Chapter 16
THE MOMENT WE docked, I called Jordan to tell him we had the last herb for the antidote. He instructed me to meet him at his office.
Garret waved me off. “I’ll catch up with you later,” he called as I headed toward my car.
“You know it—dinner and a movie on me. And Garret, thanks again.” I waved as, still in my bathing suit, I climbed into the driver’s seat of the CR-V. I was dripping all over but I didn’t care. I jammed on my sunglasses and headed for Jordan’s.
He was waiting for me. I handed him the bag of thistlestar and he whistled.
“Do you realize how much this is worth?”
I shook my head. “Sandy’s life is what it’s worth.”
“Yeah, but on the open market, this would fetch over five thousand dollars, it’s that rare. This is enough to make three potions.” He began washing it in the sink as I sat on a leather chair, drying off.
“Will the rest of the herb keep? I thought it had to be used fresh. Isn’t there a danger somebody might steal it if it’s that rare?” Word had a way of getting around and I had learned very quickly that, as much as I loved Bedlam, there were a number of untrustworthy people living in town, just like any other place on the planet.
“I can distill the essence. I’ll cryogenically freeze it and nobody has to know it’s there except for you and me. It may not work for this exact antidote, but I can use it for other, equally important spells where it won’t need to be fresh.”
He sorted out one-third of the herb and carried it over to his workbench. The bench was filled with beakers and Bunsen burners and laboratory toys, and it made me want to go to school and take a chemistry class just so I could mess around with the gear. “This will take me three or four hours to distill what I need. I promise, I won’t leave it. We don’t know who might have been following you. I’ll lock the door and set a ward so that nobody can get in.”
He sounded so serious that I decided to go have a talk with Delia about the merfolk. We couldn’t just let Sandy run around again once she was out of her coma. Irena was right, we had to go after the merfolk who had tried to kill her, though I wasn’t sure how we were going to do that.
“Can I use your bathroom to change?” I smelled like the water, but right now, that was the least of my worries.
“Right through there.” He pointed to a door at the back of the room.
I slipped into the large bathroom. There was no shower, but it was large enough for a wheelchair, and there was a wide window to the side. The window was frosted, so I felt comfortable changing my clothes. As I peeled the bathing suit off, it occurred to me that we might be able to set a trap to lure out whoever had tried to kill Sandy. We just had to make her recovery widely known and then stage a public appearance that would give them a chance for another attack.
I slipped into my jeans, then fastened my bra and pulled my tank over my head. Quickly braiding back my still-wet hair, I bundled the swimsuit into a plastic bag and stuck it in my tote bag.
There was something bothering me, though. I looked around, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, but there was nothing I could see. I started to turn, but something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Without blinking, I pulled out a small can of hairspray and quickly sprayed it in the direction where I thought I had seen something.
There was a loud shout, and then a figure appeared, falling to his knees. Gillymack! A talisman rolled out of his hand and I recognized it as a charm for camouflage.
“What the hell? Jordan, come here!” I tackled the merman, taking him fully to the floor. “If you’re the one who hurt Sandy, I swear I’ll hand you over to Aegis and let him drink you dry.”
“No, no! I didn’t!” He struggled briefly, then stopped as Jordan yanked open the bathroom door.
“We seem to have a spy. In fact, he was watching me as I changed, the pervert. What are you doing here? What do you want?” I was so pissed I started bitch slapping him.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody,” he pleaded, trying to protect his head. “Stop hitting me!”
Jordan tapped me on the shoulder. Reluctantly, I stood, giving Gillymack a sharp nudge with my shoe as I did so.
“Why don’t you call Delia and ask her to come over?” Jordan grabbed Gillymack by the collar, dragging him to his feet. “And you get to come with me. I have just the place to keep you.” He motioned for me to stay where I was. “I’ll put him in the stasis chamber. While it won’t put him to sleep, it will keep him from using any form of magic, and I can bolt the door from the outside so he can’t pick the lock.”
“You sure you don’t need any help? I’d be glad to help you.” I flashed Gillymack a look that made him cringe.
“Please, don’t let her touch me! I’ll behave.”
