The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf (70 page)

“You will tell him no such thing! And don't call him Wizard Krabby!”

“Really, Aunty, I thought you'd have better things to think about than persecuting your niece. Like producing an heir for instance.”

The Fire Queen came to an abrupt halt, and glared at her niece. “That is none of your concern, vile girl. I hear enough on the subject from my ministers without you joining in.”

“Fine, I won't mention it again,” said Vex. “On a completely unrelated subject, how was dinner with Beau DeMortalis?”

“An uncivilized affair from which I have not entirely recovered.”

“So you had a good time?”

“I did not admit that,” said the Fire Queen. “And I still have not forgiven you for inviting him to my private wing. What were you thinking?”

“Why not have dinner with him?” said Vex. “He's the only aristocrat you really like. Maybe if you had a few more friendly dinners you might not feel the need to persecute your beloved niece all the time.” She looked at her hand. “It's healed. Thanks, Aunty. Well, I'd better get back to
London. I've got a lot of important studying to do.”

“I did not give you permission to leave!” shouted Malveria, but her niece was gone, fading quickly from view.

My niece becomes more idiotic by the day, she thought. She wears me out. I need wine, and conversation with Gruselvere and Iskiline.

The Fire Queen hurried toward her chambers, to talk to her closest companions.

CHAPTER 134

Kalix ran through the streets of Kennington, picking up her pace as she entered the park. She could feel the rhythmic tapping on her back from her long, thick ponytail, and a similar sensation on her chest from her pendant. She sprinted through the park, oblivious to mothers with baby buggies, youths playing football under the warm afternoon sun and the small group of alcoholics gathered by the benches, passing round bottles. She could feel the strain as she emerged onto the pavement outside, but kept going. Kalix's fitness was improving, and she was pushing herself hard. She only just made it through her front door before collapsing onto the floor, panting for breath. She lay in darkness for a few minutes, feeling her heart pounding.

Better, she thought, dragging herself to her feet. Her muscles ached as she ascended the stairs. There was no shower in the old flat, so she ran the bath. It gave her an opportunity to do push-ups in the privacy of the bathroom. Kalix had never done push-ups before, and was finding them too easy. Despite the scrawniness of her arms, she was still immensely strong. She remembered, a long time ago, seeing her brother Sarapen exercising in the castle. He'd done push-ups with weights on his back to make it harder. Kalix wondered if she could do something similar.

Outside the sun was going down. Kalix flopped into the bath, and immediately changed into a werewolf. She lay soaking in the hot water, satisfied with her progress.

The moon rose forty minutes later, far north at Castle MacRinnalch, where the members of the Great Council were gathering. Dominil and
Thrix were talking as the changed happened; there was no break in their conversation, though their voices deepened in mid-sentence.

“Perhaps you should start things off,” said Thrix. “I'll just lose my temper again.”

“I'm not in good standing with the council,” said Dominil. “It will be better if you lead. You can control your temper.”

“I'll try,” said Thrix, without much conviction.

Thrix had been surprised, and jealous, when Dominil had returned from Colburn Woods bearing new sorcery from the Fairy Queen.

“I can't believe she gave you the ‘Maynista Princess Two Flower Pathway.' How did you persuade her?”

“I read one of our library books to find out what she liked.”

The Enchantress swallowed her annoyance. They now had the means to infiltrate the Guild's headquarters, and that was the most important thing.

“So how do you feel after meeting Queen Dithean?” asked Thrix.

“How exactly do you mean?”

“Are your passions raging? She has that effect, especially when you meet her for the first time. Even more especially on a wolf night. There are plenty of virile young werewolves in the castle if you get an uncontrollable urge.”

“I have never had an uncontrollable urge,” said Dominil.

As soon as they arrived in the council chamber, Rainal called the meeting to order.

“Our first business lies with Thrix MacRinnalch,” he said.

Thrix addressed the assembled werewolves. “We now have a way of entering the Guild's headquarters. Dominil was successful in persuading Quean Dithean to assist us.”

“So we're still going with the fairy magic?” said Baron MacGregor. Werewolf eyebrows were very faint, but they could still be noticeably raised, as his were.

“Yes, to get us inside. After that, it's up to us.”

“You say Dominil succeeded?” said Baron Douglas MacAllister. “I thought you were going to see Queen Dithean?”

“I did. I failed. Dominil managed to change her mind.”

“That doesn't seem to bode very well,” said the young Baron MacAllister. “You're the one that can make her sorcery work. Why wouldn't she help you?”

“How do we know she really helped Dominil?” added Baron
MacGregor. “What if it turns out to be something that doesn't work?”

Thrix had been determined to control herself. Unfortunately, at the first sign of opposition, her temper snapped. She leaped to her feet, crashed her fist on the table and launched into a tirade against cowardly barons who wanted to hide away while other werewolves were dying at the hand of the Guild. Once again, her fellow members of the council were startled at the speed with which Thrix lost control. Within seconds, Baron MacGregor was on his feet, roaring back at her. Baron MacPhee remained seated but joined in with the heated argument while others shouted at them to calm down. It was almost impossible for a werewolf under the full moon to remain completely calm while in the company of other werewolves who were so agitated, and in no time the council meeting had descended into chaos again. Howling werewolves rose from their chairs, crashing their fists on the table, shouting and growling. Crystal goblets tumbled to the floor and papers flew in the air. Dominil remained implacable, but none of the others did. Even Lucia, a very mild-mannered werewolf, found herself shouting at Baron MacAllister when he made some slighting reference to werewolves who didn't care about the clan and just came to council meetings to cause trouble, an insult she was sure was aimed at her son Decembrius.

