Page 42 of Quiver of Cobras
‘Let’s focus on more important things, shall we?’
Finn and I exchanged knowing looks then I noticed the way Morgan was studiously avoiding meeting my eyes and my short-lived amusement vanished. He’d despised me when I’d met him ten days ago and he despised me again now. My shoulders sagged and I swallowed down the pussy joke that had been on my lips. I sat down again but not next to Morgan; I didn’t want to watch him recoil from me.
‘I don’t get a good feeling about Mendax,’ I said, returning to business. ‘I don’t think we can trust him.’
‘I agree,’ Finn said, surprising me yet again. ‘Let’s not forget that the man’s a dragon. There’s never been a more self-centred species. All they care about is hoarding stuff and looking after themselves. The only reason a dragon would be bothered by an impending apocalypse is if it drove up gold prices and destroyed their treasure chests in the process.’
‘Perhaps that’s exactly why wecantrust him,’ Morgan said. ‘His motives might be selfish but at least that sort of selfishness can be equated with honesty.’
‘We don’t need him,’ I pointed out. ‘The sphere is safe with you. Nothing else matters.’
‘I don’t believe he was bluffing about using the CCTV footage against you.’ Morgan’s jaw tightened. ‘He’d hand it over to the police for no other reason than to be spiteful.’
I cast down my eyes. ‘Maybe it should be handed over. Maybe I deserve to be punished.’
‘Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that.’
I looked up and raised my voice. ‘I can find out where Mendax lives,’ I said. ‘I can stake out his PO box, follow him home, slit his bony throat and take back the video. I’ll find this oath-breaker thing at the same time. The whole operation won’t take more than a day or two.’
Morgan finally met my gaze and a ghost of a smile crossed his mouth. I couldn’t tell whether it was because he was laughing at me or he thought I was just being cute.
‘Except,’ Finn interjected, ‘his point about the sphere was valid. I’m homesick. I feel the ache for my own demesne although I know it’s not as physical or as acute as what you Fey feel. It’s been ten years since the borders were closed and it’s got worse. It wakes me up at night and it haunts my dreams. What happens in another ten years? Or another ten after that?’
Morgan nodded grimly. ‘It could get so bad that any of us will be desperate enough to use the sphere and bring on the magic that will destroy this world. It’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.’
‘I feel the ache,’ I argued. ‘But it’s not that bad. I can live with it.’
Morgan’s mouth twisted. ‘I think the reason you don’t feel it as keenly as the rest of us is because you don’t remember anything about Mag Mell. It’s as if the amnesia you suffered reset your cravings back to zero.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s afait accomplithen, isn’t it? Give every faery amnesia!’
‘Except,’ Morgan pointed out, ‘we don’t know what caused yours. And I doubt that every faery in the land will queue up to forget everything about themselves.’
‘Lots of faeries queued up for pixie dust. It soothed away the ache, right? I know it’s addictive. I know it can be misused. But surely a small group of addicts is a small price to pay for saving the world?’
‘Dust doesn’t work on Redcaps,’ Finn said. ‘And that idea is not really a solution.’
I didn’t see why not. It would even keep Rubus happy.
‘You can’t force people to take drugs, Maddy.’
‘Well,’ I answered, ‘youcan. You just don’t want to.’
Morgan raked a hand through his hair and got to his feet. He walked over to one of the windows and gazed out at the shadowed, night-filled golf course. ‘The easiest answer to all of this is to do what Mendax says. We learn to trust him, he learns to trust us, and together we destroy the sphere once and for all.’
‘You could take the sphere and hide it,’ I said. ‘No one but you has to know where it is.’
Morgan didn’t turn around. ‘I can withstand most Truth Draws,’ he said, ‘even when they’re conducted by very experienced Fey. I don’t know that I have the strength to withstand one of Rubus’s Truth Spiders. I don’t know that anyone has that kind of capability. All he’d need to do is get hold of me and use one of those creatures to bring out the truth.’
‘So put the sphere somewhere where no one can get hold of it even if they do know where it is! You could…’ I searched around, trying to think of a way ‘…you could send it into space.’
Finn looked at me. ‘You know many astronauts, do you?’
‘All I’m saying is that we’ve not exhausted every possibility yet!’ I threw up my hands in frustration. Saving the world really shouldn’t be this damned difficult.
‘Mendax was talking sense, Maddy. Nothing is ever lost forever. The sphere needs to be destroyed. We need to know without a shadow of a doubt that it’s out of reach. The only way to do that is to get rid of it completely.’
I cursed loudly, even though I knew deep down he was right. I hated that he was right. ‘So do we do this, then? Do we deal with Mendax?’
