Curse of the Wolf Girl

by Martin Millar

  “Who else did you have hope for? Dominil, I believe? What happened to the man who pursued her?”

  “Also dead.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Though there was another suitor for Dominil,” said Malveria.

  “Any hope of success?”

  “He may escape with his life, if he’s fortunate.” Malveria put her hand to her necklace. “Of course, there is young Kalix. Should we entirely give up hope regarding her? She’s been in the company of Decembrius, an…eh…entertaining rogue who may just be the werewolf for her.”

  Queen Dithean raised one hand. “Let’s see how they’re getting on, shall we?” She opened up a small portal in space, managing somehow to produce a picture of Kalix and Decembrius. They were sitting in Decembrius’s car, arguing. As Malveria watched, Kalix violently punched Decembrius on the shoulder, and they started shoving each other.

  “Forget Kalix,” said Malveria.

  “Marwanis?”

  “Threatening to kill the rest of the clan. No lover in prospect.” Queen Malveria sighed. “Stupid werewolves.” Sadly, she unclasped the necklace and handed it over.

  Queen Dithean Wallace Cloud-of-Heather NicRinnalch smiled graciously, adjusted the necklace’s size with a twitch of her fingers, and placed it around her neck. A warm glow lit up her features. “Thank you, Malveria. It’s a beautiful necklace.”

  “I hope you get several thousand years’ pleasure from it,” said Malveria, sadly, “as my family had before I gambled it away.”

  * * *

  Later the Fire Queen paid a visit to the enchantress, her first for some time. “I regretted missing last week’s Japanese fashion show. Affairs of state detained me.”

  Thrix welcomed her in, pleased to see Malveria apparently back to normal.

  The queen slipped off her shoes, settled down on the couch, and held out her hand gratefully for the proffered glass of wine. “You’re dressmaking? At home? I haven’t seen you do that for a while.”

  Though Thrix was an expert seamstress, she did little actual dressmaking these days. Thrix delegated the making to others.

  “I do love to see a dress being made.” The queen strolled through to the next room, where the dress, almost finished, was draped over a mannequin. “What a lovely item! Formal in its way, but playful too. I love the collar.” She looked at her friend with an arch expression. “Who is this for? Are you hiding an important client from me?”

  “It’s nothing,” said Thrix.

  “Nothing? Such a beautiful dress? Tell me who it’s for. Is it for me?”

  “I’m afraid not. It’s a sort of private commission. No one you know.”

  Malveria pouted, not liking Thrix to keep anything secret. “I can’t help noticing, dearest Enchantress, that you are taking great care to disguise your aura. What is it you don’t wish me to know?”

  “Do I have to be investigated every time you call around?”

  “How very unfair! Malveria has the greatest regard for her friend’s privacy. I will say no more about the matter.” She sipped her wine.

  “So who is the dress for?”

  “Malveria!”

  “Why is it such a great secret? Here you are, carefully constructing a beautiful dress in your own apartment, not even trusting the esteemed dressmakers you employ. Obviously it must be for someone of great importance.” Malveria looked worried. “Not the Ice Queen’s daughter, I hope? Her hips will never fit into this garment.”

  “No, not the Ice Queen’s daughter. The Japanese fashion program is about to start.”

  Malveria seemed to have lost interest in the program. She circled the almost-finished dress, examining it in detail.

  “Made for rather a tall woman. Unusually broad shoulders…small hips…but something is wrong. Has the client no bust at all?” The queen’s face suddenly lit up. “This dress is for a man! I’m right! I can see it in your aura.”

  “Didn’t we have an agreement that you wouldn’t interpret my aura when I didn’t want you to?”

  “I believe the agreement had a clause excluding all mysterious dresses.”

  “No, it didn’t.”

  “Who is the man? Someone at your fashion house?”

  “I’m not telling you.”

  “Fine,” sniffed the queen. “Keep your secrets. I am not concerned. I shall take my wine and watch the Japanese fashion program in perfect tranquillity.”

