Read Martin Millar - Lonely Werewolf Girl Online
Authors: Lonely Werewolf Girl
"Still," continued the Merchant. "There was much trade to be
done. Nothing but the best would do for the Thane's funeral, and I,
fortunately, have access to the best."
Young MacDoig hung back in silence. Though he ran the business
in London he obviously deferred to his father when the Merchant chose
to visit. Kalix wanted to make her transaction and depart as quickly as
possible but the Merchant was a man who liked to talk.
"You will be here for laudanum, I imagine? Excellent,
excellent, we have a fresh supply in this very morning, the very best.
You won't find the like of this anywhere else in the world, young Kalix
MacRinnalch. Have you been in contact with your sister at all? I've
frequently thought the Enchantress would do well to use my services for
her sorcerous supplies, though she's never shown any such inclination.
But she's a fine young woman, I'll give her that, and becoming quite a
force in the world, so they say."
Kalix tried to suppress her agitation. No matter how
aggravating the Merchant or his son were, she could not afford to lose
her temper. To be cut off from her supply would be disastrous. She
fumbled in her pockets for money.
"Ah," said the Merchant, turning to his son. "The young wolf's
in a hurry to be off. She was always a secretive one!"
"She is, father," agreed the Young MacDoig, only slightly less
effusively. "But she's a fine customer, visits me often."
"I'm pleased to hear it boy!" he said, clapping his son on the
shoulder. "Tell me, Kalix, are you settled in London? Have you a good
place to stay?"
"Why?" said Kalix.
"No reason, no reason. I'm just anxious for your health."
"I'm fine," muttered the werewolf, who didn't intend giving
away any personal details to the Merchant. When the Young MacDoig
produced her laudanum, Kalix handed over the money and departed as fast
as she could, declining Merchant MacDoig's offer of a glass of whisky
to warm her against the cold.
"Hurry back," said the Merchant. "We're always pleased to see
you here, young Kalix."
Kalix hastened away from the MacDoig's. She spent the rest of
the day on the bank of the river. She walked all the way back to
Vauxhall Bridge, just north of where she had encountered the hunters.
Occasionally she sipped from her bottle but she felt healthy, and
reasonably content, so did not require too much in the way of chemical
sedation. Here, just south of Pimlico, the riverbank was not open to
the public. It was overgrown, and hidden from the road above. She
wandered around, pausing to make entries laboriously in her journal.
She wrote about how she had fought with hunters, then visited the
Mac-Doigs, and how she had stood on Westminster Bridge and looked at
the Houses of Parliament. She also wrote some harsh words about
Moon-glow, who'd tricked her into eating so much food.
There were tourist boats on the river, and a few long flat
barges loaded with cargo. As far as Kalix could remember she had never
been on a boat. She wondered what it would be like. The MacRinnalchs
had property on various islands in Scotland and she remembered that her
parents had sometimes sailed over to visit, but they'd never taken her
with them. A rat ran over her foot and Kalix chased it for fun,
scooping it up to look at it before letting it go.
Kalix did not meet anyone else. By her standards it was a good
day. But as dusk was falling she was struck by a peculiar feeling which
she could not quite identify. She felt healthy, healthier than she had
done for a long time. She had gained energy from her werewolf
transformation. She'd taken enough laudanum to satisfy her craving. The
battle with the hunters had bolstered her spirit. She felt good, apart
from… apart from what?
The young werewolf sat down and looked at the water. There was
something troubling her. Not the ever present yearning for Gawain. Not
the bad memories about growing up in the castle that sometimes
overwhelmed her. Something else. Kalix realised she felt lonely. She
shrugged. She always felt lonely. Or did she? When she tried examining
the feeling she couldn't say for sure if she was always lonely or not.
Usually she was sick, or running, or hiding. Now, on this rare day when
she was feeling healthier, she seemed to have a little more time to
notice her emotions. She thought that she might indeed be lonely.
