Nikifor looked up to find Fitz watching him from by the stove. He shook his head. "I don't want to talk about that."

"You find no pleasure in your own deeds?"

Nikifor looked at his own hands this time. Sometimes, in the depths of the vibe madness, he would find them covered in blood. "I frighten myself."

Fitz took a wooden cup from a shelf and carefully ladled steaming liquid into it. "The mark on your wrist," he said. "Where did you get it?"

Weakness is disloyalty.

Nikifor instinctively covered his wrist with one hand. He looked about quickly for the Tormentor, but the room was empty of shadows. "I don't know."

Fitz crossed the room. He knelt by Flower, put his arm under her shoulders, lifted her and tipped the cup to her lips.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Flower coughed and spluttered when liquid hit her throat and went down the wrong way. She choked, hacked, sat bolt upright and slapped away the hands attempting to support her. When she was quite sure she could breathe again, she glared at the bearded man leaning over her. "Well thank you very much. I was just starting to get somewhere!"

He raised an eyebrow. "You're welcome."

"Who are you? Where's Nikifor?"

Movement to her left drew her attention. Flower was relieved to see Nikifor crouching near the bed, quite lucid, if a little pinched and exhausted. She tried to take in the domed hut, the tiny furniture and the dried mud walls. It was all so alien her disoriented mind threatened to plain shut down again. "Where in Shadow are we?"

Nikifor cleared his throat. "Flower, we're in a Bloomin Fairy village named Pumpkin. This is Fitz Falls."

Flower had the good grace to blush furiously. She took a deep breath, collected herself and held out her hand. "I apologise Mr Falls, I was startled to awake so suddenly. I am Flower."

He gave her hand the briefest shake, then returned to the stove. "Flower of the Great North Island Beyond the Night Flickered Sea. I know who you are."

Flower winced at the repetition of her name, but held herself back from protesting. First impressions went a long way, and she'd already made a terrible one. She threw a questioning look at Nikifor, but he just shrugged. The last vestiges of the fetch poison still fogged her brain. She made to stand up, but the room tilted.

"Don't get up." Fitz returned to the bed. "It'll take some time for you to get back to normal, you took a nasty bite. Drink some more of this." He handed the mug back to her, filled with a steaming, flowery tea.

Flower sat cross-legged on the bed and sipped the tea. She watched Fitz covertly while he dragged over a stool far too small for him and carefully perched on it. The tea did its work quickly. Her head cleared. Even the pain of the cut on her arm went away. When she checked the wound, the blood had dried and the gash almost sealed over.

Fitz broke the silence with a question that sounded as though he'd carefully weighed it before speaking. "Why do the Muse Champion and the muse king's favourite seek me out?"

Flower blushed again. She hadn't heard herself called the favourite in a long time, but coming from him it sounded like an insult. "We need your help."

"I don't see what help I could offer the two of you, past what I've already done."

Flower sighed and glanced at Nikifor. "You didn't explain?"

He shook his head. "You're much better at that kind of thing."

"Right." Flower took another sip of the tea. She hadn't thought this far ahead. She hadn't even thought to ask Ishtar who this Fitz Falls was, and the fact he was a forest person wasn't exactly reassuring. What was she even thinking, taking the advice of a Bloody Fairy?

"Well?" Fitz never took his eyes off her.

"A Bloody Fairy named Ishtar Ishtar told us to seek you out," she said. "I know it's highly unusual, but-"

Fitz surprised her by breaking into a grin. "You saw Ishtar?"

"Yes."

"How is she?"

"Mad as a three piece suit in summer."

"And what did you do when you saw her? You're hardly the type to fraternise with outlaws."

Flower shrugged. "We talked."

Fitz steepled his fingers in front of his face and rested his forehead on them. "I think there's much more of a story here than you're telling me, Flower, but we will discover all in time. Go on."

Flower scowled. If this forest person thought he was going to muscle in on muse business, he could think again. "Ishtar said you would help us to rescue the eight hundred Freakin Fairies we found trapped inside a quicksilver mine."

