Page 85 of Fiendish Delights
If the Fachan was right – and I had no reason to think he wasn’t – sooner or later the pair of them would find a way to re-form their bodies and scrabble out, but I reckoned it would take weeks, if not months, for that to happen. That meant we were four fiends down out of nine, with both Zashtum and Baltar gone for good.
‘Let that serve as a warning to the rest of you,’ I said aloud. ‘Mess with me and you’ll suffer.’ Not that I could take any real credit for anything that had happened, but still: I’d been a part of every takedown, even if only in a small way.
I touched Gladys’s hilt. ‘Thank you,’ I murmured. ‘You’re the best sentient sword a girl could wish for.’
This time, Gladys didn’t reply.
I gazed at the devastation for a long minute then straightened up. The noise of the cavern’s collapse had probably echoed across these hills so there was no doubt that Hugo and the brownies would have heard it. It was time to catch up with them and show them I was safe.
I orientated myself and set off at a quick march in the direction of the second lair. If I moved quickly and didn’t sleep, I could join them by morning.
There wasn’t a clear path and I had to pause regularly to check my bearings. I also had to move more slowly than I’d have liked because the last thing I needed was to twist an ankle by placing my foot in the wrong spot.
At one point, as my eyelids grew heavy and my progress was painfully slow, I mistook the ghostly shapes of distant sheep for potential attackers. The surge of anxious adrenaline was more than enough to startle me awake and encourage my tired legs to keep going. All the same, by the time the first streaks of daylight started to appear, I was exhausted. A triple espresso would have been fabulous. It was fortunate that I had something better.
I delved into my pocket and located my stash of spider’s silk. There was enough to last me at least ten more days. I swallowed one pill and, when my limbs still felt sluggish, I took another one. Then I shrugged. Needs must. I dropped a third pill into my mouth. That ought to do it.
I’d been taking spider’s silk for long enough to know exactly what to expect, and I’d taken a higher dosage than this on a handful of occasions when the situation had merited it. Consequently I wasn’t surprised when the bitter fizz made my tongue numb, or when I felt the swirl of magic inside me become more muted – but the sudden palpitations and the sweating were a shock.
I took three steps, thought better of it and sat down suddenly on a patch of wet grass. There was an odd high-pitched ringing in my ears, as if I’d spent most of the night in the mosh pit at a head-bangers’ rock concert. But it wasn’t all bad: the colours of the damp landscape sprang to life, sharpening in a bizarre fashion that reminded me of Dorothy stepping into Oz for the first time. It was extraordinary.
I blinked several times and rubbed my eyes but the effect didn’t diminish.
‘Well, that’s weird,’ I whispered to myself. I touched my chest; my heart rate was still too fast, but as long as it was still beating I couldn’t complain too much. I shoved the tip of my index fingers into my ears and wiggled themaround. The tinnitus became even more screechy before thankfully subsiding to a more comfortable level.
I stayed where I was for a good five minutes, nervous that hallucinations might start kicking in or that I’d keel over if I tried to stand up. When my strange symptoms neither increased nor decreased, I rose shakily to my feet. I was still alive and I was now wide awake, but I knew deep down that the edges of my mortality were starting to curl towards me like a piece of slowly smouldering parchment.
There was nothing I could do about it right now. Taking three doses of spider’s silk had been necessary to keep me on my feet so I could catch up with Hugo, Hester and Otis. I had always known there would come a day when the balance of the positive effects of the drug and the damage to my health would tip out of my favour. I’d hoped I’d have longer. Hugo’s plan to help me once all this was over might work, but I doubted it. I suspected that he doubted it would help, too.
In any case, I had more immediate goals. Now that it was daylight, I could move faster. I reckoned there were only another three miles or so to the next old dragon’s lair, so I had to be gaining on my companions. They might even have already found a grumpy purple dragon and an ancient magical chess set. Fingers crossed.
I stopped worrying and let my feet quick march. Golden success, here we come. Before long I was nimbly traversing the landscape in a way that a Welsh mountain goat would have admired. I hadn’t completely succumbed to the spider’s silk, though, because I stopped myself from bleating in delight as I ran. I decided I’d save that for later.
My heart ratewas normal by the time I reached the summit of the next hill and looked down upon a patchwork of pretty landscape. If I turned to my right, I could see the ruins of Strata Florida abbey nestled in the valley far below. To my left was the second dragon’s lair and, although I couldn’t see it, I knew it wasn’t far. It was cold but the sky was clear and there was only a light wind; it was chilly but it proved incredibly helpful when two familiar voices drifted across on it.
‘We should stay here until he comes back, Hes.’
‘No, that’s a stupid idea. We can’t see anything, and I’m fed up with being left behind. Let’s go this way. We don’t have to go far. We can come back quickly.’
Something eased in my chest. I pushed myself onto my toes and called out, ‘Hester? Otis?’ When I squinted in the direction of their voices, I finally spotted the pair of them hovering about a hundred metres away. They saw me at the same time and gave identical screeches of joy before zooming straight for me.
‘Daisy!’ Otis threw himself at my face, colliding with my cheek and giving me a wet smacker before peeling away and kissing my nose. ‘You’re safe!’
‘Of course she’s safe,’ Hester said. ‘Daisy wouldn’t let herself get killed without us.’ She burrowed into the curve of my neck and sighed happily. ‘There was a very loud bang,’ she said. ‘Did you collapse the cavern?’
‘Not me. It was one of the fiends.’
Suddenly anxious, Otis jerked backwards. ‘Where is he? Is he still after you?’
‘He buried himself and his friend.’
His face went slack with astonishment. ‘Why?’
‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later.’ I glanced around. ‘Where’s Hugo?’
‘There was an odd noise and he went to investigate it,’ Otis said. ‘He told us to wait for him to come back.’
I stiffened; there might be more fiends out there. ‘What sort of noise?’
