by Helen Harper
Carduus flapped towards me as if he were certain I was about to make a run for it. Given that the street outside was probably teeming with Fey loyal to Rubus, it seemed a rather pointless measure on his part.
‘Ms Hatter,’ he boomed. ‘We’ll get you back to the hospital and feeling as right as rain in no time.’
I rolled my eyes. The only person present to hear him was the desk sergeant and he looked about as interested in Carduus and me as a Goth teenager would be in a rainbow fun house. ‘As right as acid rain,’ I muttered.
Carduus chuckled and took my arm. ‘Aren’t you funny?’ Then he dipped his head toward mine and lowered his voice. ‘Where’s the fucking sphere, you bitch?’
‘My, my,’ I said. ‘Just when I thought we were getting along so well.’
He glared at me and steered me out of the police station. ‘I don’t know what you think you’re playing at,’ he spat, as soon as we were safely out of earshot of any helpful police officers. ‘But you will tell us where the sphere is and you will tell us now.’
‘Poor Carduus. All that time and effort that you and Rubus put into fooling me and in the end it was for nothing. You still didn’t get the sphere. You’re still stuck here just like the rest of us.’
‘And we all know whose fault that is, don’t we?’ His malevolence was quite extraordinary; until now, I’d had no idea that underneath his wrinkled façade was such a seething mass of hatred. He was an even better actor than Rubus.
I yanked my elbow away from him and threw out my arms. ‘Yes! We do know. I caused the borders to close! I trapped everyone here! But that doesn’t make what you’re doing right. If you use that sphere, you’ll effectively destroy this demesne. Magic isn’t supposed to live here. If you bring it, you’ll end the lives of millions – no, billions – of people.’
‘Since when did you become a saviour of the human race?’ Carduus sneered. ‘The only person you’ve ever cared about is yourself, Madrona. Now give me the sphere.’
I shrugged. ‘I don’t have it.’
‘Of course you do!’
‘Nope.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted several car doors opening across the street. Numerous Fey, most of whom I recognised, stepped out. Included in their number was Rubus. He looked pale; no doubt he was still recovering from his self-inflicted bout of rowan poisoning. All the same, he managed a nasty smile in my direction. I beamed and waved at him. My actions didn’t seem to improve his mood.
‘Play the joker all you like,’ Carduus said. ‘Do you have any idea what Rubus will do to you if you don’t hand over the sphere? I might not be your biggest fan but I’m doing you a favour. I’m trying to help you, Madrona. You’ll save yourself considerable pain and anguish if you just give it to us.’
‘I can’t give you what I don’t have,’ I replied mildly.
‘You think you’re so clever. Getting yourself locked up, offering up the video evidence to keep you there, using Viburna as a lawyer. Your problem is that you’re not as smart as you think you are. The fact that we pulled the wool over your eyes and got you to believe that Mendax the dragon even existed proves that you have the brain capacity of a slug.’
I considered this. ‘Fair enough,’ I agreed. ‘But you have to admit that I’m a pretty sexy slug.’ Then I thought over what he’d said. ‘Hang on. Didn’t you give the police the video evidence?’
‘Pah.’ He grabbed me again and all but dragged me across the street towards Rubus. We’d barely got halfway across the street, however, when another car appeared, screeching to a halt and blocking our path.
Morgan jumped out, his body tense and his expression grim. I beamed. My hero.
‘Let her go, Carduus,’ Morgan said. I was hoping for a crack of thunder to add weight to his words. The sky did look ominously grey but there wasn’t so much as the sound of car backfiring. Shame.
The Fey scientist curled his lip. ‘No.’
‘Do it.’
‘Or what? You can’t hurt me. You can’t do anything to stop me.’ Carduus pointed a bony finger. ‘Your brother can though.’
As if to give weight to Carduus’s words, Rubus smiled and jerked his head. A moment later, a struggling Viburna was pulled out of his car. My stomach dropped. He must have grabbed her as soon as she left the police station. There was a red imprint on her cheek, finger marks painfully visible against her pale skin. For effect, I thought scornfully. He wanted to remind us that he was the only Fey in this entire demesne who possessed the capability to hurt another Fey.
