222. The Unguarded Apotheca

222. The Unguarded Apotheca

Grandma made my head ache with all she said about how I was not to take sides in the war between my grandpa and his sons. She was right in all she was saying, and I agreed with her more than with Grandpa. But for some reason, when I left their house without having told on Grandpa, I knew I was headed for Henbedestyr’s apotheca. As I was leaving, I heard Epon’s trumpet blast. The sound of it could indeed tumble walls. If the walls of Grandpa’s place hadn’t been raised by fairy architects, they would probably have fallen to the ground. At first I thought that Epon had blown the horn because of me, since I was about to fly over the garden. But I quickly realized the trumpet had sounded because Gentlerain was approaching. I made myself invisible and fled from there as fast as I could.

And I flew, and I flew, and I flew in the dark night to the apotheca of the music-loving apothecary. When I got there, I saw there was no one on guard there. Not even the dragon Taffy. I had feared that Henny would live in this same building, in the attic or the basement, so as to be at hand if someone needed his services at night. But it didn’t look like that at all, and I wondered how he could be reached if needed.

Only a little away from the apotheca there was a sort of fountain. A stone slab with a faucet on it. Neath the faucet there was a sort of rectangular bowl into which the water would fall when the faucet was open. There were weeds growing in that. And behind the fountain , the was a stone block and I don’t know what that was for. What I knew was that the water from this fountain had magic properties. It lifted your spirits and helped you get on your feet and do whatever you had to do. And I thought it was ironic that I would now drink of it, so it would help me to rob Henny.

“We will help you do what you have to do here,” said Vinny, Leopold and Malcolfus, appearing on the upper part of the stone slab just as I was about to bend down to drink. “Yes, we know everything. We’ve just been told about it and we´ve come to help you.”

I noticed the three were wearing domino masks, like burglars. That had to mean they did know what I had to do there indeed.

“But you know even this?” I asked, surprised.

“Sure. We have people who walk in and out of the poisoned garden whenever they want to,” said Vinny.

“None of us live there. Because of the poison. Imagine having Botolph for a neigbhour!” said Leopold.

“But sneak in there to sniff around and see what’s going on, that we do. It’s necessary to be in the know,” said Malcolfus.

“And which side are you on? My grandfather’s?” I asked.

It had to be that side, considering that they were going to help me to steal the earplugs for him.

“No. Yours. We only want to help you. That war is no concern of ours.”

“Hey, shouldn’t you be wearing a mask like ours?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. I would rather think I’m not here to steal anything, just to take something I need and leave something else in its place. With the excuse that there is no one here to attend me. Or is there someone?”

“Nobody. Henny is a trusting soul. The man has loads of things in his shop that could be of interest to certain kinds of wrongdoers , but  he takes no precautions. “

“But he may have cameras or some kind of alarm system.”

“Nah! He hates locks as much as his mum hates wheels. Have you the monocle you are to leave here at hand?”

“Oh, yes. Here in this pocket.”

“Then let’s waste no more time. We’ll enter through the main door.”

“Better the back door,” I said.

“If you’d rather.”

We entered through the backdoor into the backroom of the apotheca. The mess there was in there was just like Grandpa had described it would be. Rows and rows of shelves and stands, so close to each other one could barely walk between. Cupboards and cupboards, cabinets, closets with doors it was difficult to open because there was not much room for that. Sacks and sacks and boxes and boxes on the floor, fresh and dry plants everywhere, stones and rocks, in brief, I thought I wouldn’t  find the earplugs in a hundred years.

“He has them in that chest,” said Vinny, proving once more that the Leafies know everything. “Come, take at least half a dozen boxes, we don’t know how long the big noise fuss will last. Look, there are hundreds.”

“Possibly thousands,” said Leopold. “That bloke can’t even know what he has here.”

I couldn’t do it.

There were indeed thousands of boxes of earplugs and it was very likely that Henny would never know what was missing. But what stopped me in my tracks was that when I was about to draw the monocle from my pocket I realized what was happening. Henny was going to know. And it would be because of the monocle. That was what Grandpa wanted. The monocle would be a warning to Henny that the little all-seeing eye knew very well that he was the person who had given the megaphone horn to Epon. It was probably Brightfire who had made the trumpet, just as I had been suspecting, but it had to be Henny who gave it to Epon. Henny was a person Epon trusted. Henny had helped Epon deal with his fears when they had been especially bad. The monocle would also serve to tell Henny anyone could enter his shop. I felt I needed time to consider what I was doing. I wanted to help my grandfather, but I didn’t want to be used to threaten Henny. There had to be another way to do things. Perhaps a niece of Michael O’Toora’s, daughter of Finbar and the mermaid Lira, could help me.

“I can’t do this,” I said to the Leafies. “I really appreciate  your help. But I can’t do this.”

And I vanished.