“You’re pathetic, you little worm.” I took a step forward, raising my finger.
Jordan dragged him to the door. “You’d better behave or I’ll let her take another shot at you.” I could tell he was trying to restrain a smile.
“No, please no.” Gillymack stopped struggling.
I peeked around the door, watching as Jordan shoved him into the stasis chamber where we had kept Bubba until we had been able to change him back. He bolted the door and, trying the knob, satisfied himself that it was thoroughly locked before he returned.
I had my phone out and already punched in Delia’s number. What I felt like punching was Gillymack’s face. She came on the line.
“Yes? What’s up?”
“Need you over here at Jordan’s asap. And bring handcuffs and something to keep a merman from escaping.”
She didn’t ask any questions. Just said, “On my way.”
As Jordan continued to work on the herbs, washing them before adding them to one of the mixtures he already had brewing, I paced, my arms crossed. Had Gillymack been responsible for all of this? Had he tried to kill Sandy? The side of me that was ready to throttle him wanted it to be that simple, but a little voice inside whispered no.
Gillymack might be a con artist, and a thief, and he might even be a pervert, but he wasn’t a killer and I knew that deep down inside. As much as he made me want to smack him, he wasn’t the type to go wingnut and try to off somebody. But then, if he hadn’t done it, what was he doing here? Was he working for whoever had it out for Sandy?
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Jordan said after a few minutes. “Delia will be here soon. Why don’t you sit down?”
“I can’t help it. I’m restless.” I smiled, though, to take the edge off my words. Finally, I crossed to one of the chairs and flopped down in it. “How do you have the patience for this work? Medicine seems like it takes a lot of patience.”
“It does. And it’s just part of my nature,” Jordan said. “I like making people feel better. I like finding the answer to problems. Both are part of my job.” He carefully added ten drops of some tincture to the leaves and liquid, and a loud foof sounded as a whirl of smoke billowed up. Then he stood back and sighed. “That’s it. Now we wait, and in about three hours, I can strain it and we’ll give it to Sandy.”
I caught my breath. “Are you sure it will work?”
“There’s never any guarantee to life, but Maddy, it should work. By everything I’ve read, this antidote should bring her out of the coma. So relax, breathe, and—oh look, Delia made good time.” He stood as the sheriff tapped at the door and peeked in.
“What on earth is going on?” Delia inhaled deeply. “Damn, whatever you’re brewing is pungent.”
“I’m brewing up an antidote for Sandy’s coma. Meanwhile, I’ll let you and Maddy here deal with the Meré. Here’s the key.” He tossed me a ring of keys. “Just bring them all back. It’s the one with a big ‘S’ marked on it.”
“S is for ‘stasis’?” I grinned, catching them.
“You got it.” But Jordan was back deep in whatever he was doing with the mixture—it looked to me like he was stirring it at random intervals, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t some enchantment going on I wasn’t picking up on.
“Come on.” On the way down the hall, I filled Delia in on everything that had happened.
“That sounds like an intense trip. I’m glad you made it back safely. Sirens are nothing to mess around with. They’re deadly and they have absolutely no sense of human ethics. Or witchly honor, or however you want to put it.” She shook her head. “But I just can’t see Gillymack trying to kill Sandy. Besides, he’s ostracized from the Meré society. Why would he try to help them?”
“I don’t think he’s trying to help them, but he’s sure as hell up to something, and I want to know what.” I’d had enough time to calm down and it struck me how ludicrous the thought of Gillymack being a killer was. But at least one of the Meré was to blame, and he might have a clue as to whom.
I unlocked the door and let Delia go in first. When Gillymack saw me, he stumbled out of the chair he was sitting in.
“Don’t you let her come after me,” he said, waving a finger at me.
Delia laughed. “I don’t think I could stop her if she wanted to hurt you, but calm down. She’s not going to kill you.”
“At least not right now,” I mumbled. “But damn it, Gillymack. What the hell are you doing in here? Did you follow me?”
He slumped back into the chair. “Yeah, I did.”
“Why? Are you really involved in this mess? Tell us the truth or so help me, I’ll find the most painful truth spell I can find and force it out of you.”
Delia gave me a pointed look, but said nothing.
