Page 50 of Quiver of Cobras
I doubted that; his response meant that it was something that concerned me very much. Without asking him for permission, I leaned over, uncorked the nearest jar and took a deep sniff. Huh. It was an oddly familiar smell but I couldn’t place it.
‘Get away from that!’ Carduus snapped. ‘It’s not for you! You’ll contaminate it.’
Curious. I returned the stopper to its original position but he still didn’t relax. I couldn’t risk raising his suspicion when the liquid might be completely innocuous so I smiled at him benignly. ‘Okay-dokey. Before I go, I also need a copy of the file with all the past and present clients. Rubus told me to get it so I know who to target.’
Carduus insinuated himself between me and the jars, as if he were still afraid that I was going to lunge for one of them and try to escape with it. I almost laughed. All three of them were enormous – I’d be lucky to lift one of them, let alone sprint away and liberate it from his clutches.
‘I don’t tend to call them clients,’ he told me.
‘What do you call them?’
He grinned. It wasn’t pleasant. ‘Cannon fodder.’
‘Well, you’re just charm personified.’
He bowed. ‘The list is in the second drawer to the right. Help yourself.’
I extricated a manila folder and glanced inside. There was a crapload of names. Some had smiley faces scratched next to them, some had question marks. A far smaller number, Vandrake’s included, possessed crosses. I slid it into the bag together with the dust. This would come in useful.
‘Thank you.’ It probably paid to be at least slightly polite to the mad scientist.
He waved me off. ‘Get out of here. I need to concentrate.’ He spat onto the floor, a long stream of green phlegm of a similar consistency to his potion. ‘And don’t forget to come back first thing tomorrow!’
I grimaced and made my exit. Bleugh. No chance.
Chapter Thirteen
I’d assumed that I’d be free to leave on my own as I had the previous day; in fact, I was counting on it. Unfortunately, I was only halfway to the door when Lunaria bounced up. She was, I noted, no longer wearing the red-leather number. Chicken.
‘I’m to come with you!’ she trilled, a delighted smile stretching from ear to ear. ‘Maybe I can learn something. You are the master at selling, after all.’
‘I’m a masterful sort of person,’ I murmured. I had to stop her tagging along, she would only get in my way. ‘But I don’t think…’
I was only halfway through my sentence when Rubus appeared and stopped to watch us, a tiny smile playing around his lips. Gasbudlikins.
‘…I don’t think I’ll have much to teach you,’ I said, altering my original statement in the nick of time. ‘After all, I don’t remember ever doing this before.’
‘It’s like riding a bike,’ she told me. ‘You’ll pick it up again in no time.’
And if I didn’t, no doubt she would report it back to her lord and master. I forced a smile. ‘Then it’ll be wonderful to have you along for back-up,’ I said.
Lunaria beamed and took my arm. I thrust the bag at her; if she was going to be this much of a pain in my arse then at the very least she could caddy for me. ‘Here,’ I said. ‘I trust you to keep this and not lose it.’
She was far too delighted with the sudden burden. ‘Great!’
As we walked out together, I could feel Rubus’s eyes burning into my back. The scowl on my face remained. This was most definitely not how I wanted my day to begin. I created a mental image of myself pushing Lunaria under a bus but it didn’t really help.
Outside, the sun was shining, entirely at odds with my sudden change in mood. I twisted right, marching so quickly that Lunaria was forced to jog to keep up.
‘Rubus was looking very dark and handsome just now, don’t you think?’ she twittered.
‘Just about the only time I find him handsome is when it’s dark,’ I retorted.
Lunaria squinted at me. ‘But when it’s dark you can’t see him properly.’
I was surrounded by fools. Sighing, I crossed the road. ‘We’re going to the library first,’ I said. ‘There’s a Fey woman there called Paeonia who will be an easy mark.’
Lunaria clapped her hands. ‘Excellent!’
