The Key to Starveldt by Foz Meadows

Author:Foz Meadows
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ford Street Publishing Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

11

Restitution

With Jess in charge, it wasn’t long before all five of them were squeezed around a table in a venue as close to a cafe as the Rookery seemed to come, which is to say, there was food being served and a place to sit, but the barista had tentacles.

‘So,’ said Manx, looking between Solace and Evan, ‘care to enlighten us about what just happened?’

‘What do you mean, what just happened?’ Evan replied, clearly irked by the question. ‘Harper got drunk, we helped him. End of story.’

‘Yeah. Right.’ Manx rubbed a hand over his face. Though still worn out, he looked like himself for the first time that morning. Evidently, anger had succeeded in sobering him up where nothing else had. Before, Solace had never quite appreciated the fact that Manx was the eldest among them by several years. In light of the morning’s events, it suddenly seemed to matter. ‘You know something, or you wouldn’t have got so shitty just now. Tell us.’

Solace saw Laine tense. Unaware of what she and Evan had learned through the Castalian magic, the psychic was fearful, not of what Evan might reveal, but of being forced to endure a speculative conversation on the matter. All of them were tense, frazzled by the severity of Harper’s actions, and despite Manx’s technical maturity, his current mood wasn’t doing it much justice.

Thrall him, said the Vampire Cynic. Just this once. Make him calm. Change the subject. Now!

Solace rebelled at the thought. Though she’d never felt any compunction about befuddling strangers, friends were another matter. It was a type of betrayal, surely? But as Manx opened his mouth to resume his inquisition, Solace laid her hand over his and caught his mismatched gaze. Gently, she let a trickle of power seep into her voice.

‘Let it go, Manx. We’re all tired. Let’s talk about something else.’

A ripple of relaxation crossed his face. Solace hoped the others would put it down to exhausted acquiescence, assuming they noticed at all.

‘Sure,’ he said, to Laine’s visible relief. ‘Yeah. Let’s do that.’

‘Good,’ said Jess, leaning her elbows on the table. ‘Now we’ve got our crazy out of the way, how about telling us what happened in the satyr’s grove? Or do you still want to wait?’

‘No,’ said Solace. ‘Now’s fine.’

Taking a deep breath, she explained where the satyrs had taken her and the content of her visions – it took a minute to settle her friends after she revealed that Glide was still alive. Solace progressed to her fight-slash-conversation with Sharpsoft and, finally, how she’d collapsed in front of Salesian. It made for a strange recitation, but to their credit, her friends let her speak without interruption.

‘That wacky Sharpsoft,’ Evan said, once she’d finished speaking. ‘Always popping in and out of reality, dropping a dire warning here, a cryptic clue there. Bastard.’

‘I thought you said he was on our side?’ said Manx, rather waspishly.

‘He is.’ Evan waved an arm to attract a waitress. ‘That doesn’t mean he’s not infuriating.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Jess muttered.

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