Con’s
our friend, so it’s hard to think of accidentally obligating him,” said
Alex with a smile. “Our house-brownies are very tolerant, and have set up
a whole system for discharging thanks-obligations from their idiot
humans.”

Con
snorted a laugh. “Aye, I bet they have, at that.”

Alex
did the little quiet whistle he did when he was listening for something, then
tugged Julian’s hand. “Lapointe’s over this way, probably with Ms. Eberly,
which is convenient as they’ll both want to hear our discovery.”

“August
is a strange time to be planting, isn’t it?” asked Alex as they walked.

“Well,
not as much in the nursery, we keep it warm here so things grow even in
winter,” said Julian. “Or they could’ve put a spell on it, to grow
faster or slower. It could sleep under the earth until spring, gathering more
power and sickening the rest of the plants, or it could use the power it’s got
to shoot up and be ready to harvest faster.”

“Do
you do that, make plants grow faster?” asked Alex, intrigued.

“Not
very often, it’s hard on the soil and the plants, and you have to use a lot of
extra care to make sure it’s got everything it needs,” said Julian.
“We’ve had a couple of people ask, and Mary Margaret let me help on the
one she agreed to, which was a rare seedling he needed nurtured quickly past
the fragile stage.”

Alex
kissed his hair. “Oh, I remember that, that was the one you brought home
for a weekend so the butterfly fairy could sit with it, right?”

“Right,”
said Julian, giving Alex’s hand a squeeze. They were still holding the little
bauble, and it made him feel more open, giving him a sense of all the plants as
they passed them. “I really like your watch fob, I should look into
finding something like this for myself.”

“I
couldn’t make one quite like it,” said Alex honestly. “The materials
are too rare, and my little workshop’s not set up for gem-cutting, but I might
be able to do something that’s different but with a similar function more
suited for you.”

“You
don’t have to,” said Julian, though he added honestly, “I would love
it if you did, but you know I can afford to buy charms, too.”

Alex
smiled down at him. “I know you can, but I find myself itching to do some
more custom charms for my loved ones. James and Jacques say their amulets are
doing well, and having them cross-contribute has really helped mesh their magic
at a new level.”

Julian
giggled. “I still say they should’ve given each other…” He trailed
off his bawdy suggestion when they rounded a rack of ferns to find Lapointe and
Eberly deep in discussion over some paperwork.

Alex
sniggered. “Now, now, you know that’s not really allowed.”

“A
shame,” said Julian, kissing the back of Alex’s hand. “They don’t
know what they’re missing.”

“What
else did you find?” asked Lapointe, spotting them.

“And
what is that?” said Eberly, backing away a step from their group and
pointing.

“Oi,
now, that’s not sporting,” said Con indignantly.

“This
is a friend of ours, he’s an earth sprite,” said Alex. “I asked him
to look around because he can interact with the plants and the earth in ways we
can’t.”

“He
found something for us, too,” said Julian, wanting to defend the faerie.
“There’s a wormwood seed planted under the sacrifice, that’s what they
were putting the power into. You’ll want to dig it up and have someone look at
it.”

“Don’t
leave it to sprout, not even overnight,” warned Alex. “And don’t
replant it.”

“A
seed?” said Lapointe. “All this for a plant?”

“All
this for a very magical plant,” said Alex. “Like the espresso of
magical plants, concentrating its properties, so whatever they do with it will
be super-powered.”

“So
it’s like that movie we saw,” said Julian with a grin, “where they
killed the guy to get his eye and hand to get in and get the one piece of
technology that was the start of their doomsday device.”

Murielle
laughed. “God, that was awful,” she said. “I hope this isn’t
about a doomsday device.”

“Me,
too,” said Alex, “but it’s a good analogy.”

Julian
preened.

Alex
kissed his hair, then turned back to Lapointe. “Anyway, can we steal you
yet? I’m hungry.”

“Nat
and Alys promised something good,” said Julian coaxingly.

Eberly
laughed. “Two sets of puppy eyes,” she said. “You’re
doomed.” She seemed to have overcome her discomfort mainly by pretending
Con didn’t exist, which was annoying but worked for the moment.

