Page 65 of Honour Bound
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’ I took out the map and unfolded it. ‘We are supposed to be here, Bob.’ I jabbed at the spot on the map. ‘But it doesn’t seem like we are.’
‘We’re not,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Can I go now?’
I cursed. ‘They took me to the wrong damn place. Why would they do that?’
‘They don’t want you to win, dummy. Or, like you said, they want you to die of hypothermia.’ He grinned. ‘It’s lucky I’m around or you’d never know anything.’
His words made sense. If I came last in this challenge, the Sidhe wouldn’t have to worry about me. And if their reasoning was even more sinister, they might be looking for a way to get rid of me permanently. If I walked off in the wrong direction, I could easily freeze to death. The Carnegies would make a great show of wringing their hands at my loss, Aifric would be satisfied – and I would be a block of ice. So much for honour; I supposed honour only counted when people were watching.
I had to choose the right direction. I squinted into the weak morning sun. No doubt I wasn’t too far away from the main event ? we couldn’t have travelled that far. And if I ended up as a frozen corpse on the other side of the country, questions might be asked.
‘There are some bumps over there,’ I mused. ‘Do they look like hills to you?’
Bob had taken out a nail file and was giving himself a manicure. ‘Hmm?’
‘Bob!’ I snapped my fingers. ‘Pay attention. Do those look like hills?’
He glanced over. ‘Yeah. They’re not the hills you want, though.’
I frowned. ‘How do you know?’
He shrugged. ‘I just do. I know many things, Uh Integrity because I am a…’
‘A magnificent being with power and knowledge of which I can only dream of. As you have already said many times, Bob. If those aren’t the hills I need, then where are they?’ He didn’t answer, absorbed in shaping the perfect rounded tip. ‘Bob. You’re a magnificent genie.’
‘I know.’ He still didn’t look up.
‘Can you use that magnificence and tell me which direction to go in?’
He sighed as if a heavy burden had been placed on his shoulders. ‘This isn’t a wish?’
‘No. But if I die here…’
‘Then someone will find your body and I’ll be transported back to the Cruaich.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘What I was going to say was that if I die here, then I’ll never get the chance to make that wish that I promised you. I still have two to go, remember?’
He paused then tossed the tiny nail file to one side. ‘Very well. Wait here.’ He wagged his finger at me. ‘And no stealing my teleportation.’
‘It’s not a conscious thing!’ I protested. ‘I don’t know how to stop myself from stealing people’s Gifts.’
He pursed his lips. ‘Walk over there and turn around.’
Maybe a bit of distance between us would work, although it hadn’t with that old Carnegie flower-growing woman. I emptied my mind of thoughts of teleportation and Bob and fixated on the ground. The snow was different here to up in the mountains near Oban; it seemed coarser and more crystalline. I knelt down and traced my name on the surface with my gloved finger.
‘Vanity is a terrible sin,’ Bob said in my ear.
I jumped about half a metre. ‘Did you have to creep up on me like that? And why haven’t you left yet?’
He looked at me smugly. ‘I left, I saw, I came back. And all so that you can conquer.’ He jumped off my shoulder and landed in the snow, sending up a spray of it towards my face.
‘Et tu Brute,’ I grunted.
‘Don’t you want to know where to go?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Then say it.’
