Draco kept wondering what was happening to the master, but both Captain Forth and Oscar assured him that the earl would certainly be all right. The dragon, however, remained restless throughout the morning. Neither combat training, meditation, reading books nor practising simple spells helped. He was constantly overwhelmed by difficult questions. Not knowing what else he could do, he decided to follow his mentor’s advice and went to see James in the afternoon.
The entrance to Matheo’s shop was closed, and a note inviting customers to return the following day was stuck to the window. Draco hadn’t thought beforehand about what to do in such a situation and was a bit annoyed with himself for not having asked about the entrance to the Vittoro house, which didn’t go through the shop. Ari and the rest had no idea either. So he stood in front of the door, wondering what to do.
‘Draco?’ James’s voice came from somewhere to the side. The elf was standing in the street in his everyday clothes, holding a bag of shopping. ‘How did your exams go?’ the long-eared boy blurted out excitedly.
‘Hi, it’s nice to see you too.’ The dragon breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a friendly face.
‘Oh, don’t be like that, tell me.’ The boy pushed his way to the door and began rummaging through his pockets. ‘Anyway, I’m not the only one who’s curious. The Master would have made the trip to Ed’heer himself long ago if there hadn’t been so much work.’ He continued, searching through his pockets. ‘Somewhere here... Oh! Here they are!' He cheered, pulling out a bunch of keys. 'I was starting to think they’d nicked them.'
‘From you?’, Draco asked, his voice tinged with disbelief. ‘Don’t you work here as a security guard?’
‘It happens,’ James muttered, shooting the dragon a warning glance. ‘You must not have come across those scoundrels from Xalveth yet. They’ve nimble fingers, far more so than they ought to.’
‘Who and from where?’ The dragon raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t heard that name before, and it seemed
