Page 3 of Quiver of Cobras
I stomped through the dark corridors. The heavy weight at my back aided my grim march and meant that most of Rubus’s minions took one look at me and skedaddled out of the way. Unfortunately my unnatural posture and gait, together with my stony expression, wasn’t enough to keep everyone away.
‘Mads!’ Lunaria called out. ‘Hold up!’
I kept moving. Maybe if I pretended not to have heard her, she’d get the message and stay clear.
The tall Fey woman ran up to me. I cursed inwardly and turned to her. ‘I’m busy.’
‘Have you heard?’ Her eyes shone. ‘Chen is dead. That arse of a dragon oaf just keeled over, probably from a heart attack. Serves him right. Not that I thought he even had a heart. If he did, he’d have given us his magic sphere long ago.’
For a supposedly intelligent faery, Lunaria could be a total zounderkite. Honestly. Rubus had well and truly hoodwinked her – and everyone else – with dreams of how the dragon’s sphere could send us all back home to Mag Mell. What he neglected to dwell on was what would happen to this demesne if that happened.
The sphere was a magically bound object, designed to suck magic from other places. Using it would flood this land with magic – and in the process effectively destroy it. But why should we care? We’d all be back home, hugging our families and exulting in our return after ten long years of exile. I rolled my eyes. As if returning to our hearths was more important than the lives of seven billion people. I quashed the flood of guilt I suddenly experienced.
‘Keep your voice down, you towering arsebadger,’ I snapped. ‘You know anything to do with Chen and his sphere is on a need-to-know basis.’
Lunaria didn’t blink at my words or my tone. ‘None of that will matter when we get our hands on it. We’ll be able to crow from the rooftops that Rubus is going to save us all.’
My hands itched to slap her. ‘He’s such a hero,’ I said flatly.
‘Isn’t he?’ she breathed, not noticing my sarcasm. She beamed at me. ‘Anyway, our hero wants to see you.’
My heart sank. The last thing I needed was to be confronted by Rubus when I was on a mission to prevent him from achieving his heart’s desire. I tried – and failed – to think of a decent excuse to avoid him. I couldn’t do anything that would make him suspicious.
I gritted my teeth and glanced at her. ‘Where is he?’
‘In the throne room.’
I sighed. Of course he was.
***
Regardless of where Rubus was staying, he always commandeered the largest and best room as his ‘throne room’. This place was no different. He’d set it up with his favourite purple velvet chair at one end and a clashing red carpet leading up to it. Frankly, it was a miracle he didn’t put a crown on top of his stupid head, something of which I repeatedly reminded him.
‘You’re not wearing your tiara yet,’ I said as I approached.
He was leaning back lazily with one muscled leg hooked over the left arm of the chair. Early afternoon sun filtered in from one of the high windows, casting a halo around his head as if he were some kind of angelic force. That’d be the day.
‘And I’ve told you, Madrona, that when I find some jewels to decorate a tiara that are as pretty as you, I’ll happily wear one.’ He displayed sharp, white, even teeth as he smiled. ‘When I do, I’ll expect you to curtsey.’
My bottom lip curled. I made a point of not kowtowing to anyone, not even Rubus. He knew that – he even expected it. ‘I hear Chen has died,’ I said in a bored voice. I gestured around the room. ‘So where’s his little sphere, then?’
Rubus’s jaw tightened, the only sign that he was a seething mass of insane fury behind his carefully cultivated mask of handsome blandness. ‘We don’t have it.’
I evinced surprise. Meryl Streep had nothing on me. ‘Really? Did the dragon pass it on to a friend before he passed away?’
‘That ornery old bastard had no friends. He was only interested in his treasure. No,’ said Rubus coldly, ‘I rather think that our little bogle friend has taken it for himself.’
‘Charrie?’ I scoffed. ‘I doubt it. He’s too scared of you and what you’ll do to his family to step out of line.’
‘He abandoned Amellus at Chen’s place and hasn’t been seen since. There’s no other explanation.’
Gasbudlikins. Part of me had hoped I could persuade Rubus that there was another reason the stupid sphere was missing but, even after all this time, he didn’t trust me enough to pursue this line of conversation. ‘So I presume you want me to locate the bogle?’ I asked.
‘I think it’s better if you don’t get involved. No,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘What I need you to do is ramp up the sales of pixie dust. We need as many Fey with us as possible when I use the sphere. I can’t have my brother getting wind of what I’m up to and trying to stop me before I save us all. It would be just like him to steal the sphere from me because he wants to steal my thunder. He’ll want to get all the adulation for re-opening the border. Drop the dust prices and bring as many Fey as you can into our fold. I’ll create an army of addicts before I let Morgan take my glory from me.’
I was sure part of Rubus realised that Morgan would take the sphere from him because he wanted to save the humans from the chaos which flooding this demesne with magic would cause, not because he wanted to be worshipped as the supposed Fey saviour. But there was no point in mentioning this – and at least being sent out on a pixie-dust mission would grant me enough leeway to disappear for a while without raising suspicion.
I didn’t want Rubus to think I was too eager to leave the dragon sphere and Charrie alone, though. ‘I’m good enough to locate the bogle. And I’m strong enough to take the sphere from him.’
