by Jo Spurrier
‘I did what I always do,’ she muttered. ‘I did what had to be done to have any chance of getting out of this mess in one piece.’
‘By draining their life-force as they die? How could you?’
She lifted her head, and pierced me with her gaze. ‘For pity’s sake, Dee, what do you want from me? Save every life, defeat the evil witch, all without shedding a single drop of blood? You don’t get to do something like this and walk away squeaky clean! There’s a price to these things! Look, you wanted to save those idiot bandits and I let you, even though it meant holding every one of those men-at-arms off your back while you fumbled with the job. But this is what it cost me.’ She slammed a palm against the dusty ground. ‘I’m sorry if I can’t give you everything you want all tied up with a pretty bow! But the truth is you can’t drain a swamp without getting covered in muck, and you can’t heal a wounded man without getting blood on your hands. I’m not a godsdamned miracle-worker!’
I fell to my knees at her side, wrapped an arm around her heaving shoulders. ‘You’re right. You’re right. I’m sorry.’
‘Look, I know I’ve spent half my life going deeper and deeper down the wrong path,’ she said, voice rasping in her throat. ‘I know I’m heartless and cold and have all the empathy of an abandoned brick but that’s what it’s taken to get me where I am, and if I’m to have any hope of stopping this bloody hell-beast it’s because I am what Gyssha made me, and I’m damn good at it. All right? It’s because I can switch it all off and be what I need to be. So just . . . let me do it. Please?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t . . . I mean, you’re the teacher. I’m just your apprentice. I shouldn’t keep hounding you, about your family, about all of it.’
She leaned her head against my shoulder, chest heaving above her stays. ‘My blasted family . . . It really bothers you, doesn’t it?’
I nodded. ‘I, I just can’t get past it. I think about mine every day. I know they wouldn’t understand any of this, but I can’t imagine never seeing them again. And the way you talk about Kara and her poor father . . .’
‘Look, you want to know the truth? You’re right, I could have found them. It’d be easy. Even easier than the spell I used to lead us to Kara. I even started to cast it back there at Stone Harbour . . .’
She trailed off, and though it cost me every ounce of self-control I had, I held my tongue.
‘But then I got to thinking . . . what would happen when I found them?’
‘They’d have been so glad to see you,’ I said. ‘They’d be over the moon! They think you’re dead. Aleida, if my da somehow came home one day, after all these years . . .’
She bowed her head with a weak chuckle, but the sound carried more rue than humour. ‘Dee . . . How in the hells do you have such a rosy view of the world, after all the shit your stepfather’s heaped on your plate over the years? Look, you want to believe your life would have been different if your father had lived, I understand that. And who knows, maybe you’d be right.
‘But my sisters, my mother — wherever they are, they’re the same people they were when I left. The same ones who told me all my life that I was destined to spread my legs for any filthy, stinking brute who offered a bit of coin. Sure, they’d have been happy to see me . . . for maybe two or three days. Then they’d be after me to start bringing in money, just like it was before. “You’ve got to pull your weight, Ally. You’re such a spoiled brat. You think you’re better than us? Oh no, Ally’s too good to lift her skirts in some filthy back alley.”’ She pressed a hand to her forehead, hiding her eyes.
Those awful words made me shrink inside. ‘But . . . you’ve got plenty of ways to bring in money now,’ I said. ‘You wouldn’t have to—’
‘To whore for it? No, that’s true. It’d be easy — I mean, I’d make these pathetic bandits look like boys scrounging for dropped coppers on market day. I could bring in more money than these idiots will see in their whole lives. All I’d have to do is walk up to some rich bastard with a fat purse and he’d hand it over with a smile. He wouldn’t even remember doing it. I could change their lives, make them live like kings — for a few days. Then the money’s gone and they’re back where they started.’
