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Ben shook his head. “We didn’t wait to find out. Millie here dispelled the fog and it retreated into the woods.”
Dugal rubbed his chin in one hand as he studied me. “Did she? And Millie, is it? Not a bad name, as far as they go. Funny I never heard it before.”
“I’m not from around here,” I told him.
He examined me a moment longer before he nodded his head. “I see that now. Anyway, if it’s a longer chat you want you’ll have to wait till tonight. I do all my best work then along with my best chatter.”
Ben chuckled. “Some things never change.”
“And you can drop me off here,” Dugal added as he nodded at a nearby wall. “I’ll sleep here or crawl somewhere more comfortable.
“Suit yourself,” Ben agreed as he slid Dugal off his back and plopped the man onto the dirty ground. “Just remember the street is no place for an innocent bottle.”
Dugal raised the bottle and grinned at Ben. “I see you haven’t forgotten all the lessons I taught you. Cheers.” He fumbled with the cork but was sober enough to be able to pop the lid and take a big swig.
Ben stepped around him and looped an arm around my waist. He led me away, but I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder at the destitute man. He had struck up a tune and waved the bottle about.
“Leave me a life away from it all! Beneath the sky and the scrawl! Leave me a life as sweet as can be! Where nothing is worn but my ealdan key!”
We reached the end of the alley where I tugged on Ben’s sleeve. He stopped and turned to me, and I nodded at the swaying form that was Dugal. “Should we really leave him there?”
Ben looked at where I indicated and a crooked smile slipped onto his lips. “He’ll be alright. He’s always lived like that.”
“Like a bum?”
“More or less so.”
“But you said he was good with magic.”
“One of the best, but he prefers to live a simple life,” Ben assured me as he led me out into the street proper. “I wouldn’t have guessed he’d even been outside the Werewald except he has some knowledge of the Enastros Academy.”
“That’s the one the professor went to, isn’t it?” I guessed.
“Just the same. The tight-lipped Dugal once told me he’d seen a brilliant cherry tree situated in the middle of the campus. The prettiest thing he’d ever seen, he said. I confirmed with our dear professor that such a tree still existed on the grounds exactly where Dugal had described.”
“So did he teach you some magic or work for your family?” I asked him.
“The former,” Ben answered as he gave me a look of warning. “He was most keen to see what I could do with my affliction.”
My eyes widened and I nodded. “I see. And did he help?”
“Far more than my mother could have ever hoped. Without the professor and his help, I would never have mastered my abilities.”
“So what part did Dugal do?”
Ben flashed me a mischievous grin. “The sneaking part.”
We reached the carriage and I snorted. “Of course he did. Did he also teach you to hold your liquor?”
“When I was old enough,” Ben admitted as he eyed the former establishment of our former companion. “What do you say to taking a drink here?”
I studied the ‘rustic’ architecture of weathered boards and dingy darkness and wrinkled my nose. A sign above the door read ‘Moon Palace.’ “Why here?”
“Dugal is rather particular about his haunts,” Ben mused as he led me toward the open door.
“Doesn’t he just go to the ones where he hasn’t run out of a tab?” I mused.
“There is that,” Ben agreed as we sauntered inside. I was relieved that the air, while a little musty, wasn’t puke-laden and the front windows let in enough light to crowd the shadows into the deepest corners. Ben led us over to a small round table where he seated me first before dropping into the chair beside mine. “But he’s never so drunk that his ears are shut to the latest rumors and gossip.”
