Page 37 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)

‘One of us has to fetch Loveday and Binns – we’re going to need their help when we confront the spirit,’ said Solar.

‘Cal, that should be you. It’s too dangerous for any of us trainees to travel alone – we’re all seventeen years old and might be snatched.

Bring torches as well – Oswald’s uncle’s book says that fire will stop the spirit. ’

‘And with any luck destroy it for good,’ Pingot added.

Cal scowled but did not object to Solar ordering him about.

‘The rest of us will go to the clifftop. We’ll be safer in a group, and if the spirit confronts us then we’ll hold it off until Cal arrives with reinforcements and torches.’

They set off on their separate ways, grim-faced and hands never straying too far from their swords, Solar’s party taking a route that kept them well out of sight of the tanneries.

*

Once they reached the edge of the forest the five trainees paused to catch their breath.

They had sprinted from the city’s northern gate and up a grassy slope, and now they were exhausted and their brows slick with sweat.

But although they were still in a hurry, they couldn’t help but admire the view.

The city lay spread out before them like a dazzling jewel, resplendent in the afternoon sun.

The ships coming into port looked like tiny toys, and the people in the streets mere specks.

‘Do you see that?’ said Bear, squinting down the slope. ‘We’ve got company.’

Galloping towards them from the city were a dozen horsemen clad in leather and chainmail. As they got closer to the trainees they lowered their spears and fanned out to surround them.

‘Drop your weapons,’ hissed Solar to the others.

‘We don’t stand a chance against twelve mounted men.

’ They did as she suggested, and Solar raised her voice to address the strangers encircling them.

‘We’re of Sir Gaderian Loveday’s magic encampment.

He’s a wizard of the king’s Magic Circle, and we’re working here with him on the king’s business.

Let us continue with our work, or Sir Gaderian will hear of it. ’

The riders’ expressions remained impassive. Then a voice from behind the trainees rang out.

‘We know who you are, Miss Carpenter. Well, well, don’t you talk all high and mighty now?’

Solar’s mouth went dry. There was no mistaking that icy tone. She turned to see a short man push his horse through the circle of riders to look down at the students. His chest was puffed out pompously, and he wore a savage grin.

It was Captain Grubber.

‘You’re far from Falcontop, Captain. You have no authority here. Let us be on our way,’ Solar said, trying hard to keep her voice steady.

A man and a boy, both in fine armour, emerged at Grubber’s side, and Solar recognised Earl Archdale and his son.

‘You’re right there, I'll give you that,’ said the earl.

His words were clipped and cold. ‘An earl’s authority, however, is acknowledged throughout Ashwood.

Solar Carpenter, you are guilty of witchcraft and denying my son his magical education.

Your jaunt around the kingdom ends here.

And I will be taking your misguided friends too, for good measure. ’

‘My father is a powerful duke, he will—’ began Oswald.

‘—never learn of how you disappeared and give you up for dead,’ finished Hroth Archdale with an evil glint in his eye. ‘You’re to be sold to the slavers. There’s a ship at port that leaves tomorrow morning, and its skipper is looking for more cargo.’

Upon hearing the word ‘slavers’ Wyman moaned in terror.

An adolescent wearing a surcoat bearing the Archdales’ griffin segreant sidled up to the earl. ‘Uncle, is this wise?’ he said anxiously. ‘If the boys’ families get wind of this—’

‘They will not, assuming we can trust Grubber’s men not to speak. And even if they do hear of it, it would be of little consequence. These are magical trainees, nephew; they forfeited all ties of allegiance to their houses before enrolling in their encampment .

‘No. By taking these boys, I am offering no insult to their families. They are students, that is all. Fair game, and as unprotected by their houses as the brat Carpenter.’

‘Could we not just kill them and do away with the bodies? Far cleaner. No loose ends.’

‘There are laws, young lord,’ said Grubber. ‘No spilling of noble blood, without express permission from the king – magical trainees or not. But crippling? Maiming? Other forms of harm? All fair play.’

The earl gestured for his men to take the trainees, and they bound their hands behind their backs and collected their swords. Grubber admired the sapphire in the pommel of Bear’s weapon and gave an appreciative chuckle. ‘Perhaps the slavers will buy your fine weaponry too, my young friends.’

Bear made to retort, but then he and the other boys had sacks thrown over their heads, obscuring their vision and muffling their cries of protest.

Hroth dismounted. He approached Solar and thrust his sword hand in front of her face. Where his little finger should have been there was just an ugly stump.

