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I watched as he strolled to a Range Rover, unlocked it and climbed in. Interestingly, the king of the ogres appeared to be alone. Rumour had it he always had a murder of crows around him, but even they were absent. That felt ominous for some reason, as if Krieg hadn’t wanted any witnesses to our conversation.
I watched him drive away. As he passed me, his silver eyes met and held mine. Then he was gone leaving me somewhat confused as to what the fuck had just happened.
The ogres were well-known for not helping anyone other than their clients. Had someone hired him to help me? That seemed far-fetched, not least because there was no one with sufficient money who would care about my wellbeing. But if a client didn’t have a vested interest in my health, why the hell was the king of ogres helping me?
If he thought he could butter me up, or bribe me, then he had a surprise coming. I didn’t curry favours, and I didn’t accept bribes.
A sharp shriek from Bird pulled me out of my mental confusion. I needed to hustle if I wasn’t going to leave Channing waiting for too long. I strode off purposefully towards Grosvenor Park.
As I approached Union Street, Channing was leaning against a wall looking uncomfortable in his Connection uniform of a black suit, white shirt and a pin showing that he was in the Other realm. Like me, he was a wizard and he had three triangles displayed on his head, so the pin was somewhat otiose. I didn’t explain or apologise for my tardiness. ‘We’re here to question the dryads,’ I said brusquely. ‘A witness confirmed that a dryad killed Jingo.’
‘Who’s the witness?’
I hesitated. ‘The bird.’ I gestured to the caladrius flying above us.
Channing’s jaw dropped.
‘You need to work on your poker face,’ I muttered. ‘Come on. Let’s go to the grove.’
I led the way through Grosvenor Park, twenty acres of ornamental Victorian parkland. Scattered throughout the greenery were ornaments and statues, and there was even a miniature steam railway for kids to enjoy. I bypassed all of them and walked straight to the grove that the local elder dryads operated out of.
The dryads used their magic to gently repel away Common realmers, so there was no one around as we entered the glade; more forcefully, they also shield against anything that seeks to harm them. Luckily, I had no intention of harming anyone so Channing and I stepped easily into the clearing.
Their elder tree was in the centre of the grove. I touched my hand to my heart and bowed to it then gently touched its bark and let a wisp of my magic travel through it. It was the magical equivalent of a polite knock. I let my hand fall away from the ancient tree and stepped back.
I wasn’t kept waiting long before three elders stepped out of their trees. Their skin was a vibrant green; like all skin tones, the exact colour varied but, like all skin tones, it didn’t matter a damn what shade they were.
The female elder, Lily Briar, had flowers woven into her hair, but the flowers themselves were connected to her, unplucked and undying. They grew from her directly as if she were the soil beneath their roots.
I gave all three of them a brief bow. ‘Thank you for seeing me.’
‘The Connection is always welcome in our glade,’ Lily said flatly, but she did not smile and I did not feel overly welcome. ‘How can we assist you?’
‘Jude Jingo was killed by a dryad,’ I stated boldly. God, I hoped that Bird wasn’t taking me for a ride.
Not an iota of surprise between them – none of the elders so much as blinked. Bird wasn’t lying: a dryad had killed Jingo, and the elders knew all about it.
Chapter Nine
‘You know who killed him,’ I said evenly.
‘We do,’ Lily confirmed. ‘The killing was ratified by the elder council,’ she continued calmly. ‘Jingo has been bullying the Other community for too long, and he was trying to force us to use our import business to smuggle his drugs. We declined to cooperate. In retaliation,’ her voice broke slightly, ‘he killed one of our saplings, a young girl called Ivy Blossom. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jingo stabbed her to death with some scissors.’
Lily closed her eyes. ‘Our retribution was swift. An ally provided his address and the rest is history.’
I thought of Lenny, Sam’s ‘messy’ case and the dryad blood I’d found on Jingo’s trousers. I kept the grimace off my face with effort.
‘An eye for an eye,’ Lily intoned.
She wasn’t just quoting the Bible. There are a couple of overriding principles for the Connection. First is the ‘in-house rule’: the Connection doesn’t interfere with internal species’ politics unless it is asked to. The Connection works to keep the peace between the different magical species. If a fire elemental killed a centaur we’d step in, but if two fire elementals killed each other it would be none of our business unless we were invited in.
The second principle is ‘an eye for an eye’. If someone like a wizard mobster killed a dryad, for example, and the dryads retaliated it was considered an eye for an eye – as long as no one else was harmed. Done and dusted. If the mobster’s men retaliated then we were at ‘a leg for a leg’, at which point the Connection would step in before things got messy. Messier.
‘I want to speak to the killer,’ I said firmly. ‘I need to know that he has definitely finished.’
Lily nodded once and touched the base of her tree. A moment later, a male dryad stepped out of another tree. She frowned at him, and the ancient branches of one of the elders groaned in the wind.
‘Name,’ I demanded.