‘I think,’ he called out, ‘that a little demonstration is probably in order. Just in case you’ve forgotten what I’m actually capable of now.’ His smile broadened. ‘Thanks to you, little brother.’
Carduus let go of my arm. ‘You can stop this, Madrona. Just give us the sphere and we’ll release Viburna.’
I looked past him to Morgan. ‘I can’t give it to you.’
Morgan nodded. ‘Don’t.’ His gaze hardened and he turned to address Rubus. ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists. Besides,’ he added, ‘what are you going to do? We’re in front of a police station.’
Rubus laughed. ‘Like I care! Am I supposed to be scared of a few humans wearing silly uniforms? Our cause is more important than anything they could conjure up.’ His green eyes, so similar to Morgan’s, flashed. ‘You can still join me. You can still be part of the team that returns us to Mag Mell and makes everything right again. The humans don’t matter. They’re inferior. But we faeries deserve better.’
‘You’re a megalomaniac.’
Rubus smirked. ‘So’s your girlfriend. I’ll take that as a no, then. Remember that in the future when you think of Viburna. This was your choice.’ He tilted his head at me. ‘And yours.’
Even from several metres away, I could see that Viburna was trembling. She started walking backwards with her palms up in a desperate bid to escape. ‘Don’t hurt me! I’ve not done anything! I don’t have the sphere! Madrona will have it now. You need to talk to her. This is nothing to do with me.’
Morgan started to move towards her but several of Rubus’s Fey minions jumped forward to bar his progress. All the while, Rubus continued to advance on Viburna.
‘Leave her alone!’ I yelled. ‘You’re not interested in her.’
Rubus kept his eyes on her. ‘She’s a means to an end.’
I gestured desperately at the other Fey. ‘Are you really going to let him do this? You’re going to let him harm one of us for no reason?’
Several of them looked uneasy; there was even doubt in a few eyes. With enough time, I could get them to see that this was wrong.
‘The truce is there for a reason! We’re not supposed to fight each other,’ I shouted.
‘Then give me the sphere, Madrona,’ Rubus responded calmly. ‘You can stop this.’
‘I don’t have the sphere! The police have still got it.’
He shook his head. He was only a few steps from Viburna now. She’d backed herself up against a brick wall and there was nowhere for her to go. ‘They’ll have returned it to you when you were released.’
‘Madrona!’ Viburna shrieked. ‘Help me! Just give him the sphere!’
Even if I’d had it on me, I wouldn’t have handed it over. I had no desire to see Rubus hurt Viburna but her well-being was nothing compared to the well-being of planet Earth.
Rubus reached her, angling his body so that everyone could see what he was doing. He put out his hand and stroked her cheek with the tip of his index finger. ‘Poor Viburna. I don’t want to do this, you know. But it’s for the good of all of us. Getting the sphere will save us. How much more of living here do you think we can take? The physical ache is getting worse by the day. If we can get back to Mag Mell, we can undo all the hurt inside us. Once that’s happened and the borders are re-opened, we’ll be able to repair any damage here. I’m not going to lie. Using the sphere will cause problems in this demesne. But they’ve got problems by the bucket load as it is. In the end, I reckon i
t’ll do them more good than harm.’ He smiled gently. ‘You see that, don’t you?’
Viburna nodded vigorously. At that moment, she’d have agreed to anything to escape. ‘I do. I do, Rubus. Let me go and I’ll persuade Madrona to give you the sphere. You can trust me. Then you can use it and we’ll all go back home and everything will be fine.’
Rubus’s expression took on a tinge of sadness. ‘I don’t think you can persuade her. Not with words anyway.’
‘Morgan,’ I said, my voice filled with warning.
He swallowed. ‘I know.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Rubus, just let her go. Your argument is with me, not anyone else.’
Rubus ran his tongue over his teeth. ‘I need to make you see what I’m capable of. I need everyone to see.’
‘We know what you’re capable of!’ I shouted. ‘We don’t need a show and tell.’
‘Oh, Maddy,’ Rubus sighed. ‘I think you do need to see.’ He glanced back at Viburna. ‘This gives me no pleasure, sweetheart.’ Without any warning, he pulled out a curved dagger and thrust it into her heart.
