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stealing from you skimming off the top of your potions like aboggart drinks
the head of cream off a bottle of milk?" Mabry snatched Val's arm, pushing up
the sleeve so thatRavus could see the black marks inside the crook of her
elbow, the marks that looked like someone had put out a cigarette in her
flesh. "And look what she's been doing stuffing her veins with our balm.
Now,Ravus , you tell me who's thepoisoner . Will you suffer for her mistakes?"
Val reached her hand towardRavus . He pulled back.
"What have you done?" he asked, tight-lipped.
"Yes, I shot up the potions," Val said. There was no point in denying
anything now.
"Why would you do that?" he asked. "I thought it was harmless, just something
to keep the Folk from pain."
"Never& it gives you& it makes humans& like faeries." That wasn't it, not
exactly, but his face already said,You didn't mind that I was monstrous
because you are a monster .
"I had thought better of you,"Ravus said. "I had thought everything of you."
"I'm sorry," Val said. "Please, let me explain."
"Humans," he said, the word soaked with repugnance. "Liars, all of you. Now I
understand my mother's hate."
"I might have lied about that but I'm not lying about the comb. I'm not lying
about everything."
He grabbed Val's shoulder, his fingers so heavy she felt as if she was held
by stone. "Now I know what you saw in me to love. Potions."
"No!" Val said.
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When she looked up atRavus's face, there was nothing there that was familiar,
nothing that was kind. His clawed thumb pressed against the pulse of her
throat. "I think it is time that you were gone."
Val hesitated. "Just let me "
"Go!" he shouted, pushing her away from him and curling his fingers into a
fist so tight that his claws cut the pads of his own hand.
Val stumbled back, her throat stinging.
Ravusturned to Mabry. "Say that you feel revenged on me. At least tell me
that."
"Not at all," Mabry replied with a sour smile. "I did you a good turn."
Val went, retracing her steps along the path, through the wall of fog, the
woods and up to the castle, her eyes blurry and her heart aching. There,
watching the distant flicker of the city lights, Val thought suddenly of her
mother. Was this how she had felt, after Tom and Val were gone? Had she wanted
to go back and change everything, but lacked the power?
Crawling along the rocks, Val saw the red tip of Ruth's clove cigarette
before she saw the rest of their makeshift camp. Ruth stood up when Val got
close. "I thought you left me again."
Val looked over atLolli and Luis, curled up together. Luis looked different,
his eyes circled darkly and his skin pale. "I just went for a walk."
Ruth took another long drag, the end of her cigarette sparking. "Yeah, well,
your friend Dave just went for a walk, too."
Val thought about the revel and wondered if Dave had been there, another
sweet tooth, wandering dazed among capricious masters.
"I& I," Val sat down, overwhelmed, and covered her face with her hands. "I
fucked up. I really, really fucked up."
"What do you mean?" Ruth sat down next to Val and put her arm over her
shoulder.
"It's too hard to explain. There are faeries, like real Final Fantasy
faeries, and they've been poisoned and this stuff I've been taking it's kind
of a drug, but it's kind of magic, too." Val could feel tears trickle over her
face, and swiped at them.
"You know," Ruth said, "people don't cry when they're sad. Everyone thinks
that, but it's not true. People cry when they're frustrated or overwhelmed."
The mermaid's comb was still in Val's hand, she realized, but she'd been
clutching it so tightly that it had broken into pieces. Just thin sheets of
shell, nothing more. No reason to think it proved anything.
"Look, I'll admit you sound a little crazy," Ruth said. "But so what? Even if
you are completely delusional, we still have to work out your delusion, right?
An imaginary problem needs an imaginary solution."
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Val let her head fall onto Ruth's shoulder, relaxing in a way she hadn't
relaxed since before she'd seen her mother and Tom and maybe before that.
She'd forgotten how much she loved talking to Ruth.
"Okay, so start at the start."
"When I came to the city, I was just operating on autopilot," Val said. "I
had tickets to the game, so I went. I know it sounds insane. Even when I was
doing it, I thought it was crazy, like I was one of those people who kills
their boss and then sits back down at their computer to finish reports.
"When I ran intoLolli and Dave, I just wanted to lose myself, to be nothing,
to be nothingness. That sounds all wrong and dumb, I know."
"Very poetic," Ruth smirked. "Kind ofgoth ."
Val rolled her eyes, but smiled. "They introduced me to some faeries and
that's the part where everything stops making sense."
"Faeries? Like elves, goblins, trolls? Like the ones on BrianFroud panties at
Hot Topic?"
"Look, I "
Ruth held up her hand. "Just checking. Okay, faeries. I'm going with it."
"They have trouble with the iron, so there's this stuff thatLolli calls
Nevermore. Never. It keeps them from getting too sick. Humans can& take it&
and it makes you able to create illusions or to make people feel the way you
want them to. We were doing deliveries of it forRavus  he's the one that makes
the Never and we would take some for ourselves."
Ruth nodded. "Okay. SoRavus is a faerie?"
"Something like that," Val said. She could see a laugh in Ruth's eyes and was
grateful when it didn't move to her lips. "Some of the Folk died of poison and
they blamedRavus . I think this comb came from one of the dead faeries and
Mabry had it and I just don't know what that means.
"Everything is so crazy. Dave turned that cop into a dog on purpose and Mabry
toldRavus we werestealing from himso he thinks I had something to do with the
deaths and I haven't had Never in two days and my whole body hurts." It was
true, the aches had started up again, the pain dim but growing, the temporary
reprieve of faerie fruit not enough to keep her veins from clamoring for more.
Ruth squeezed Val's shoulders in a sideways hug. "Shit. Okay, that's crazy.
What can we do?"
"We can figure it out," Val said. "I have all these clues; I just don't know
how they fit together."
Val looked at the remains of the comb and thought of the mermaid again.Ravus
had said rat poison killed the faerie, but rat poison was a dangerous and
unlikely substance for a faeriepoisoner to use, especially an alchemist
likeRavus . And why would he want to kill a bunch of harmless faeries?
A human could have done it. A human courier was expected, not at all
suspicious.
Val remembered the first delivery she'd ever been on and the bottle of Never
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Dave hadunstoppered , breaking the wax. Shouldn't Mabry have been worried?
With all the poisonings, wasn't that like taking an aspirin with the safety
seal broken? The only way that anyone would do that was if they already know
who thepoisoner was or if they were thepoisoner themselves.
And Mabry had known that Val was using. Someone was telling her.
"But why?" Val said out loud.
"Why what?" asked Ruth.
Val stood up and paced on the rock. "I'm thinking. What's the result of the
poisonings?Ravus gets in trouble!"
"So?" Ruth asked.
"So Mabry wants revenge on him," Val said. Of course: Revenge for the death
of her lover. Revenge for her exile.
Mabry then. Mabry and a human accomplice. Dave was obvious, since he'd been
the one that didn't bother to disguise that he was skimming Never from Mabry,
but what reason did he have to kill faeries?
It could have been Luis. He hated faeries for what they'd done to his eye. He
wore all that metal to protect himself. And he was using the Never, as the
marks under his knee proved, even if he denied it. But for what if he couldn't
see glamour? And why didn't he care that Dave had gone missing? Why pick now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]