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Before we set off on my broomstick, I made Kitty promise again that she wouldn’t attempt to fly on her own.
Even though she said yes, I didn’t like the glint of mischief in her eyes. Stanley noticed that too and said he’d keep a paw on her.
It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a warm breeze wafting through the air carrying the scent of flowers. It was a day for taking a lazy stroll around the town, followed by a scrumptious picnic next to the gazebo. It wasn’t the kind of day for tracking down a cold-hearted murderer; but that was my job and any thoughts of picnics were forced from my mind.
Lifin had told me Treto’s family were five miles east of the Cezerus Ranch, so we headed that way. As we flew over the ranch, I noticed how busy it was. Business must be good for the Cezerus family, despite the death of Selo.
Stanley kept a firm paw on the wiggling Kitty as we soared past the ranch, over a forest and towards a clear area behind it where Treto’s family were living. I looked down and was surprised to see huge, steel caravans dotted around a central area. The back walls of the caravans were down, and centaurs in all sizes lounged in front of them. I wondered if the centaurs had those caravans specially made. They must have. I could see large portable buildings placed here and there. Perhaps those were toilet facilities or communal eating areas. When Lifin told me the Treto family wandered around, I was expecting to find the centaurs living out of tents. This kind of living was more like ... I searched for the right word.
Stanley beat me to it. He said, “Glamping. Glamorous camping. That’s what it looks to me.”
“Were you reading my mind?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “I could tell what you were thinking. Do you know what Treto looks like?”
“No.” I pointed to the central area. “They’ve got a barbecue area down there and a Jacuzzi. This is my kind of camping.”
We flew lower, and I aimed my broomstick towards a group of centaurs who were standing next to an ice cream van. Just as I was thinking I could make room for an ice cream, I heard someone shout, ‘Treto! You need to come to your senses!’
I looked over my shoulder and saw two centaurs standing at the side of a caravan. One was older than the other and he yelled, “As your father, I demand you stop this nonsense. It’s disrespectful to Selo. Treto, are you listening to me?”
Treto replied angrily, “I didn’t have any respect for Selo when he was alive; I don’t have any for him now. The race is going ahead, and that’s that.”
I lowered us to the ground a few feet away, and we all jumped off the broomstick.
I called out, “Hello, sorry to disturb you. Are you Treto? I’d like to have a talk with you about Selo’s death.”
Before I could politely add a smile to my request, Treto spun around and galloped away into the trees.
His father hollered, “Treto! Come back this minute.”
We heard the sound of Treto’s hooves fading into the distance.
His father looked my way. “I’m terribly sorry about that. I don’t know what’s got into my son lately. Can I help you with anything? It’s Cassia, isn’t it? How’s your gran?”
“She’s fine, thanks.” I swung the broomstick up in front of me. “I need to talk to your son urgently. Stanley, Kitty, get back on and hold tight.”
Within seconds we were flying after the escaping centaur. I wasn’t putting up with any nonsense today. I was going to get my answers, no matter what.
“Stanley, can you see him?” I asked.
“No, but I can hear him. He’s heading that way.” He raised his paw to the left.
I veered the broomstick to the left and looked down at the top of the dense trees as we zoomed along.
Stanley cocked his head. “I can’t hear anything now. He must have stopped running.”
“He’s hiding,” I said. I looked at the thick foliage beneath us. “But where?”
Kitty spoke up, “I can see something over there.”
“Can you?” I asked. All I could see were leaves.
She nodded and pointed to an area to our right.
I slowly flew over to that area and hovered above it.
Kitty whispered, “He’s down there. I can smell him.”
That was good enough for me. I found a gap in the leaves and rapidly lowered the broomstick. We descended so quickly that I almost left my stomach behind.
We landed in front of the startled centaur.
“How did you find me?” he asked. Without waiting a second, he took off running again.
He didn’t get far. He ran into a tree and collapsed to the ground. He roared in pain and yelled, “My leg! You’ve broken my leg!”
“I did no such thing,” I informed him. I got off the broomstick and waited for Stanley and Kitty to leap off. I kept hold of my broomstick as I walked towards Treto. If this was a trick, I wanted to be ready to chase after him again.
Treto didn’t look as if he was going anywhere. His face was twisted in pain, and he was gasping for breath. He turned wild eyes my way and spat, “You did this, you witch! You put a spell on me. You’ve broken my leg. I’ll never be able to run again. I’m going to report you. I’m going to let everyone know what you’ve done. You can’t use your magic for evil deeds; everyone knows that!”
I pointed my broomstick at him. “I didn’t put a spell on you. You’re the one who ran away from me. I wanted to talk to you, but you fled.” I was about to give him more of a lecture, but he couldn’t hear me as he was howling so much.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” I said. “Stop making such a fuss. Let me have a look at your leg.” I put my broomstick down and moved closer to him.
“No!” he shouted. “Keep away from me, you wicked witch!”
I raised my voice, “Be quiet! I’m trying to help you. I certainly did not use magic on you which made you run into this tree. But I can use magic to make you better.”
Treto stopped moaning and gave me a wary look. “I don’t trust you. You might make my leg fall off.”
I nodded. “That is a possibility. I’m still getting used to my magical abilities. Okay then, I won’t try to help you. I’ll leave you here to moan to yourself all day.” I made to walk away.
Treto grumbled, “Alright, you can try a bit of magic on me. If anything goes wrong, I’ll let everyone know it was you who broke my leg.”
Stanley trotted over to us and declared, “Cassia didn’t cause your accident, you nitwit. I saw what you did, and so did Kitty over there.”
Kitty nodded in agreement.
Treto tutted. “Who’s going to take the word of a scrawny cat over the word of a respected centaur?”
Stanley lifted his chin proudly. “There is a thriving cat community in Brimstone. We are well respected. So there.”
I put my hands on my hips and said, “Do you want me to heal you or not? I’ve got a busy day planned. I don’t have time for messing about.”
Treto mumbled something to himself before saying, “Go on then; get it over with.”
I was so tempted to walk away from the ungrateful creature, but I had an investigation to deal with.
I knelt next to Treto and put my hands near the leg which was lying at a funny angle. It was definitely broken. I chased all annoyed feelings from my mind and pictured the leg mending and becoming strong again. I closed my eyes and felt the familiar tingle in my fingers. I let the magic flow down into the broken limb.
Once my fingers had stopped tingling, I opened one eye and said to Treto, “Well? How does that feel?” I opened the other eye and was relieved to see his leg hadn’t fallen off.
Treto raised his leg and moved it around. “It feels okay. Let me stand on it.”
I straightened up and took a step back as the centaur got to his feet - all four of them.
Treto gingerly walked from side to side. He slowly nodded. “Yeah, everything feels alright. You’ve fixed it.” He gave me a nasty look and added, “After you broke it.”
I sighed. “I didn’t break it. You ran into the tree.”
“I’ve never run into a tree in all my life. I’m too clever for that.” He gave me a sneaky smile. “See you later; you group of idiots.”
In a flash, he sprinted away leaving me there with my mouth hanging open in shock.
Stanley yelled, “Hey! Come back!”
My hands curled into fists and rage shot through my body like lightning.
No! I was not going to be treated like this!
“Arghh!” I screamed in fury and raised my hands at the departing centaur. My fingers felt like they were on fire as I aimed a spell in Treto’s direction. I regretted it immediately. Even though I was new to using magic, I knew I should never, ever cast a spell in anger.
There was a high-pitched scream ahead of us, and then silence.
In a voice barely above a whisper, Stanley said, “Cassia, what have you done?”
