Page 40 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)
‘Pingot!’ Solar gasped, racing to the edge. Just the upper rim of the sun remained above the horizon, and the corpse of Edralk Tanner was caught in its glow. It lay limp and still, face down on a jut of rock no more than six feet below.
‘PINGOT!’ she screamed desperately.
He was nowhere to be seen.
Wyman joined her, panting. ‘Is he …?’
Solar didn’t answer. She couldn’t speak. Pingot was gone .
Then the Twin Killer’s body moved.
Solar and Wyman both recoiled a step.
‘It’s still alive!’ Solar said in horrified disbelief, reaching instinctively for another arrow. But before she could notch it, Wyman stayed her arm.
He pointed at the body. It was now quite clear that someone was trapped underneath it and was pushing the limp corpse off. With one last shove the body was thrown from the rock and into the sea, where it bobbed lifelessly in the waves.
The figure that had been trapped under it sat up very slowly, its face besmirched with gore. ‘Are you going to help me up or what?’ it snapped tetchily.
‘Pingot, you useless, worthless, infuriating fool! I thought you were dead!’ shouted Solar, half scowling, half laughing with delight.
She and Wyman grabbed Pingot’s outstretched hands and hauled him back up. Pingot and Wyman collapsed onto the ground, utterly spent, but Solar insisted they did not rest. ‘ Pingot, see to Bear and Oswald. Wyman, come with me. We need to free the townsfolk.’
They found the keys to the captives’ bonds at the edge of the forest in a small pile of the Twin Killer’s belongings, which for the most part consisted of rat tails, magpie feathers and stolen jewellery.
Night had fallen by the time they unshackled the last captive.
They rejoined Bear, Pingot and Oswald and marched back to the city with the freed prisoners in tow, many of them laughing and weeping with relief.
The city guard opened the gate in amazement, and within moments the whole city seemed to know that their boys and girls had returned.
Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents and lovers streamed out of houses in their nightclothes.
They reunited with their loved ones with cries of astonishment and delight.
Solar saw a figure garbed in black step out from the shadow of the city wall.
Torchlight revealed Binns, exhausted-looking, his face and clothes covered in blood, his hair matted with it.
He stayed in view just long enough to be sure that the trainees saw him and registered him mouthing, with exaggerated clarity, ‘Stay with the crowd,’ before turning and setting off in the direction of The Crooked Harbour-Master at a rapid pace that suggested not a drop of the blood he was smeared in was his own.
The freed townsfolk pointed to Solar and her companions as their saviours.
The trainees were exhausted yet elated. Wyman alone allowed his tiredness to get the better of him, and he accepted the townsfolk’s thanks listlessly.
He kept his eyes downcast, almost as if he were ashamed, and Solar wondered if he felt guilty for having slipped during the charge at the Twin Killer.
She flung an arm over his shoulder. ‘Don’t feel bad!
’ she shouted in his ear above the noise.
‘If you hadn’t slipped, your torch also would have been extinguished, and there’d have been no fire to use to end that monster.
You brought the luck of the gods with us today! ’
More and more people flocked into the streets, to the point where it was as if the whole city had left their beds to celebrate.
The city guard left their posts to lift the students onto their shoulders and parade them through the streets.
They did not notice the huddles of angry-looking goblins, armed to the teeth with axes and maces, staring resentfully at the trainees as they were borne away.
The crowd made its way to the main city square, and the surrounding ale houses and inns opened their doors and rolled out great casks of beer.
The trainees were lowered to the ground and soon a huge party was underway, with pipers, fiddlers and drummers taking up position on steps and statues to strike up dancing tunes.
Solar was drinking in the sights and sounds, deciding which dance to join, when she felt someone grab her arm. She spun around, half expecting to see the Twin Killer standing before her, but instead Loveday loomed over her. His face was taut with urgency.
‘We need to leave, now, and make our way to The Crooked Harbour-Master, gather our belongings and quit the city without delay,’ he hissed.
‘What? Why?’ asked Solar, taken aback. The other trainees crowded round to listen in.
‘The goblins are still after us, and they’ve hired a dozen minotaurs as muscle. They want what they won from us in the game, which is … well, everything.’
So they hurried back to the inn, the trainees looking back with longing at the dancing and musicians.
Binns and Cal were outside the stables with the horses and mules fully loaded, Binns cleaned up and the apprentice’s wounds at least partly healed by some magic of Loveday’s.
The imps hovered around their heads, for once quiet and sober.
Cal held Mae by the reins, and he and Solar nodded awkwardly at each other as he handed the horse over.
They mounted and set off towards the city’s eastern gate, avoiding the main street and making their way through deserted, twisting alleyways.
The only sound besides their mounts’ hooves was Binns’ low grumbles about how he needed a strong drink to get rid of the taste of minotaur blood.
Solar caught the other trainees stealing awed glances at the master-at-arms as they rode.