Quiver of Cobras

by Helen Harper

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-confidence.’

  She raised her eyes heavenward. ‘There is if this box doesn’t work.’ Her voice darkened. ‘Or if it does indeed blow up in our faces.’

  ‘If you can’t engage in some well-placed gallows humour when you’re facing the end of the world, when can you?’ I asked.

  Before anyone could move, I jumped off the stool, snatched the little box from Artemesia’s hands and moved to the back of the room. I flipped it open before any of these jokers took my martyrdom away from me. It was almost disappointing when nothing happened.

  ‘Anything interesting inside?’ Finn asked. ‘Or is the box empty like that dragon’s damned soul?’

  Morgan strode over to me. ‘Don’t do anything like that again,’ he growled.

  ‘Are you saying that you’d be upset if I got blown to smithereens, Morgan?’

  He grabbed my wrist in an iron grip. ‘Just don’t, Maddy.’

  Something about the look in his eye gave me pause and a strange warmth spread through me. ‘Okay,’ I said quietly. I held the box out to him. ‘I can’t tell what it is,’ I admitted.

  Morgan took it from me and stared down. I recognised that look. I wasn’t the only one who did, either.

  ‘What is it?’ Artemesia asked. ‘What’s the problem?’

  He sighed. ‘It’s a branch.’

  Finn let out a bark of unamused laughter. ‘Of course it is. No wonder the old dragon was happy to let it go.’

  I gazed at all three of them, thoroughly befuddled. ‘He doesn’t like trees?’

  Morgan reached into the box and, between his thumb and forefinger, gingerly pulled the supposed branch out. It didn’t look like a branch to me, it looked like a squidgy sponge-thing. At least it was a pretty colour.

  Artemesia drew in a sharp breath. ‘It’s red.’

  ‘Yep.’ Morgan held it up to the light and turned it round. ‘You’ll need to check it over, Arty. Make sure that it still has enough power left. It’s obviously ancient. Goodness only knows where Chen got it from.’ He placed it back into the box and passed it over to Artemesia. She took it, albeit rather gingerly.

  ‘Either the lot of you are talking in code,’ I said, ‘or there’s something going on here that I don’t understand.’

  ‘Branches in the sense that we mean here,’ Morgan explained, ‘have nothing to do with trees. They’re magically imbued objects. We call them branches because they need to be linked to something else—’

  ‘Or someone else,’ Artemesia butted in.

  Morgan nodded. ‘If they’re not linked, they won’t work. The fact that this oath-breaking branch is red means that it’ll only work if a blood relation uses it on another blood relation. So, in effect it’s useful only to either me or Rubus. No other Fey trapped here are blood related.’

  ‘So either you use it to break Rubus from the truce, or he uses it on you.’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘You can’t use it on any of his minions?’

  ‘No. It will only work on Rubus and it will only work if I’m the one to wield it.’

  I grimaced. That was incredibly disappointing; I’d been looking forward to breaking all of Rubus’s hangers-on from the truce so I could ground them into dust.

  ‘This is good news,’ Finn said. ‘We chop off the head and the rest of the body will fall. It might only stop the truce from working on Rubus but that’s a good thing. His idiotic servants won’t be able to stop us from hurting him because they’ll still be bound by the truce. If the only Fey in this demesne who can be harmed by another Fey is Rubus, then it’s win-win. Mendax was right: I could never hurt Rubus on my own because I don’t have the strength. My two brothers and I combined couldn’t even take down Madrona. But you have enough people on your side, Morgan. We can bring him down without having to worry about what happens to the sphere afterwards.’ He shrugged. ‘We kill Rubus. Our worries will be over.’

  I sneaked a look at Morgan’s face. Oh dear. I was beginning to see what the problem was. ‘Would you be prepared to commit fratricide?’ I asked Finn softly.

  ‘I can’t,’ he bit back, suddenly stiffening. ‘You already did that for me.’

  I didn’t really have an answer for that – Finn had made a valid point.

  ‘You don’t have to kill him, Morganus,’ Artemesia said. ‘Once you’ve used the oath breaker, others can take over from you to deal with Rubus. And you knew it might come to this. We just need to be able to hurt him. If he can be hurt, he’s vulnerable. You can grab him and lock him up. It’ll stop him from doing anything in the future that might cause us problems.’

