Curses & Cries ; Sebastian Sallow

chapter 16: Breakfast Manners

The breakfast plates had long been cleared away when Sebastian and Letty came down next morning. Was it imagining her still on that desk, Sebastian wondered, that made him less tired than he actually was at 7AM?

Samantha was pouring a kettle of water into Poppy's cup who sat between Amit and Garreth. On the other side was Letty who took a seat beside Ominis, Sebastian on her right, causing the former to start hacking and coughing into his mug. The table chorused with laughter.

"You've done it again," said Garreth.

"Well, it's hot," said Ominis, dabbing his face with a napkin.

There was a soft shake, Letty saw, in Sebastian's leg under the table. Samantha sipped her tea and looked suspiciously at her cousin, who was exchanging a smile with the boy and him whispering pastimes into her ear.

"No secrets at the table. We'd all like to hear if you don't mind," she said.

"Don't let him get started on secrets and all that," said Ominis irritably, but Sebastian, who enjoyed getting a rise out of everyone (especially Letty) had already said,

"Letty and I would like to be excused."

"For what?" said strict Samantha.

Embarrassed, Letty stared at her lap. Samantha, audibly fed up, sighed under her breath, for it was far too early to be dealing with children. However, they broke out laughing, and Sebastian noticed a mood in Ominis and made it clear with a point of his finger.

"Someone's got up with a cob on," he said. "Spit it out, Ominis. I'd like to hear about it."

Ominis was half glaring to show he was not to be trifled with.

He and Sebastian had many minor skirmishes in the course of their lives, for both had quick tempers and were apt to be violent. Sebastian teased Ominis, and Ominis was always irritated by Sebastian, so explosions were often and clashed with everybody else around them.

Finally, Ominis said, "You just couldn't help yourself last night, could you? Sulking and plaguing her with your negative emotions. Then you sneak her off before she could enjoy a bit of it. We were all thinking it, Sebastian. You're not sneaky at all. Great job by the way, the master bedroom was a mess when I went inside—" but a glance from Amit and Garreth made him fall silent; no doubt about the canister.

"You'd gone inside for what?" started Sebastian.

"That's besides the point. I've nothing else to tell, except you're the reason I'm in a mood. Thanks for your concern."

Here Letty exploded before the two boys could, for female rage took on its own, saying, "For heaven's sake, Ominis. You really are tiresome! Sebastian had nothing to do with it. In fact, I had a great time with everybody last night, just so you know. You yourself—you've been quite different lately, and I would have fussed about that if you hadn't done all these nice things for me. At the same time you wander off when I join in. And you've a new look on your face, sort of like discomfort. I hate that you can't get more than three words when we talk. It's exhausting having to chase you."

Ominis stared at her, amazed. Attacked and betrayed, by the one he only longed to impress. Sebastian was looking toward Poppy who, with a quizzical tilt of her head, looked quite terrified. Samantha set down her cup and the table followed her.

She said evenly, "As much as I can't stand your friends, Letty, you could be a little less expressive towards him."

As Letty turned toward her cousin Sebastian caught a whiff of conditioner, which put him in mind of fresh coconuts, even in the midst of irritability.

"I'm sorry, Sam. But he has been quite turned since the start of November."

Ominis spoke with a twisted calm. "That's pretty strong, coming from you."

"Meaning what?"

That, Sebastian knew, was not the question to ask. At this stage of their friendship Ominis caught on to patterns and kept to himself what he knew about the adult world, which the couple crossed and recrossed a lot. For now, he was less dangerous with his intentions.

In fact, Ominis himself had no clear idea of what he meant, but Sebastian could not know this as he moved in quickly to change the subject. He turned to Letty on his left, and said in a way that was intended to include Poppy across them, "They're lovely, aren't they? Mooncalf dances. I mean I can only imagine."

"Isn't that what you call her?" said Poppy, and gave no mind to Sebastian's look of horror. "I always thought she looked like one too because of her dewy eyes, so you might have a point. 'Little mooncalf.'"

Sebastian buried his face in his hands and, out of all the topics being tossed around, this was the one that made him wish he had stayed in bed. Letty could not even blush at the discovery, for a tempest clouded her mind at the previous topic.

She appeared to excuse herself from the table then returned shortly with the silk dress in hand and took it to Ominis.

When she got behind his chair, she said, "Tell me why you had a dress done, because the entire night I felt quite unlike myself. I don't care for it anymore, so I'm giving it back." And she seemed about to cry, for she remembered just how spoiled and foolish she looked, and everybody was just as bad for playing along.

"Letty..."

Ominis lost his flow of language and there was a desperate sort of look on his face. He was torn between explanations, to tell a lie or the truth, for one required a manful effort and the other a confession that would wreck all else.

He stopped just shy of the truth because ruining was not an option, saying in a voice that pinched him, "You wanted the fabric, so I got it. Just how Amit bought you a book, and Poppy a succulent, and Garreth the gardenias. Nothing more to it."

"Of course, when you have the money," said Sebastian with destructive intent.

"I can't help it if it's mine," said Ominis.

"Just shut up, will you? You really are a tiresome braggart!" Sebastian was shaking his head, and, having got up from the table, grabbed Letty in the process and made for the bedrooms where she threw Ominis's gift onto the bed.

"Did you really have to do that?" she asked him as the door shut.

Sebastian sputtered. "Were you not the one just now shoving that in his face?"

"Well, he's Ominis. But he's your best friend." Letty watched as Sebastian got his things together in a luggage. "What's wrong?"

"We're leaving—and with the goblin-silver."

"We're going back to Hogwarts?"

"Only to get our things from the Undercroft. Then we're heading to Feldcroft to see Anne. Have you got your broom?"

"There's one in the shed. Sebastian, you know we still have a week until we're expected back at school?"

"Letty, you're either with me or not. I don't know why we're spending reading week here in the first place when we could be learning goblin magic in the mean time. Now, come on. We've still got to find it. And before you say anything, Garreth's flowers stay here."