by Helen Harper
‘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.
Rather than get angry, however, Opulus seemed to diminish right in front of my eyes. His body sank into itself. I grabbed a chair and held it out for him. Barely noticing, he collapsed into it.
A murmur of shock rippled across the room. ‘How?’ someone asked. ‘Was it because of what happened outside? With the sky and the…’
I shook my head. ‘It was Rubus. Rubus killed her.’
The horror on the assembled faces was clear to see. ‘The bastard!’
‘How dare he!’
‘We have to do something!’
From the back of the bar, there was a loud cough and Finn’s hulking figure appeared. I hadn’t spotted the Redcap before now; considering his size, staying out of sight was no mean feat for him. ‘So now you’re upset?’ he enquired, his voice trembling with rage. ‘It wasn’t a problem when he killed my brother but now he’s killed one of yours, you’ve decided you have to act?’
‘The big man with the cauliflower ears makes a very valid point,’ I said.
There was an angry hiss in my direction from one of the assembled Fey. ‘Like you can talk. You worked for him! She could be a spy, Morganus! Get her out of here!’
Morgan rubbed his hand across his eyes. ‘She’s one of us. Leave her be.’
‘One of us? Did you see what happened with the sky? With the animals? It’s not natural. I bet she had something to do with that.’
I glared at my accuser then I drew myself up. ‘I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers to let you lot know how I feel about you right now. You’ve all been burying your heads in the sand and hoping Rubus would go away. At least I’ve been trying to do something about him. You want to blame me for all this? Go ahead. I deserve a lot of your censure. But complaining about me now isn’t going to help matters. You’ve had ten years to do something about him. Some of you,’ I glared, ‘took his damned pixie dust and just smiled politely.’
‘You sold us that damned pixie dust!’ a brave voice yelled.
I put my hands on my hips. ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I did. Not that I remember doing so. But you could have said no. You’re like a bunch of witches, whispering and plotting and doing nothing. It’s always someone else’s responsibility to sort things out. It’s someone else’s fault and someone else should smooth things over so that your lives are made better. It’s not your fault we’re trapped here. It’s not your fault that Rubus is a fucking arsebadger. But maybe it’s your responsibility to do something about it. We’re all faeries here. By not acting sooner we all have a hand in this. Stop worrying about who’s to blame and start thinking about what we can do about it. You’ve had plenty of warning. As Finn said, his brother was killed by Rubus just as callously as Viburna. Where were you when that happened? He might not be Fey but he’s still one of us! Quit your cackling or get out of here.’
Finn’s jaw dropped open. Julie clapped. Several others turned to Morgan as if waiting for him to tell me off and send me to my room without supper.
He looked at me, a glimmer of a smile in his eyes. ‘Madrona’s right,’ he said. ‘Unless you have any bright ideas about what we can do to bring down Rubus then you can all piss off. We have more important things to worry about than your egos.’
I nodded happily. ‘There’s not enough room in here for another ego besides mine.’
Morgan growled under his breath, ‘Don’t push it, Maddy.’
I shrugged; I was only being honest.
‘It’s not safe outside. Have you seen what’s been happening?’ Paeonia pointed towards the muted television screen. ‘It’s chaos out there!’
‘In case it escaped your attention, we’ve just been outside,’ Morgan pointed out. ‘Whatever that was, it’s passed now. Go home. Think about what we can do to stop Rubus. Otherwise,’ his voice hardened, ‘don’t get in our way.’
‘Harsh,’ I murmured. Then I grinned. ‘But fair.’
Morgan obviously garnered considerably more respect than I did. One by one, the crowd of Fey started to disperse. They went slowly at first, as if they still didn’t believe him about it being safe to leave, then more quickly when they realised that it was. Before long, there was only a handful of us left.
Julie smacked her lips. ‘I need a drink.’
Vandrake also licked his lips but he was a recovering drug addict. I didn’t think swapping one substance for another, regardless of the circumstances, was a good idea.
Jodie sighed. ‘More gin? Haven’t you had enough already?’
