Page 35 of Fiendish Delights
‘Can you tell how old it is?’
‘No, but I’ve got dating equipment at the castle that will tell us more.’
‘It doesn’t look that old.’
‘It’s been buried underground. It could be hundreds of years old – the earth will have preserved it.’
Slim scanned the sky, as if half-expecting a dragon to appear from behind the nearest hill. ‘Or its owner could still be lurking around.’
‘Whichever dragon owned this is long gone now,’ Miriam reassured him.
‘You hope,’ Becky said with foreboding.
Rizwan shook his head. ‘Youpray.’
Unless a fire-breathing beast actually appearedin front of me, I wasn’t going to concern myself. The tooth was fascinating, and there was no telling whether someone had deliberately placed it at the foot of the tree or if it had ended up there by accident, but it wasn’t what I was there for.
I stood up and returned my attention to the tree. The old dragon magic that still clung to the tooth had blocked our earth magic from sensing what might be buried beneath it. Now the tooth had been removed, it should be easier to search.
I strode up to the hole we’d created, drew in a breath and remembered what I’d learned from my training session with Hugo the previous evening. Then I flicked out a carefully controlled surge of earth magic.
Nothing happened. I couldn’t sense a single thing.
I tried again, boosting my power to a higher level while taking care not to disturb either the visible or the concealed tree roots.
Still nothing.
I ground my teeth in frustration. Third time lucky.
Even though I extended my range on the off-chance that the dragon’s tooth had been blocking more than this particular spot, nothing was revealed to me. If Dafydd ap Gwillem was buried here, his remains had long since been swallowed into the earth, together with whatever else he was buried with.
My magic sensed nothing beneath the yew tree. No modern-day litter. No old Roman coins. No unnatural detritus. And definitely no mythical treasure.
‘I hate an anti-climax,’ Slim muttered as we trudged to the campsite.
Rizwan agreed. ‘I was hoping this would all be done and dusted by Christmas.’
I shot the pair of them a surprised look. In my opinion, one setback didn’t constitute a failure, it just made the final success all the sweeter. Before I voiced my thoughts, though, my attention was caught by the sound of raised voices drifting from the car park. Uh-oh. That sounded like Hester in full fury mode. My stomach clenched and I started to run.
‘I’ve told you already!’ Hester yelled in a high-pitched voice. ‘The graveyard is out of bounds!’
I raised my eyes heavenward. Then I ran faster.
A family of four – mum, dad and two wide-eyed kids – were standing by the gate that led from the car park to the abbey and the graveyard. The children, who couldn’t have been more than ten years old, were obviously fascinated. The smaller of the two kept snatching his hand out in an attempt to catch Otis, who was flitting back and forth from the family to Hester to calm things down.
The woman was shaking her head in amazement. She had her phone out and was recording Hester’s squalls. I supposed that brownies were rare enough for their presence to be deemed film-worthy. Her partner had no interest in that. His cheeks were stained scarlet and his chest was puffed out; when he started wagging his finger vigorously at Hester, his mouth curled in a snarl. I cursed to myself.
She wouldn’t react well to finger wagging. Nobody ever did.
‘My great-grandfather is buried there! You can’t stop me from visiting my family’s resting place!’
‘I can do whatever I want,’ Hester sniffed. ‘The graveyard is out of bounds. Come back next week.’
I bolted for the space between the pair of them, while Otis exhaled in relief. ‘Thank goodness you’re here, Daisy.’
‘I will not allow a creature the size of my thumb to dictate what I can or can’t do!’ the man bellowed.
I raised my hands, indicating both surrender and my desire to calm the situation. ‘My sincerest apologies, sir. I asked my friend Hester here to keep an eye out for any visitors and let me know if someone appeared. She must have misunderstood. Of course you can go to the graveyard whenever you want.’
