Skulk of Foxes

by Helen Harper

  ‘Anyway,’ Alora continued, ‘when Chen died, all bets were off. By that time, Charrie’s cancer had advanced beyond any possible treatment. The best we could do was watch him slowly rot away from the inside.’

  She sent me a beseeching look. ‘You’ve seen the swords. We’re warriors at heart, even if we have no enemies to attack. It’s not in our genes to let disease kill us. What you did for him was a far more honourable death.’

  Despite her words, she still looked upset. Charrie’s loss was raw; it still chafed at her heart and his soul still ran through her veins. I could see the hurt etched on her face and in the way she held herself; she reminded me of Opulus and Finn. I suspected that, despite her pain, Alora was coping far better with the loss of her loved one than either of those two were.

  Without thinking I reached for Morgan again, my fingertips brushing against the bare skin of his forearm. At my touch, he relaxed. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who needed that kind of contact.

  Alora’s clever eyes watched us and her despondency seemed to increase.

  Feeling the need to keep our conversation on an even keel, I tilted up my chin. ‘What exactly did I do for Charrie?’ I asked. Tension prickled across my shoulder blades. ‘Because to be honest, the evidence we’ve seen so far doesn’t paint me in a favourable light.’

  ‘I suspected as much,’ Alora said, in a clear voice that belied her unshed tears. ‘That’s why I went to the police station. I couldn’t have you locked up for doing nothing more than helping us. It wouldn’t have been right.’

  Morgan shifted his body so he could reach my hand. His thumb began rubbing gentle concentric circles on my palm. I breathed out. Breathing was good, I reminded myself. It was important to keep doing it.

  ‘Go on,’ I said, sounding more tremulous than Alora did.

  She raised her teacup to her mouth again and drank slowly. I didn’t think she was delaying her answer deliberately; she was merely trying to sort out the right words in the right order in her head. ‘At Charrie’s behest,’ she said finally, ‘you took something called white baneberry from Carduus’s laboratory.’

  Morgan stiffened. I forced myself not to look at him and kept my attention on Alora. ‘Let me guess,’ I said. ‘White baneberry is a kind of poison.’

  ‘For us bogles, yes,’ she agreed. ‘I know that Charrie had to persuade you to get it. He’d managed to get hold of the sphere – he took it after Chen passed away – but he was seen with it. It was only a matter of time before Rubus caught up with him.’

  She glanced out of the window to where Sitri and Bally were standing, deep in conversation. ‘And us,’ she added softly. ‘With Charrie’s cancer, it made sense for him to take the baneberry and end his life. Then Rubus wouldn’t be able to question him about the sphere, threaten us and hold our lives over Charrie’s head.’

  She grimaced. ‘Rubus still tried, though. He sent several goons here to find out what we knew. It wasn’t difficult to play stupid and in the end they left us alone. That part of the plan worked. Of course, when Charrie’s body vanished, everything became more complicated.’

  She looked at me. ‘You were supposed to take Charrie’s head, drink the memory potion then wake up in complete confusion and call the police. They’d have found the sphere on his body and looked after it as evidence. You genuinely would have not had a clue about what had happened so you’d have passed muster when both the police and Rubus interrogated you. Most importantly, the sphere would have been safe.’

  Morgan gripped my hand. I shook my head. Maybe my memory wasn’t as lost to me as it seemed: the residual idea had obviously lingered somewhere in the recesses of my mind because it was a very similar strategy to the one I’d had a couple of days ago – without the corpse-dismemberment part and the magical memory potion.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Alora shook her head and offered me a sad smile. ‘Don’t be sorry. You gave him an honourable death. He died saving the world. What could be better than that?’

  Not dying. Not dying would be better than that.

  ‘You see?’ Morgan said softly. ‘You’re not a murderer. Charrie chose this way out. You simply helped him.’ He stroked my fingers. ‘You’re not a villain, Madrona. Quite the opposite, in fact.’

  ‘But it was all for nothing,’ I said dully. ‘The sphere is still in play, even if it’s temporarily hidden.’ I raised my eyes to Alora’s. ‘There must be a way to destroy it permanently.’

  ‘If we knew of a way to do that, it would have been done already.’

  ‘Charrie died for nothing.’