Kalix looked down at her new pendant. For the first time it
struck her that it must have been difficult to find it for her. Kalix
wasn't certain who was responsible for giving it to her. Thrix? Or the
Fire Queen? Or Moonglow? She thought about Moonglow and felt something
close to regret that she'd hit her that morning. Kalix had been in a
panic but she knew the human wouldn't understand. It meant she couldn't
go back. Such was her life. Anywhere Kalix went, she was never welcomed
back.
Kalix had an idea that if she saw Moonglow again she might
have to apologise, and she would never do that, particularly to someone
who had made her eat food when her resolve was weak. Kalix grew quite
angry. Who did the girl think she was, forcing food down her throat?
Kalix growled. Moonglow was as bad as everyone else. There again, she
had brought her a hot water bottle to keep her warm at night. Whichever
way Kalix looked at that, it seemed like a kind act.
The werewolf frowned. Daniel had talked to her about Joan
Jett. She'd liked that. She'd have liked to hear more Runaways records.
She tried listening to her favourite Runaways tape but the battery on
her walkman was running low. She decided to remain where she was for
tonight. The riverbank was quiet and no one would disturb her.
68
Moonglow spent an arduous afternoon at university studying
Sumer-ian history and cuneiform. Later she had attend a seminar on the
legal code of Hamurrabi, which, she was interested to learn, was the
first code of laws ever to be written down. After the classes and
seminar Moonglow now knew that the largest city in ancient Sumeria was
Ur, the penalty for adultery in the time of Hamurrabi was four goats,
and cuneiform, a form of writing somewhere between hieroglyphics and an
alphabet, was really difficult to learn.
She concentrated during her lectures as she always did, apart
from one moment when she noticed that a girl a few seats in front of
her was wearing a yellow blouse. It reminded her of the yellow blouse
that she'd seen Markus put on. How peculiar that had been. Moonglow
still thought he'd looked attractive.
The daylight was fading by the time Moonglow caught the
underground home. Her shoulder was sore where Kalix had hit her. Every
time Moonglow thought about that she became annoyed. After saving her
life she deserved better than to be assaulted. She tried to banish her
annoyance. 'Kalix is only young. Her life is difficult,' she thought.
At nineteen, Moonglow was only two years older than Kalix, but Moonglow
thought of her as much younger, somehow.
Daniel was cheerful after an afternoon sleeping on the couch.
He offered to make Moonglow tea, as he generally did. Moonglow placed
her bag on the table and sank into a chair.
"Cuneiform is just terrible," she said.
"Of course it is," agreed Daniel. "Only a mad woman would
dream of learning it. Do you want some biscuits?"
Moonglow nodded and Daniel went off to the kitchen. He
returned a few moments later, looking thoughtful.
"There's a werewolf frolicking in the back yard."
"Frolicking?"
"Yes. Well maybe not frolicking exactly. But definitely moving
around with enthusiasm."
Moonglow hurried to the kitchen. She peered out of the window.
Their flat was above a shop, and the back yard was a small unused
square of concrete, one floor below. There, in the dim evening light, a
werewolf appeared to be playing with something. A tennis ball, perhaps.
Moonglow tried to open the window. It was stuck where some previous
tenant had painted the frame. After some effort she
managed to wrench it open.
"Kalix?"
The werewolf looked up.
"Hello," said Kalix. Then, as if it was quite natural for her
to be in Moonglow's back yard, she started playing with the tennis ball
again.
"Have you come back to visit us?" asked Moonglow.
"No."
"Then why are you here?"
Kalix shrugged. She had of course come back to visit Daniel
and Moonglow but was not about to admit it, even if it meant carrying
on some absurd pretence that she had ended up in the yard by accident.
"I'm just wandering around."
Moonglow sensed that Kalix didn't want to acknowledge she had
come back specifically to see them. She smiled.
"Would you like to come up anyway? We'd like to see you."
Kalix pretended to consider it for a while.
"Well okay," she said, eventually. Moonglow was expecting
Kalix to climb back over the fence into the street before calling at
the front door but Kalix simply scrambled up the fence then leapt for
the kitchen window, grabbing onto the sill and hauling herself through.
It was an impressively athletic feat. Once inside the kitchen, she
attempted to look diffident, though this expression was difficult to
pull off in werewolf form.
