Page 34 of Fiendish Delights
‘And it feels powerful,’ Rizwan added. ‘We’re definitely on the right track.’
Hugo glanced at me. I knew he was about to suggest that I step up next but I wanted to watch him try first. I’d seen him perform magic feats several times and I’d never noticed any particular tell. Now I wanted to pay more attention. I indicated he should go first.
He shrugged slightly and directed his magic to the ground. I stifled a chuckle. When his power flashed out, the dimple in his cheek appeared, even though his mouth didn’t move.
‘Is something funny?’ he demanded.
‘Nope!’ I smiled innocently. I would definitely have to video myself using magic and work out what my quirk was. I smoothed my expression. ‘What can you sense?’
‘I can feel the same as everyone else.’ Hugo was still frowning suspiciously at me. ‘There is something that’s preventing my magic from going deeper – there must be something buried there. We need to pinpoint the exact spot so we don’t disturb the ground any more than we need to.’ He toedthe spot. ‘Daisy? You’re the expert. It’s your turn to see what your magic tells us.’
I flicked out a tendril of probing earth magic. Within seconds I felt the obstruction the others had described – but it wasn’t what I’d expected.
Regardless of whatever magic tell I possessed, Hugo recognised that something was up. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘What’s wrong?’
I chewed on the inside of my cheek before sending a second more powerful surge of magic downwards. Only when I was sure did I meet his eyes.
‘Something is down there,’ I said. ‘I agree with that. But it’s not a conventional ward. It’s not salt or iron, and it doesn’t hurt. Usually when I use earth magic this way, I feel a flash of pain that indicates something is there that doesn’t belong to nature.’ I shook my head. ‘I don’t feel it this time. I don’t think this is the mythical treasure we’re looking for. It’s something else.’
Hugo gazed at me for a moment. ‘Well, there’s only one way to find out.’ He knelt down and rummaged in the bag at his feet before extracting a small shovel and handing it to me. ‘Let’s dig.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Unless you have another technique we can use that will uncover what’s down there without harming the tree roots?’
Alas, no. ‘Unfortunately we’ll have to do this the hard way,’ I said. And given the cold temperature and frosty ground, it would be very hard indeed.
I wasn’t wrong. In teams of two, we spent hours diggingand scraping away at the packed earth, taking turns to minimise any damage we caused as well as conserve our strength. Even so, my arms were aching and blisters were forming on the fleshy part of my thumbs.
Otis appeared at one point, his expression suggesting that Hester had sent him to find out what was taking so long. He took one glance at our grubby, sweaty faces, mumbled something to himself and flapped back to the car park.
Despite the strenuous work, our mood remained upbeat. I couldn’t shake the growing feeling that whatever was beneath us had nothing to do with treasure, but equally I couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the act of treasure hunting. Whatever was buried down there would be intriguing. As long as we kept working, we’d hopefully dig it up before the daylight dimmed yet again.
It was Slim and Miriam who hit paydirt. Miriam let out a crow of exultation when Slim’s narrow shovel clunked against something that most definitely wasn’t dirt. I sprang up from where I’d been sitting with a bottle of water.
‘Whatever it is, it’s bloody large,’ Becky breathed.
Rizwan’s expression was awestruck. ‘Daisy was right. It’s not a ward, not in the traditional sense. But can you feel the magic throbbing from it? Is that?—?’
‘Fire magic,’ Hugo said. ‘Or at least some form of it.’
A shiver of anticipation ran down my spine. I couldn’t begin to imagine why there was something buried in the ground that had fire magic clinging to it, but I was desperate to find out what it was.
The discovery revitalised us and we worked faster, carefully brushing away clinging tree roots but hauling clumps of hard earth from everywhere else. Eventually Hugo and Slim were able to tug the object out, yanking it from the earth’s hold after goodness knew how many years.
It was at least half a foot in length and very heavy. They carried it between them away from the tree before setting it down on a scrap of bare land, then Rizwan conjured up water magic to clean away the last of the dirt and reveal what we’d discovered.
Huh. It was stained from the years it had spent in the ground, its colour a deep brown despite Rizwan’s efforts to wash it. And it certainly wasn’t treasure, at least not in the traditional sense.
‘Is that—?’ Becky asked.
‘Yep,’ Hugo said.
‘From a—?’ Rizwan said doubtfully.
‘Yep.’
Miriam frowned. ‘It can’t be.’
I knelt down and touched the enamel surface lightly. The sense of fire magic was stronger now, making it warm to the touch. ‘It is,’ I said. ‘It’s a dragon’s tooth.’
‘An incisor, to be exact.’ Hugo pointed to the root. ‘Look. It’s rotten here. You can see the decay inside.’