“Do
you need anything else from me?” asked Lapointe, trading a few papers from
her pile for a few from Eberly’s much neater clipboard.

“I’ve
got your number, go on,” she replied, shooing them off. “I can handle
what’s left to do here, which is mostly digging up your boys’ magic seed now
that we’ve processed the scene.”

“Not
mine,” said Alex, hands up as if in surrender. “That is so not my
style.”

Julian
giggled. “It really isn’t, Alex is more of the saving people sort.”

“Well,”
said Lapointe, and they exchanged looks.

“Not
Armistead,” said Alex, Julian and Lapointe in unison.

Eberly
was still laughing as they made their way up front and out to Lapointe’s car.
Con told them he’d meet them there and vanished, which made Lapointe stare and
Julian laugh.

“He
doesn’t like all the cold iron,” said Alex. He took shotgun, as usual, to
accommodate the long legs Julian was so very fond of. Not to mention the cane
he still used, though these days it was mostly for magic. It was also a little
bit for show, not that Alex would admit it.

“I
hope Alys made enough for everyone,” said Julian, though he wasn’t really
worried. The fairies tended to make plenty of extra, just in case, and any
leftovers were put to good use. Julian and Alex had set up a tablet computer
for them so that they could order groceries to be delivered using Alex’s bank
card, and so far they’d kept the household running neatly under budget. Alex
assured Nat regularly that even the fanciest food deliveries cost less than his
old takeaway habit, not to mention the estate-grown ingredients that Victor and
Emmy both sent over on a regular basis.

Julian
still missed the St. Albans chef sometimes, but he loved all the magic in his
life now. Besides, they visited Emmy every week or so, and Jacques even brought
by sweets sometimes when he and James came over to visit. “When are James
and Jacques coming over next?” Julian asked Alex, when they were all
buckled in.

“A
week from Friday, I think, why?” asked Alex, curious.

“I
was just thinking about Jacques’ cooking,” said Julian with a grin.
“I’m hoping for another Opera cake.”

Alex
laughed, turning to look at Julian fondly, which made Julian warm to his toes
even after living together for months. “I’m hoping for something with
fruit in it, remember that plum pie?” said Alex with a happy sigh.

“Ooh,
yeah, that was really good. Did you send him over some of the last shipment of
berries and peaches from Emmy?” asked Julian. With the brownies’
permission, they sometimes sent Jacques fruit or herbs from the two estates for
his own cooking, when he wasn’t busy on a job.

“I
did, along with plums and those tiny early apples from Victor,” said Alex,
smug.

“You
guys are making me hungry,” said Lapointe crankily. “I haven’t had
much but cookies and tea all day.”

“We’ll
feed you,” promised Julian. He let the conversation go back to the case,
leaning back against the comfortable seat and trying to ignore that this time
the facts of the case pertained to him. It was a little too much like his
disastrous Courtship; he’d already lost his future with Cecil, and didn’t want
anything to threaten his future with Alex.

Con
was waiting by the door to the flat when they arrived, looking smug to have
beaten them there. “I was wondering when ye’d be arriving.”

“There
was traffic,” protested Lapointe, but she was smiling.

Alex
let them all in, though he had to pause to whistle at his very fancy wards to
let Con in. They liked the cheerful faerie, but everyone agreed he couldn’t
really be trusted with carte blanche entrance into the flat, and Con was never
offended. He seemed to enjoy securing his guest-rights every single time, anyway.

“Nat,
Alys, we’re home!” said Julian. “We have Con and Murielle with us for
dinner.”

Alys
poked her brown head out of the kitchen. “Welcome,” she said with a
grin. “Dinner’s almost ready, we’ll eat with you.”

The
two brownies had only recently begun to socialise with Julian and Alex. They
seemed to relax more when Con was visiting, but still hid from James and
Jacques. The two Guardians were intimidating to more than just humans, even
when they were off duty.

Julian
grinned. “Good,” he said, getting an amused look from Con. “I
did say I was learning.”

“That
you did,” agreed Con, taking a seat on the couch without seeming to climb
up. “So, mage, are we doing our usual trade, two bits of information for
one of the bent feathers?”