  Morgan drew in a breath. ‘I can do it,’ he said finally. ‘I can even kill him if need be.’ He raised his eyes to mine for a second before he glanced away. ‘That’s what worries me.’

  For a long moment we were all silent. I bit my lip then walked over to Morgan and put my arms round him. He didn’t resist. ‘I’m already a murderer,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll do it, if it comes to that. My shoulders can carry the weight.’

  He rested his chin on the top of my head. ‘I don’t think they can, Maddy.’ He sighed. ‘Besides, even without the truce in place, it’ll take more than one of us to bring down Rubus. He’s stronger than you think. And taking down a Fey, whether they’re Rubus or someone else, isn’t like taking down a human. It won’t be easy.’

  ‘There is one other part of this equation that concerns me,’ Artemesia said. ‘Why would Mendax pass this oath breaker over so easily? Surely he knows that if it works like it’s supposed to, the sphere won’t matter. We won’t need to give it to him to destroy.’

  Morgan stepped away from me, his gazing flicking to the oath-breaker box in Artemesia’s hands. ‘There’s always the possibility that if we take out Rubus, someone else will step up and fill his shoes instead.’

  ‘Carduus,’ I said.

  Both Finn and Morgan looked confused. ‘He would never be respected enough to lead.’

  ‘No, but he’s working on a locating potion to find out where the sphere is. He told me it wasn’t quite ready yet but, from the look on his face, it won’t be long before it is.’

  Artemesia seemed shocked. ‘What? Did you see this potion?’

  I grimaced. ‘Some sort of liquid with purple swirly bits. Why? Is he talking out of his arse?’

  She swallowed. ‘I don’t know. Such a potion is theoretically possible but it would take considerable skill to make it properly. I never thought my uncle had it in him. Even with all the books and knowledge I’ve got, I couldn’t do it.’

  ‘He works for Rubus,’ I said drily. ‘And he’s a total believer. He has the motivation. That’s not all either.’ I told them about the note from my mysterious ‘friend’.

  ‘You don’t have any idea who sent it?’

  I shook my head. ‘No. I’ll work it out sooner or later because obviously I’m a genius and nothing escapes me for long.’ I ignored the scoff from both Finn and Artemesia. ‘But I have no idea who it’s from. Either way, it feels like we’re running out of time. We can’t dilly-dally and wait for things to happen to us. We have to make them happen if we’re going to stay in control.’

  Morgan’s mouth turned down. ‘I agree. And in any case, whether Carduus succeeds or not with his new bespelled potion, the sphere will always be a concern. Rubus or no Rubus, it has to be destroyed.’

  ‘Unless,’ Finn added darkly, ‘Mendax is looking for an excuse to keep the sphere for himself rather than destroy it. I still don’t trust him.’

  I shrugged. ‘Trust or no trust, Rubus or no Rubus, oath breaker or no oath breaker, I’m still Madrona the Madhatter. We’re still going to win.’

  Artemesia arched an eyebrow. ‘How can you be so sure?’

  I pushed myself up onto my tiptoes and spread out my arms, twirling once for effect. I didn’t even wobble. ‘I don’t know how to lose,’ I boomed.

  ‘You lost your memory,’ Finn said. ‘You still don’t k
now where that is.’

  ‘You lost your good sense too,’ Artemesia agreed. ‘Right around the time you made that teeny-weeny mistake and trapped us all in this demesne.’

  Morgan glanced at me. ‘You lost me.’ His voice was barely audible. ‘But I think you might have found me again.’ He pointed at the oath breaker. ‘Test it, Arty. You’ve got thirty minutes and then we’re going to find Rubus. And we’re going to do whatever we can to remove him from this situation for good.’

  ***

  ‘So,’ Morgan said, ‘you know what to do?’

  I nodded. ‘I’ve got this. It’ll be fine.’

  Finn waggled his phone. ‘Julie’s on her way.’

  I pointed at him. ‘It’s your job to keep her safe. It’s not that she’s weak or anything but she’s not like us. Not to mention that the viewers of St Thomas Close will come after us with pitchforks if anything happens to her.’

