Page 11 of A Skirl of Sorcery (The Cat Lady Chronicles #3)

Chapter

Ten

Icould feel my neighbours glaring at me from behind their net curtains as we completed the last of our journey on foot.

It was late spring; the sun was still shining and the air was warm; at this time in the evening there would usually be people outside.

In Scotland, you have to make the most of the good weather while you can, but every front garden was empty and nobody was in the cobbled street.

It bothered me that they were afraid to step outside their houses but, to be honest, my neighbours’ concerns were far less worrying than Keres’ condition.

She Without An Ear greeted us, miaowing from her position on top of a wall before we reached my garden gate. I saw Fergus flinch out of the corner of my eye. ‘Not a cat fan?’ I asked in a deceptively casual tone.

‘I won’t admit to a preference for dogs when I’m in the company of a cat sith,’ Fergus said, reminding me that his abilities extended to more than sensing illness.

‘I like dogs,’ I said. She Without An Ear miaowed plaintively. ‘But,’ I added quickly, ‘I like cats more.’ The grumpy moggy relaxed. ‘You know that cats can sense when someone is ill,’ I told him.

‘Sure. But can they do anything about that illness?’

Not really.

Fergus examined my face and nodded. ‘In that case, I win.’ I wasn’t going to argue with him – not until he’d helped Keres.

I directed him to the flight of stairs that led to the upper flat. Fergus knocked lightly on the front door and entered while I followed on his heels. Dave immediately appeared and glared at us. ‘This is Fergus,’ I said quickly. ‘He has considerable medical skills. I think he can help Keres.’

Dave’s expression didn’t soften. ‘She’s not doing well. She’s running a high temperature and she seems to be delirious.’

Fergus nodded and hefted his bag. ‘She’s in there?’ He pointed to the bedroom.

Dave didn’t answer him; instead he looked at me. ‘He doesn’t look like a doctor.’

‘That’s because I’m not a doctor,’ Fergus responded. He pushed past the druid. ‘Word of advice,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Cut down on sugar. You’re about three months away from a diagnosis of diabetes.’

Dave went pale. ‘Druids are susceptible to diabetes,’ he muttered. ‘Everyone knows that.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said gently, ‘that’s a good reason to eat less sweet stuff.’

‘Says the pizza lady.’

Fergus called, ‘You should cut down on that, too.’ My face fell. More salad for dinner, then.

He strode into the bedroom and I followed while Dave hovered by the door, his suspicious eyes watching Fergus’s every move.

It was clear that Keres had deteriorated, despite the minor herbal concoction I’d poured down her throat.

Her skin was flushed and her limbs were twitching.

Her pale lips were moving, whispering feverish words that made little sense.

‘Is she—?’ I began.

‘Hush,’ Fergus ordered. I fell silent; the best thing I could do was keep out of his way.

He knelt by the bedside and took Keres’ hand.

She moaned slightly. ‘Don’t you worry now,’ he said.

‘My name is Fergus Boneward and I’m here to help you.

I’m a witch who specialises in sickness and injury.

I’ll take a quick look and see if I can find out what’s wrong.

’ He leaned across her bed and inhaled deeply.

Dave stared, his expression growing more incredulous. ‘This is too strange,’ he muttered.

I waved my hand to tell him to stay quiet, but even I felt uncertain when Fergus spent the next five minutes sniffing every part of Keres’ body. At one point his face was so close to her skin that he could have licked her. Strange didn’t begin to cover it.

Eventually he pulled away and stood up. ‘Okay,’ he said to Dave and me.

‘Pay attention. There are several ingredients you need. Three tablespoons of dandelion essence. A teaspoon of sprigglewort – the powdered stuff, not the root. Spanish mistletoe, three and a half grams, no more, no less. You can buy the good stuff at the Pickover Witchery store. Simmer the ingredients for four minutes and stir them together using the bark from an alder tree that’s been harvested at midnight.

Exactly midnight. You’ll have to collect that ingredient yourself because it’s got to be fresh.

’ He gave me a long, flat look. ‘I’d do that tonight, if I were you.

Much longer and your friend here won’t make it. ’

I nodded. ‘Will that cure her of whatever this is? Will she be okay?’

Fergus’s expression didn’t alter. ‘She won’t be cured and she won’t be okay.’

‘Then what’s the point?’ Dave demanded.

‘It’ll buy you some time. That’s the best I can do.’

‘That’s not good enough!’

I agreed. ‘What’s wrong with her? There must be other medicine we can use or somewhere we can take her.’

‘You can drag that poor ban sith all over Coldstream and shove as much medicine into her as you like but it won’t help. There’s only one person who can cure her now, and I doubt you’ll be able to find them in time.’

My eyes narrowed. ‘Who? Who do we need to find?’

Fergus sighed. ‘The person who stole her voice,’ he said reluctantly.

