Page 46 of Honour Bound
He exhaled. ‘The point is that I know a lot about whisky. There were only five Lowland whiskies in production before the Fissure and I can assure you that Auchentoshan, whatever it is, wasn’t one of them.’
Lexie shrugged. ‘So?’
‘So someone’s been brewing.’
‘The Fomori are probably bored. There can’t be much fun to be had across the Veil.’
‘No,’ Speck said, shaking his head, ‘Fomori demons don’t drink.’
Lexie stepped backwards. ‘What? Never?’
‘How do you know that, Speck?’ I asked quietly.
‘It was one of the many reasons they gave for the Fissure. They didn’t want to be near heathens such as ourselves who partook of such evil substances.’
‘The evil Fomori demons brought war against Scotland and stole half our country because of the demon drink?’
He look at her, exasperated. ‘Hardly. But it was one of their excuses for what happened.’
Lexie blew air out through her pursed lips. ‘ ‘Excuses’ is right. Evil substances! Honestly!’
I nibbled my bottom lip. Speck knew his history. All the same… ‘It was three hundred years ago, Speck. The Fomori might have changed their attitude towards booze.’
He shrugged. ‘Sure, they might have. But put that into context with the message you found on the wall of that house and…’
‘And there weren’t just people trapped on other side of the Veil immediately after the Fissure. Their descendants are probably still there now.’
‘Or their descendants at least.’
I tugged at my scarf, suddenly feeling hot. ‘Everyone assumed the original inhabitants were all slaughtered when the Fomori demons invaded.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I didn’t see anyone when I was there, only the demons. If there are still humans, pixies, even Sidhe beyond the Veil, then…’ I couldn’t finish the sentence.
‘Then,’ Brochan said grimly, ‘they’re probably being kept as slaves.’
Lexie’s hand grasped at her throat. ‘That’s awful,’ she gasped.
‘What do we do about this?’ Speck finally asked. ‘We can’t just leave them there. If theyarethere.’
My gaze flitted towards Aifric Moncrieffe. He caught me watching him and beckoned me over. I sighed. ‘In an ideal world, I would tell the Steward and he’d deal with it.’
Brochan followed my gaze. ‘Except the current Steward ishim.’ His voice was laced with disgust. ‘He’s not going to care.’
‘He might. Just because he wants to kill me doesn’t mean he won’t want to know about the Lowlands.’
‘You can’t trust him, Tegs.’
There was a glimmer of irritation from Aifric that I hadn’t immediately jumped at his command. ‘I know.’
‘And how are you going to explain to him that you visited the Lowlands? If you tell him about Dagda’s harp, he’ll probably make the Carnegies introduce a new rule to prevent you from using it.’
‘I think the fate of thousands of people who might be held in subjugation and slavery is more important than winning these Games, regardless of what I could do with the prize.’ I wrinkled my nose. ‘And I don’t have to tell him the whole truth, do I?’
I walked over to Aifric, weaving in and out of the packed crowds. Most people saw me coming and leapt out of the way – they were probably still afraid I was going to boost all their fine jewels and fripperies. I had half a mind to make notes so that I could stalk them once the Games were over and do just that. It would serve them right. There again, I probably didn’t need any notes; Speck, Lexie, Brochan and Taylor had probably already made a comprehensive list all on their own.
‘Steward Aifric,’ I said when I reached him.