There was no scream; there wasn’t time for anything like that. Viburna’s eyes widened with pain and her lips parted in a sudden gasp. Then, with the dagger still in her, she collapsed.
Morgan let out a strangled cry. He barrelled forward – even the wall of Fey goons didn’t stop him this time. He shoved his way past them. I ran after him, ignoring Carduus’s cackle at my back.
‘You can’t hurt me, brother,’ Rubus said, bending down to take the dagger from Viburna’s body. He gave her a sad look, as if he genuinely hadn’t wanted to kill her, then he wiped her blood off the dagger and onto his thigh.
Morgan snarled and attacked but Rubus was right. The truce, with its invisible threads of magic, pulled Morgan back. The strain was visible on his face as he tried to push past the pain, to push past the barrier of the truce. It didn’t do him any good.
Rubus smiled. A moment later, he lunged for his brother. Grabbing Morgan, he spun him round and held the dagger to his throat. ‘You wouldn’t sacrifice the sphere to save Viburna,’ he cooed at me. ‘But I bet you’d do it to save Morgan.’
I skidded to a halt in from of the pair of them. I clenched my fists and glared. ‘Let him go, you arsebadger.’
Rubus frowned. ‘Let me think about that for a moment.’ He paused and his expression hardened. ‘Um. No. Give me the fucking sphere.’
‘Don’t,’ Morgan said. ‘Don’t do it.’
Why did my mouth feel so dry? I swallowed. ‘Morgan,’ I whispered. ‘You’re too good for me. Your brother is right though – I do love you.’ Maybe; I certainly lusted after him enough.
My declaration, whether wholly truthful or not, would piss off Rubus. Anything that I could snatch at that would unhinge him was a good thing. I licked my lips and softened my tone. ‘But it’s because I feel that way about you that I can’t give him the sphere.’
Morgan sagged slightly, relief lighting his eyes despite Rubus’s tight grip round his neck.
‘He won’t get the easy death that Viburna did,’ Rubus warned. ‘I’ll make sure he suffers. And I’ll make sure that you watch.’
There was a shout from behind us. Finally one of the policemen had decided to look out of the window and realised something was going on outside. What on earth had taken them so long? ‘What the hell is happening here?’
‘Just a little demonstration!’ Rubus called back. Almost immediately three Fey jumped up and dragged Viburna’s body into one of the cars so it was out of sight. ‘Nothing for you to worry about!’ He looked at me. ‘I’ll kill those humans even more easily than Viburna, Madrona. I’ll do anything to get our people back home and you know it. You need to give me the sphere right now or there will be a bloodbath.’
I didn’t believe for a second that he was bluffing – but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t bluff. I sighed. ‘Jeez, Ruby baby. Kill the humans. I don’t care. I’m only trying to stop you from taking the sphere because it’s what Morgan wants me to do. I don’t give a fig about whether anyone other than him lives or dies. But I really don’t have the sphere.’
I reached into my pockets and tossed out my wallet then pulled out the linings so he could see they were empty. ‘I’ll strip naked if you need me to but I genuinely don’t have it.’
Rubus stared at me. So did Morgan. I could only assume that the pair of them were indeed hoping that I performed a striptease right there and then.
‘Everyone get down on the ground with your hands behind your heads!’ roared another voice. Apparently the police were stepping things up. Go them. But they were far too late to this party, even though it was happening on their doorstep.
‘I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way,’ Rubus said to me. ‘This is your last chance.’
‘You can’t do it, Maddy,’ Morgan said in a strained voice.
I ignored him. ‘Let Morgan go and I’ll come with you, Rubus. That way the police no longer have to be involved and things don’t get any messier than they already are.’
Rubus sighed. ‘But I want things to be messy. Don’t you see that?’
Gasbudlikins. I was running out of options. ‘I…’
Suddenly, and without any warning, the sky darkened. There was a dull boom and the ground juddered. I lost my footing, stumbling forwards onto the pavement – and I wasn’t the only one. Every single person did the same. I didn’t have the faintest idea what was happening but I couldn’t let this moment pass.