  He growled. ‘You don’t need to tell me to look after her. I’ve done a great deal more to help her than you have.’

  For once I didn’t rise to the bait. It was easy because it wasn’t true. I’d rescued her in a dark alley. I’d been Tasered for her. I suffered being kicked out of a swanky restaurant because of her. I was super awesome while Finn was … large and hulking. Anyone could be like that if genetics permitted. I didn’t say any of this to him, though; I simply stepped over and stretched up so I could kiss him on the cheek. ‘You’re a fabulous bodyguard,’ I told him.

  ‘Get her away from me, Morgan,’ Finn said. He looked utterly terrified.

  I beamed at him then I cracked my knuckles. ‘Let’s do this.’

  Leaving the boys behind, I strode round the corner and headed towards the main doors of the hide-out. I could feel the buzz of anticipation zipping through my veins. Rubus wouldn’t know what had hit him. Being a super spy was all well and good but it was important to slide in some real action. Sneaking around as I’d done so far was producing results at a snail’s pace. The next hour was going to prove very different.

  It didn’t take long to locate the man himself. He was seated in his wannabe throne room, his eyes half-lidded, whilst a pathetic Fey female grovelled in front of him for some dust.

  ‘I’ll do whatever you want,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t even want a lot of pixie dust. I’ll just take a bit.’

  ‘There’s nothing you can offer me that I need,’ Rubus said, not bothering to look at his poor supplicant.

  I watched him carefully. It didn’t appear that he’d got much sleep during his incarceration; yet again, he was looking both tired and wan.

  ‘I have money!’ The Fey reached into her bag and pulled out a scrunched-up wad of notes. ‘I’ve been saving up. Just … please. Give me some.’

  Rubus uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, opening his eyes to look at her properly for the first time. ‘Hmmm,’ he said, tapping his chin as if deep in thought. ‘Actually…’

  She held her breath, desperate hope springing into her eyes.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘You’re not getting any.’

  Her shoulders sagged.

  ‘It’s not my fault,’ Rubus said, clearly only pretending to sound reasonable. ‘But supplies are low. We have to ration what we have and by my reckoning you took several ounces last week. You also kept them for yourself.’ He tutted. ‘That simply won’t do. I expect my people to share their good fortune with others so that as many as possible can benefit from the healing properties of pixie dust. I don’t expect them to keep it all for their own use. That’s just selfish.’

  I had to hand it to him, he played a far better villain than I did. I was tempted to pull out a pad and pen so I could take notes. Make other people feel bad about their life choices in order to get what you want; that was a neat trick.

  I leaned back against the far wall, casting an eye around the others who were waiting. There were even a few humans scattered about although I shouldn’t have been surprised by that since Rubus had made use of Dave, the human I’d used to take me to the Metropolitan Bar that first time. All the same, I was impressed by Rubus’s gall at using the people he was planning to destroy. Did he care about their futures at all? Then I remembered that all this was my fault in the first place; perhaps I shouldn’t think quite so hard about it.

  I’d thought that I might have to work to insinuate myself deeper into the room in order to be noticed but I should have realised that Rubus’d know I was there. As soon as he’d dismissed the quivering pixie-dust addict, he crooked his little finger and beckoned me forward.

  ‘I take it you heard what happened last night, Madrona,’ he said.

  I nodded. ‘I did. You should have let me stay in the restaurant with you guys. I’d have quite happily taken the fall for your arrest. You were very brave to attack a police officer.’ A bit of ego massage never went amiss.

  Unfortunately for me, Rubus’s eyes merely narrowed. ‘Who told you I attacked a policeman?’

  Uh-oh. ‘Julie,’ I said, without missing a beat. ‘She’s on her way here now, in fact. I persuaded her to come and cheer you up. She doesn’t have much time to spare but I thought you might appreciate seeing her, however briefly. Has your car been recovered?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That’s a shame.’ Then, because I couldn’t resist, I added, ‘And to think that your lovely gold ring was in the glove box too.’

