Page 86 of The Dark Hiss of Magic
As far I was concerned Hightower could look after himself, but he was pale and obviously dazed from the punch. He squeaked and kicked uselessly against Fitz Williams’ hold. ‘Help,’ he choked. ‘Help me.’
For fuck’s sake. ‘Use that damned rigor spell.’
Hightower’s eyes widened. ‘No. Not again.’
So much for his knight-in-shining-armour approach. I supposed I’d have to play hero yet again. It was becoming a nasty habit.
Williams tightened his hold around Hightower’s neck but he hadn’t thought through his actions. If he killed Quentin Hightower, there would be nothing stopping me from killing him in return. Hostage situations like this never worked out the way the perpetrator wanted and the Redcap would realise that in about three seconds’ time.
I adjusted my grip on the cane-cum-rapier, weighed up my options at lightning speed, then flicked the blade forward and scraped its tip along Williams’ bare wrist. The wound was deep enough to release plenty of bright-red blood that splattered both the wooden floor and the front of Hightower’s costly suit.
‘Bitch!’ Williams snarled as his grip on Hightower slackened.
I side-stepped and jabbed the thin blade at him again, aiming for his exposed flank. He twisted away in the nick of time and shoved Hightower towards me. The stunned witch staggered forward and sent me off-balance while Williams spun around and threw open his front door. Oh no, you don’t.
When I jumped over Hightower I landed badly, but I managed to snag the black material of Williams’ trousers with one hand. There were downsides to expensive clothing: the material was tightly woven and far less likely to rip even in my tight grasp.
He hissed and kicked, his boot connecting with my face with such force that my teeth rattled. Ouch. That hurt. He shoved his hand into his pocket, drew out a bag and tossed the contents at me, but his aim was off and they hit the wall and exploded into a cloud of dark green smoke. I jerked back but my skin was scorched in several spots as a few tendrils of the magicked vapour curled against me.
I heard Hightower groan, but he muttered a word and the smoke started to dissipate. At least he had some damned uses.
I avoided yet another kick in the face and used my free hand to smash down onto Williams’ right knee with enough force to make him shriek in pain. I couldn’t risk him escaping. Here in his house the battle was contained but anything might happen out on the street.
I released my hold on his trousers, scrambled up and jumped over him so I could close the front door, then I returnedhis kicks with one of my own and booted the side of his head. I could have killed him – it was a testament to my restraint that I didn’t – but at least he started moaning with pain.
Hightower had pulled himself to his feet. He strode forward until he was straddling the Redcap’s fallen body. It was a stupid move because Fitz wasn’t out for the count yet. Before I could warn the witch, the Redcap thrust one leg upwards and connected with Hightower’s groin. It was the witch’s turn to scream as he staggered backwards and clutched himself.
I twisted the blade and held it in front of Fitz’s eyes. One quick thrust and it would all be over for him. ‘How? How did you learn about the silphium?’ I demanded.
Fitz Williams glared. ‘Tell me,’ I hissed, lowering the tip of the rapier until it hovered an inch from his forehead. His glare intensified. ‘The troll,’ he bit out. ‘Ravensheart came to me, thought I might be interested. He showed me a sample of the silphium but he was too stupid to know its true worth. When I realised what it was…’
‘You killed him,’ I said.
‘I did. I shouldn’t have done it.’
‘Because killing is bad,’ Hightower squeaked in a high-pitched voice.
Fitz rolled his eyes. ‘No, because I didn’t realise until it was too late that he only had some leaves. To grow more silphium, I needed seeds and Ravensheart didn’t have any.’
‘So you went searching for them,’ I said. ‘You went after Simon Campbell.’
‘I followed him to the market and watched him give a sample of silphium to that idiot.’ Williams jerked his head towards Hightower, who frowned. ‘I couldn’t allow that stupid witch to hand out silphium like it was candy to anyone who happened by.’
‘So you stabbed Simon and pushed him into the Tweed.’
‘I stabbed him but Ididn’tpush him into the river,’ Fitz corrected. ‘It was muddy – it had been raining a lot. He fell in before I could search his body.’
Everything was starting to make sense. ‘So that was why you played your Redcap card. After Simon’s corpse was pulled out of the river, you wanted to search him and the easiest way to do that was to call in your buddies and make it a job.’
The Redcap grunted. ‘It was a waste of time. He didn’t have any silphium seeds on him. I found his keys in his pocket and used them to get into his flat, but there weren’t any seeds there either.’
‘So you went after Knox.’
A trace of pride flickered in his eyes. ‘I was smarter with him,’ he said. ‘I took my time. I questioned him.’
‘You tortured him.’
Williams snorted. ‘Much good it did me! He said that Campbell had the seeds but I knew that wasn’t true. I’d already searched Campbell’s flat and I knew from the mortuary that there was nothing else on his body. And then that damned Fetch started getting suspicious and came after me. He said he wouldn’t say anything about the murders if I gave him the seeds.’ He bunched his hands into fists. ‘But I didn’t have the fucking seeds. I couldn’t risk it.’
