Page 38 of A Skirl of Sorcery
I nodded my understanding.
‘But it was hard for him – months of sleepless nights when he was in agony.’ She dropped her head. ‘He’d tried every painkiller you can think of, magical and non-magical. They worked for a while but then his body got used to them and the pain crept in again. Sometimes, when he thought nobody was listening, I heard him cry out as if he couldn’t keep it to himself any longer. It was brutal.’ She looked up. ‘And then Keres came along.’
I didn’t say anything; this was one of those times when it was wiser to wait than to fill in any gaps with the sound of my own voice. Tiddles, however, sensed the shift in the atmosphere. She abandoned her attempts to kill the water fountain in favour of padding towards Holly’s feet and sitting beside her. Sometimes she was smarter than she appeared. She didn’t demand to be petted and she wasn’t begging for food, she was simply reassuring Holly by her presence.
Tiddles was definitely a demon kitty but she possessed an angelic side, too.
Holly was silent for several moments as she reached down to tickle Tiddles under her chin. When she spoke again, her voice was calmer and her eyes were clear.
‘Keres changed everything. The relief my dad felt at knowing the end was coming was extraordinary – it sounds contradictory but it gave him a new lease of life for his last few days. He stopped worrying about the pain and he got out of bed for the first time in weeks. At his insistence, we opened our doors and welcomed in his friends, distant relatives – everyone he wanted to see. It might sound macabre but we had a party to celebrate his approaching death.’
I didn’t think it sounded macabre, I thought it sounded lovely. ‘He got the chance to say goodbye properly. He didn’t have to worry about what was coming because he already knew. He knew there would be an end to the pain and he could leave on his own terms.’
She nodded and gave me a meaningful look. ‘He was so invigorated that we thought he would overcome his illness and he’d be alright. But he didn’t think that because he believed in Keres and her powers. To my dad, her skirl made all the difference.’
That was the third time I’d heard someone describe the shriek of a ban sith as a skirl – Trilby, Martin and now Holly. ‘You spoke to her at length?’ It was the only thing that made any sense; Holly wouldn’t use ban sith terminology unless she’d talked with a ban sith.
She nodded. ‘My dad invited her into the house on the first night. At first I was horrified – I didn’t want anything to do with her. But when I saw his reaction to her singing…’ She shrugged. ‘She was the best thing that could have happened to him. His final few days were spent in peace rather than fear. Keres gave him that.’
I felt an odd flicker of pride, which was ridiculous because I’d had nothing to do with Colin Shellycoat or Keres’ actions in the days before his death. ‘She sang for three nights? Did you see what happened on the final night?’
Holly looked puzzled. ‘Her skirl was much shorter. I thought she would stay for the whole night but she stopped not long after she’d started singing and disappeared. Less than an hour after she’d gone, Dad passed away. I assumed she’d left us in peace for his final moments.’ She twisted her fingers together. ‘Was I wrong to think that?’
She didn’t need to know what had happened to Keres because she’d only feel guilty about it and it obviously wasn’ther fault. Better for her and the rest of her family to focus on the positives and the way that Keres had made Colin Shellycoat’s final few days a little easier.
‘No, no,’ I said airily. ‘I was only curious.’ I paused. ‘Did Keres have a particular spot where she, uh, performed?’
It was a question too many; Holly was suspicious now. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘What’s this about?’
I offered a half-truth. ‘I’m trying to understand as much as I can about ban siths. Lots of people are afraid of them and I’d like to change that.’
‘I was one of those people,’ Holly said quietly. ‘But I was wrong to be scared of her. Come with me and I’ll show you where Keres stood.’ She smiled briefly. ‘It’s the least I can do.’
I stoodin the patch of golden sunlight and frowned down at the ground. Keres had stood here for three nights, shrieking about Colin Shellycoat’s upcoming death, and she’d lost her powers on this very spot, but there was nothing to see. There was no dark miasma or itchy sensation between my shoulder blades. I couldn’t sense even a whisper of magic.
I glanced at Tiddles. She was totally uninterested, staring off into the distance as if she were occupied by more important matters. If there had been any flicker of the same darkness that was affecting Keres, she would have told me. There was nothing to learn here.
I scowled. Keres’ powers had been ripped out of her; surely I could findsomething.
I turned around and allowed myself to think like an assassin rather than an investigator. If I had been contracted to kill Keresand I’d chosen to end her life here while she was singing to Colin Shellycoat, how would I have done it?
Like my home, the house was on a quiet street with little passing traffic so Keres would have noticed anyone approaching her, even after the sun had gone down. Given how people reacted to ban siths, she would definitely have been wary if someone had drawn near, so any attack would have had to be done from a distance. Sniper style would have been the easiest way, I decided.
I lifted my eyes to the row of houses opposite. They were of a similar height to the Shellycoats’; which one would have the best line of sight to this spot? Which one would allow me to hide effectively?
As my gaze travelled from house to house I spotted several possibilities, then I smiled grimly. There: a building with large chimneys that would provide plenty of cover and appeared to have a useful flat section of roof. That’s where I would have lain in wait.
As I started to march towards it, Tiddles miaowed in protest. ‘We’re not done here yet,’ I told her. She miaowed again and I glanced at her. She was certainly a stubborn moggy. She didn’t want to follow me but she didn’t want to wait around for me either.
I sighed. ‘Alright,’ I relented. ‘Give me thirty minutes and then we’ll go and look for Thane.’
She narrowed her eyes. For goodness’ sake. ‘Twenty minutes then.’ She didn’t move.
‘Wherever he is,’ I said, ‘it must be to do with that young silver werewolf, right?’
She blinked once.
‘In twenty minutes we’ll visit Alexander MacTire. If anyone knows who that kid is, it will be him. It’ll be faster than conjuring up an effective tracking spell.’