‘But it wouldn’t have to be like that,’ I said. ‘What if you set them up with a little shop, or a rooming-house, or something —’
She laughed again, more mirthful this time, but it was a bitter kind of humour. ‘Oh gods, I’d like to see that — they’d have the place up in flames before the week was out. They couldn’t handle it, Dee, they wouldn’t know the first thing about running the place. And I’m no better, I’d have no hope of leading them through it . . . and in any case, doing any such thing would have made it easier for Gyssha to find them. I couldn’t have stayed, you must see that. At best I’d swoop in for a night or two, turn their world upside-down, and then vanish again. They couldn’t understand what I am now, what I’ve become since I left them. They’d never understand why I couldn’t just go and steal another purse of coin for them, and then another and another.’
I pressed my lips together, thinking hard. Trying to find the right words, the ones that wouldn’t sound hopelessly naïve and romantic, like I thought life was some storybook tale. ‘I, I just . . .’ I trailed off. The words wouldn’t come.
‘Dee, look, you don’t understand; and that’s all right. I didn’t, until the moment came. I got halfway through casting the blasted spell before I really thought it through, before the gods or fate or whatever it was showed me where it would lead. Call me heartless if you want. Call me cold as ice, I don’t care. It’s the truth. And it’s better this way.’
She leant against me, trembling with strain, and I wanted to weep at the hopelessness of it all, at how lonely it must have felt. ‘Oh, Lord and Lady . . . I’m so sorry.’
‘What?’ she said, and glanced up, her eyes bone dry. ‘Oh, gods, don’t go getting all maudlin on me. It’s fine. Witch wins over thief and whore any day, dog’s legs or not. Or are you telling me you plan on going back to your wretched scullery one day?’
‘Of course not! It’s just—’
‘Just nothing. Listen, kid—’ Then, with a breath she stiffened, all her muscles going tense beneath my arms. ‘Oh gods,’ she gasped. ‘Finally!’
I felt the rush of it, pure, crackling power, blinding, scorching in its brilliance. All I could do was watch as the force of it drove her to the ground and left her gasping in the dust.
Then, in the span of just a few moments, it was done. She pushed herself up, the tremor gone, her golden skin a healthy shade once again. Her hands were steady as she swept her filthy hair back from her face. ‘Gods, that’s better. Sorry, Dee, I’m kind of at the end of my rope here, and this day is a long way from over.’
In my mind’s eye, I couldn’t help but picture those men, hands bound behind their backs, feet swinging in the air, faces purple and bloated. The thought of it turned my stomach. But if I took a step back from that twisting, sickening feeling, I could see the cold calculus of it. Those men were going to die anyway. Justice had come to them. And if that was the case, why shouldn’t we make use of what was left to stop the cataclysm heading our way?
Or try to, in any case.
‘It’s all right,’ I said. ‘You do what you’ve got to do. I understand.’
‘Do you? One day, maybe, but I’m not sure you’re quite there yet. Anyway, we’ve got to get moving. I’ve got an idea, and there’s a lot of work to do.’
CHAPTER 10
Back at the wagon, Aleida sat heavily at the little table again, pulling down a book from the cabinet and taking out her writing box as well. The little roundish pebbles I’d collected in the cavern were still sitting by the windowsill, and once again she rolled them back and forth under her fingertips, rattling them across the table like the world’s worst marbles. ‘All right, Dee, I think this could work, but it’s going to take a bit of effort. The only way I can pull this off is if I
tap into a source of power.’
My mind was still reeling with all she’d just told me, but with a deep breath I tried to push it all aside and focus. ‘Makes sense,’ I said. ‘What source?’
She abandoned the stones for a moment to point downwards with her free hand.
It took me a moment to understand what she meant. ‘The earth?’
‘Mm.’
‘So . . . how does that work, exactly?’
‘Exactly? How about we just stick to the basics for now, hmm? It’s not as simple as drawing power from the sunrise, like I did back at the cottage. You have to build a focus and open a conduit. It needs to be strong enough not to burn up under the flow, and you need to make sure it won’t feed you more than you can handle and burn you up as well.’
‘That sounds dangerous,’ I said, doubtfully.
‘It is, but it’s my only chance at stopping this thing.’
‘And if you draw too much, what happens? Aside from hurting yourself, I mean. Can you leave the place a wasteland?’