  They returned to the next room and sat down on Thrix’s huge couch.

  “Tell me who the dress is for,” Malveria said after a few minutes.

  “No.”

  “One might say you owe me a favor. I lost my necklace because of you.”

  “Don’t blame me if the Fairy Queen outsmarted you.”

  “I might have succeeded if the MacRinnalch women hadn’t all decided to slaughter their boyfriends. You really must stop doing that. It’s so off-putting for potential suitors.”

  “Malveria, my boyfriend was a werewolf hunter.”

  “But did you really try to work things out? You still might have had a future.”

  Thrix sighed. “When Kalix gets involved in your relationships, there is no future.”

  Malveria wisely decided to drop the subject, and they watched as a young Japanese model strode along a catwalk in a short silk wrap, which Malveria rather liked.

  “Has the transaction with Eldridges been completed?” she asked.

  “My clothes are on the way to their stores at this moment. I’m solvent again, thanks to Susi’s review.”

  “Ah. The writer who turned out to be a werewolf. That was fortunate.”

  The review of Thrix’s latest collection on the newly updated “I Miss Susi” blog was as glowing a piece of journalism as had ever appeared on the website. As well as the order from Eldridges, other fashion buyers had been in contact, expressing strong interest. Various members of the fashion industry had since called Thrix to congratulate her.

  “Hypocrites,” muttered Thrix. “They’re eaten up with jealousy.”

  “Does that annoy you, Enchantress?”

  “Not at all. I love it. And I’m guaranteed a few more good write-ups before she gives up the business to roam around the castle.”

  “Perhaps she may encounter Markus there. I hope he likes the dress you’re making for him.”

  “What? How did you guess that?”

  Malveria smiled. “One does not become Queen of the Hiyasta without a certain level of intelligence. A survey of all the men you know reveals only one who might conceivably wear it. I take it the matter is secret?”

  “It’s very secret. Even Mother doesn’t know, and she knows everything.”

  “Has he often worn dresses?”

  “Yes. It’s his thing, you might say. And it’s private.”

  “I am the soul of discretion. Really, it should not be such a surprise. He is a rather pretty man. But I have seen him with women, no?”

  “Markus has never had any problems finding girlfriends. You’d be surprised how many women are attracted to a good-looking werewolf in a dress.”

  The queen nodded. She could imagine it, just about. “Are you making him matching accessories? A hat? A nice handbag?”

  “Malveria, please drop the subject. I don’t even know if the dress is a good idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wraps it round my throat. But he might like it. I don’t think he’s ever had anything specially made for him before.”

  Thrix studied the pictures she had as reference material—several pages from magazine articles featuring male models in female attire and an original copy of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” showing the singer in a dress.

  “I’m certain he will like it,” said Malveria. “Do you think you could make me something similar?”

  “I will.”

  “But with ample room in the chest, of course. The Fire Queen has always been famously well endowed.”

  “Of course.”

  Malveria and Thrix sat next to
each other on the couch, drinking wine and watching the Japanese fashion show.

  Thrix really didn’t know if Markus would accept the dress as a peace offering, but she hoped he would. Their mother was right. It was time that they stopped arguing. Her mother might be right about the guild too. Perhaps it was time to take the fight to them.

  Chapter 203

  This sucks so badly,” said Vex, struggling through from the storeroom with a large box of tinned tomatoes. “I hate stacking shelves.”

  “Is our shift nearly finished?” asked Kalix, wearily dragging a huge cage of assorted cereals on a trolley that rattled on blunt metal wheels.

  “Another three hours,” said Daniel, grimly, trying to balance two boxes of tinned pears.

  “Stacking shelves is the worst thing ever,” said Vex.

  Moonglow appeared. In contrast to Kalix, Vex, and Daniel, all dressed in blue overalls, she looked rather crisp in a clean white coat. Her hair was tied back quite severely, lending her an efficient appearance.

