Page 62 of Fiendish Delights
Otis jabbed her with his finger. ‘More to the point, how is he doing? Is he recovering?’
Her face screwed up. ‘Alright, let’s go with that first. Is Mr McAlpine still breathing?’
I didn’t smile. ‘Yes. He’s still very ill but he’s doing a lot better. I think he’ll be okay if he has a lot of rest.’
Otis nodded happily then he clocked my expression. ‘The threat of a dragon won’t make a fiend back off,’ he said. ‘Right?’
‘Right.’
Hester looked delighted. ‘So we’re going after the dragon?’
‘We have to,’ Otis said. ‘We have to secure the treasure and keep it safe.’
‘And see the dragon again!’ She beamed at me and bounced up and down. ‘We can go now. My clothes are still packed.’ Shespun around, raised her hand to her mouth and whistled loudly for a taxi. Unsurprisingly, none appeared.
I stayed where I was. ‘What did you two find out?’
‘A few bits and pieces,’ Hester said dismissively. ‘Nothing of great importance.’
I looked at Otis. He fidgeted. ‘The story about those old treasure hunters, the MacAllens, appears to be true. They were killed by a dragon.’ He paused. ‘The dragon that we met.’
‘There’s no proof it was our dragon!’ Hester pouted. ‘There were no witnesses, so nobody knows for sure what happened to them.’
‘There were no witnesses because everyone died,’ he told her. ‘The coroner’s report stated that the only thing that could have killed them and left nothing but piles of ash was dragon fire. And there were four purple-and-green dragon scales close by. Since the Second World War, there have only been three dragons left in Britain. Two are male and have red scales, and one is female.’ He added grimly, ‘And she has purple-and-green scales. The evidence is damning.’
‘Poppycock,’ Hester muttered, but her eyes slid away.
I wasn’t surprised by the revelation, though I still felt a lurch in the pit of my stomach. ‘What about the fiends?’ I asked. ‘Did you find out anything about them?’
This time Hester was more enthusiastic. ‘Yes! They’re highly dangerous and must be stopped at all costs.’
I looked at Otis; he was reluctant but he explained. ‘We sneaked into the library at the Royal Elvish Institute and found a few bits and pieces. It’s estimated that there are only nine fiends living in Britain, although that number will be eight now that Zashtum has gone.’
‘That’s eight too many!’ Hester burst out.
I agreed with her whole-heartedly. ‘Anything else?’ I asked.
‘While every fiend is cruel and sadistic, with Zashtum outof the way only two of them are considered to be real threats to the population at large. They’re a lot older than the others and are hungry for power – they’ve stolen magical objects in the past and drained them. While no fiend has any regard for the sanctity of life, those two are believed to be particularly … brutal. Their names are Vargas and Athair.’
Otis lifted his chin. ‘The other six are still dangerous, but those two are the worst. The good news is that there’s evidence to suggest none of the fiends like each other. They don’t work together. Fiends are solitary creatures who guard their own power and position with violent jealousy.’
I supposed that was something; dispatching a lone fiend felt feasible, but taking care of eight of the bastards at once seemed impossible. ‘Okay. That’s good. What aboutkillingfiends?’
This time both brownies scowled. ‘Hugo was right,’ Hester said. ‘You don’t kill a fiend – you can’t. Given the right circumstances, a powerful witch can banish them from this realm but nobody has ever managed to kill one. If you don’t have the skills to banish one, the best you can hope for is to injure them so that they need to crawl into a hole for several decades to recuperate.’
That sucked. Still, at least I was already accustomed to playing the role of underdog.
‘Vargas hasn’t been sighted for thirty years,’ Otis said. ‘Nobody knows where he’s lurking, but he’s clearly gone to ground. It’s not unusual for fiends to stay out of sight for long periods of time – after all, until we had the misfortune to cross her path, Zashtum was last seen eight years ago when that train crashed near Bristol.’
My eyes widened. ‘She was responsible for that?’ Hundreds of people had died in that crash.
‘The investigators discovered traces of fiend magic,’ Otis replied. ‘And several witnesses saw her at the time, laughing hysterically next to one of the derailed carriages.’
I shivered. Thank goodness she was out of the way now. ‘And the other one? Athair?’
Hester answered. ‘He’s been seen numerous times in recent years. The sightings often coincide with the disappearance of magical items and the subsequent discovery of brutalised corpses. Athair is bolstering his magic – he’s planning something and has been for a long time. There’s nothing to suggest he’d worry about killing a dragon – he’d pull out all the stops to get his hands on an object as powerful as one of the thirteen mythical treasures.’ Then she added, more quietly, ‘And if he does, he’ll be unstoppable. Even an army of witches would struggle to banish him.’
Only the British Museum had the means to keep that damned chess set safe. I massaged my neck. ‘There’s no choice. We have to retrieve the treasure from the dragon and get it to London where no fiend can touch it.’