‘In theory. Practically, you could never draw that much, it’d be like drinking the ocean. The Lords of the Earth would step in and put a stop to it long before it went that far.’
I blinked, thinking back to one of the books she’d given me to study. ‘Lords of the Earth — elemental spirits, right? A kind of guardian?’
‘Major elemental spirits — these are the big guys. They don’t pay us any attention under normal circumstances, but they really don’t take kindly to this sort of thing. If I can keep the flow relatively low they’ll stay out of it, but if I have to dig deep . . .’ She pulled a face. ‘But, like I said, it’s our best bet.’
‘All right. What can I do?’
She tapped the pebbles again. ‘Do you know what these are?’
I shook my head. ‘No idea. Facet dug them up for me, down in the caves.’
‘Here.’ She tossed one to me. ‘Hold it up to the light.’
Puzzled, I did as I was told — and then found myself frowning. I’d thought of them as just little black pebbles, oddly shaped with lustrous, glassy sides. But when the sunlight streamed through it, the stone gleamed, transparent and blue.
‘It’s a sapphire,’ she said. ‘A gift from the earth. I’m going to need more of them, I’m afraid. Lots. You’ll have to go find some for me.’
‘A sapphire? Oh, um, okay. How many?’
‘At least three dozen. More if you can manage it.’ Dipping a quill into the ink, she started to scrawl something out on a sheet of paper. ‘You’ll have to work a ritual. Summon some earth sprites, bind them to do your bidding and send them out to find them. But quickly. That hot-head Kara will buy us a little bit of time, but we really can’t be standing around twiddling our thumbs.’
‘But . . . summoning sprites? I’ve never done anything like that before.’
‘No, but you saw me do it back at Black Oak Cottage when I was hunting for Gyssha. You’ve got a good memory, Dee, you’ll manage. The sigils you’ll need are slightly different, since we’re dealing with earth spirits and it’s autumn now instead of spring, and the moon’s waxing, but I’ve drawn them out for you.’ She handed me the paper, ink still wet and gleaming. ‘I’d try near a stream if I were you, I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be a good place to find sapphires. Or is that just for gold?’
‘You’re not coming with me?’
‘No, I’ve got to figure out the conduit, and I need peace and quiet so I can concentrate. This one’s for you, Dee.’
‘I . . . okay. I’ll need an offering, though, won’t I?’
‘Yep. Metal would be best, I think. Rare, refined metals are a treat for these little creatures. The chest on the shelf by my bed has some money in it, go fetch it.’
I brought it over, a lovely thing inlaid with brass and mother-of-pearl. At the top was a tray that held an array of jewellery, but Aleida lifted that out to get to the coins underneath. Quickly, she counted out a good handful of silver, and a couple of hefty coins of gleaming gold. ‘Always good to keep some pure coins on hand — trust me, you don’t want to go offering them dross that’s mostly brass and nickel.’ Watching her, I pulled a face, remembering the stolen money, lost now that the marked men were dead. This did not seem like the right time to bring it up.
When she’d stacked up all the coins, I bit my lip to see them. That was more than we’d paid for Maggie and the wagon, by quite a lot. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Just get it done, Dee. Time is of the essence. Oh, and take care — chances are Minerva will send her bird by to see what we’re up to.’
I left the wagon with a satchel over my shoulder, coins bouncing heavy against my hip. Toro was there, hanging around again, and as I turned away from the wagon, he fell into step beside me with a querying snort.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the fellow, to be honest. After everything I’d learned, about Minerva and her past, about the old bandit troupe and how they’d met their doom, I just couldn’t see him the way I had before. Before that had all come out, he’d seemed a victim in all this, a tragic figure. Now it seemed to me that he was safer in this form than any other — no longer a slave to the drink, no longer a loose cannon to be nudged and spun by the other bandits who knew his weaknesses and used them without pity. I could understand why he stayed so close to us and our wagon, too. A beast of burden in the human world and a beast of prey in the forest. At least we hadn’t threatened to mutilate him and put him in harness. I couldn’t imagine how it felt, to have spent months voiceless, vulnerable and stewing in guilt, knowing that it was his fault alone that Brute had been caught up in this mess with Minerva, when all his friend had wanted was a better life for Kara. He might have done awful things, but it didn’t mean he deserved the fate he’d been dealt. I couldn’t help but feel pity for him. ‘I’ve got a job to do,’ I said. ‘Do you want to come along? I could use a second pair of eyes to keep watch.’
