by Jo Spurrier
When she broke the circle, they all spilled out and bumbled away, tumbling over each other in a way that reminded me of cows being let out of the barn at the end of winter. I smiled at the sight. ‘How many of them will come back?’
‘All of them. I cast a binding. Without that, we’d get maybe a quarter. They don’t have much in the way of memory. Now we have to wait.’
My milk finished, I set my cup aside and stretched out my feet towards the fire, tipping my head back to look up at the sky, adorned with a few puffy clouds, glowing gold with the sunrise. ‘It’s nice here, isn’t it?’
She gave me a sardonic look, one eyebrow raised. ‘What, with all the monsters and the demon tree and the ghost of an evil witch and the warlock—’
‘You can’t count him,’ I said. ‘He’s dead now. But yes, aside from that, it’s nice here. Nice people. Good soil for gardens. Lovely clear water in the streams. And plenty to do, you’ll never get bored.’
Aleida leaned back on her elbows. ‘I never thought of it that way,’ she said. ‘But then, I’m a city rat. Never knew what to do with myself out in the countryside. I like to be able to vanish into a crowd; it’s too exposed out here. And there’s nowhere to buy coffee.’
‘Well that certainly is a problem,’ I said solemnly, and Aleida snorted.
After a pause I spoke again. ‘Where were you, before you came back here?’
‘Spice Islands, out to the south-west,’ she said. ‘It’s lovely down there. It’s always warm, and everything’s lush and green like you wouldn’t believe. There are beaches with white sand, so bright it’s blinding, and the water is turquoise blue and always warm. The mosquitos are the size of sparrows, though.’
‘What about coffee?’
‘Every damn street corner. Black as night, bitter as scorned love. Gods I miss it.’
I turned my head to study her.
‘What?’
‘I can’t picture you in a place like that.’
‘On a bright, sunny beach, flapping around in a black dress like some great crow?’
‘Well, yeah.’
She just grinned at me. ‘Oh, you’d be surprised, Dee. I’m good at blending in, and folk down there look like me, with black hair and golden skin. I dress like the locals do, and you’d never give me a second glance.’
‘Will you go back there? When all this is done?’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t. Someone has to look after this place. It’s valuable, you know — not the house, but the orchard, the gardens. A lot of these plants don’t exist anywhere else. And someone has to keep an eye on that wretched tree.’
‘But I thought you and Gyssha went off and left them?’ I asked.
‘Spirits,’ Aleida said with a shrug. ‘She had spirits enslaved to tend the garden, and constructs she could use to make sure everything was in order. And she could draft the neighbours in when needed.’
‘Constructs?’ I said, thinking of the earthbeasts. But then I remembered the warlock. ‘Oh, you mean like the warlock’s spare bodies, not the monsters.’
‘Yes, exactly.’
I glanced across at the walled garden, the plants peeking over the wall. ‘So those plants will be well in need of attention by now. We’ll have to get to them soon.’
‘We probably should,’ Aleida said with a sigh. ‘And then I’ll have make sure the defences won’t come unravelled with Gyssha gone. I hope it won’t take too long. I’ll need to do something about this wretched curse, and that’ll mean a bit of travel. I’ll probably need to hunt down some books and maybe consult with other witches, if I can find any that’ll talk to me.’
‘Will that be safe? I mean, are most witches good, or are there more out there like Gyssha?’
‘Witches are the same as everyone else; some good, some bad, some middling. The real problem is that the bad ones usually want you to think they’re good.’
‘And will they think you’re easy pickings, with that curse?’
She made a face that was half-grimace, half-grin. ‘Maybe. If they’re wise they’ll stop to think about how I came by it in the first place. And that’ll be another problem; once folk find out what happened up here they’ll, well, I’m not sure what will happen. Gyssha was my mother in the craft, you see, and a witch who kills her mother is the worst kind of traitor, it’s the deepest betrayal of all.’
‘But she was evil,’ I said. ‘People must know that, surely.’
‘It doesn’t make much difference,’ she said. ‘To white witches I’m still Gyssha Blackbone’s daughter, and to witches on the dark path I betrayed the one who made me. But . . .’ She gave a shrug and lay back with her hands behind her head. ‘It doesn’t matter a jot what they think, so screw ’em.
