Page 23 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)

DARKNESS

The Ravenbridge locals will tell you their beer is the finest in Ashwood; I say it tastes like piss.

Solar had almost given up trying to break free of her bonds. Scree had done his job well. She rubbed the rope in turn against the wall, steps and floor tiles. Nothing made the slightest bit of difference.

The other students were chatting merrily about how glad they were to give their lives to Gib. Solar tried to ignore their voices. Her face still smarted from where Cal had slapped her. She looked at him resentfully. How much of that slap had been due to Azure Euphoria, and how much was real hatred?

Then the stomach pains came.

Wyman was first to cry out, his eyes large and round with shock. Then Oswald fell to the floor, doubled over, his face contorted in torment. Solar and the others followed in quick succession.

Solar’s eyes welled with tears. It felt as if a hot iron was poking at her insides. She rolled onto her back in agony, longing for the pain to pass.

Then, just as she thought she was going to pass out from it all, something caught her eye that drove the pain almost out of her mind.

An imp was throwing itself at the window, trying to break in.

Then another joined it, and then another.

Soon there was a whole group of them banging at the glass with spoons, spatulas and even a couple of small frying pans.

Solar jumped to her feet, crying out muffled encouragement through her gag as she saw cracks appear in the window.

The glass broke in a shower of shards, and a cloud of imps came streaming in. Solar twisted to show the imps the ropes binding her hands, and in a moment a team of them cut her free. Solar tore off her gag and breathed in huge gulps of air with relish.

‘Thank you,’ she gasped between breaths. ‘Thank you, you—ah!’

A hand had caught her round the ankle. She looked down and saw Cal, arm outstretched, stirred from his agony by the commotion and determined to prevent her from escaping.

She grabbed a frying pan from one of the imps fluttering by her ear and brought it down sharply onto his head. He slumped, senseless.

Solar grasped hold of the window ledge, ignoring the pain from the glass fragments, and pulled herself out into a deserted side street.

‘We’ve all been poisoned,’ she said breathlessly to the imps as they zoomed outside. ‘Loveday, Binns, me – everyone.’

One of the imps, a female with long spindly arms, spoke for the rest in a deep rumble: ‘We know. We saw Cal give Sir Gaderian and Sir Dirk poison upstairs. At first we had assumed it was medicine, but after an hour the two men were clutching at their stomachs in agony. Then we came looking for you. You seem more yourself than the others?’

‘They’ve all been given two potions. The other one makes ’em powerless to resist the man who did this to us. He might have an antidote, and I’ll fight him for it if I have to. Will you fight with me?’

The imps gave a whooping war cry in response and followed Solar as she ran off down the street.

*

The townsfolk of Ravenbridge, addled with Azure Euphoria, pointed her happily in the direction of Gib Ralston’s house as Solar sprinted past them, yelling for directions. She gritted her teeth as she jumped over low walls, sidestepped pedestrians and pushed her way through lines of vegetable carts.

Every step jolted her stomach as the poison worked its deadly magic.

At each turn the hot-iron sensation grew worse.

Yet she put the pain out of her mind. She had to.

Instead, she thanked her good sense and fortune that she, unlike the boys, hadn’t drunk the Azure Euphoria as well as the poison.

She had no doubt that, if she had, she’d be bonded to Gib and share the boys’ lack of care for their approaching deaths.

At last she skidded to a halt outside a mansion on the northern edge of town.

Its brickwork was jet black, and, at four storeys high, it cast a long shadow over the street.

Solar approached the front door nervously.

She turned the handle and pushed. The door did not budge, not even when she put her shoulder to it and strained with all her might.

‘Quick,’ whispered Solar to the imps, ‘let’s see if there’s another way in.’

When Solar reached the east side of the mansion she saw a row of wide-open windows on the fourth floor, steam billowing out from them. Gib was evidently at home, brewing more Azure Euphoria.

She tried not to consider the awful possibility that Gib might not actually have an antidote for the lethal yellow poison. That there was one, and that he kept it at home, was her only hope.