Rolling in a manner that a gymnastics teacher would have been proud of, I got hold of Morgan and yanked at his leg. Rubus could probably have stopped me if it weren’t for the strange skittering sound over his head. A second later, an undulating brown mass appeared from the top of the wall, cascading downwards on top of him. It was only the odd whisker and dragging tail that made me realise what the strange wave was. Rats. Hundreds of them.
Rubus shrieked, cowering into a foetal ball and covering his face. He released his grip on Morgan. The mass of rats swarmed over him and reached Morgan’s feet at the same time as I pulled him towards me. I yanked him upwards and we both took to our heels.
Shrieks and shouts were filling the air, not just from this street but from the ones beyond as well. The horrific stench of sewage filled the air. I glanced to my right and spotted dirty water bubbling up from all the nearby drains.
‘Car,’ Morgan gasped. ‘Get to the car.’
Luckily he’d left it in the middle of the road. One or two of Rubus’s loyal arsebadgers made half-hearted attempts to stop us but most of them had their own problems. There was a keening in the air and, as if to help the still-advancing army of rats, a mass of ravens appeared, swooping and diving at anyone who was daft enough to be in the open.
I shoved Morgan into the passenger seat, dashed round and jumped into the driver’s side. I slammed the door shut just before the tidal wave of rats reached us. There were several clunks on the car roof as the ravens continued to dive bomb us.
I didn’t waste any time questioning the provenance of these unearthly creatures and unnatural happenings. I just thrust the car into gear and sped off.
Chapter Five
Ignoring the double yellow lines, I pulled up directly outside the Metropolitan Bar and turned off the engine. Morgan was gripping the armrest so hard I virtually had to prise his fingers off and help him unclip his seatbelt.
‘I’m sorry about Viburna. I know Rubus killed Finn’s brother, Jinn, just as callously but somehow I didn’t think he’d do it to another faery. She was your friend and for that I’m sorry.’ I surprised myself with my words. I sounded sincere. Gasbudlikins, I felt sincere.
Morgan nodded, although it didn’t seem that he could bring himself to speak about her. He jerked his head up towards the sky. ‘It’s clearing up.’ His voice was hoarse.
I peered out. He was right; there was the faintest glimmer of sunlight and it seemed that things were returning to normal. Admittedly, there were no people on the str
eets but there weren’t any surging rats or crazy raven bombs to deal with either.
‘Let’s get inside,’ I urged. ‘It might not be any safer in the bar but at least there will be vodka. I could do with a stiff drink.’
He glanced at me. ‘On the count of three.’
‘Three. Two.’ I opened the door. ‘One.’ We sprang out. There was a strange lingering smell in the air that was almost sulphurous. Other than that, there was nothing remarkable. I wasn’t taking any chances, though; I hotfooted it to the door of the pub and pulled it open for Morgan before following him in.
There were more people inside than I expected. At least forty pairs of eyes swivelled in my direction and the television, which had been blaring full blast, was immediately muted. With the exception of Jodie, the human bartender who worked for Morgan, and Julie, my soap-star vampire friend, every eye was moss green.
Every single one of them sagged in relief. Under any other circumstances, I’d have expected a standing ovation and at least a dozen rousing choruses of ‘hip, hip, hooray’ but somehow, at this point, my heart wasn’t in it – even if it did make a change to have people happy to see me instead of recoiling.
‘You made it!’ Jodie exclaimed, rushing forward to hug Morgan. ‘Where’s the sphere?’
Morgan glanced at me and I shrugged. I noticed Paeonia, Timmons and Vandrake at the back of the crowd, but there were at least thirty-seven other Fey people in here that I didn’t know. ‘I don’t have it,’ I said.
Another vaguely familiar man pushed his way forward. ‘Where’s Viburna?’ he demanded. ‘Why isn’t she with you?’
Cravat Man, minus the cravat he’d been wearing the last time I’d met him. His shirt was open at the neck and he looked dishevelled. Him and me both. I grimaced; he’d been with Viburna when I’d first met her. I strained my brain to remember his name. It was the least I could do.
‘Opulus,’ Morgan sighed. ‘She…’
It wasn’t fair that Morgan had to deliver the bad news. ‘She’s dead,’ I finished for him. Let Opulus despise me for being the messenger; I reckoned Morgan needed a break.