Page 29 of Skulk of Foxes
Alora’s clever eyes watched us and her despondency seemed to increase.
Feeling the need to keep our conversation on an even keel, I tilted up my chin. ‘What exactly did I do for Charrie?’ I asked. Tension prickled across my shoulder blades. ‘Because to be honest, the evidence we’ve seen so far doesn’t paint me in a favourable light.’
‘I suspected as much,’ Alora said, in a clear voice that belied her unshed tears. ‘That’s why I went to the police station. I couldn’t have you locked up for doing nothing more than helping us. It wouldn’t have been right.’
Morgan shifted his body so he could reach my hand. His thumb began rubbing gentle concentric circles on my palm. I breathed out. Breathing was good, I reminded myself. It was important to keep doing it.
‘Go on,’ I said, sounding more tremulous than Alora did.
She raised her teacup to her mouth again and drank slowly. I didn’t think she was delaying her answer deliberately; she was merely trying to sort out the right words in the right order in her head. ‘At Charrie’s behest,’ she said finally, ‘you took something called white baneberry from Carduus’s laboratory.’
Morgan stiffened. I forced myself not to look at him and kept my attention on Alora. ‘Let me guess,’ I said. ‘White baneberry is a kind of poison.’
‘For us bogles, yes,’ she agreed. ‘I know that Charrie had to persuade you to get it. He’d managed to get hold of the sphere – he took it after Chen passed away – but he was seen with it. It was only a matter of time before Rubus caught up with him.’
She glanced out of the window to where Sitri and Bally were standing, deep in conversation. ‘And us,’ she added softly. ‘With Charrie’s cancer, it made sense for him to take the baneberry and end his life. Then Rubus wouldn’t be able to question him about the sphere, threaten us and hold our lives over Charrie’s head.’
She grimaced. ‘Rubus still tried, though. He sent several goons here to find out what we knew. It wasn’t difficult to play stupid and in the end they left us alone. That part of the plan worked. Of course, when Charrie’s body vanished, everything became more complicated.’
She looked at me. ‘You were supposed to take Charrie’s head, drink the memory potion then wake up in complete confusion and call the police. They’d have found the sphere on his body and looked after it as evidence. You genuinely would have not had a clue about what had happened so you’d have passed muster when both the police and Rubus interrogated you. Most importantly, the sphere would have been safe.’
Morgan gripped my hand. I shook my head. Maybe my memory wasn’t as lost to me as it seemed: the residual idea had obviously lingered somewhere in the recesses of my mind because it was a very similar strategy to the one I’d had a couple of days ago – without the corpse-dismemberment part and the magical memory potion.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Alora shook her head and offered me a sad smile. ‘Don’t be sorry. You gave him an honourable death. He died saving the world. What could be better than that?’
Not dying. Not dying would be better than that.
‘You see?’ Morgan said softly. ‘You’re not a murderer. Charrie chose this way out. You simply helped him.’ He stroked my fingers. ‘You’re not a villain, Madrona. Quite the opposite, in fact.’
‘But it was all for nothing,’ I said dully. ‘The sphere is still in play, even if it’s temporarily hidden.’ I raised my eyes to Alora’s. ‘There must be a way to destroy it permanently.’
‘If we knew of a way to do that, it would have been done already.’
‘Charrie died for nothing.’
‘He was dying anyway.’ She hesitated, a hint of desperation lighting her eyes. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve found his body? Do you know what happened to him? I’d like to bury him. I’d like to know where he is.’
It was Finn who’d disposed of Charrie’s corpse, Finn and his brothers. They’d interrupted our supposedly foolproof plan and tried to kill me. Instead of calling the police, I’d scarpered into the night taking the damned sphere with me. ‘I don’t know where your husband is,’ I said. ‘But I know who does. We’ll find out and let you know.’
For the first time, Alora seemed to relax. ‘Thank you,’ she breathed. ‘It would make a massive difference to me. And to our children.’
I nibbled at my bottom lip. ‘So I’m not wholly evil,’ I said to Morgan. I should have felt like cheering but I just felt tired. ‘But we’re still no further forward than we were before. We still have to find a way to get rid of the sphere. I think involving the police is non-starter. We’ve tried it twice, sort of, and it’s failed both times. There has to be a way to destroy it.’
Morgan pursed his lips. ‘We could always try and find another dragon. Giving the sphere to Mendax was obviously stupid because Mendax didn’t exist in the way that we thought he did. But in theory it was a good idea. A dragon could bind the sphere to himself so it would be safe from Rubus. In an even better scenario, another dragon could destroy the thing once and for all.’
‘How would we do that? How do we find a damned dragon? The bogles don’t know of any others and the humans don’t have a clue.’
‘There’s the British Library,’ he suggested. ‘Or the internet.’
‘It’d be like a finding a needle in a haystack.’
Morgan tapped his fingers against his thigh. ‘You mentioned that it was our bad luck that Chen died. You were right, Maddy. Dragons have long lives, far longer than humans and probably far longer than us. We need to look through old books that might hint at their existence. I’m sure we could find some clues aboutsomething.’
‘Instead of older books,’ I said slowly, ‘how about older people?’
Morgan frowned but it didn’t take him long to catch up. ‘Julie,’ he breathed. ‘She might know.’