‘And there’s another thing we have to look into — the letter that brought you here. I haven’t forgotten about that.’ She suddenly frowned, and then heaved herself up to sitting. ‘Actually, we’ve got some time to kill now. Let’s rattle the woodpile and see what comes scurrying out. Go fetch your letter, Dee, and bring me my runestones. They’re in my packs, a little velvet bag.’
I remembered the pouch from when I’d hunted through her saddlebags last night. In a few moments I returned with both, and handed them over. She shook open the letter first, reading through it again before setting it aside with pursed lips. ‘All right, let’s see what the stones have to say.’
She opened the drawstring to pull out a white cloth — a simple linen kerchief. It even had lace around the edges. She laid it on the ground, and shook the bag, and I heard a tiny clink as something rattled within.
With swift fingers she started pulling out stones and dropping them onto the cloth, one at a time until there were nine of them laid out on the linen. The stones were black, but not the flat black of onyx — they sparkled and glittered in the sunlight and each one bore a symbol marked out in gold. Watching her, I couldn’t help but remember Brian and his pendulum, and how sceptical I’d felt when he set it swinging.
‘Hmm.’ Sitting cross-legged, Aleida leaned forward to look down on the stones, touching one here and there with her fingertips. Every so often she would glance up at me, but her eyes were so distant I could have sworn she was looking through me, not at me at all. After a few moments she frowned. ‘This is strange. It doesn’t . . . all right, no, it could make sense. Maybe.’ She gave me another intent look, eyes so sharp I wanted to shrink away.
‘What do they say?’
For a moment she didn’t respond, she just touched the stones one after another, lips shaping silent words. ‘It’s a funny thing about stones,’ she said at last. ‘Cards too, for that matter. You go into them expecting to see mysteries solved, secrets revealed, but they end up mostly telling you what you already knew. This part of the reading,’ she gestured to the part near her right knee, ‘speaks to the past. You were unhappy, stagnating, wanting change and fearing it at the same time. Wanting escape, but fearing a leap into the dark. Here, the present: awakening. Change. Choices. More choices than you ever dreamed of. But many things are not what they seem. Here in the centre is what must be done — wits sharpened, secrets uncovered. Choices must be made; you can’t sit on the fence forever, kid. But still, you must not trust unwisely. Fate is tempting you off the beaten path, but there is danger all around. There are monsters and pitfalls away from the safe road. If you make the wrong choice . . .’ She fell silent as her fingertips rested on one stone, bearing a symbol of a many-rayed star, each ray tipped with an arrowhead. ‘Chaos. Destruction.’ She stared down at the stones for a long moment, not frowning, just thinking.
‘Mine?’ I asked. ‘Or yours?’
She lifted her eyes to mine. ‘Good question. Could be either. Could be neither; it might mean the cottage. It might mean Lilsfield.’ She reached for the bag and pulled out another stone, setting it beside the pointed star. ‘Ah. No. Definitely a person. Someone is going to die.’
I felt frozen, like a spike of cold had pierced my heart.
�
��Don’t worry about that one, kid,’ Aleida said. ‘My money’s on Gyssha.’
Well of course you’d say that. ‘But she’s already dead.’
Aleida held out her hand palm down and rocked it side to side. ‘Only halfway.’
I remembered what she’d said before about doubt and fear, and wondered if she truly felt as certain as she seemed. Maybe, like me, her guts were twisting inside her, feeling full of worms and snakes. Maybe that was why she wouldn’t eat, and why she was distracting herself from the task ahead of us.
I’d watched her touch each of the stones as she spoke of them — all but one. A stone on Aleida’s right-hand side had fallen face-down, the only one that had. ‘What about that one?’ I asked, pointing.
