Faerie Lord

Sixty-Six

The charno was an odd-looking creature, with enormous feet and long drooping ears, that squatted on two powerful hind legs like a giant hare. They were high in the foothills before Blue realised it could talk.

‘You know they’ve conned you,’ it said suddenly.

Blue blinked.

‘The Abbot and that midget,’ said the charno. ‘Conned you.’ It had a rough, scraping voice, the sort some men developed through drinking too much spirits of grain.

‘I didn’t know you could talk,’ Blue said foolishly.

‘Don’t have much to say usually,’ the charno told her.

‘What do you mean, conned me?’ Blue asked.

‘Got their own agenda. Your boyfriend’s not up there yet.’

Blue stared at the creature. The strange thing was she believed it, at least about the monks’ agenda. There’d been too many peculiar little glances between the Abbot and the Purlisa. But she wasn’t sure they were actually lying to her. Especially not the Purlisa, who was probably the sweetest man she’d ever met. After a moment she said, ‘Do you have a name?’

‘Charno,’ said the charno.

‘I meant a personal name.’

‘You can call me Charno with a capital "C",’ said the charno. ‘That’s how we do things,’ he added without specifying who he meant by we.

‘How do you know Henry’s not up there, Charno?’ Blue asked.

The charno tapped the side of his nose with a forepaw. ‘Got my sources,’ he said. He turned a toothy head to look pointedly up the mountain. Blue followed the direction of his gaze and discovered he was looking at a cave mouth. "Sides,’ he added, ‘I eavesdrop.’

‘Why do the Abbot and the Purlisa want me to go up there?’

‘Abbot doesn’t. It comes down to the mad midget.’ He reached up with one huge hind foot to scratch behind his ear.

‘You don’t think there’s a serpent up there?’

‘Something up there,’ said the charno. ‘Serpent. Dragon. Oompatherium. Dunno. Just know it hasn’t started munching on your boy, ‘cause he’s not there yet.’

‘Yet?’ echoed Blue.

‘He’s not there.’

‘You said yet.’

‘No I didn’t,’ said the charno quickly.

‘Yes, you did – twice.’

‘Didn’t mean to. He’s not there. Henry. Not there.’ He looked away furtively.

‘You’re not telling me the truth,’ Blue said.

‘Yes, I am.’

‘Then why won’t you meet my eye?’

‘I’m an inferior species,’ said the charno.

Blue snorted, a sound that reminded her of the Abbot. ‘Look here, Charno,’ she said firmly, ‘we can do without this nonsense. The Abbot and the Purlisa aren’t the only ones with an agenda, are they?’

The charno stared down at the claws of his huge feet. ‘No,’ he admitted sheepishly.

‘You don’t want to go up there, do you?’

‘Would you want to go up to a cavern full of man-eating serpent? Well, you would, but I wouldn’t. I don’t have a boyfriend up there.’ It was the longest speech the charno had yet made, probably showing the measure of his upset.

But Blue pounced on his last sentence. ‘So Henry is up there?’

‘No,’ said the charno. ‘No. I told the truth about that.’

‘But he will be here?’

‘Might,’ said the charno. He stared innocently up into the sunwashed blue of the sky.

Blue reached out to take his reins. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We’re going up.’ For a moment she thought he might resist, like a stubborn donkey, but he climbed to his feet and plodded obediently after her.

‘Hope you won’t regret this,’ he said.