Page 28 of Skulk of Foxes
He stepped back, folded his arms and nodded, a tiny movement only for me. These bogles might be great at massaging my ego but I wasn’t relaxing yet. Besides, Bally’s football had suspiciously vanished. It could still whack me on the head again at any moment.
Bally darted forward, pulled open the door and called inside. ‘Mum! She’s here! The Madhatter is here!’
I shook out my hair and spread my legs, placing my hands on my hips in a classic superhero pose. It also meant that no one could tell that my knees were shaking.
A moment later, a diminutive bogle woman appeared at the door. Her face was lined, not with age but with worry and pain. I dropped my stance and shuffled forward. Actually, if she wanted to lead me into a dastardly trap, I deserved it.
She wiped her hands on her apron and stepped onto her doorstep. Her mouth remained downturned but her eyes were smiling. Then she reached forward. While I tensed up, her arms wrapped round me and she pulled me into a tight hug. ‘Madrona,’ she murmured. ‘It’s so good to see you again.’
This was her evil plan, then: she was going to smother me with warmth so that I drowned in my own guilt. Good plan. ‘We know each other?’ I asked, pulling away.
‘I’m Alora. We’ve met a couple of times. And of course, Charrie told me all about you.’ She sighed. ‘Having you around made such a difference to him.’
I gulped. ‘I don’t remember.’
Her mouth tweaked up at the corners. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘The memory potion was my idea. It seemed the safest thing to do at the time.’
My expression gave me away. She smiled slightly and gestured indoors. ‘Come in. I’ll make us some tea and tell you all about it.’ She glanced over my shoulder. ‘You can even bring your…’ She fumbled for the word.
‘Sidekick,’ I said. ‘This is my sidekick. You can call him Snail Boy.’
Morgan rolled his eyes. ‘My name is Morgan.’ He raised his chin an inch. ‘I’m her lover.’
I blinked. I hadn’t been expecting that. He walked up next to me and took my hand in his, squeezing it. I squeezed back. ‘I prefer Lover Boy to Snail Boy,’ I whispered. Morgan smiled briefly at me.
Rather than grimacing in the manner of the other bogles, Alora’s expression softened. ‘Really? Charrie told me that you were in love with a Fey called Morgan. I’m so glad you finally got back together again. He said that you talked about him all the time and that you followed him whenever you had the chance. You and Charrie had a spot overlooking the Metropolitan Bar where you’d meet and chat. You’d watch Morgan while you conspired with my husband to take down Rubus.’ She sighed deeply. ‘He really enjoyed those moments.’
Morgan and I glanced at each other in astonishment. ‘You were stalking me,’ he murmured in a low undertone. ‘You couldn’t keep away from me.’ There was an undisguised gleam of triumph in his emerald eyes.
I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. ‘I was probably just making sure you weren’t doing anything stupid,’ I said.
‘No,’ Alora told us. ‘You just liked watching him and knowing he was alright.’ She smiled again. ‘Now, how about that tea?’
Morgan’s hand tightened around mine. I resisted the urge to lean against him and nodded at Charrie’s wife. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Let’s do this.’
Chapter Nine
‘Chen refused to hand over the sphere,’ Alora said, settling into a flowery armchair and sipping her tea. ‘As long as he was alive that wasn’t a problem. A dragon’s hoard is bound to that dragon and, despite popular belief, can’t be stolen. Chen could have given it away had he so desired, but there was no chance he would ever do that. Both you and Charrie visited him and made sure that he wouldn’t pass it to Rubus under any circumstances. Apparently Chen deeply regretted creating the sphere in the first place. He’d wanted to use it to pull in items from other demesnes so that he could add to his treasures. When he realised what damage the sphere could cause if it were used, he hid it away.’
She grimaced. ‘Unfortunately, he also told several people about its existence. Word got back to Rubus and…’ She sighed and lapsed into silence.
‘And Rubus would stop at nothing to retrieve it,’ Morgan finished for her grimly. ‘He tried to reason with him. Tried to barter with him. When that didn’t work, he tried to kill him. The old bugger was stronger than even Rubus realised though. In the end, all he had to do was wait Chen out.’
I ran a hand through my hair, picking at its singed edges. ‘It’s just our bad luck that Chen died of natural causes.’ I paused. ‘And Chen’s, of course.’ I sighed. ‘You’d think he’d have destroyed the thing when he knew what it was capable of.’
‘A dragon’s treasure becomes almost part of the dragon itself. To destroy even a small item would have caused him considerable pain. I guess he decided that he wasn’t long for this life and that it wouldn’t really matter to him after he was gone. I can’t say for sure. He’s the only dragon we’ve ever known – I can’t speak for the entire species because I don’t know any others. I’ve never heard of any near here and dragons don’t tend to travel much because it would mean leaving their treasure behind.’
‘Such as his treasure was,’ I said, thinking of the hollowed-out shell that was left behind after the fire at Chen’s place. It would have been helpful to know that other dragons were so rare, given Rubus’s glamourised role as Mendax.
Rubus had been smart to make use of minions such as Charrie from other species. Clearly, the bogles possessed a wealth of knowledge accumulated over generations. As we Fey had only ever spent short periods of time in this demesne there were obviously a lot of secrets, especially concerning non-humans, of which we were unaware.
‘Anyway,’ Alora continued, ‘when Chen died, all bets were off. By that time, Charrie’s cancer had advanced beyond any possible treatment. The best we could do was watch him slowly rot away from the inside.’
She sent me a beseeching look. ‘You’ve seen the swords. We’re warriors at heart, even if we have no enemies to attack. It’s not in our genes to let disease kill us. What you did for him was a far more honourable death.’
Despite her words, she still looked upset. Charrie’s loss was raw; it still chafed at her heart and his soul still ran through her veins. I could see the hurt etched on her face and in the way she held herself; she reminded me of Opulus and Finn. I suspected that, despite her pain, Alora was coping far better with the loss of her loved one than either of those two were.
Without thinking I reached for Morgan again, my fingertips brushing against the bare skin of his forearm. At my touch, he relaxed. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who needed that kind of contact.