"Eight hundred?" He stared at her with very little evidence of surprise, and gave a sigh. "Are you sure?"

"The entire Silver clan are missing from their village and there are fetches guarding the mine. I'm quite sure, Mr Falls, that I know what I'm talking about."

"Fitz, please." He kept up his disconcerting stare. "Why? I know you've long been a friend to the fairies, but you're also renowned for your loyalty to the greatest enemy the fairy clans have."

"What rubbish are you talking now?" She put aside the empty cup, feeling almost like herself again.

"The muse king. The great pretender. Who else do you think is behind this genocide?"

Flower clenched her fists in her lap. Really, this was too much. First impressions be damned. "I will not sit here and listen to these slurs on my king! I do not know who is behind the disappearances, but there is no way Pierus would plot against his own people, and believe you me Mr Fitz Falls, there are far more muses missing right now than fairies. Nikifor and I are the only ones left, and the king is the only one out there who can help!" Her anger carried her to her feet and this time she stood without the least bit of dizziness. "We've obviously come to the wrong place. Come on Nikifor, we're leaving." She stormed for the door.

Fitz's voice stopped her before she'd got halfway there. "You can't leave."

"Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do?"

"There will be Moon Troopers looking for you. The two of you slew an entire battalion of fetches, they won't let that pass lightly."

"We can deal with Moon Troopers."

"I also cannot allow you to leave knowing the location of this village," Fitz continued, as though she hadn't spoken. "The Moon Troopers and false muses have been looking for it for weeks. I can't take the risk you'll lead them back here."

Flower turned back toward him and was surprised to find Nikifor hadn't moved to follow her. "What do they want with Bloomin Fairies?"

Fitz spread his hands wide. "That I haven't yet discovered. But I won't allow it to happen."

Scepticism warred with curiosity. Curiosity won. It always did, and usually got her in trouble. "You've got them to trust you?"

"Somewhat. But not enough. Please sit down, Flower."

Flower returned to the bed and sat. She patted Nikifor on the shoulder, because he was looking a bit peaky. "We must leave," she said. "Until we free those Freakin Fairies Nikifor remains under a very irritating curse. And until we lift that curse we cannot seek out our king and ask him to return to us and help restore Shadow to the way it should be."

"That's your plan?" Fitz snorted. "Fairies don't lift curses, and your precious king will have you murdered before you reach his front door, wherever he is."

"How dare you! You know nothing about our king!"

Fitz ran a hand over his beard. He looked tired. "Perhaps it is you who know nothing of your king. Tell me, how long since you saw him last?"

"Why would I tell you that when you're so obviously his enemy?"

"Because you are in my home, however temporary that may be, and I ask."

Flower crossed her legs and arms and drew into herself. She didn't like the hard glint in his eyes, or the obstinate set of his mouth. This was a man used to doing things his own way. Probably an outlaw. Really, what had Ishtar been thinking sending them here? Flower had got along very nicely for centuries and never once been an outlaw. This whole situation was very, very frustrating. She wanted to leave, now, but his refusal to allow it was almost as unsettling as Nikifor not cooperating.

Fitz's question was insistent. "How long, Flower?"

She sighed in exasperation. "Well, I saw him just-" No. Wait. That image, so fresh and clear and recent, escaped her. "He was around whenno, wait, I'm sureI thinkoh, why don't you leave me alone!" She buried her face in her hands.

"Then it's as I thought," Fitz said.

"Forget it," Flower said. "We'll go in the morning. You don't need to worry, nobody will hear from us about this village. We'll free the Freakin Fairies on our own."

"No you won't."

Flower raised her head. "You can't stop us."

"I can, but I won't need to. I'm going to propose a deal with you in the morning, when you've had time to settle in."

"Propose it now."

"No."

There was silence while the two matched wills. Flower was quite sure she could outstare, outmatch and definitely outwit any forest person any other day, but today she was just far too distracted. She'd finally made a breakthrough with her pink-haired mystery girl, only to find more questions needing answers. She desperately needed to speak to the king about it, not bandy words with a dodgy forest person. She looked away first.

