Page 13 of Quiver of Cobras
Artemesia’s uncle leaned forward. ‘Where is she?’
‘She seemed rather concerned about keeping her whereabouts secret from you,’ I told him.
His face scrunched up. ‘Morgan has been filling her ear with evil whispers. She’s my family. She should be by my side.’
‘Because you want to protect her? Because you miss your niece and your family gatherings?’
‘No,’ he snapped. ‘Because she stole from me. She has several books of mine that I’d like back. Not to mention that I could do with a proper lab assistant. She has no right to set up in direct competition against me.’
Well, I thought, at least he was being honest. I shrugged. Fair enough.
I reckoned I was taking a calculated risk. It would speed me towards my goal of getting Rubus to trust me again, plus I was convinced that Artemesia would already have moved on. She’d been nervous enough that I’d blab about her location so she wouldn’t trust me to stay quiet, especially now that I was back in the villainous bosom of Rubus himself.
‘She has a shed,’ I said. ‘Or at least it looks like a shed from the outside. Inside it’s quite remarkable. It’s by the river.’ I outlined how Morgan and I had got there. ‘She’s probably gone by now though,’ I added. ‘She wasn’t very happy when I showed up and she made it quite clear that she’d have to up sticks to keep herself safe.’
Rubus tutted. ‘Children these days.’ He looked at me assessingly. ‘That’s very helpful though, Madrona. Thank you.’
I curtsied. Artemesia’s uncle turned to leave. ‘I’ll go now.’
Rubus caught his arm. ‘I’ll send someone else, Carduus. If Artemesia is still there, she’ll run a mile if she sees you. Besides,’ he pointed at me, ‘Madrona needs help.’
Never was a truer statement made. ‘I’ll need to take samples from her. Until I know what caused her amnesia, I’m unable to cure it.’ Carduus glared at me as if all this was my fault. ‘It wasn’t as a result of anything I gave her. I even checked my own supplies and potions. Nothing is missing.’
That was something at least. I stretched out my arms. ‘Sample away.’
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Rubus said. ‘Once you’re finished, Madrona, I’d appreciate it if you would fetch your soap-star friend for me.’ It was clear that he wasn’t making a request.
I shrugged. ‘I’ll do my best.’
‘You’ll do better than that. I want to meet her.’ He placed his palms together and held them up to his lips as if in prayer. ‘I do hope it’s Stacey,’ he murmured to himself. ‘She’s my favourite.’
Gasbudlikins. No wonder my career as Julie’s bodyguard hadn’t lasted more than two days. Her character was indeed Stacey. Instead of keeping her safe, I was virtually being asked to deposit her in the lap of an evil faery with delusions of grandeur.
‘Are you going off to punish Galanthus now?’ I enquired.
Rubus appeared momentarily surprised. He’d forgotten all about the supposed traitor, proving once and for all that it had all been a set-up. ‘Yeah,’ he murmured unconvincingly. ‘He’s going to pay for what he’s done.’ He was halfway to the door before he turned and glanced at me. ‘By the way,’ he added, ‘before you got amnesia, you took a large quantity of pixie dust with you to sell. I’d like it back.’
‘I don’t have it now. I don’t know where it is.’
Rubus shrugged. ‘I don’t care. Just find it.’
He didn’t add ‘or else’ at the end of his sentence. Somehow he didn’t need to.
Chapter Three
After being prodded and poked by Carduus, along with being stuck by various needles and swabbed in some unmentionable places that I’d rather not think about again, I left the laboratory and made my way towards the main entrance. I was expecting at least one – if not more – Fey goons to fall into place alongside me. When my journey was uninterrupted and I was left alone, however, I allowed myself an imaginary high five.
Rubus didn’t have any evidence that I had was involved with his missing sphere or the lost bogle. He didn’t even have any evidence that I trusted Morgan rather than him. It looked like I had been granted enough freedom to move around the city unhindered. I was still on a leash but it was one of those extendable ones rather than a choke collar. All to the good.
I skipped along, pausing every so often to check my reflection in shop windows and car side-mirrors. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t being followed but that didn’t mean that Rubus hadn’t planted a darned dandelion-seed tracker on me. I shook out my hair and brushed down my clothes as best as I could but I couldn’t be sure that I was clean, no matter how much I wiggled around.
It would be far safer to avoid going anywhere near Julie’s home. Anyway, at this time of day she was at work. With that thought in mind, I headed for the nearest taxi rank, slid into the front seat of the first cab and buckled up.
‘Where to?’ asked the driver. He was a friendly looking fellow with a shock of pure-white hair and a lot of laughter lines around his eyes.
I gave him the name of the television studios. He bobbed his head and set off.
Fortunately the traffic was light at that time of day and it took less than an hour to reach the studio gates. Along the way, the taxi driver and I exchanged the sort of typical inanities that passed for small talk.