‘I vowed to myself that you would rue the night you shot me in the forest,’ he hissed, a hideous leer disfiguring his face. ‘Goodbye, hag.’ He raised a sack and thrust it roughly over Solar’s head, and her world went black.

*

The students knew they had reached the docks by the racket of boats being unloaded and sailors shouting instructions to one another.

Earl Archdale’s men pushed them through jostling crowds, and when these eventually thinned they heard expressions of incredulity from what Solar gathered were the slavers she was to be sold to .

‘Hoy, lads, what’s this coming our way?’

‘Five slaves, from the look of ’em, but by the God of Salt, they’re dressed like something else!’

The sacks were torn from their heads and the students stood blinking in the evening sunlight. They were near the very end of a pier that jutted far out into the water. In front of them, towards the pier’s edge, was a ragtag crew of slavers. A gangway linked a large ship to the pier.

‘Captain Grubber presents on behalf of Earl Archdale four high-born boys and one common brat, all strong, in fine health and with many a year of hard labour in them,’ announced Grubber from his horse.

‘Going at forty pieces of gold each. Buy all four boys and you get the brat at half price. Their exquisite weapons are available for purchase too.’ The captain threw the swords to the ground before the students.

A towering hulk of a man with a fiery beard and mane approached the trainees for a closer look. He wore a thick jerkin and an indigo sash thrown over one shoulder.

‘What do you reckon, Skipper? Any of them worth our time?’ called out a slaver.

The skipper raised a calloused hand and gripped Bear’s chin. He turned his head forcefully from side to side, examining him closely.

‘Gods, but isn’t this a pretty thing, hey lads? Not sure if he’d be much use as a labourer,’ he rumbled, revealing a mouth of broken and missing teeth.

His gaze and hand moved to Solar, but before he could touch her she spat in his eyes. He drew back his hand and slapped her across the face.

Bear gave a bellow of rage and threw himself wildly at the giant. Though his hands were still bound behind his back, he managed to knock the skipper to the ground through sheer force.

‘Don’t you dare lay a hand on her,’ he snarled.

The skipper got to his feet. To everyone’s surprise he gave a deep laugh.

‘It seems our pretty boy’s in love!’ he gloated, and his men erupted into mocking guffaws. ‘This is a spirited lot you’ve brought to dock, Captain. I’ll take ’em all for twenty-five gold pieces each, and the brat for nothing.’

‘Thirty-five, and nothing less,’ said Grubber immediately.

‘You don’t want to pay thirty-five for me, have you not seen the shape of me? I’m hardly built for slave labour,’ chipped in Pingot suddenly.

‘Shut up, you wretch, no one asked for your opinion,’ snapped Grubber, cuffing Pingot on the head.

‘He’s right though,’ said the skipper earnestly, examining Pingot properly for the first time. ‘I’ll pay just twenty for him.’

‘That is preposterous. You can have him for thirty, and that’s my final offer,’ spluttered Grubber.

‘If you’ll listen to my advice, Skipper, it’s probably best not to take me at all. You won’t find a buyer for a useless lump like me,’ said Pingot modestly.

‘I’ve got bad eyesight; I can barely see. I’m no good as a labourer neither,’ piped up Solar, cottoning on and squinting.

‘And I have an awful back,’ said Oswald, suddenly hunching.

‘My knee clicks,’ said Bear.

‘And poor Wyman here is simple – he can’t do anything for himself,’ said Pingot imploringly.

‘They’re not worth more than twenty a head!’ declared the skipper.

‘Shut up, you lying brats, before I take my sword to you all,’ growled Grubber at the trainees. He looked to the skipper. ‘Twenty is too low. Twenty-five pieces I can just about stomach,’ he said, gritting his teeth.

‘The lot of ’em are useless, Skip,’ shouted a slaver. ‘Don’t take them for more than ten each, no matter what that fancy landlubber says.’

‘Did I mention we’re all extremely argumentative?’ Pingot asked the skipper innocently. ‘You’ll never get a moment’s peace whilst we’re on board.’

‘They’re not!’ protested Grubber, but the slavers seemed no longer to hear what he said.

‘If you do, against your better judgement, buy us,’ continued Pingot, ‘then your best-case scenario is that, given our feeble conditions, we’ll die on the voyage, taking five unsellable slaves off your hands. The worst-case scenario is—’

Grubber finally lost all self-control. He drew his sword with a snarl of ‘I warned you’ and made to drive it down through the boy’s neck, but the hulking skipper stopped him with a raised hand.

‘Let him finish,’ the slaver said, nodding at Pingot.