I laughed. He gazed at me balefully. ‘I mean it, Tegs. I’m thrilled you managed to get the three votes you needed, but seriously.’ He held the glass up. ‘It’s been months since I had a decent whisky.’

Brochan rolled his eyes and looked away. ‘You shouldn’t be drinking anything that doesn’t belong to us.’

‘It came out of the same bottle as everyone else’s. I’m not entirely without wit,’ Taylor answered benignly.

‘Sorry, Taylor. I did try to get you something better beyond the Veil,’ I said. ‘I found an old dusty bottle of something called Auchen…’ My brow furrowed, as I tried to remember. ‘Auchen-something. I had to use it to save that Fomori demon.’

Taylor stared at me as if I were mad. ‘You used malt whisky to save the life of a Fomori demon? Malt whisky from the Lowlands? That would have been more than three hundred years old? That no-one has drunk in ten generations? You used that to save a demon who tried to kill you?’

I shrugged. ‘Yep. Sorry.’ Clearly I wasn’t.

‘What was the name of it?’ Brochan asked. There was an odd tone in his voice.

This time I managed to wrap my tongue around the name. ‘Auchentoshan.’

‘You’re sure?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah.’ Brochan looked troubled. ‘What?’ He didn’t answer. ‘Brochan, what is it?’

His gills, visible on his neck, tightened. ‘When I was stuck out at sea, I used to try to calm my nerves by drinking.’

‘Well,’ Speck said, ‘you were surrounded by liquid.’

‘Leave the jokes to Tegs,’ Brochan growled.

I brightened. ‘Really?’ At the looks on their faces, I returned to the subject at hand. ‘Sorry, Brochan. Go on.’

He exhaled. ‘The point is that I know a lot about whisky. There were only five Lowland whiskies in production before the Fissure and I can assure you that Auchentoshan, whatever it is, wasn’t one of them.’

Lexie shrugged. ‘So?’

‘So someone’s been brewing.’

‘The Fomori are probably bored. There can’t be much fun to be had across the Veil.’

‘No,’ Speck said, shaking his head, ‘Fomori demons don’t drink.’

Lexie stepped backwards. ‘What? Never?’

‘How do you know that, Speck?’ I asked quietly.

‘It was one of the many reasons they gave for the Fissure. They didn’t want to be near heathens such as ourselves who partook of such evil substances.’

‘The evil Fomori demons brought war against Scotland and stole half our country because of the demon drink?’

He look at her, exasperated. ‘Hardly. But it was one of their excuses for what happened.’

Lexie blew air out through her pursed lips. ‘ ‘Excuses’ is right. Evil substances! Honestly!’

I nibbled my bottom lip. Speck knew his history. All the same… ‘It was three hundred years ago, Speck. The Fomori might have changed their attitude towards booze.’