Читать книгу The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf - Martin Millar - Страница 23

CHAPTER 17

Old Minerva MacRinnalch’s mountain stood at one end of Glen Marbauch, a deep, glacial valley in a very remote part of the Scottish Highlands. At the other end of the glen was the tiny village of Marbauch, containing only a few cottages and a single shop. Dominil had booked two rooms in a tiny bed-and-breakfast. After successfully negotiating the long drive from Inverness, she halted the car before reaching the village.

The two werewolves looked along the valley. It was raining and, in the distance, under the gray sky, Mount Marbauch looked steep, dark and not welcoming.

“Maybe we should have gone to a clinic,” said Kalix.

“Too late now,” replied Dominil. “Anyway, we can’t. The standard treatments for addiction don’t agree with werewolf physiology.”

“I know,” sighed Kalix. “I was really sick after I took methadone.”

“Who gave you that?”

“No one. One time when I couldn’t afford laudanum I broke into a chemist and stole it.”

Kalix gazed at the mountain, and her heart sank even further. The gray slopes were impressive in their way. Inspiring even, as scenery. But as a place to undergo treatment for addiction, Kalix couldn’t help thinking they’d made a terrible mistake.

“Do we have to climb it?”

“Minerva will meet us at the foot. I understand there’s a pathway to the top.”

“Is it a steep path? Can you fall off?” Kalix’s was feeling more and more depressed. She was at least relieved to hear there was a path. She’d had a vision of herself struggling up the mountain with ropes and didn’t think she could manage it.

They parked outside the small bed-and-breakfast. There were a few other houses in the distance; hardly enough to qualify as even a village. A few hours ago in London, it had been warm and sunny, but here the rain fell steadily and there was a cold wind. Kalix shivered. She had poor resistance to the elements, much less than would have been expected from a werewolf. It was part of the effect that the drug had on her system.

Dominil wondered if the locals knew that a powerful werewolf sorcerer lived at the far end of the glen. If they did, might they also suspect that she and Kalix were werewolves too? If the landlady did suspect anything, she didn’t show it. While she couldn’t hide her surprise at the sight of Dominil’s icy white hair, she greeted the pair convivially.

“We get a lot of walkers around these parts in the summer,” she said. “Are you here for the scenery?”

“Yes,” said Dominil. “We like to get back to Scotland when we can.”

Dominil didn’t sound Scottish. She’d abandoned her accent at Oxford. Kalix still had a strong accent, undiluted by her time in London.

Their rooms were clean and comfortable, as Minerva had assured Dominil they would be. Minerva had seemed very knowledgeable about the local area, and Dominil wondered again if the people here knew about her unusual nature.

Kalix was tired after the flight. “What time are we meant to meet Minerva?”

“At dawn,” said Dominil. “We’ll have to set off early.”

Kalix yawned. “I’m not used to these early mornings.”

“Students never are.”

Kalix was surprised to hear herself described as a student. She supposed she was. She’d be going back to college soon. But her college was a remedial establishment, helping people with poor learning skills. Dominil had two first-class degrees from Oxford. Kalix didn’t feel like a student in her company.

“Did you like the Runaways film?”

“It was interesting,” said Dominil noncommittally. “I wondered if it might give me any hints on how to manage a band. At least it gave me some idea how not to.”

Kalix asked her cousin what she planned to do next for Yum Yum Sugary Snacks.

“I’m thinking about trying to get them a place on a tour, supporting some band with a reasonable fan base. That would do them good. We’ve played three gigs in London since that debacle in Edinburgh, and they’ve gone much better. I think they could cope with a support slot. I’m told that if I could persuade a well-known producer to work on their demo, that would help too. Though I’m not sure any producer would work with the twins, given their bad reputation.”

Kalix went off early to her room, leaving Dominil sitting next to her window with her laptop computer open in front of her. As night fell and the moon appeared, Dominil took on her werewolf shape quite smoothly and remained at her computer. It was an accepted fact of life among the MacRinnalchs that as a werewolf, you couldn’t work a keyboard, but Dominil, through determined practice, had almost mastered the art. It meant picking out one key at a time, slowly, with her werewolf claws, but she could do it.

Dominil sat in front of her computer for a long time. She didn’t feel like sleeping. She felt uneasy about tomorrow. During the great werewolf feud, Dominil had faced death quite calmly, but the prospect of giving up laudanum troubled her. She knew it would be difficult. She was aware of the changes the opiate would already have made to her brain and body. She was both physically and psychologically dependent on the drug. Dominil had researched the matter quite thoroughly. Unless, as Kalix hoped, Minerva had some magic solution, which was highly unlikely, they were in for an uncomfortable time.

Dominil took her bottle of laudanum from her bag and measured out what would be her last dose, as instructed by Minerva. She drank it swiftly and replaced the top on the bottle. Then she undressed, lay on the bed, calmly cleared her mind of all negative thoughts and went to sleep.