‘Stole her voice?’ I repeated.

‘Her magical voice has gone – that’s why she’s sick and that’s why you can sense something evil inside her,’ Fergus explained. ‘Somebody has used magic to steal the essence of what makes that woman a ban sith, and the emptiness that remains is destroying her.’

‘Why would someone steal her magical essence?’

‘I can’t answer that.’ He shook his head sadly.

‘All I can tell you is that somebody has taken her power and now she’s being attacked by her own body.

Unless you can retrieve her ban sith voice and return it to her, you can’t save her.

’ He met my eyes. ‘Any medicine will be a temporary salve. Without her voice, she’ll die. ’

I swallowed. ‘How long does she have?’

‘With the medicine?’ Fergus considered. ‘Two weeks, maybe a bit longer. Without it, less than three days. I’m sorry.’

Dave and I stared at him and, from her bed, Keres moaned again.

My anger getting the better of me, I stomped around my kitchen.

What was happening to Keres seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment.

Stealing someone’s life was one thing but ripping out the essence of who they were was far worse.

My cat-sith powers made me who I was and I couldn’t begin to imagine the horror I’d feel if I could no longer access that part of my soul.

Keres was adrift in an ocean without a raft, a paddle or even a lifejacket. I tried to picture the thieving bastard who’d stolen her powers and failed. Even to me, such villainy was beyond the pale.

One problem at a time, I told myself. Focus on what you can change now, not what you can’t.

I had sprigglewort and dandelion essence in my box of supplies and Dave went to buy some Spanish mistletoe from Pickover at the same time as Fergus left. Thankfully, the large witchery store was open 24/7.

The problem was the alder bark: in this part of the country, alder trees only grew in one of the dryads’ groves on the west side of the city and they controlled the supply of bark and essence.

To harvest some fresh bark at midnight I would have to petition the dryad leaders for access, which would take more time than Keres had left. It would be far quicker to steal it.

Unfortunately, with the advent of the full moon, security around the groves would be heightened because some groups of fully transformed werewolves didn’t always pay attention to the niceties of normal society.

Left unchecked, they had a nasty habit of trampling over the carefully cultivated plants and seedlings when they were under the moon’s control.

It wouldn’t be easy to collect a section of bark without being noticed – I could do it, but I’d have to plan carefully.

All five of my cats had assembled in the kitchen, including He Who Roams Wide who was back from wherever he’d been. Tiddles, curious at the turn of events and no doubt affected by my angry mood, had joined them.

‘Yes, of course I’ll help her,’ I told them all. ‘I will find the bastard who’s stolen her magic and make them pay, but first I need to buy her some time.’

He Who Crunches Bird Bones and She Without An Ear looked dubious, He Who Must Sleep yawned, and She Who Loves Sunbeams began to groom herself nervously. He Who Roams Wide was already on all four paws, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

I nodded at him. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That would be helpful indeed.’ He purred as Tiddles emitted a small questing miaow.

‘No,’ I told her. ‘You stay here.’ She was a young cat, little more than a kitten really. She was high in feline confidence but low in experience, and she’d be a liability. Besides, Thane would kill me if anything happened to her.

I ignored her narrow-eyed response and jerked open one of my cupboards, rummaging around for everything I would need.

Taking weapons wouldn’t be a good idea; dryads were more capable than they were given credit for, especially when it came to the sanctity of their groves.

Although it was unlikely they’d catch me, if they did I’d be hard pressed to explain carrying lethal weapons. Neither did I want to harm any dryads.

It would be far safer to take some minor sleeping potions. I was aiming for stealth, not violence, despite the desire for vengeance that was tugging at my soul. Even the sleeping powders were only to be used as a last resort.

I extracted three sachets and taped them to the right and left sides of my ribcage.

Only that which touched my bare skin could endure the transformation process from human to cat and back again.

My hand hovered over my favourite curved dagger but I resisted the urge to strap it to my thigh.

Its presence would cause problems, not solve them.

In my bedroom I abandoned my fuzzy cat-lady attire for tight black clothing that would allow me to sneak around in the shadows undetected.

The only faint glint of colour came from my watch face, but I couldn’t leave it behind because I had to harvest the alder bark at the stroke of midnight or all this would be for nothing.

I double-checked that its timing was accurate, though I needn’t have worried; it was an expensive piece of kit from my EEL days when every second on the job had counted. It kept perfect time.

She Who Loves Sunbeams swished her tail from side to side.

‘Don’t worry,’ I told her. ‘Everything will be fine. I’ll be back by two am.

’ I patted her head, then turned to each of the other cats in turn.

Once all their needs had been satisfied, I nodded to He Who Roams Wide.

‘Come on then,’ I told him. ‘We’ve got quite a distance to cover and it’s already getting late. ’

His eyes glinted with adventurous anticipation. Half a minute later, both of us were out of the door and away.