  ‘He was dying anyway.’ She hesitated, a hint of desperation lighting her eyes. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve found his body? Do you know what happened to him? I’d like to bury him. I’d like to know where he is.’

  It was Finn who’d disposed of Charrie’s corpse, Finn and his brothers. They’d interrupted our supposedly foolproof plan and tried to kill me. Instead of calling the police, I’d scarpered into the night taking the damned sphere with me. ‘I don’t know where your husband is,’ I said. ‘But I know who does. We’ll find out and let you know.’

  For the first time, Alora seemed to relax. ‘Thank you,’ she breathed. ‘It would make a massive difference to me. And to our children.’

  I nibbled at my bottom lip. ‘So I’m not wholly evil,’ I said to Morgan. I should have felt like cheering but I just felt tired. ‘But we’re still no further forward than we were before. We still have to find a way to get rid of the sphere. I think involving the police is non-starter. We’ve tried it twice, sort of, and it’s failed both times. There has to be a way to destroy it.’

  Morgan pursed his lips. ‘We could always try and find another dragon. Giving the sphere to Mendax was obviously stupid because Mendax didn’t exist in the way that we thought he did. But in theory it was a good idea. A dragon could bind the sphere to himself so it would be safe from Rubus. In an even better scenario, another dragon could destroy the thing once and for all.’

  ‘How would we do that? How do we find a damned dragon? The bogles don’t know of any others and the humans don’t have a clue.’

  ‘There’s the British Library,’ he suggested. ‘Or the internet.’

  ‘It’d be like a finding a needle in a haystack.’

  Morgan tapped his fingers against his thigh. ‘You mentioned that it was our bad luck that Chen died. You were right, Maddy. Dragons have long lives, far longer than humans and probably far longer than us. We need to look through old books that might hint at their existence. I’m sure we could find some clues about something.’

  ‘Instead of older books,’ I said slowly, ‘how about older people?’

  Morgan frowned but it didn’t take him long to catch up. ‘Julie,’ he breathed. ‘She might know.’

  ‘Or if she doesn’t,’ I said, ‘she might know someone who does.’

  Alora looked confused. ‘Who’s Julie?’

  I beamed. ‘She’s a…’ Searing pain flashed through my chest. I doubled over as it ripped through my body, tearing at my veins and arteries. Morgan was beside my knees in a second. I gasped and heaved, involuntary tears of agony rolling down my cheeks. I bit back the word I’d been about to say and moaned instead. It was all I was capable of.

  ‘The tea,’ Morgan growled at Alora. ‘What the fuck did you put in the tea?’

  I waved a hand in the air to stop him. It wasn’t the damned tea. I’d barely drunk any of it.

  ‘I didn’t do anything!’ Alora protested.

  ‘She,’ I choked, ‘didn’t.’

  ‘Then what?’ Morgan demanded. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

  I pulled myself back up to a sitting position. ‘It’s…’ I gasped ‘…the NDA.’

  Morgan frowned at me, concern still flitting across his face. Suddenly his expression cleared. ‘Oh.’ He glanced at Alora. ‘I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to accuse you.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘Julie is a vampire. Maddy’
s not allowed to speak of her vampirism because she foolishly signed a magic contract to that effect.’

  Alora’s eyes widened. ‘A vampire? You’ve met one? I knew they existed but no living bogle has ever met one.’

  Morgan looked smug. ‘You’ll love this, then. Our particular pet vamp is none other than Julie Chivers.’

  ‘From St Thomas Close? The actress who plays Stacey?’

  He nodded. ‘That’s the one.’

  ‘No way! I love her!’ Alora remained open-mouthed. ‘I always thought she looked good for her age.’

  I waved weakly at the pair of them. ‘Hello? I’m almost dying here.’

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ Morgan said briskly.

  ‘You don’t know that,’ I groaned. ‘Besides, Julie’s ethnicity is supposed to be a secret. It’s why she made me sign the stupid NDA in the first place.’ My whole body still ached and tendrils of pain were uncurling in the deepest and most unpleasant of places.

  ‘I won’t tell,’ Alora breathed. She was obviously flabbergasted.

  ‘You’re just annoyed that I could tell Alora and you couldn’t,’ Morgan smiled.

  I stuck my tongue out at him. Even that hurt. How was that even possible? ‘I hate it when you’re right,’ I muttered.

