Dancing On Ice

The Santiago

"Dalton, wake up. Can you hear me? Dalton!"

It was like coming back to the surface after being so far under water you could no longer see the sun.

The voice was a target, something to focus on as he stumbled out of his unconsciousness, unpicking the threads of sleep that were sewn into him.

"Dalton, are you alright?"

He moaned, a hand going to his head. He felt like he'd drank a banquet's worth of alcohol, which he knew he hadn't.

There had been no banquet recently and he had enough people whose company he did not mind around him that there would be no need to drink himself into a stupor.

God, it would make a nice change to attend a banquet with people like Kazimir and Aeralie, to actually have a decent conversation.

Kazimir...

His eyes flew open in a panic and Cole grabbed his shoulders before he could sit bolt upright.

"Easy," Cole stressed, holding him down, "You may have hit your head. What happened? Everyone was in a dead faint."

"The king," Dalton choked out, "he's got some sort of power. He made us fall asleep."

"Power? What power? What are you talking about?" Cole asked, staring at him.

Dalton shoved him aside and sat up, his head spinning as he looked around the hall through blurred eyes.

Next to him, Perry was holding Aeralie in his arms, his hand against her cheek, saying something too low for him to catch.

Aeralie's eyes flickered and opened, looking up at Perry in surprise.

In the middle of the hall, Icadora was slowly sitting up, his hand to her head, looking sick and weak.

The queen wasn't there anymore.

Neither was the king.

Dalton's eyes slowly widened as he looked around the hall again.

Kazimir wasn't there.

All three of them had vanished.

"Where is he?" Dalton cried, pushing off the floor, stumbling and grabbing Cole's shoulder to balance himself.

"What?" Cole asked, still crouched on the floor, looking up at him.

"Kazimir! Where is he?!"

Icadora looked up at his voice, as did Aeralie, before they both looked around, horror dawning in their faces.

Kazimir wasn't in the hall.

He was gone. He wasn't there!

"Where is he?!" Dalton cried, turning on Cole as if he had the answers.

"I... didn't know he was here," Cole said, staring before looking back at Perry.

"What are you doing back here? I thought you had left?" Perry said, looking at Aeralie.

"We had," Aeralie said, sitting up, "We left last night but we realised something and had to come back."

"Something? Did you forget something?" Perry asked.

Aeralie almost laughed. "Not exactly," she said, slowly getting to her feet, Perry helping her. "We figured out that Kazimir was Dalton's twin brother," she said as she passed, moving over to Icadora, kneeling beside her to check on her condition.

Perry and Cole were silent for a moment, then looked as one at Dalton.

"I'm sorry," Cole said, getting to his feet, "I think I misheard. You have a twin?"