Gillymack seemed to be debating whether I meant what I said. Finally, he shrugged. “All right. I know you went to get the thistlestar today and I figured you’d have extra. I know how much it’s worth. I was hoping I could…borrow…what you didn’t need.”
“Borrow…what? Why?”
“To sell on the open market, I’ll bet,” Delia said.
I paused, remembering what Jordan had told me about how much it cost on the open market. “Damn it, you were going to profit off of Sandy’s misfortune?”
“I wasn’t going to take what you needed for her antidote! Honest!” He looked so affronted that I couldn’t help but believe him, especially after he had admitted he was going to “borrow” the rest of it.
Delia shook her head. “Oh, Gillymack. You’ll never change, will you? You’ve always taken the easy way out and it usually tramples over somebody else. What am I going to do with you this time? If I throw you in jail, it means special treatment because you’re one of the merfolk. And it never does any good.”
He shuffled, staring at the floor. “What if I told you I know somebody who might be behind Sandy’s attack? Would that square it up this time?”
I lost it. “You know who did it and you’ve been hiding the information? And now you want to use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card? I ought to—”
“Hold your horses, Maddy!” Gillymack flashed a look of annoyance at me. “I didn’t say I’ve been hiding anything. When you asked me to look into things yesterday, I started poking around. Do not ask me how I found out, because I’d be putting a friend in danger.”
“All right, for the sake of the argument, we won’t. So what did you find out?”
He scratched his neck, looking uncomfortable. “I found out that there are several Meré living in town who have been lying low. When I saw who they were, I recognized one of them. He happens to be a buddy of Prince Mellaton, the king’s son. The prince was against his father’s decision to sell the Strand to the Bedlam Council, but his father told him to shut up.”
Delia and I gave each other a long look. “That in itself isn’t an indictment, but there has to be a reason they’re hiding who they are. It’s not like merfolk aren’t welcome here, so something must be going on.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m thinking so. I mean, nobody goes around wearing a nametag with their race on it, but really… What makes you so sure they’ve been hiding who they are, Gillymack?”
“Because I followed them to the store last night. While they were shopping, somebody happened to ask them if they were from Ocana—the Meré city. They outright said no and walked away really quickly.”
“That was an awfully convenient question.” Delia rubbed her chin.
“It’s amazing how far twenty dollars will go to convincing a stranger to ask the right question.” Gillymack grinned, ducking his head. “I wanted to hear what they said but if I asked, they would have pinned me as one of them right away.”
She nodded. “That still doesn’t mean they are lying about being merfolk, but it’s odd, all right.” She glanced at me. “What do you think?”
I still wasn’t happy, but it was a chance. “I think we need to check them out. I have an idea, but I don’t want to talk to you about it in front of light-fingers here.” I nodded at Gillymack.
He rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
“All right. Here’s the deal, Gillymack. You give me the information on the men.”
“They’re roomies. It shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Whatever. I’ll check it out. If you’re correct, then you go free this time—though you never attempt to steal anything from Maddy or Jordan again, or I’ll stick you in an underwater dungeon and leave you there. Got it?”
He nodded, looking a little more relieved. “All right. I’ll go for that.”
“In addition,” she continued, talking right over him. “If I catch wind that you are even thinking about stealing anything from anybody, if you vandalize, spindle, or destroy anything, if you so much as cross the street wrong, you’re out of Bedlam for good and if I catch you back here, I’ll lock you up till you’re an old, old, man.”
He snorted. “In other words, be a good little fishy?”
“Something like that.” Delia crossed her arms. “What will it be?”
“I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“Oh, you have a choice,” I said. “You can play by the rules and keep your nose clean, or you can fuck up and pay the cost. Your decision.”
He let out a long put-upon sigh. “Fine. I promise.”
“All right, give me their names and where they live, and you can go, but you damned well better keep your mouth shut about what’s going on,” Delia said. “I hear one rumor on the street and all bets are off. As well as all deals.”
Gillymack wrote down their names and address—the pair lived in the same apartment—and then Delia unlocked the cuffs. He stood for a moment, rubbing his arms.
“All right. Get out of here before I decide to drag your source’s name out of you. Now.”
