Page 71 of Skulk of Foxes
Morgan nudged me. ‘Jealous?’ he asked with a mischievous glint that didn’t often light his eyes.
‘Are you kidding me? I would totally rock being a dragon. I’d be far better at it than that old codger.’
Liung paused long enough to glare at me. ‘There’s only room in this city for one dragon and that is me!’
I tsked. ‘Whatever. I’m the only person around here with a proper nickname. That makes me the best, whether you can flap your dry, scaly wings and breathe fire or not.’
Liung’s smile grew. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. What do you think of Liung the Lawless?’
My lip curled. He shrugged. ‘Liung the Lucky? The Lovable Lurker? The Lively Lark?’
I snapped my fingers. ‘I’ve got the perfect one. The Lugubrious Lugworm.’
Liung frowned. ‘Too long.’
I opened my mouth to make another helpful suggestion but Morgan beat me to it. ‘I take it that the fact you flew here as a dragon means that the magic hasn’t left your system, even if it has left the atmosphere?’
‘You take it right indeed, sir!’ Liung sang. As much as it galled me, I had to admit that he suited his newfound skills. He seemed far happier and more light-hearted. ‘If anything,’ he continued, ‘I’m feeling more powerful, not less.’ He cracked his knuckles and started stretching his legs as if he were limbering up for some sort of bizarre naked marathon. ‘There’s virtually nothing I can’t do.’
‘Except put on clothes,’ I muttered.
Liung shook his groin in a most unappealing manner. ‘Modesty is for fools. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.’
I shrugged. ‘If you insist.’ I started to pull my T-shirt over my head. It was only Morgan’s arm reaching across me that stopped me.
‘Let’s stick to the point, shall we?’ He cleared his throat. ‘You’re here, Liung. We have the sphere. Will you stand by your promise to destroy it?’
The old man gave him a long look. ‘Why else would I be here? Pass the thing over.’
Morgan resisted. ‘We need you to do it now. We have to know that it’s gone for good.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Liung said impatiently. ‘That’s fine. I’ll get rid of Chen’s dratted thing in a jiffy. Just get it out.’
Morgan nodded. Without saying a word, Finn and Jodie flanked Liung. Julie stayed where she was, an oddly lascivious look on her face as she watched the old dragon. Her eyes kept drifting towards his jugular. To be fair, I couldn’t help wondering myself whether dragon blood would taste the same as Fey or human blood – and I barely had any tastebuds to speak of.
Liung stiffened. ‘Do you think I’m about to run away with it?’ he enquired.
I thought of how Rubus had fooled us by creating a glamoured version of an old dragon. ‘We can’t afford to take any chances,’ I said. I dusted off my palms and made a show of rolling up my non-existent sleeves, as if to prove that I was here for more than just tit-for-tat with the creepy old arsebadger.
‘I gave my word,’ Liung growled. ‘What more do you want?’
‘We just want the sphere destroyed,’ Morgan replied.
Finn and Jodie edged closer to Liung, Jodie’s hand straying to her hip where her knife hung. Her fingers twitched and I could feel her anxiety. My left eyelid was flickering even more intensely. Another few minutes, I told myself. Another few minutes and all this would be over.
Morgan kept his gaze on Liung while I put my fingers in my pocket and drew out the sphere. It was cool to the touch, despite my body heat warming it for some time. I rolled it around my fingers; all this trouble for such a small thing.
I lifted my eyes up to Liung’s, noting his covetous gleam. For a moment, I almost changed my mind and took a step back – but we had to do this. Part of Liung wanted to own the thing for himself and bind it to him like his other daft objects and dragon paraphernalia, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get rid of it for us. In fact, the way that he wasn’t masking his feelings about the sphere gave me more hope that this would end the way we needed it to. At least he was being honest about his desire to own it; if he’d been blasé, I’d have suspected his intentions far more.
I took a deep breath and held it out. Liung lunged towards it and I snatched it back in the nick of time. ‘Tell me,’ I said. ‘Exactly how will you destroy it?’
He ground his teeth in frustration. ‘Under ordinary circumstances,’ he said, ‘I would have to take it away and spend several days crushing it. The magic imbued in that little thing is powerful. Once I extinguished the invisible power, I could melt it with ordinary fire.’
He smiled, displaying his yellow teeth. ‘However, all your little faery spells have caused such havoc in our fair city that I can actually get rid of the sphere far more quickly. Now that I can transform into a real dragon, and have more power at my own disposal, all I have to do is breathe fire onto it for a few seconds and I suspect both the sphere and the magic linked to it will be obliterated for good.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘Wow. I know you have appalling halitosis but that’s some feat.’
Liung’s eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t push it, girly, or I might change my mind.’
