Page 12 of Skullduggery
‘We can’t know what Athair’s motives were,’ Sir Nigel said.
Yeah, yeah. ‘And the third one?’
‘His name was Meranz.’
I grunted. ‘Weird name.’
Becky agreed. ‘They’re all weird names.’
Hester landed on my shoulder. ‘Daisy isn’t a weird name.’
Sir Nigel nodded. ‘I did say that their circumstances were different to yours, Daisy. All three of those children were raised by the fiends who brought them into this world.’
‘Nature versus nurture,’ Hugo said.
I chose not to pass comment on that for now. ‘What happened to Meranz?’
Sir Nigel’s voice was very quiet. ‘He was born in 1763. Meranz became what we would classify as a fiend.’
I half-closed my eyes. Okay, then. Okay. ‘He’s definitely not around any longer?’ For the most part, fiends were immortal; I supposed that was part of the allure of becoming one in the first place.
‘Meranz was magically banished by a trio of witches in 1875.’
My shoulders sagged. ‘Because a fiend can only be banished to another demesne by skilled witches or be killed by another fiend.’
‘Or be killed bythe childof a fiend,’ Otis burst out. ‘Like the way you killed that fiend Baltar in the dragon’s cave.You’renot a fiend, Daisy. And you never will be.’
‘But if you do end up becoming a fiend,’ Hester added, ‘you’ll be the bestest, baddest fiend that the world has ever seen.’
Becky looked horrified, though Hugo nodded and appeared to be mildly amused. ‘She’s not wrong.’
I rolled my eyes but I did find myself sitting a little straighter. ‘The fiends who sired all three,’ I said. ‘What about them?’
‘Zitinillia’s parents were fiends – it’s the only time in history that there’s a record of a married couple who were both fiends. They have since been banished. As for Meranz and Fravock, it was their fathers who were fiends. We believe that Meranz’s mother was a human who was killed shortly after his birth. Fravock’s mother was reportedly a human sorcerer. There’s no information about what happened to her.’
Sir Nigel paused. ‘I haven’t found any information about who your birth mother might have been, Daisy. I am sorry.’
Hmm. ‘So in effect,’ I said, aware that the whole group was watching me with worried eyes, ‘we still don’t know anything. Athair might be my dad but he might not be. My birth mother could have been anyone. I might end up turning into a fiend or I might not. Nothing we’ve learned has changed anything.’
Sir Nigel cleared his throat. ‘I must say, you’re taking this better than I expected.’
What else could I do? I’d had six weeks to get used to the idea that I might have fiendish blood, and I wasn’t the wallowing type. ‘We still don’t have any actual answers.’
Next to me, Hugo drew in a breath. ‘I might.’ He released my hand and reached into his pocket.
‘If you have an envelope in that pocket with my name on it,’ I said, ‘I will sprint out of here and never return.’
He gave me a quizzical look. ‘Eh?’
‘Never mind. Go on, then. What do you have?’
He pulled out a small glass vial and held it up. ‘This is the reason why I was out this morning. I was retrieving this.’
Inside the vial was a withered brown thing; if I squinted, it looked oddly familiar. ‘Is that … is that … is that a severed finger?’
Hugo grinned. ‘Yes, it is. Specifically, the severed finger of a bastard fiend called Athair.’
Otis squeaked, ‘But when we saw him, he had all his fingers!’