‘Not gin.’ Julie grimaced. ‘To be honest, I’m feeling very strange. I need some blood.’
Finn walked around the bar towards her. ‘I’ll take you home to get some. We can return later.’ He shot me a look. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I appreciate what you said to that lot.’
I sniffed. ‘I didn’t do it for you.’
His response was quiet. ‘That’s why I’m saying thank you.’ Without looking at me again, he helped Julie to her feet and the pair of them walked out.
Somewhat nervously, Timmons edged forward. ‘I’d like to stay and help, if that’s alright. Admittedly I might not be a lot of help, but I’d like to try.’ He bit his lip and flicked me a nervy look. ‘Someone once told me I should stand up for myself.’
I beamed at him. ‘Me, right? It was me? I think it was me.’ I looked at the others. ‘It was me.’
‘What about him?’ Jodie’s voice was quiet. ‘What about Opulus?’
He remained sunk on the chair I’d given him. Truthfully, he appeared all but comatose.
Morgan frowned. ‘Leave him be. He’ll come round when he wants to. Just give him some time. At least here we can keep an eye on him to make sure he’s alright.’
Opulus groaned slightly and lifted his head. His eyes shone with unshed tears. ‘I’m fine,’ he said. He clearly wasn’t. ‘I’ll get myself some water in a minute. I just need…’ He choked, unable to finish.
We all nodded. That was the thing about grief – everyone had experienced it in one form or another. Even if I didn’t remember my own moments of true grieving, some part of me recognised the sensation. Everyone dealt with it differently. Opulus didn’t want to be alone but he didn’t want to participate either. That was wholly understandable. To prove I could continue to be a lovely empathetic faery, I reached over and squeezed his shoulder.
‘Getting rid of the others wasn’t just about preventing constant in-fighting and backstabbing,’ Morgan said. ‘It was also about trust. I know I can trust everyone in this room with my life.’ It felt like my heart was going to burst. Finally. Finally he really trusted me. ‘Not just you, Maddy, so stop with the cheesy grin.’
I didn’t stop. Why would I?
‘Maybe,’ Morgan continued quietly, ‘you should give one of us the sphere to look after. Carrying it just makes you a target.’
‘I don’t have it.’ At his look, I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m telling the truth! You just said you trusted me with your life so at least trust me in this! I gave the sphere to a cleaner.’
‘You did what?’ Jodie asked with palpable disbelief.
I sighed and explained what had happened. ‘It seemed the best thing to do at the time. I wasn’t going to get away with the sphere in my possession. And I wasn’t expecting the heavens to start attacking the earth in order to help out little ol’ me. I simply used my inherent genius. I know the woman’s name and the company she works for her. The sphere is safe for now. We’ll have to find her and retrieve it soon but I reckon we have some breathing space.’
‘That was a smart move,’ Morgan said.
I stuck my tongue out at Jodie. ‘See?’
She tutted. ‘Speaking of the heavens attacking,’ she said, changing the subject, ‘what the fuck was all that? Was it because of you? Or was it someth
ing Rubus did?’
I held up my palms. ‘Nothing to do with me.’
‘Nothing to do with Rubus either,’ Morgan said grimly. ‘He was more terrified than the rest of us.’
‘The rats recognised him as a kindred spirit,’ I said. ‘Like is drawn to like.’ I pointed at the television. ‘It wasn’t just a localised thing. Turn on the sound. What’s happening?’
Jodie glanced at Morgan as if she needed his permission to up the volume. He gave her a brief nod. The man certainly liked to run a tight ship; perhaps he had more in common with his brother than he realised. My mouth flattened. Perhaps we all did in our own ways.
The newscaster’s voice filled the room, booming out into every nook and cranny. ‘For those of you just joining us, there have been numerous reports from all over the city of Manchester of serious disturbances. In Fallowfields, concerns have been raised by eyewitness who spoke of dozens of foxes running down the streets. In Rusholme, several passers-by managed to get footage of what appears to be a pink elephant causing considerable damage.’