She turned it over. ‘The hand,’ she said. ‘Obverse, indicating the influence is hidden, secret.’ She sat back with a sigh. ‘Well, thanks for that, stones. I ask why she was brought here and all you can tell me is that it was done by someone for hidden reasons or by hidden means. I already knew that much.’ With a hiss of irritation, she reached into the bag and brought out another one, all but throwing it down on to the cloth. ‘Good gods, I wonder why I bother—’ She stopped mid-sentence as the stone gleamed and winked in the sunlight. ‘Ah. Now we may be getting somewhere. Magic, it was magic that brought you here.’
‘Magic? But, why? Before I came here I’d never seen a witch in my life, let alone magic. I didn’t even believe in it.’
‘The universe doesn’t care what you believe, Dee.’ She picked the paper up again and held it up to the light. She closed her eyes and moved it under her nose, drawing a deep breath. Opening her eyes again, she frowned even deeper. ‘Doesn’t smell like it’s been enchanted. No watermark, but that doesn’t mean anything.’ She muttered. ‘This is very strange.’
‘Maybe it was Gyssha after all,’ I said.
‘Can’t have been. Gyssha herself might lie, but her echo can’t.’ With a hiss of breath, she pulled another stone from the bag and set it down.
As soon as it hit the cloth, the fire popped with a shower of sparks, the flames leaping high above my head. Smoke swirled around us, thick and choking, and I felt a sudden pressure in my ears, a prickling across my neck.
Aleida fell still, hand hovering over the last stone, and slowly she lifted her eyes.
I started to follow her gaze, but straightaway, her hand shot out and grabbed my knee through my skirts. ‘Dee,’ she said quietly. ‘Remember what I told you . . .’
Hovering above the fire was a . . . a shape, wreathed in smoke and firelight. My first thought was the Nefari, the smoke-creature black as night with eyes like red coals. But after the first rush of fear I realised that this did not have the same air of malevolence the Nefari had had. It still made my chest tighten, but there was no hatred oozing out from its presence. Just . . . power, heavy as an anvil and hot as a forge. A pair of eyes gazed down at us, or at least that’s what I took them for — two blazing blue lights the size of dinner-plates.
‘What is it?’ I whispered.
‘A greater spirit. It won’t harm you, Dee. It’s watching me,’ Aleida said.
‘Why?’
‘Not sure. A warning, maybe.’ Eyes on the spirit, she slowly reached for the last stone. With every fraction of movement, I felt the pressure upon me grow and grow again, until my heart was racing and my blood pounding in my ears.
I grabbed for her hand and pulled it away. ‘Stop!’ I said. ‘Please, stop!’
She fought me for a moment, and then let me pull her away. Then she raised her hands in a gesture of submission. ‘All right,’ she said, speaking to the spirit hovering above us. ‘All right, I’ll put them away. I’ll let the matter rest . . . for now, anyway. Are you satisfied?’ She wasn’t talking to me at all now but casting her words up to the hollow sky.
I was shaking uncontrollably, but as I watched, the shape faded away, turning transparent and then vanishing in a gout of smoke. After a few moments, the hot, heavy feeling in the air eased away and my nerves settled with it. ‘What was that?’ I hissed once I could trust myself to speak again.
‘I think I just asked a question I’m not supposed to know the answer to,’ Aleida muttered, bundling up cloth and stones and shoving them back into the velvet pouch.
The knot in my belly and the tightness around my chest was back now, and I thought of Ma, the warmth of her arms. My siblings, too, the little ones who would cling to me when it thundered. The sense of wonderment I’d had when Aleida started the ritual was gone, and once again I felt lost, adrift in a strange place, out of my depth.
‘You all right, Dee?’ Aleida said.
I made myself straighten, raising my gaze. I’d been staring at my boots, the tough, scarred leather. They’d been Trev’s before he outgrew them. I’d never have had such a sturdy pair otherwise. ‘What does it mean?’
‘It means you were brought here for a reason. Just what that reason is, we’ll have to figure out as we go along.’ She raised her arms over her head in a stretch, and then rolled her shoulders. ‘It’s time to call the sprites back. It’ll take a bit of work, that little show will have scared them off. Help me pour the rest of that milk in the dish, and then go fetch a halter and rope. We’ll need the horse to start with, I think. I’ll call him up.’
