Page 42 of Fiendish Delights
Becky walked up. ‘That pesky sun,’ she said, with a small smile. She glanced at me. ‘Hugo’s called a team meeting.’
I sighed; I could guess why. I smiled back at her. ‘We’re on our way.’
I joined the others around the cold campfire. It appeared that nobody had the stomach for breakfast this morning. The sleep-deprived faces suggested that everyone had struggled to get back to sleep during the night.
Hester glowered and plonked herself on my right shoulder with a loud huff. Otis gave the group a small sheepish wave of hello.
‘First of all,’ Hugo asked, ‘is everyone okay?’
‘No!’ Hester said. The rest of us nodded. I reached up and used my pinkie to give her a tiny hug. She hesitated, before wrapping herself around it tightly. ‘Thank you.’ Her voice was muffled but heartfelt.
‘How’s your neck, Daisy?’ Slim asked.
I tilted my head so he could see. ‘It’s fine. No nasty vamp infection, no loss of blood. Thank you for asking.’
He exhaled. ‘Thank you for saving us all last night.’
I met Hugo’s eyes; this wasn’t the time for our usual competitiveness. ‘It was a team effort.’
‘We play well together,’ he said softly.
Yeah. The mutual compliments proved we were in serious mode now. I licked my lips. ‘There doesn’t appear to be anything underneath the yew tree – not any mythical treasures, anyway.’
‘This whole area is imbued with ancient magic. There might still be something that’s hidden from us,’ Hugo said. ‘But we don’t have any way of either confirmingor denying it.’
‘We know that there used to be many more yew trees around here,’ I offered.
Slim nodded. ‘Thirty-nine.’
‘So we might not be looking in the right spot.’
‘And,’ Hugo said, ‘the research team told me this morning that there’s a chance Dafydd ap Gwillem isn’t buried here. Despite the stone marking the spot, it’s only educated guesswork that his body is underneath it.’
Miriam added, ‘Not to mention that Daisy only saw a fraction of what was written on Mud McAlpine’s scroll. Dafydd ap Gwillem might have nothing to do with this treasure.’
I nodded dejectedly. She was right.
A car horn honking loudly made us all jump. I glanced up and saw a campervan pull into the car park. Two people were hanging out of the window and waving at us frantically. ‘Hugo! Hugo Pemberville!’ they yelled.
I rolled my eyes. Great.
‘We don’t know where the vampires came from last night. It might have been a fluke.’ Hugo raised his hand to acknowledge the van but otherwise ignored it. ‘But there have been stories for years that fiends can control vampires. It’s possible that the attack last night was premeditated because of our search for the treasure.’
A second car appeared. Then a third.
‘And now we’ve got members of the general public to contend with,’ Rizwan said. ‘Some of them will try and camp here. If we’re attacked again, their lives will also be at risk.’
We all exchanged dark glances before Hugo gave me a meaningful look.
It was inevitable. ‘We don’t have enough concrete information.’ I grimaced and amended my statement. ‘We don’t haveanyconcrete information. We can continue looking for aneedle in a haystack that might not even be here and draw more attention to ourselves or—' My voice trailed off.
‘Or,’ Hugo finished, ‘we can spend more time on research and come back here if we need to when we’re more confident about what we’ll find, and when it’s safer to do so. We are not quitting. We’re being smart and making a temporary tactical withdrawal.’
‘Agreed,’ Rizwan said. ‘It’s the only way forward for now.’
‘Agreed.’
‘Agreed.’