"It's good to see you again," said Moonglow, who had quite
forgotten her previous annoyance.
"It is," said Daniel. "Do you want some tea?"
69
Moonglow didn't expect an apology from Kalix for hitting her
which was just as well. Kalix didn't mention it. The werewolf was still
pretending that it was some sort of co-incidence she'd ended up in
their back yard. She stood awkwardly around the kitchen for a while but
as she saw that Moonglow was not going to lecture her, or demand an
apology, she began to relax.
"I saw boats," she said, unexpectedly.
"Boats?"
"On the river."
Kalix told them about her day by the river, though she didn't
mention her encounter with the hunters.
"Why does the water in the river get higher and lower?" asked
Kalix.
"It's tidal," Daniel told her, explaining that the level of
the River Thames would rise and fall as the tide came in and out. Kalix
seemed very vague on the subject of tides, which struck Moonglow as
odd. The tides were affected by the moon and she would have assumed
that any werewolf would know all about the moon and its effects. But
Kalix, as soon became evident, was not well acquainted with life around
her. The young werewolf was ignorant of many things. She didn't know
who the Prime Minister was or what nuclear energy meant. She'd never
learned maths beyond the most basic arithmetic, and her grasp of
history was so shaky that she imagined almost everyone she'd heard of
to be still alive. Shakespeare, for instance, she understood to be
still writing film scripts because she'd once sneaked into a cinema to
watch Romeo and Juliet.
The young werewolves of the MacRinnalch Clan were privately
educated for the first years of their lives but for the past hundred
years or so Verasa had established the custom of sending them to normal
schools to complete their education. The Mistress of the Werewolves
thought this was a better way for them to learn the ways of society. As
soon as the family felt confident that one of their young werewolves
was responsible enough not to give their true nature away they would be
enrolled. This had never happened with Kalix.
"I never got sent to school," she confessed. "They said I'd
bite the teachers. I was meant to have a tutor at the castle but I
didn't like him so I never went. But it doesn't matter, I learned
everything I need. Gawain taught me how to fight."
Moonglow glanced at the cover of Kalix's journal which was
hanging out of her tattered bag.
kalix jurnilprivt. kalix diry doont rede
There was something pathetic in the young werewolf's attempts
to write, particularly as she was so keen on keeping a journal. She was
so bad at it. The first time Moonglow had seen her handwriting she had
assumed that it was some sort of joke. Everything was spelled so badly
it reminded her of an adult cartoon mocking the spelling of a child.
From the extreme shakiness of the letters she wondered if it might have
been written when Kalix was in werewolf form, and was finding it
difficult to hold a pen. But apparently it was her best effort.
Moon-glow felt overwhelmingly sad about this. She had a strong urge to
offer to teach Kalix to read and write better. She held off from
mentioning it, suspecting that Kalix would be insulted, but determined
to help her if she could find a way of doing it tactfully.
"Can I have another pizza?" asked Kalix. "With extra meat?"
"Okay," said Daniel. "I'll call them."
Kalix was familiar with money because she rarely had any. Her
face fell.
"I can't pay for it," she said.
"Don't worry about it, you're our guest," said Daniel
reassuringly. It struck him for the first time that if Kalix stayed
with them she was going to cost a lot to feed, if last night was
anything to go by. Her appetite in werewolf form was immense. Daniel
didn't mind in theory, being a generous sort of person, but he had very
little spare money.
"I want to watch TV," said Kalix, while they waited for the
pizza.
Moonglow and Daniel rarely watched TV. Moonglow didn't like
it. Daniel did but didn't want Moonglow thinking he was the sort of
person who wanted to watch TV all the time. Kalix was keen however, and
as soon as they switched it on she sat down right in front of it like a
child. Daniel showed her how the remote control worked. She struggled a
little with her large paw and the small buttons but finally mastered
it. Moonglow went upstairs to dump her books in her room and Daniel
followed her up.
"She likes TV and pizza," said Daniel. "We seem to have
adopted a child."
"You like TV and pizza," pointed out Moonglow.
"Well I never claimed to be mature. You think she'll be the
same tomorrow?"