The screen changed, flicking to what was indeed an elephant bursting out of the front window of a small Victorian terrace house. My jaw dropped. Talk about the elephant in the room.
‘That’s impossible,’ Jodie breathed.
Vandrake rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ve seen a pink elephant before.’
We all ripped our gaze away from the screen to stare at him. Even Opulus jerked his head round. When Vandrake realised he was the centre of attention, his cheeks stained red and he looked down. ‘I’m fairly certain it was a hallucination,’ he muttered. ‘It made itself a cup of tea and sat down in my favourite armchair.’
Uh … okay then.
‘Here with us,’ the newscaster continued, ‘is Fred Bellows from the Meteorological Office. Fred, can you explain any of this?’
The face of a harried-looking man with a dishevelled suit jacket and a barely knotted tie filled the television screen. ‘Good afternoon, Tim. I certainly can’t explain pink elephants. That is a phenomenon which us weather men are unfamiliar with. I can confirm, however, that there was a localised event in the Greater Manchester area that affected the skies. At this stage, we believe it was a small storm caused by a sudden rush of rising air. That accounts for the sudden darkening of the skies. It’s not been confirmed yet, but we also believe there might have been a small earthquake which would have added to the situation. It’s an unusual event but not beyond the realms of possibility.’
‘But the swarms of wild animals which eyewitnesses have reported? Can you account for those?’
‘Well, I’m no expert but it is often documented that animals are more sensitive to extreme weather changes and earth tremors than the human population.’
‘Can we expect further scenes like this?’
The supposed expert shook his head. ‘Oh no. There’s absolutely no reason to feel alarmed. This is a simply a case of Mother Nature reminding us that she can be volatile from time to time.’
I snorted. I could be volatile from time to time – but I couldn’t conjure up freaking pink elephants.
‘Turn it off, Jodie,’ Morgan said. He ran a distracted hand through his hair and went to the bar. He poured himself a large whisky and downed it in one long gulp. Jodie did as he asked then did the same, swallowing down a full tumbler of Scotch with barely a grimace. Unwilling to be left out of this little party, I stalked over and grabbed the bottle. One swig, however, and I was choking and spluttering.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Perhaps I’d lay off the whisky. It was probably lethal to anyone who didn’t have Scottish blood. I threw a quick glance at Morgan, envisioning him in a kilt with nothing underneath. Mmmm.
‘What is it, Maddy?’ he asked. ‘You look like you just thought of something important.’
‘Yes,’ I nodded, imagining getting my hands on Morgan’s sporran. Then I remembered where I was and what was going on. I cleared my throat and sobered up. ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? This is to do with us. It’s magic related. There’s no other explanation, no matter what Fred Bellows or the BBC seem to think.’
Timmons scratched his head. ‘It can’t be the sphere. It’s not been activated or we’d all know about it.’
Morgan poured another glass of whisky. I shuddered. ‘I agree,’ he said. ‘Definitely magic and definitely not the sphere. It might not be Fey related at all though.’
‘Maybe,’ Vandrake suggested, ‘it’s the spirit of Chen coming back to haunt us for being complete idiots.’
‘You might be an idiot,’ I told him. ‘I most certainly am not. There’s no way any of this is because of us. As I said to the others, it might be our responsibility but it can’t be our fault. It’s impossible.’
The front door to the bar burst open and Artemesia appeared, panting for breath and sweating profusely. ‘This is our fault!’ she gasped. ‘You saw what happened outside? It’s because of us!’ Her eyes swung wildly from one person to another. ‘That’s not all. It’s going to keep happening.’ She hunched her shoulders; she genuinely seemed to be terrified. ‘I can promise you all one thing.’ She drew in a breath. ‘This is only the beginning.’
Chapter Six
It took some time to get Carduus’s errant niece to calm down and explain what she knew. Apparently she had a considerable array of test equipment set up back in her makeshift laboratory. She’d been experimenting with warning systems to indicate if and when the sphere’s power was tampered with. When the Manchester skies had darkened and a minor hell had been unleashed on the city, she’d sprung into action. As much as an apothecary could spring into action: I suspected that involved running over to scraps of paper and crunching numbers with a chewed pencil.