It took Markus, Rainal and the Mistress of the Werewolves some time before they could calm everyone down.

“We will discuss this in a civilized manner!” roared Markus. “Thrix, sit down! Baron MacGregor, you sit down as well.”

“I'll not have Thrix MacRinnalch insult me!” yelled the Baron. “I was fighting for the clan before she was born!”

“Everyone sit down!” repeated Markus. “Are we unable to behave properly?”

“I'd say it was mainly Thrix who's unable to behave properly,” said Tupan. All eyes turned toward Thrix.

“So it's my fault?” she said, angrily.

“Yes,” said Tupan. “The moment you hear something you don't like you're out of your chair, roaring and shouting.”

Tupan, brother of the old Thane, would have liked to have been Thane himself. He'd never had the support for that to happen, but his voice was still influential.

“Fine,” said Thrix. She sat down heavily. “I'll try and control myself.”

There was a silence, broken by the sound of papers being shuffled back into order and glasses being returned to the table. The heavy crystal
tumblers were sturdy items, and could take a lot of abuse, which is why they were chosen for council meetings.

“Perhaps Dominil could carry on for the meantime,” said Markus.

Dominil nodded. “We've obtained a spell from Queen Dithean. Using it, we believe we can enter the Guild's headquarters. Once there we will dispatch all hunters we find, and erase as many of their records as we can. By that I mean physically destroy their archives, and corrupt or destroy their computer records.”

“How many werewolves do you need for this attack?”

“Twenty, we think. We can get them into position in the hotel next door.”

“Unseen?” Baron MacGregor was dubious. “That's a lot of werewolves to gather without anyone noticing.”

“We'll introduce some of them as guests in the hotel, on the pretext of being a business party.”

“Isn't that going to raise suspicion?”

“There's no reason it should. Remember, the Guild has no idea we're coming.”

“I'd like to hear more about this help from Queen Dithean,” said Baron MacPhee. “What sort of spell is going to get us inside the building?”

“Do you need every detail?” asked Thrix.

“I think it would be helpful,” said the Mistress of the Werewolves.

“Very well. It's called the ‘Maynista Princess Two Flower Pathway.' Using flowers supplied by Queen Dithean we'll make a pathway from the hotel room to their headquarters.”

Baron MacPhee wasn't satisfied. He'd met the stone dwarves during the course of his very long life, and he knew what they were capable of. “So you just point this spell at the building and it cuts right through their defenses?”

“Not exactly,” admitted Thrix. “We have to get one of the flowers inside the building.”

“Inside? So someone has to go in first?”

“Yes.”

Those werewolves who'd been excited by news of the breakthrough were deflated, and those who'd been cynical had their reservations reinforced.

“I thought the whole point of this was that we couldn't get inside the building,” said Baron MacGregor.

“It's not impossible to enter in normal circumstances,” said Thrix. “Hunters go in and out. We just need one person to get inside, and conceal the flower somewhere.”

“You mean send someone in disguised as a postman, or a plumber?” asked Markus.

“Something like that.”

“Surely no matter how a werewolf was disguised, they'd know it was a werewolf?” said the Mistress of the Werewolves. “Wouldn't they?”

“I think they probably would,” admitted Dominil. “The Avenaris Guild doesn't use much sorcery, but they have sometimes detected werewolves in the past. I feel they must have some sort of alarm that will sound if a werewolf enters through the front door.”

“So the whole thing is still hopeless,” said Baron MacAllister.

Thrix felt her temper rising again. “Can't you just trust us to work it out? We've managed everything else so far, haven't we?”

Baron Douglas MacAllister laughed. The young baron was not as opposed to the attack as some of the others, but his father and brother had died in the great feud, leaving him with a general dislike for Thane Markus and his family. “I don't think I'd trust Thrix to go five minutes without screaming at everyone. That might be OK when she's designing dresses, but it's not much good for anything serious. As for Dominil, she'll need her regular laudanum breaks, won't she? It's not really the greatest leadership.”

Dominil didn't react to the insult. Thrix did. She stood up, banging her fist on the table and shouting at Baron MacAllister, and once more there was uproar.

CHAPTER 135

In the early hours of the morning Dominil was alone in her room. The meeting had come to a disorderly end. No agreement had been reached. Dominil found it extremely frustrating. Tomorrow was the third of the wolf nights and the last night on which a council meeting could be convened. If they couldn't come to an agreement then, further discussions would have to wait till the meeting at the next full moon.

Thrix won't wait, thought Dominil. If the council doesn't authorize an attack, she'll do it anyway.

If Thrix did carry out an attack, Dominil would go with her. She didn't like the thought, but she was intransigent in her own way. Dominil
still carried a burden of guilt over the death of Minerva. She wanted revenge. She wouldn't let her cousin attack alone.

Dominil knew that they'd fail. Thrix still hoped to use sorcery inside the building, but everything they'd learned about the stone dwarves' house suggested it would be impossible. There would be no magic, only the strength and ferocity of the MacRinnalchs. Two strong werewolves like Dominil and Thrix might do a lot of damage. They might kill a lot of hunters, but they'd be defeated in the end. They wouldn't be able to deal the Avenaris Guild a fatal blow.

Dominil reflected that if she were killed, she would not be missed much by anyone. The clan still shunned her. The Mistress of the Werewolves showed no sign of warming to her. She might not even be able to attend another council meeting. There was still talk of removing her from the council. She thought briefly of the twins, who had thrown beer in her face. Dominil hadn't reacted when it happened. She wouldn't allow the twins to see they could affect her, but they had. Dominil kept her emotions well hidden, but she felt a private sadness that Beauty and Delicious had ended up disliking her so much.