  “Everything on the checklist complete?” she asked, brandishing her clipboard.

  Daniel glared at her. “Not yet. We’ve still half a truck to unload before we finish the shelves.”

  Moonglow tut-tutted. “You’re a little behind schedule. Try and pick up the pace.”

  Moonglow walked out. The three looked at each other in disgust.

  “How comes she gets the cushy job with the clipboard while we have to stack shelves?”

  “She is the smartest,” sighed Daniel. “It’s the way of the world.”

  “It’s really unfair,” said Vex.

  “I hate stacking shelves,” said Kalix, wearily.

  “Then next time, don’t steal all the money for paying the bills.”

  “I wish I’d never learned how to write,” moaned the young werewolf. “Then I wouldn’t have been able to fill in the application form for this place.”

  The three flatmates carried on unloading the truck and transferring the seemingly endless flow of goods into the storerooms, and from there onto the shelves of the supermarket.

  “How are things with Decembrius?” asked Daniel.

  “Terrible. I slept with him one time, and now everything is awkward and difficult. We keep fighting.”

  “Welcome to the world of normal relationships.”

  From Kalix’s expression, it was obvious she didn’t like the world of normal relationships very much. They seemed to be a lot more complicated than her previous youthful passion.

  “Are you going to ask Moonglow out now the curse has been lifted?” Vex asked Daniel.

  Daniel shook his head. “She says senior staff can’t go out with juniors. It’s against company policy.”

  “Maybe when we’ve stopped working here, you can try again.”

  “Maybe. At least she’s stopped shouting at us now we’re earning money.”

  Vex struggled to lift an enormous crate of tinned soup. Kalix helped her, and together they loaded it into a giant metal cage on wheels, ready to take into the supermarket and fill the shelves.

  Vex sighed. “I thought if you passed an exam you got a better job.”

  “Not your first one. You have to pass more exams than that.”

  “Oh. Well, I suppose we’ll have to do more. Hey Kalix, do you want to be cheerleaders at college next year? I can really see us in some nice little outfits.”

  About the book, and a letter from the publisher

  This is a Red Lemonade book, published in collaboration with Underland Press, publisher of the print edition of Curse of the Wolf Girl, with the assistance of the excellent Malcolm Imrie, Martin Millar’s agent and with Martin himself

  This publication is for us quite unusual as all other Red Lemonade books are published by Red Lemonade in all reasonably possible formats—limited artisan-produced editions, in trade paperback editions, and in all current digital editions, as well as online at the Red Lemonade publishing community.

  A word about this community. Over my years in publishing, I learned that a publisher is the sum of all its constituent parts: above all the writers, of course, and yes, the staff, but also all the people who read our books, talk about our books, support our authors, and those who want to be one of our authors themselves.

  So I started a company called Cursor, designed to make these constituent parts fit better together, into a proper community where, finally, we could be greater than the sum of the parts. The Red Lemonade publishing community is the first of these and there will be more to come—for the current roster of communities, see the Cursor website.

  For more on how to participate in the Red Lemonade publishing community, including the opportunity to share your thoughts about this book, read what others have to say about it, and share your own manuscripts with fellow writers, readers, and the Red Lemonade editors, go to the Red Lemonade website.

  Also, we want you to know that these sites aren’t just for you to find out more about what we do, they’re places where you can tell us what you do, what you want, and to tell us how we can help you. Only then can we really have a publishing community be greater than the sum of its parts.

  All the best,

  Richard Nash

  Credits

  Richard Nash, Cursor’s founder, edited this book in collaboration with the UK publisher Piatkus.

  It was copyedited at Underland Press.

  India Amos shepherded this book from Underland Press’s InDesign file to the present format.

  Copyright © 2010 by Martin Millar.

  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Cover design by John Coulthart

  ISBN-13: 978-1-935869-11-5

  Red Lemonade

  a Cursor publishing community

  Brooklyn, New York

  http://redlemona.de

  Version 1.0