Page 57 of Quiver of Cobras
Praise be. I exhaled silently in relief. I didn’t want to appear too disappointed that she was bailing on me but I could hardly show her what I was really thinking. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’ve really been enjoying your company but you do look kind of dead on your feet. Maybe it’s best if you go and lie down for a bit.’
‘Yeah. Maybe.’ Her shoulders slumped. ‘Do you think Rubus will be very angry?’
Him again. ‘Honestly,’ I said, without lying, ‘I doubt he’ll even notice.’
Lunaria looked as if she were going to start bawling. Alarmed, I reached out and drew her into a hug. Please, anything but tears. Unfortunately, the hug had the opposite of its intended effect and set her off.
She hiccupped and started to sob. ‘I don’t know how you do this all the time,’ she said. ‘I mean, I know you’ve got brain damage and all, but it’s just so hard.’
‘I don’t have brain damage,’ I said into her shoulder, unable to extricate myself from her tight hold. ‘I just have amnesia.’
‘Yeah,’ she sniffed. ‘But we all know how weird you’re acting. You’re not quite … right.’
Score one to Looney Tunes. ‘There, there,’ I told her. ‘Maybe one day you’ll end up with total memory loss too and you can experience the wonder of not knowing your own name.’
‘You’re so lucky,’ she gasped, pulling back and wiping her eyes.
Yeah, I thought, eyeing her sourly. The trouble was that she was right. I was lucky I didn’t remember killing Charrie the Bogle; I was lucky that I didn’t remember dumping Morgan when it suited me. Memory loss did indeed have its advantages. And perhaps I was brain damaged. Perhaps I even deserved it.
‘Go on then,’ I said, not entirely unkindly. ‘Get yourself home.’
She sniffed again and nodded. ‘See you later.’
I raised a hand in farewell. ‘Can’t wait.’
I watched her turn round and toddle off. As soon as she was out of sight, I jumped into action. I’d have to be back at Rubus’s place before too long. After all, there was the big dinner with Julie tonight and I had loads to do before then.
Brain damaged or not, it wasn’t easy being me.
Chapter Fifteen
I spun away from the church and headed for the address that Timmons had given me. I didn’t know if Artemesia would be able to help me or not but it was more than worth a try.
Although this time her laboratory-cum-potion-shop-cum-shed was located close by, it took far longer than I’d anticipated to reach it thanks to a combination of steady drizzle, slow-moving pedestrians and winding streets. I actually walked past the damn place three times before I spotted it. Last time she’d used magic to make her place look like a ramshackle shed from the outside; now, no doubt in order to blend in more effectively with her new surroundings, the exterior of her lab appeared to be a small, boarded-up pawn shop.
I knocked on the rusting door then, without waiting for an answer, pushed it open and entered. I’d barely put one foot inside when a viciously loud klaxon sounded. She’d amped up her security after my last visit. This was confirmed when, a few heartbeats later, Artemesia appeared wielding a long steel bar.
I raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you planning to do with that?’ I enquired. ‘Only a faery would enter this place and only faeries are affected by the truce. All you can do is swing it around and look threatening.’
She glared at me. ‘Usually that’s enough. After all, I am a highly skilled potion maker. You never know when I might find something that will work around the truce.’
I immediately brightened. ‘Really? Are you searching for something? Because that would be a game changer.’
‘The truce binding is too strong.’ She dropped the steel bar. ‘But I heard about the oath breaker that the dragon is prepared to hand over. I can’t be sure without examining it – and with that sort of magic there’s always some sort of catch – but it has potential.’
I grunted. ‘Even mould has potential. I won’t hold my breath.’
I moved further inside but Artemesia sprang in front of me. ‘You can’t come in here. I gave Timmons my address for you but that doesn’t mean I want you inside. There’s a café round the corner. We’ll go there.’
I spread out my arms in a gesture of peace. ‘I’m already here. We might as well stay. I understand you might not trust me—’
‘Trust you?’ Her expression was one of total incredulity.
‘You’d already moved on from that last place,’ I pointed out calmly. ‘And you admitted that you expected me to tell your uncle where you were.’
‘That’s not the point.’
Of course it was the point. There had been no harm done and I had the impression when we last met that we’d got on alright. Maybe we weren’t bosom buddies but, if Artemesia played her cards right, I might allow her to become my friend one day.
