Chapter 18
A/N A boatload of trouble with my thesis is keeping me away from this story, and from my job. This is late, as a reason for that. Trust me when I say that I, too, wonder when all will go according to plan for once. For now, though, here is this. Next chapter is finished and will be here later this weekend.
Captain Fiyero Tiggular was up to something.
Madame Morrible wasn't a fool. She wasn't shallow or simple minded. She wasn't pre-occupied. She knew the value of information. She paid attention.
She didn't see everything but she saw what was important. What mattered to her. Plus, she knew exactly what to look for, knew when people were manipulating facts, were charming their way around answering questions. Knew when people were lying.
And Captain Tiggular...was lying.
She'd seen the boy sneak out of back doors and into buildings. She'd heard him telling his beloved blonde one thing and then do another. Heard him charm the public, wind them around his pinky the way he had all the females, teachers included, back at Shiz. She hadn't cared much, at first.
So the boy was having an affair of some sort. She didn't care about that. If little Miss Bubble didn't keep a close enough eye on her beloved Prince, then who could really bother to care?
No, she hadn't cared about it at all. Until a little too many of his fellows had started to talk.
Gossip... Men were as bad as women, they only did it better. They did in private.
But Madame Morrible had eyes and ears everywhere and it became apparent soon enough that Tiggular disappeared quite often, and rarely in the same direction, or so it seemed.
Now that on its own wasn't much cause for worry, on Morrible's account. On Glinda's perhaps, but she seemed blissfully unaware of her boy-toy's comings and goings. Seemed, but perhaps wasn't. After all, Glinda too knew the value of lies and manipulations. On top of that, the girl had a penchant for fairy tales and knack for only seeing what she wanted to see.
No. The thing that had worried Morrible was how shocked the Prince had been when he'd heard about the Witch sighting. He'd been furious, she'd heard, that he'd been so late informed. So interested to know if she'd been shot, if she'd been hurt. Where she'd last been seen. Where she'd run off to.
And he'd disappeared again right after.
For others, maybe, that still meant nothing. But Morrible had paid attention. And she knew that the foolish Thropp girl had been friends with both Bubble and Brainless during her stay at Shiz.
Who said that that had ever truly disappeared?
Sure, the boy's priority seemed to be to find the witch. He'd been clear about that when they'd hired him. But even then, Morrible had pushed for his employment as much to keep him close as for his possible assets. Enemies were best kept close, after all. And she would not want a repeat performance of what had transpired in that throne room nearly two years ago.
No. Both Glinda and Fiyero were safe and sound within sight, or so she'd thought.
Now, she wasn't so sure. The Upland girl was mouthing off more and more, was starting to be troubled by her conscious, Morrible suspected. Was starting to care for the people of Oz, to feel responsible for them, in a way that the older witch wouldn't have expected of the ditzy blonde.
And Tiggular...Tiggular was spending far too much time in the city. He frequented the same pubs there, the same restaurants, sometimes with some of his men, often alone. Listening, feeling, for any sign of the Witch, they said. Perhaps it was the truth.
But the amount of time the Captain spent in the Tenmeadows apartment was increasing. Was starting to become suspicious. Perhaps he and Glinda were having a lover's spat. Perhaps he was starting to doubt his task as Captain. Perhaps he was simply enjoying the city life. But perhaps, Morrible knew, it was none of those things and the boy was up to stuff she should know about.
She'd need to keep an eye him from now on.
Who knew what it would bring?