  I reckoned that if the truce weren’t in place, Rubus would have ordered my execution right there and then. Reminding myself that I needed him to follow my lead, I hastily changed the subject. ‘Anyway,’ I cooed, ‘as I said, Julie is on her way here. Even though she knows you’re a faery, it’s probably not a good idea to invite her in here. Don’t forget she’s a vampire. She has no powers at the moment but who knows what latent magic is hiding deep inside her?’

  For a brief moment, Rubus looked amused. ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head, Madrona,’ he murmured. ‘When I use the sphere to re-open the border, the magic that will hit this demesne could have untold effects on the likes of Julie Chivers. She might be impotent now but think about what could happen if the magic took over instead?’

  I stared at him. That thought had never occurred to me.

  Rubus laughed at my expression. ‘It makes you wonder why Chen didn’t use the sphere himself. I’m quite certain the after-effects will be extraordinarily beneficial for the dragons too – but they all seem hell-bent on destroying it instead of using it.’

  That was because they weren’t homicidal, I thought. I smiled weakly. ‘What a thought. Dragons that actually breathe fire and vampires that could turn into bats.’

  His eyes shone. ‘Brilliant, eh?’ When no one in the room said anything, he raised his voice. ‘I said, that’s brilliant, isn’t it?’

  There was a sudden loud murmur of agreement. If it weren’t for the truce, Rubus should really ought to have considered investing in a literal whip as a well as a metaphorical one.

  ‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘if you’re busy here, I’ll leave you to it and head out to meet Julie. I’m sure she’ll understand that you have other things to do.’

  Rubus glanced at me impassively and, for a horrible moment, I thought he was going to agree. It was just as well that I’d been paying attention in Manipulation 101; in the end he stood up, clearly unable to bear the thought that either he was missing out or that I was telling him what to do. ‘These people can come back another day. I am excited to see the glamorous Ms Julie Chivers again.’

  He’d deliberately name-dropped her so everyone in the room was aware that he was meeting a real-life soap star. It was unfortunate that Lunaria took that moment to enter the room. When she heard his words and saw his leering expression, her face fell half a mile. Man. Maybe I should see if Finn was up for a date or two. She needed something – or rather someone – to distract her from her ridiculous crush.

  Rubus swaggered over in my direction with his groin thrust slightly forwards so that none of us were in any doubt that he was indeed a
man. I frowned.

  ‘Have you hurt yourself?’ I asked, the very picture of solicitous concern. ‘Or can faeries get the clap?’

  His smile disappeared. ‘What?’ he snapped.

  ‘You’re walking like your balls are swollen.’

  He glowered. ‘No. They’re always this large.’ In a muttered undertone, he added, ‘Don’t push your luck, Madrona. You’re still on probation.’

  As if I could forget. I offered him a pretty smile and gestured to the door so he could lead the way. If that was what it took to make him feel manly and in charge, I could permit it. He’d learn who was really running this show soon enough.

  By the time we made it out onto the street, the sun had disappeared behind an ominous cloud and a steady drizzle was starting to fall. ‘This fucking weather,’ Rubus complained. ‘Another thing to despise about this demesne.’

  I shrugged. ‘You could always move to the Bahamas.’

  He didn’t deign to answer. Instead his eyes travelled up and down the length of the road until he finally spied Julie’s ostentatious car and strode towards it. She’d obviously only just arrived and opened the door before we reached her, exiting in a manner that suggested either a Swiss finishing school or hours of practice. When I saw the short skirt she was wearing, I understood why – although flashing a bit of inner thigh would probably whet Rubus’s appetite further and keep him distracted.

  ‘Darlings!’ She clip-clopped towards us, planting an air kiss first near Rubus’s cheek and then near mine. As instructed, she didn’t pay me much attention; her focus was all on the villain of the hour. ‘Are you alright?’ she asked. ‘I can’t believe those terrible policemen treated like you that. You were the victim!’

  ‘They were clearly threatened by me,’ Rubus said dismissively. ‘They wanted to show who was in charge. It happens to me a lot.’

  I blinked. He actually seemed to believe it. And Artemesia had denigrated my ego! To match Rubus, I was going to have to try a damn sight harder. I comforted myself with the thought that I couldn’t be the best at everything; it wouldn’t be fair on the rest of the world.