He gave an assenting snort, his ears pricked towards me.
‘Actually, you might be able to help me. I need to find a stream nearby. Can you show me the way?’
With another snort, he stopped. When I kept moving, his head snaked forward and he caught my sleeve with his lips. Then, with a nudge of his nose, he manoeuvred me around to his shoulder, and sank gingerly to his knees in the dust.
I bit my lip as I laid a hand on his broad, smooth back, and heard Aleida’s voice in my ears again. Time is of the essence.
I clambered onto his back and took two good handfuls of his tufted mane. ‘Not too fast, okay? I’m not a great rider. Especially not bareback.’
He gave a snort, and set off through the dust.
Don’t think, just do.
That’s what Aleida had told me over and over again since I’d begun my apprenticeship, and I let the words echo through my head as I drew a circle in the dust with a broken stick, and copied out the sigils Aleida had scrawled for me. I’d have been happier if I couldn’t also hear my ma’s voice. I wish you would just think for a moment before you acted, Dee.
Once everything was laid out — candles, coins and the symbols drawn on the dry earth — I closed my eyes and, with an effort, pushed both voices out of my head, and cast my mind back to that morning on the misty field behind the cottage, and the day witchcraft had stopped being something full of incomprehensible terror, and had become something full of promise and wonder.
On the first attempt I stumbled over the words, my voice cracking and faltering. I broke off with a curse and stomped my feet in the dust, pulling myself away from the ritual before I could mar the work. Don’t think, just do. Isn’t that what I did when I took that sparrow into Minerva’s den? And exactly how well did that turn out, hmm?
With a little growl I went back to my station. I emptied my lungs and drew a slow breath, tasting the dust and dryness of the air, the parched land crying out for winter rains.
This time, when I said the words, they came steadily and easily, spilling from my lips like jewels as
I felt power condense around me.
Facet was there before I even completed the first part of the ritual, and no sooner had I finished the incantation than other little beings started to appear. The first, clambering up from the dry stream-bed, was made up of a handful of water-washed pebbles arranged in a line like a snake; each stone of its body rolling across the ground in a little puff of dust. When it reached the circle the stones all stacked up in one neat, pile, largest to smallest, right on top of one of the silver coins.
Others appeared soon after, more shimmering, crystalline beauties like Facet and other strange rocky characters like the pebbles, and others as well — some that seemed to be made of dirt or sand, and even one that was made entirely of the roundish pebbles that Aleida insisted were sapphires. One that was particularly beautiful looked like a mobile blob of quicksilver, oozing from coin to coin, its sleek silver surface untarnished by dust. I watched it with fascination, but some instinct told me to keep my hands away.
I was so fascinated, watching the creatures, that I didn’t notice at first what was happening to the coins. They’d slowly grown pitted as the sprites swarmed over them, moving from one to the next like a litter of puppies convinced that the next dish was somehow better than the one they were currently gorging upon. Hastily, I closed the circle, trapping the little beasts within. There were about a dozen of them, and I had no idea if that was a good number or a poor one.
They paid it no mind, until all the silver was gone. Then, they all fell still, as still as . . . well, stone. It was unnerving, really. Nothing can sit there and play dead like a rock can, and it made me wonder how many times I might have walked past a stone sprite only to have it up and roll away the moment my back was turned.
I pulled out the stone I’d brought from the wagon, and set it down in the circle. The sprites remained perfectly still, but I had the impression they were studying it closely, and with a degree of puzzlement. It was nothing particularly interesting to them, especially compared to the refined metals I’d just given them. ‘I need more of these,’ I told the sprites. ‘Many more — as many as you can bring me. Um, please?’ Then, hoping devoutly that I’d performed the binding correctly, I broke the circle. In the blink of an eye, the sprites were all gone.
