The Jack Hansard Series: Season Two

Episode 5.6

Goron led us to his corner of the mine where a small forge glowed red with embers and a workbench displayed neatly hung tinkerer's tools. The egg was suspended in a weird metal contraption in front of what looked like a magnifying glass made of smoky quartz. It was a vague image through the crystal. Murky shadows curled around the egg's blurred shape.

Goron selected an implement from the bench, and a tiny hammer. It looked rather like a tuning fork. He rested its prongs on top of the egg.

'Watch close, like.'

He hit the fork with the hammer. There wasn't the high-pitched ting I was expecting. Rather a low, deeply unnerving timbre that slunk into my ears and prickled down my spine.

In the window of quartz, the shadows coiled into an ominous shape.

'Ah, a skull,' I observed. 'I don't suppose there's any chance of that being a good thing?'

'Rarely,' Goron replied.

'Whassit mean, then?' said Ang.

'Death, usually.' Goron lay down his tools. 'Ill-omened it be, fer sure. And then there's this.'

He fiddled with the wires that held the egg. They glittered, I noticed, like piskey dust.

From a tray underneath the bench, he plucked a handful of thistles which were just beginning to flower. He added them into the construction of wires and egg, and stepped back.

Within a matter of seconds, the thistle withered to a bleached brown husk. Goron prodded the lifeless stem, and it crumbled into dust.

'That's a little alarming,' I murmured.

'A little?' Ang shrieked. 'Ye means to tell me we've been carryin' around this thing that can suck the life outta other things? I've had it in me pockets, Hansard!'

Goron chuckled. 'Calm, lass, calm. This is just a little trick o' mine, fer ascertaining the true nature o' things. It shan't harm you as it is.' His expression grew serious. 'But I should get rid of it right quick, if I were you. Because whatever's inside it is mighty dangerous.'

'I suppose we knew that already,' I said. 'Thank you for your services, Goron.'

He was still looking at Ang, concerned. 'What's your plan for it, 'zackly? Why carry it around?'

Ang faltered. 'We-ell . . .'

'Leverage,' I said smartly.

'Thassit,' Ang agreed. 'Against the quiet-eyed ast.'

Goron gave me a final appraising stare before handing back the phoenix egg. 'Hope you knows what you're doing, merchant man.'

'I've never been more certain.'

* * *

I was not at all certain about what I was doing.

Not for the first time, while standing under the waning moon some yards away from the eerie shadows of Mên-an-Tol, I questioned the wisdom of my actions. Should I be selling out on a haul of ultra-valuable piskey dust just to make a deal with an enemy?

To be fair, I make deals with my enemies all the time. But usually, they don't know they're going to become my enemy until after the fact. Enemies-in-waiting, you might say. Or simply, 'customers'.

I'd convinced myself that this deal was worth it. The exchange was for the location of Ang's missing friends, after all! I could finally make good on that deal, and Ang would be pleased as punch about it. She didn't have to know where the information had come from. Although she'd definitely ask. And she has a habit of following questions to their answers . . .