Last Wish (Highland Magic #4)(58)

‘I’m not listening to you,’ the guard declared. ‘The Steward said you’d try and turn me but I’m loyal.’

‘To a fault,’ I muttered in response. I was no longer interested in her, however.

The spider leapt off me and darted over Candy’s shins back to the corner. My eyes followed it. I lay down to avoid appearing too obvious but made sure I tracked its every move. I really hoped I wasn’t going crazy.

Once again, it tried to spin silk. Fine threads shot out and it leapt from one side of the cage to the other. This wasn’t the perfect web of a normal spider, though; it looked more like a clumpy mess.

‘Do you know the tale of Robert the Bruce?’ I asked Candy.

‘Sidhe bloke round the time of the Fissure, wasn’t he?’

I nodded. ‘Yep. There are quite a few famous stories about him.’

‘Cave,’ Candy grunted.

‘Yeah. He hid out in one after his army was routed by the Fomori. He was convinced that all of Scotland was lost. Then he saw a spider.’

‘If this is your way of telling me that you’re not going to give up, then I got it,’ drawled the guard. ‘But remember that your friend’s life is still hanging in the balance. Not that I suppose someone like you cares. You probably don’t care about anyone.’

Whatever. I let her babble on. ‘The spider,’ I said to Candy, over the top of her voice, ‘was trying to weave a web. The first time it failed. It tried again, and again it failed but it didn’t give up. It kept on going and on the third attempt it finally succeeded. Because of that one little spider, Robert the Bruce decided not to yield. He pulled himself together for one more fight and he succeeded. The Highlands are free in part because of that, not because of magic but because of a spider. He could have had a genie with him but it wouldn’t have made a difference because it was that spider that saved the country.’

As I watched, the spider halted in its attempts to spin its web and did what I could only describe as a flounce. I smiled. ‘I hope Taylor’s alright,’ I half-whispered.

The spider stared at me again then twisted round and scarpered out through the gap in the bars. I tracked its movements until it was completely out of sight. Thanks, Bob, I said silently. It made a big difference knowing he was around. If everything really did fall into total shite, I could fall back on a wish. It was a last resort, and there was a part of me that was curious to see just how Aifric was going to play things tomorrow, but at least I knew I had a Plan B of my own.

***

I tried to stay awake for as long as I could, waiting for Bob the spider’s return but my spirit was far more willing than my flesh. After an hour or two, despite my best efforts, I succumbed to unconsciousness again. In fact, I’d probably have stayed under for another forty-eight hours if a bucket of icy water hadn’t been flung at me.

‘Get up!’

Freaked out by my sudden awakening, I sprang to my feet. I shook off the freezing droplets and glared at my attacker. It was a different guard this time – a burly Moncrieffe Sidhe male. He took out some kind of truncheon and slammed it against the metal bars.

‘Sort yourself out!’ he screamed like a stereotypical drill sergeant. ‘We are leaving!’

I rubbed the back of my neck. I still hurt all over but at least it was a dull ache rather than an all-encompassing pain that made it difficult to think. I straightened my wet clothes as best I could and glanced up to see if Bob was there. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any sign of spiders or a genie. There was, however, a long length of web stretching from one side of the cage to the other. I squinted: it looked like a T followed by a squiggle. I couldn’t work out for the life of me what the squiggle was though. T what? T bloody what?

Something smacked me in the face. More stunned than anything, I gasped. The new guard laughed. ‘Put those on.’ When I didn’t move, he let out an impressive snarl and rattled the cage bars once again. I winced at the noise, bent down and picked up a pair of handcuffs. I considered refusing but it wouldn’t help matters. I snapped them on and looked up again, still trying to work out what Bob’s impenetrable message meant.

The guard unlocked the cage door and beckoned. ‘Come on, then. This isn’t summer camp. Get the hell out, scum!’

Scum? ‘Surely you can come up with better invective than that,’ I said, acting cheerful to throw him off his game. He glowered at me dumbly. ‘Use your imagination,’ I suggested, in a bid to help him along. He still didn’t answer. Oh. ‘A better insult,’ I amended. ‘Surely you can come up with a better insult.’

‘Adair witch! Get the fuck out!’

Hmm. Not really better. I shrugged and shuffled forward. There were parts of my body which hurt that I hadn’t realised existed before now. I supposed I could at least be certain that I wasn’t dead.

‘Hey!’ Candy yelled. ‘What about me?’

The guard ignored him. Damn it, I wanted Candy with me as much for my sake as for his. Safety in numbers. ‘He needs to come too.’

The guard reached forward, grabbing me painfully by the shoulder in a bid to shove me along the corridor. Behind us, Candy gripped the bars of the cage. This wasn’t the Cruaich dungeon – these bars were reinforced and no match even for a Wild Man. All the same, the metal creaked and shuddered. ‘Let me out!’ he roared.