My hands were still shaking as I went to the stables, but I drew deep, steadying breaths, and refused to look around as though I felt fearful. If I pretended to be calm, surely, eventually, I would feel that way.
CHAPTER 12
The horse must have been nearby, for he arrived within moments. The sprites were back, or most of them anyway, perched once again on the rim of the dish. Aleida was kneeling beside it, holding one cupped in her hands. The way she held it reminded me of the way Ma held songbirds she’d taken away from the cats — gently but firmly, fingers laced together to keep it from squirming away. As I drew close she set it down and reached for another.
I thought it better not to interrupt and set about readying the horse instead. She’d said halter, not saddle and bridle, and I didn’t dare disobey, so I just brushed out his coat and picked out his feet instead. By the time that was done, the sprites were bumbling away, with just a few left supping up the dregs in the dish.
‘Did they tell you what you wanted to know?’ I asked.
‘Mm. They’re not very bright, but they can sense power a lot more keenly than we can. We’ll need to head north along the stream.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want him saddled?’ I asked as she took the lead-rope from me and tied the free end to the halter, turning them into a semblance of reins.
‘Yep. Once we find the spot I’ll turn him loose, he’ll only be in danger if he stays close.’
I was about to ask how she meant to mount up without saddle and stirrups, but when she touched the horse’s shoulder he immediately sank to his knees, low enough to let her swing a leg over his back. ‘Come on, Dee,’ she said, beckoning me to follow, and quickly I did the same, barely settling on the beast’s warm back before he was heaving himself up again. Hastily, I grabbed for her waist, but as I did my hand brushed the wand hanging from her belt and I felt a sudden stinging jolt, a shock somewhere between the chill of ice and the shocks you sometimes get on dry, cold winter days.
Aleida looked down and laid a hand on the wand. ‘Stop that, you,’ she said. ‘Behave yourself.’
‘Sorry,’ I said.
‘Not you, him,’ she said. ‘He’s a one-woman kind of fellow, and he’s never liked me much — he was Gyssha’s, before I killed her.’
‘But didn’t you have one of your own?’ I said. I spoke without stopping to think, and immediately regretted it when I felt her tense at my words.
‘I did,’ she said. ‘But Gyssha shattered it. Hold on to my belt, Dee, and tell me if you start to slip.’ With a nudge of her heels the horse set off into the bright daylight, escorted by a handful of the sprites Aleida had summoned. A couple trailed along behind and some more were gambol
ling ahead of us. One seemed to have attached itself to the horse’s left front hoof, and I wondered if it was enjoying the arc it made with each stride as the horse splashed through the stream and up the slope on the other side, heading towards the steeply rising mountains to the north. I just hoped we weren’t going too far up those slopes — I had no faith in myself to be able to ride bareback over such rough ground. Riding pillion could only be worse.
Thankfully, Aleida kept a slow pace, peering intently into the woods around us while the horse ambled along.
‘What are we looking for, exactly?’ I said.
‘I’ll show you when I see one. This might be frightfully boring, Dee, but you’ll just have to put up with it. I won’t risk leaving you behind.’
‘Fine by me,’ I said with a shiver. ‘You might be utterly mad, but I’d rather take my chances with you than alone out here.’
‘Really?’ she said. ‘Not even a little tempted to run off and hide out with this mysterious boy you’ve found?’
Kian. I’d hardly given him a thought since Gyssha had taken me over and dosed Aleida with the laudanum. Immediately I wondered if he was nearby, what he’d think if he saw the two of us like this.
Well, I told myself, he can think what he likes, it’s not for me to say. But I do hope he doesn’t despise me for working with a witch. But what if I did take up Aleida’s offer and let her teach me? What would he do then? What would he think of me?
I knew there were more important things to consider than the feelings of a boy I’d known for just a few days, but, still, the thought of his scorn hurt. I had so few friends, and he was the only one I’d been able to talk to about the strangeness of life in the cottage and this world I’d found myself in. Maybe I had only known him for a short time, but the thought of losing him was a pain I couldn’t bring myself to contemplate. I had to push the idea away. I’d deal with it later, once all this was done. If we were still alive. ‘Aleida?’