‘The tests are conclusive,’ she declared.
She glared at us as if expecting an argument. I was tempted, not because I had any reason to disbelieve her but because it would have been fun.
‘Residual Fey magic is lingering in the atmosphere,’ Artemesia went on. ‘It’s been building up for months. Think of it like a pressure-valve system. The magic needs an outlet and, sadly, it found one. We’re just lucky that no one appears to have been seriously hurt.’
‘So we’re alright now? It won’t happen again because enough magic has been siphoned off?’ Timmons questioned.
‘No,’ she sighed. ‘It’s difficult to explain in layman’s terms. As magical beings present in a non-magical demesne, our very presence causes a build-up of magic. There’s nothing we can do stop it, short of leaving this demesne for good.’
Everyone snorted at that. If we could leave for good, we’d already have done it. Apart from Timmons; he’d chosen a human name over his Fey one and admitted to me that he liked it here better than Mag Mell. I guessed that, as a Travotel manager, complimentary hotel toiletries did it for him in the same way that Morgan did it for me.
‘We’ve also been using magic,’ Artemesia said. ‘Not a lot but enough to add to the increase in the atmosphere. It wasn’t dangerous until a few days ago when there was a far longer use of magic than I’ve ever seen before. It sent all my equipment skyrocketing. Of course, with everything else that was going on at the time it took me a while to get to the lab and notice. What happened today was a minimal release. It won’t be long before the city reaches tipping point once again.’
‘So there will be more of these magical pressure releases?’ Morgan asked grimly.
Artemesia nodded. ‘Yep. And I reckon that the more they happen, the worse they’re likely to get.’
That didn’t bode well at all. Vandrake spoke up from the corner. ‘This added burst of magic which pushed us over the edge,’ he said. ‘Can you tell where it came from? If we can pinpoint its location, we can make sure that whoever did this is warned and doesn’t do it again.’ The corners of his mouth turned down. ‘Assuming it wasn’t a deliberate act on Rubus’s part.’
Artemesia grimaced. ‘As far as I can tell, there was no single location. The magic was
occurring across the city. It was probably one faery – and they were probably on the move at the time.’
Morgan’s face was dark with fury. ‘Don’t people realise how dangerous it is to wield our magic around this demesne? They’ve been told time and time again. We have enough to deal with, given all that’s happening with the sphere. We don’t need rogue faeries making matters even worse.’
Suddenly I started to get a rather uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
‘On which day was the burst of magic?’ Timmons asked.
Artemesia wrinkled her nose. ‘Guess.’
Morgan shook his head in vexation. ‘The day that we almost handed the sphere over to Rubus. Or rather to his Mendax glamour. That has to be it. That has to be what caused the problem.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘That was the day the burst occurred – but the glamour Rubus created was boosted by rowan. That’s a natural ingredient that is native to this land. Yes, he extended the glamour longer than he should have but it was still a contained spell. The magic I’m talking about occurred without any other support. Whatever it was, it was certainly a powerful spell that has no place here.’
I bit my lip. ‘Something like, er, altering time?’
Artemesia beamed at me as if I were her star pupil. She snapped her fingers. ‘Exactly like that!’
Jodie tutted. ‘But altering time is forbidden. I know it happens occasionally, despite the warnings, but never for long periods. And didn’t you tell me, Morganus, that very few faeries have ever done it?’
Morgan’s eyes were on mine. ‘I did.’ He licked his lips. ‘It’s a spell that I’ve used once or twice but never for more than a few seconds.’
I pulled my gaze away from his and did my best to look innocent. I was busy saving the world that day, not destroying it. Honest, guv.
‘Maddy,’ he said softly, ‘you’ve altered time before.’
‘Mmm.’
‘Maddy…’
I raised my shoulders. ‘Sure. I did it. But mostly before I was told that it was dangerous.’ That wasn’t exactly a lie.