Gillymack didn’t have to be told twice. He headed out the door on a run.
“Seems he was eager to get away. You think he’ll say anything?” I asked.
She paused, then shook her head. “Nope. I think he realizes how close he is to spending his life in a fishbowl, so to speak. It strikes me that Gillymack isn’t going to want people to know he’s working with the police, either. Nor will he be anxious for the Meré to know he’s ratting out his own kind.”
I glanced at the names. Nope. Didn’t recognize either. Then again, I didn’t know a good share of Bedlam’s over six thousand inhabitants. I saw a number of them at the public rituals but not by name.
“I had an idea. What if we set up a trap to lure them in once Sandy’s awake. Bust out a huge welcome-back party or something, so whoever did it knows she came out of it. They’ll try again. You know they will.” It would take a lot of man-hours but it was, I thought, the only chance we had of making certain she was safe.
“I think that’s our best bet, actually. We’ll throw a big party—or rather, you will. It wouldn’t be conducive if I’m seen to be involved. But my men and I will be there. Hold the party at…oh…what about Chively Manor?”
Chively Manor was an old estate that rented out for big events like weddings, office parties, cotillions, and the like. It was expensive, but they provided catering services on site, and the manor was exquisitely decked out in whatever theme you chose.
“I can ask Max to help me foot the bill.” I glanced at my watch. “Jordan said it would take three hours for the formula to be ready. We’ve still got about two to go. I guess we should make sure she comes out of the coma before going ahead with our plan. And once she does wake up, we should keep it quiet until I can throw together this shindig to prevent her attacker from making another attempt before we’re ready.”
“I suggest you go talk to Max. You can’t do much here until the antidote is ready. I’ll stick around and make certain Jordan doesn’t have any more unexpected visitors.”
I smiled, relieved. “Thanks. You know what ticks me off more than just about anything? Gillymack was watching me undress. He saw me naked.”
Delia laughed. “Then perhaps you should charge him for the privilege.”
Snorting, I looped my arm through hers as we walked back to Jordan’s office. “I don’t want to put any ideas into his head.”
MAX WAS DEFINITELY down with the idea when I laid it out for him. He had met me at Randy’s Burgers, a fast-food joint a couple blocks away from Jordan’s office. I was sipping on a strawberry shake and eating a salad—out of deference to my trainer, who had left me several rather stern text messages—and Max was eating a fish filet and fries.
“I’ll get started on it as soon as we know she’s going to be all right.” He paused, sopping up ketchup with a fry. “Maddy, she will be all right, won’t she?” The look on his face told me he was totally head over heels for Sandy, and in agony right now.
“I think she will. Jordan said it should work.” I reached out, putting my hand over his. “You love her a lot, don’t you?”
He nodded, staring at his plate. “We’ve said the words, but I’ve tried to keep it light because Sandy’s hard to pin down. I’m afraid of chasing her away if I come on too strong.”
“Sandy’s had a lot of water flow under that heart-shaped bridge, Max. She’s gun-shy, and has had reason to be. But I know she loves you. I know she thinks you’re wonderful. I would think…as long as you don’t bring up the ‘M’ word at this point…you can rest easy on that point.”
I didn’t want to speak for my best friend, but I knew she loved Max, and I knew she was coming around to being comfortable in a relationship again. Her late husband Bart had broken her heart. They had managed to become friends again, but it had taken a long time. He had left her for another man. And before him, she had been in and out of one bad relationship after another. But Max was different. Somehow, I didn’t think he was going to ride off into the sunset any time soon.
My phone rang at that moment. I glanced at the Caller ID. Jordan.
“Here. Are you ready? Is the antidote ready?”
“Yes, and yes. Meet me at the hospital in twenty minutes.”
I shoved my phone back in my bra, where I carried it when I wore low-cut tops. “Dude, he’s ready. Hospital, twenty minutes.” Max began to wolf down his food. I laughed and tapped the table in front of him. “Slow down or you’ll choke. We have time. It’s not that far to the hospital and I want the rest of my shake.” Truth was, I was just as anxious to get going, but I didn’t want both of us to seem like nervous wrecks.