Fitz shifted his attention to Nikifor and frowned. "Is he alright?"

Nikifor had gone quite white. He stared into space, muttering silently through bloodless lips. She sighed, slid off the bed and went to crouch beside him. "Nikifor." She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

His head jerked around. He looked right at her with wide, terrified eyes. "He's back," he whispered. "He was gone for so long but now he's back."

"Snap out of it," she said. "There's nobody there."

Fitz knelt in front of him. He held Nikifor's chin in one hand and studied his eyes intently. Nikifor stared right through him. "What's he talking about?"

Flower clenched her teeth, not wanting to answer, but there was little help for it. "He's a vibe addict. That's why we went to the Freakin Fairies, to get their help. They cured him before they cursed him, but the hallucinations haven't stopped. I thought they would have by now."

"What does he hallucinate?"

Flower clenched a fist. She didn't want to have this conversation, not one bit. "He sees some man who torments him, as far as I can gather. He thinks the man marked him, and Ishtar too, which is obviously rubbish. The thing is, somebody hurt him a long time ago. He doesn't remember who and all he's got to show for it is a brand and these terrors."

"Who hurt him?"

"I don't know. I intend to find out." She refrained from adding the king would help them, since that would probably pitch them into another argument.

Fitz peered into Nikifor's eyes. "I've seen this before."

"Really? You've dealt with another vibe addict?"

"Never. I stay away from muses. No, I've seen" he gestured at Nikifor "-this."

"Well what is it? What's wrong with him?"

Fitz took a deep breath. "You're not going to like it."

"There's very little I've liked since I found him half-dead under a wig shop six weeks ago. I'm three hundred and eighty years old, I think I can handle whatever you have to tell me."

Fitz took the wrist with the brand on it and covered the mark with one hand. "In ancient times in Dream, humans practiced some very powerful forms of sorcery. No human today could do it, but there is one who was there, who learned the magics, who warped and twisted them. I have seen him establish a connection with a person, mind to mind, soul to soul." He tapped his own forehead and then Nikifor's.

Fixed on something beyond them both, Nikifor barely noticed.

"Once he has made that connection it's very hard to break," Fitz continued. "I saw him attempt to use it to drain someone of all her life force in order to replenish himself, just like a vampire would drain blood."

Flower gasped. "But that's horrible."

Fitz nodded, his mouth a single grim line. "I intervened before she died, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's entirely possible he could use that kind of connection to stalk Nikifor, torment him as you say, and in the end destroy him."

"But why? Who is this man?"

"Think about it, Flower. Who was there in ancient times to learn the magic?"

Flower swallowed an exasperated sigh. "No. It's not possible."

Fitz's words sharpened into anger. "If you ask me, he's messed with the pair of you. You seem like a sensible woman until someone insults your king. What I want to know is why he branded Nikifor with that star? He knows what it means. What's he playing at?"

"Weakness is disloyalty," Nikifor hissed between them.

Flower jumped to her feet. "You're wrong! He'd never do something like that!"

Fitz looked at her without expression. "You're a fool, and you'll end up like all the other muses, wherever they are. Nikifor I can help. You go find Mudface, she'll look after you tonight."

Flower stomped her foot. "Trust a Bloody Fairy to send me to someone like you!" She turned on her heel and stormed from the hut.

She stopped right outside the door, feeling guilty and ashamed. She shouldn't leave Nikifor alone in there with an enemy of the king. There was no telling what he'd do. But she didn't relish the thought of an undignified altercation either, if it came to that, or of trying to get Nikifor to go anywhere with her while he was having an episode. Maybe it would be alright to let someone else deal with him, just this once.

She sighed and wished fervently she could just go home to Shadow City and forget any of this had ever happened. It was dark and cold. Small fires burned nearer the village. She tried to marshal her thoughts and remember anything at all about Bloomin Fairies. It had been at least a century since she'd dealt with any, and that had been little more than a brief meeting with a delegation who'd travelled to Shadow City hoping to swap a barrel of pumpkin soup for help with a nasty cabbage-eating bug problem.