9 years later...
Aiden smiled at the Cook. She didn't appear to be mad and she had no way of knowing he'd been the one to take the pie and he'd left no evidence behind. Not after last time. As if remembering, his tailbone began throbbing, and he resisted the urge to flinch.
Cook surveyed the room looking over the boys. It easily could have been any of the ten of them, and they were all looking at.
"Use your cuteness." His father had said. "You're at the age where if you tilt your head down and lift your eyes, it usually works for you."
"Not to mention," His mother added. "You have long eyelashes. It makes you look adorable."
He followed the advice and looked at her innocently. He didn't tilt his head too far down, that would have made him appear guilty. He put a curious look on his face as if he didn't know why he was here.
Cook looked down at him suspiciously. "Aiden."
She was calling him out after he'd eaten the cake last month. The last suspect is always the first name to come up next time.
"Yes?"
"Did you eat my cherry pie?" She was looking closely at his face. Checking for a sign of guilt.
"No. I wasn't aware you'd even made anything."
Not a lie. It was a strawberry pie, Cook was trying to trick him. Besides nobody had told him, he'd walked by the kitchen and had smelled it then. He'd peeked his head in and saw Cook working on it, then had scampered away already planning how he'd get it.
She bent over and looked closely in his eyes. "Aiden. Are you lying to me?"
The cook had a slightly irregular right eye which happened to twitch every time she focused on something. It created a creepy feeling and made you feel like she was looking right through you. But she wasn't.
'Breath.' Aiden told himself. 'Just breathe.'
"No ma'dam. I wasn't anywhere near the kitchen today, until you called for us." As soon as he felt the words come out of his mouth and immediately felt something wrong. He'd done something wrong and she knew it.
"Then why..." The Cook asked breathing slowly and a wicked smile coming over her face. "Did Alexis say she saw you look into the kitchen?"
Rats.
'Gonna have to improvise.'
He hadn't realized that Alexis, the Cooks assistant had been there too. He'd been too focused on the pie.
He put his head down as if ashamed. "Your right, I lied. I was by the kitchen. But I didn't take the pie. I just didn't wanna be a suspect, I'm still trying to gain every bodies trust back."
He tried to summon a tear but failed. He quickly turned it into a blush of shame. Cooks stared at him intently before opening her mouth to speak.
"I need to speak with Aiden." His father's warm but commanding voice came from his right, by the entrance to the kitchen.
"Lord Gideon!" Cook exclaimed. "I didn't realize you were there. I was just trying to see who ate the pie I had prepared for tonight."
"I heard. But I need to talk to Aiden for now, you can question him later, right?"
Cook looked slightly irritated, but smiled. His father was a likable man.
"By all means, My Lord."
Aiden fell out of line and jogged over to his father. He kept his head down. Not ready to meet his fathers gaze yet. His father said nothing as they turned to the hall and began to walk.
As soon as they were out of earshot, his father pulled him into a quick grip and rubbed his head with his knuckles, laughing all the time with a bright smile. "Cook almost got you this time, didn't she?"
"Yeah." AIden muttered upset. "She'd the only adult here I haven't managed to trick at least once. I think it's her eye. It always rattles me, just when I'm about to be in the clear."
"You went too far with the lie. Don't volunteer any lies, if anything throw a little bit of truth in next time."
"Oh. To make me more credible." It made sense. Brilliant actually. Wait a minute, Father had been there the whole time?
"I still think it's odd that you had me steal the pie early."
His father winked at him. "Well once you told me, I wanted it then. If its for me, whats the harm in having me eat it?"
Aiden thought about it for a second. Logically it made sense. And, father always knew best. He smiled.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Aiden asked as they walked.
His father sighed. "I'm leaving again tomorrow. I have another meeting with the King.
Ah. "What for?"
"There's been school children going missing. And every single one of them as geniuses, brains ahead of their years by far."
His father turned to look at him with and odd look and Aiden stared back puzzled.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just thinking. How's your schoolwork been going?"
Aiden shrugged. "Fine. Tiring."
Aiden's head stung as he thought of the mean teachers who were constantly bombarding him with questions and homework day after day. The math classes, language, history, and reading were all fine, and he found he didn't mind those classes. Some he even enjoyed, such as fencing, horseback riding, martial arts, the rules of combat and how to take advantage of them, lying, and, of course, cooking. It was the other ones, like alchemy, workmanship, acting, etiquette, deduction skills, and of course, survival with Sir Kyle.
Despite Sir Kyle being his father's close friend, Sir Kyle made Aiden's life a living nightmare, and was constantly making him doing things that Aiden had long since deemed cruel, dangerous, and just plain mean.
Things like, swimming down a mountain, running 10 miles around the same mountain, before coming to a stop, breathing hard. Listening to Sir Kyle as he unloaded some cages with wolves in them off the back of a wagon.
Then he had been informed that his last workout for the day would be reaching the top of the mountain, where there a stone hut which he would be sleeping in for the night. Aiden had smiled, estimating that it would take him half a hour to reach the top. Then he had been told that the wolves would be released five minutes after he'd started.
Aiden had stared at Sir Kyle blankly for a minute, before Sir Kyle had picked up a bucket and tossed a bucket of liquid on it. As it soaked him, he realized that it was blood. Suddenly the wolves had stared barking at him and Aiden stared in horror.
"Oh, and the hut doesn't have a lock on the door, so have fun with that."
That simple sentence had haunted his night. The wolves had been scratching at the door all night. Every time things got quiet and he started to think he could leave the door they would start attacking it again.
"Aiden." His father said, making him refocus on the present. "I think it's time we started your magic studies."
Aiden almost groaned then froze. Had his father just said magic?
Magic was one of the few things he had not been allowed to study. Naturally that had made him very curious, and he had seen people use it from time to time, but only in secret. When they thought he hadn't been watching.
Simple things, like lighting a candle, not wanting to get up to grab an object. His father had forbade them from using magic around him, he didn't want Aiden using it before he was ready. He'd lost his only brother that way.
"Are you sure?" Aiden asked carefully.
"Yeah." His father said sighing before pausing. "You're ready. You have been for a long time. I got you a tutor, they'll be here tomorrow to begin."
His father peered at him again with that odd look in his eyes. "I've never felt the need to tell you this before, but you should know, you're a very smart boy. Be careful who you show your intelligence to."
"Uh...okay." Was all that came out of Aiden. He blew it off. All parents thought their child was special, this much he had learned early on, when he'd overheard the married maids talking about their children, and bragging about them.
Now that he thought abouit it, he saw and heard much more that he probably should.
His father shook his head, "I'm serious. You think like an adult at such a young age, and your physical ability...you do things that most teenagers can't. And your nine."
His father drifted off in thought. But then so did Aiden, all he could think about was magic. Three hours later as he lay in bed it was still all he could think about.
'Magic studies!!!'
With that thought, Aiden went to bed.