Page 72 of Box of Frogs
The Redcaps exchanged glances. ‘We were trying to kidnap her,’ admitted the one next to Morgan. ‘But we have our reasons.’
‘Go on then,’ I hissed. ‘Spit them out.’
‘There’s actually only one.’ He hesitated, uncoiled tension lingering in his large body. He looked at Morgan and then at Julie, who nodded encouragingly. He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. ‘Rubus. We’re trying to stop him.’
My brow furrowed. ‘But you work for Rubus.’
He shook his head. ‘We pretend to work for him. As Redcaps, we’re beneath his notice. He’ll use us for dirty jobs when he needs to but most of the time he ignores us. That suits us because we’re smarter than he thinks and we know exactly what he’s up to. Our plan is to stop him. There’s no other choice.’
‘How are we supposed to believe that?’ I asked.
‘How are we supposed to believe you have amnesia?’ he countered.
I shrugged. ‘It is what it is. Youdidkidnap Julie.’
His answer was calm and pragmatic. ‘She’s special. We can use her. She’ll help us bring the fight to Rubus and she can help us win. At least,’ he added with a sneer, ‘we’ve not hurt her. The only killers around here are you faeries.’
‘Not through lack of trying on your part!’ I responded.
The Redcap I was sitting on stiffened, his anger flaring up again to match mine. ‘We were only trying to wound you, not kill you. Our bullets would only have slowed you down. Even if we’d hit you, the fact that you’re a faery means you’d have survived. Besides,’ he sniffed, ‘if we’d succeeded in ending your life, Winn would probably still be alive.’
I tightened my grip on his neck and snarled. I wasn’t going to take the blame for this mess. I wasn’t convinced I could have done any differently, given the information I’d had at the time. Besides, I knew that murder had been on their mind that night up at the golf course, no matter what they said.
This time, both Morgan and Julie stepped in to soothe the waters. Morgan offered me a reassuring smile, his posture relaxed despite the gun still pressing into his flesh, while Julie knelt down and smiled at the Redcap I was holding. His chest rose and fell with fast, furious breaths; he still looked as if he’d happily slit my throat given half the chance. I imagined that the expression on my face was the same.
‘I apologise for what happened to Winn,’ Morgan said. ‘We were only trying to wound him and protect ourselves. I vow to you that killing him was not our intention.’
Morgan’s Redcap, who was maintaining more stoicism than his brother, jumped in. ‘We can point fingers and lay blame later. Let’s stick to information sharing for now, shall we? We got the idea to use others from Rubus. He’s been using humans to do his work for him. He tried to get a dragon to work for him too but that didn’t pan out. Luckily for us, he doesn’t know that any other supernatural species exist. In our demesnes, they’re common knowledge. If vampires and werewolves are there, it stood to reason they were here too. We just had to find them.’ He raised his shoulders in a massive shrug. ‘We researched. We found her.’
Julie smiled prettily in response and stood up again. ‘Lucky old me.’
‘There are werewolves?’ I asked.
Morgan coughed. ‘She’s a vampire?’
We looked at each other. ‘Well,’ I said to him, ‘we’refaeries.’
Both Redcaps snorted in unison. ‘All you high-faluting species are the same. You have so much power, you think you’re the best, that there’s no one else like you. There are faeries and there are vampires and there are werewolves and there are dragons. Just because you don’t see them, or haven’t met them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You’re so up yourselves, you never to stop to consider whether there are other magical beings like yourselves.’
I had to concede that he might have a point. ‘Ethnicity and egos aside,’ I said, ‘what is Rubus doing that’s so bad you have to infiltrate his organisation and spy on him? I mean, I understand he’s evil.’ I shot a quick look at Morgan, whose expression was suddenly inscrutable. ‘I don’t remember who Rubus is or what he looks like, but I’ve learnt enough to believe that he’s not a good faery. But why do you care if he sells drugs to other faeries and gets some humans to help him? What’s the big deal?’
The Redcap beneath me laughed humourlessly. ‘You really don’t remember anything, do you? Pixie dust is just a sideline. Rubus,’ he all but spat the name, ‘has far more grandiose plans. He thinks he’ll find a way back home. He couldn’t be more wrong.’
I frowned. ‘What do you mean? What way back home?’ I noticed that Morgan had gone pale, as if he already had a dreadful inkling about what the Redcap was referring to.
‘Rubus thinks all he has to do to re-open the borders and get everyone back to where they belong is to destroy this demesne.’
‘The entire planet?’
‘In a sense.’
That was stupid. ‘What’s he going to do?’ I enquired. ‘Set off a nuclear weapon? Or several?’
The Redcap shook his head. ‘He’s going to flood this demesne with magic.’
I still wasn’t getting it. ‘How is that a bad thing?’
‘This world is run on technology,’ Morgan said quietly. ‘Magic has no place here. This demesne can withstand small amounts but a surge of magic could destroy everything. That’s why altering time is forbidden. It’s too much magic to use in one go.’
