Page 73 of Quiver of Cobras
‘Branches in the sense that we mean here,’ Morgan explained, ‘have nothing to do with trees. They’re magically imbued objects. We call them branches because they need to be linked to something else—’
‘Or someone else,’ Artemesia butted in.
Morgan nodded. ‘If they’re not linked, they won’t work. The fact that this oath-breaking branch is red means that it’ll only work if a blood relation uses it on another blood relation. So, in effect it’s useful only to either me or Rubus. No other Fey trapped here are blood related.’
‘So either you use it to break Rubus from the truce, or he uses it on you.’
‘Pretty much.’
‘You can’t use it on any of his minions?’
‘No. It will only work on Rubus and it will only work if I’m the one to wield it.’
I grimaced. That was incredibly disappointing; I’d been looking forward to breaking all of Rubus’s hangers-on from the truce so I could ground them into dust.
‘This is good news,’ Finn said. ‘We chop off the head and the rest of the body will fall. It might only stop the truce from working on Rubus but that’s a good thing. His idiotic servants won’t be able to stop us from hurting him because they’ll still be bound by the truce. If the only Fey in this demesne who can be harmed by another Fey is Rubus, then it’s win-win. Mendax was right: I could never hurt Rubus on my own because I don’t have the strength. My two brothers and I combined couldn’t even take down Madrona. But you have enough people on your side, Morgan. We can bring him down without having to worry about what happens to the sphere afterwards.’ He shrugged. ‘We kill Rubus. Our worries will be over.’
I sneaked a look at Morgan’s face. Oh dear. I was beginning to see what the problem was. ‘Would you be prepared to commit fratricide?’ I asked Finn softly.
‘I can’t,’ he bit back, suddenly stiffening. ‘You already did that for me.’
I didn’t really have an answer for that – Finn had made a valid point.
‘You don’t have to kill him, Morganus,’ Artemesia said. ‘Once you’ve used the oath breaker, others can take over from you to deal with Rubus. And you knew it might come to this. We just need to be able to hurt him. If he can be hurt, he’s vulnerable. You can grab him and lock him up. It’ll stop him from doing anything in the future that might cause us problems.’
Morgan drew in a breath. ‘I can do it,’ he said finally. ‘I can even kill him if need be.’ He raised his eyes to mine for a second before he glanced away. ‘That’s what worries me.’
For a long moment we were all silent. I bit my lip then walked over to Morgan and put my arms round him. He didn’t resist. ‘I’m already a murderer,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll do it, if it comes to that. My shoulders can carry the weight.’
He rested his chin on the top of my head. ‘I don’t think they can, Maddy.’ He sighed. ‘Besides, even without the truce in place, it’ll take more than one of us to bring down Rubus. He’s stronger than you think. And taking down a Fey, whether they’re Rubus or someone else, isn’t like taking down a human. It won’t be easy.’
‘There is one other part of this equation that concerns me,’ Artemesia said. ‘Why would Mendax pass this oath breaker over so easily? Surely he knows that if it works like it’s supposed to, the sphere won’t matter. We won’t need to give it to him to destroy.’
Morgan stepped away from me, his gazing flicking to the oath-breaker box in Artemesia’s hands. ‘There’s always the possibility that if we take out Rubus, someone else will step up and fill his shoes instead.’
‘Carduus,’ I said.
Both Finn and Morgan looked confused. ‘He would never be respected enough to lead.’
‘No, but he’s working on a locating potion to find out where the sphere is. He told me it wasn’t quite ready yet but, from the look on his face, it won’t be long before it is.’
Artemesia seemed shocked. ‘What? Did you see this potion?’
I grimaced. ‘Some sort of liquid with purple swirly bits. Why? Is he talking out of his arse?’
She swallowed. ‘I don’t know. Such a potion is theoretically possible but it would take considerable skill to make it properly. I never thought my uncle had it in him. Even with all the books and knowledge I’ve got, I couldn’t do it.’
‘He works for Rubus,’ I said drily. ‘And he’s a total believer. He has the motivation. That’s not all either.’ I told them about the note from my mysterious ‘friend’.
‘You don’t have any idea who sent it?’
I shook my head. ‘No. I’ll work it out sooner or later because obviously I’m a genius and nothing escapes me for long.’ I ignored the scoff from both Finn and Artemesia. ‘But I have no idea who it’s from. Either way, it feels like we’re running out of time. We can’t dilly-dally and wait for things to happen to us. We have to make them happen if we’re going to stay in control.’
Morgan’s mouth turned down. ‘I agree. And in any case, whether Carduus succeeds or not with his new bespelled potion, the sphere will always be a concern. Rubus or no Rubus, it has to be destroyed.’
‘Unless,’ Finn added darkly, ‘Mendax is looking for an excuse to keep the sphere for himself rather than destroy it. I still don’t trust him.’
I shrugged. ‘Trust or no trust, Rubus or no Rubus, oath breaker or no oath breaker, I’m still Madrona the Madhatter. We’re still going to win.’