  ‘I’m always right,’ he told me.

  ‘I’m the super genius around here, buster,’ I said, with a slight toss of my head. I couldn’t move it much; it still hurt too badly. ‘It was me who thought of Julie in the first place.

  Alora smiled slightly. ‘I can see why you two are such a good match.’

  I wrinkled my nose then I grinned. ‘We’re awesome, aren’t we?’

  Suddenly Alora’s front door burst open and Sitri and Bally galloped in. Morgan leapt to his feet. I tried to, but it was more of a stumble than a leap. Damn. That NDA magic was powerful stuff. My knees buckled and I fell back into the chair. Gasbudlikins.

  ‘Someone’s coming!’ Sitri burst out. ‘A Fey, heading here. We have outpost sentries all over the place. There’s no doubt that she’s coming in this direction.’

  ‘She? It’s not Rubus?’ Morgan questioned, his fists clenching.

  ‘No, definitely not. She’s not one of yours?’

  ‘No.’ Morgan looked down at me. ‘Get up, Madrona. We can’t sit around and drink tea when we might have been followed here. We need to find out who’s approaching.’

  ‘Hurts.’

  He scowled. ‘It can’t be that bad. You didn’t actually break the NDA. You’re not dying.’

  ‘That’s easy for you to say.’ I heaved myself upwards. This time I managed to get fully upright and stay that way. Progress.

  Morgan made for the door and I followed, albeit at a much slower pace. With a crowd of bogles appearing from doorways along the street, we marched down to meet the newcomer.

  I couldn’t for the life of me imagine who it might be. Given all that I’d gone through to get to this point, whether I could remember it or otherwise, I was determined not to let anyone get in my way. Unless it was Rubus, who’d decided to glamour himself into a woman this time around. Maybe he fancied a change. I gritted my teeth. He’d learn a thing or two when he got his first period.

  Beads of sweat were breaking over my forehead but at least the pain was subsiding. I did my best to catch up to Morgan. ‘Are you sure that this isn’t going to be one of ours?’ I said, trying to catch my breath. ‘It could be Artemesia. She might have done some apothecary jiggery-pokery to find us here.’

  ‘No.’ Morgan’s jaw clenched. ‘She has other means of contacting us. If it was an emergency, she’d use the shells. We have connecting pairs so she could call if she needed to. She wouldn’t waste time trying to find us and if it’s not an emergency, she won’t be looking for us. Arty has more than enough on our plate. I’d have said it could be Viburna – except she’s dead.’ His voice was flat.

  Gasbudlikins. ‘Maybe the bogles are mistaken,’ I said hopefully. ‘Maybe it’s just a human woman out for a stroll.’

  ‘It’d be nice to think that but they’re not mistaken.’ He pointed up ahead. ‘Look.’

  I followed his finger, drawing in a breath when I saw who was there. Lunaria. We’d spent some time together when I’d tried to spy on Rubus and, despite the circumstances, I had to admit that I rather liked the lanky Fey woman. She was head over heels in love with Rubus, however; there was no chance that she was here to catch up on old times over a lazy beer.

  ‘Let me deal with this,’ I said.

  I squared my shoulders, ignoring the ripple of pain the action caused. Alright already. I wasn’t going to blab that Julie was a vampire; I had Morgan for that.

  I’d rather hoped I could stride forward looking menacing and brave. Instead it was more of a shuffle. Lunaria had realised that she was on the edge of what was effectively the bogles’ stronghold, even if that stronghold consisted of cute little houses and flower-lined gardens. She paused and watched my approach. I continued until only twenty feet separated us. Fortunately, my body was finally settling down; by the time I came to a halt, the pain had subsided into a dull ache.

  ‘Have you got new shoes, Mads?’ Lunaria asked, her head tilted slightly in confusion. ‘You’re walking as if you have a mass of blisters about to pop.’

  ‘Morgan is behind me,’ I said, with an attempt at a carefree grin. ‘I don’t want to inflame his libido by swaying my hips.’

  Lunaria frowned as if she couldn’t understand how that would happen.

  ‘I’m sex on legs,’ I explained. ‘It’s hard enough for him to keep his hands off me as it is.’

  ‘Uh huh.’

  I had no idea why she didn’t believe me until I remembered that I was covered in scorch marks and wearing a skater boy’s clothes. Fair enough.