A group of imps flew round the corner from the rear of the house and gestured to her frantically to follow them.

She ran towards them, and as she did so a blinding pain seared across her skull.

She stuffed her fist into her mouth to stifle her cry.

Through her pain she heard Gib’s words again: ‘ Come the third hour your head will feel like it is about to split in two, and soon after you will begin to lose your sense of sight. ’

Another hour had passed.

When she reached the back of the house she saw what the imps were so excited about.

A window on the second floor was ever so slightly ajar.

Biting her lip to stop herself from crying out again, she pulled an old cart over to the wall beneath the window, wincing every time the wheels squeaked and creaked.

She could only pray that Gib was so absorbed in his brewing that he wouldn’t register the noise.

She clambered onto the cart and jumped for the window ledge.

Her fingertips scrabbled to grasp it, but she was still a couple of feet short.

The imps flew over carrying a garden stool that they had found lying nearby.

Solar climbed onto it gratefully, eyed up the ledge, took a deep breath and jumped.

She screamed. She had caught hold of the ledge, but as she did so another splitting pain reverberated around her skull. The awful sensation passed through her neck and all the way down her spine.

The imps rushed to her aid. They caught hold of her hands, arms and fingers and, using the ledge for purchase, dragged her through the window with almighty heaves. Solar collapsed onto the floor below, gasping for breath. Her head was throbbing.

She staggered to her feet and looked around.

She was at the foot of a wooden staircase.

Light poured in through the windows, illuminating dusty sketches of Ralston’s newly inherited silver mine.

Solar made her way up the stairs, gripping the banister for support, aware that she only had minutes before her body succumbed to the potion. The imps followed behind her.

She arrived at the third floor and the foot of another, final flight of stairs. At the top stood a single door, slightly ajar, steam and the sound of simmering liquid coming through it.

Solar tiptoed up the stairs, sticking to the shadows as far as possible.

She peered through the doorway. In the middle of a huge room with a vaulted ceiling stood a cauldron magically suspended over flames, steaming and spitting flecks of brilliant blue potion. Standing over it with a ladle was Gib.

‘Can you see any bottled potions, anything that might be an antidote?’ breathed Solar to the imps. One of them pointed to the far corner of the room. Solar squinted and, through the steam, glimpsed a shelf of brightly coloured vials.

She would have to pass right past Gib to reach them.

A hot, piercing pain in her stomach reminded her that she had little time.

She placed her hand against the door, ready to fling it fully open, then glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye that made her stop.

In a bucket by the door frame stood the swords that Gib had stolen from the students.

She recognised Fury and grasped its hilt, the worn leather lending her courage .

She kicked open the door and strode forwards to confront Gib, Fury in hand.

*

‘Miss Carpenter! What an unexpected delight.’ Gib sounded genuinely pleased to see her. ‘How much time do you have left before my lovely poison makes you lose consciousness? A few minutes, perhaps?’

‘I'm not here to talk! Where is the antidote?’ yelled Solar, feeling panic and desperation well up inside her.

‘Trust me, my dear girl, you do not have the time to locate it in this vast mansion. Why not just give up? Spend your last few minutes at peace. Put your sword down. I don’t want to hurt a girl who is at death’s door.’ As he spoke he drew back his cloak to reveal a stunted magic staff.

Solar gave a roar and charged. The imps let out a war cry and flew beside and over her head, brandishing their kitchen utensils like terrible weapons.

Gib swiftly shouted an incantation and the imps fell to the ground, immobilised. Solar felt the same force encroach upon her, but she was bigger than the imps and the spell had no effect. Then she was upon him, sword clashing against staff in a flurry of strikes, blows and thrusts.

Her adversary stepped back, deflecting attack after attack, shock at her ferocity etched on his features.

Solar thanked Loveday silently for the spell he had put on Fury, allowing it to channel the strength of her foes to her arm.

Then Gib swung out his staff in a countermove, aiming for Solar’s midriff.