WE ARRIVED AT the hospital shortly after Jordan did, and gathered in Sandy’s room. I took a deep breath and reached for Max’s hand as Jordan began to administer the antidote. It was a lot of fluid, so he injected it into her IV and then stood back.
“It should take about fifteen minutes. I put the drip on high and it’s a highly concentrated dose.” Jordan leafed through her chart, frowning. Every moment or two, he would glance over at her.
Max and I stood by the bed, watching for any sign of movement, any sign of consciousness. My heart was thudding. This had to work. Sandy had to wake up. I didn’t know what I’d do if it failed. Make Jordan try another batch, I suppose, but the truth was, I was hitching all my hopes on this. I pressed my hand to my mouth, biting my knuckles.
Max noticed and he wrapped his arm around me. “She’ll be all right. She’ll come back to us. She has to. We both need her so much.”
Five minutes passed, then ten and nothing. My stomach twisted as I tried not to cry. I couldn’t imagine my life without Sandy. We did everything together. We’d been together for over three centuries and she was the only one in the world who really, truly, knew me.
“Please, Sandy, wake up,” I whispered. “Please wake up. We need you.” Suddenly unable to watch anymore, I broke free from Max’s arm and walked over to the window, staring bleakly outside. What if it didn’t work? What if she wasn’t going to come out of it?
Another moment, and then Jordan said, “Maddy!”
I whirled to see him by Sandy’s side, checking her pulse, waving Max back.
“Is she all right? Is she okay?”
Sandy’s eyes began to twitch, and then, after one long, tortuous moment, she slowly opened them, blinking rapidly.
“Sandy!” I ran back to the bed, trying not to shove Max out of the way.
“Give me room!” Jordan motioned for both of us to back off. We did, and he began to examine her, taking her pulse, feeling her forehead. Her eyes were open and she looked confused, but then, she glanced to the side at us, and smiled weakly.
“Sandy, you’re back!” I felt the tears sliding down my face but didn’t bother to wipe them away. They were tears of relief, and they did a body good.
AFTER THAT, JORDAN shooed us out of the room for a few minutes. When we were allowed back in, she was sitting up, a bed jacket around her shoulders, looking weak but tired.
“I explained to her what happened, so she knows. She also knows she’s been in a coma for six days, and that some of her dreams showed up in the streets of Bedlam.” He stood back. “You can talk to her, but only for a few minutes. She needs to rest, as contrary as that might sound. She’ll be weak for a while. When dreams leave the body and manifest, they drain the dreamer of energy. It’s like a battery losing some of the charge.”
He left us alone with her. “I’ll be back in a few.”
As soon as he was gone, Sandy tried to get up but we made her lie back down.
“Until the doctor okays you getting out of bed, you stay there,” Max said.
Sandy pushed back her hair. “I must look a fright.”
“You’re the most beautiful sight in the world.” Max kissed her forehead.
I decided they needed to be alone for a little while, but wanted at least a moment with my best friend. “Listen, we’ve figured out why this happened, and we have a pretty good idea about who did it. You’re going to be bait in a day or two. Delia and I are hoping our plan will catch the freak who’s been trying to kill you. You really pissed off some of the merfolk, it seems, by building on the Strand.” I quickly ran down what we had learned.
She blinked. “You know, that makes sense. There was a lot of opposition to me buying that land. Somebody was trying to outbid me, and I distinctly remember some man throwing down a pamphlet—when you buy auctioned land, you get a pamphlet describing the various lots—and stomping off. I wonder if there are any records as to who was bidding against me. You should check the Bedlam County Treasurer’s Office. They’re the ones that held the auction.”
“I can do that tomorrow morning. Or maybe Delia can get in there tonight.” I took her hand and squeezed it gently. “You get stronger. We want you out of this bed. I love you, woman.” I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
As I headed for the door, leaving her and Max alone, she called out, “Thanks, Maddy. You know…I’ll always do the same for you. Anything you need, I’m here.”
“I just need you to be up and going again,” I said before closing the door softly behind me. The moment I was outside the room, I broke down in tears. Once in my car, I whispered a prayer of thanks to Arianrhod until I stopped shaking.