  ‘Before we continue,’ I said, ‘I need to know you are who you appear to be.’

  Lunaria smoothed her expression and regarded me with unsurprised eyes. ‘You think I might be Rubus.’ She gestured at her body. ‘That all this is a glamour. You know you can’t take the form of someone who already exists. Glamours don’t work that way.’

  I shrugged. ‘Humour me. Prove to me that you are indeed Lunaria.’

  She sucked on her bottom lip. ‘When we were both eight years old, we made a pinky promise to always be best friends and to never ever kiss any boys because they would just get in the way of our friendship.’

  I gazed at her in exasperation. ‘I still have amnesia. I can’t remember being eight years old, Looney. Besides,’ I added with a sniff, ‘I’m certain I would never have agreed not to kiss boys.’

  ‘You also promised that, if I ever grew taller than you, you’d give me your favourite doll.’ She met my eyes. ‘I suppose we don’t always keep our promises, do we?’

  I sighed. ‘I suppose not.’

  ‘Last week,’ Lunaria said, ‘I told you that I might leave Rubus and try for Morgan instead. It made you cross.’

  ‘Mmm. Go on.’

  ‘When we went clothes shopping together, you were tempted by the crotchless trousers.’

  ‘Only for a brief second,’ I protested.

  She leaned in slightly. ‘You also pointed to a snotty kid and said that it’d be a good thing when Rubus used the sphere because the apocalypse would mean that kid would no longer exist.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said quietly. ‘I did say that.’

  ‘I’m not a fool, Mads. I know you were trying to get me to see the light and to realise that getting home to Mag Mell isn’t worth what will happen here as a result. You like pretending that you’re evil but you’re not.’ She looked away. ‘It took me a while to appreciate that. You’re pretty bitchy on the surface.’

  I raised my eyebrows. ‘Pretty bitchy? Puh-lease. You can do better than that.’

  She twitched awkwardly. ‘Alright. You’re very bitchy.’

  It seemed it was my lot in life to give Lunaria pointers. She was lucky she knew me. ‘My teeth are brighter than your future,’ I told her. />
  Lunaria blinked but she didn’t say anything. I tried again. ‘The expression on your face suggests you’re as baffled as Adam was on Mother’s Day.’

  Still nothing. I ploughed ahead. ‘You’re—’

  ‘I’ve seen wounds that are better dressed than you,’ Lunaria interrupted. She pointed to a nearby bush. ‘Go apologise to that plant for all the oxygen you’re stealing from it,’ she said sternly.

  My smile stretched from ear to ear. I felt like a proud mother watching her daughter graduate from university. Not with honours, mind – she wasn’t that impressive – but she’d done her best.

  I heard a few whispers behind me from the crowd of bogles – and Morgan. It was time to stop messing around. ‘Why are you here, Lunaria? Did Rubus send you?’

  She swallowed, as if suddenly nervous. ‘He doesn’t know I’m here. I came for me, not for him.’

  She twisted a strand of hair in her fingers then nodded, apparently coming to a decision. ‘And I sent the CCTV footage to the police for you, not him. I haven’t watched it, but you killed Charrie the bogle to save the sphere from getting back to Rubus, didn’t you? The lesser of two evils. And I know you deliberately tried to get yourself sent to prison so that the sphere would be safe. That’s why you shot that gun. I thought I’d help you out and give the police what they needed to lock you up.’

  So that was how they got hold of that first edited video. Lunaria was cannier than I’d realised. ‘You gave the police evidence that implicated me in a murder?’ I questioned with a half smile. ‘You truly are a good friend.’ I meant it, too.

  ‘It’s not that I wanted you in jail!’ she burst out. ‘But I was there. I saw what Rubus was doing. He won’t stop at anything. I tried to talk to him about not using the sphere because of the damage it might cause and he just didn’t care. He’s a hero – but if he continues down this path, he’s going to end up hurting himself as well as everyone else.’

  Hurting everyone? Is that what we were calling the oncoming apocalypse? And I’d thought calling me ‘pretty bitchy’ was an understatement. Still, it did seem that Lunaria was starting to see the light. Either that or she was being negative about his plans because Rubus had gone all gooey-eyed over Julie. Hell hath no fury like a scorned faery.