Page 5 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)

DANGER!

Ale, dice, a wench. A good life.

(Table graffiti, the Inn of the Fickle Friend)

‘Let me get this straight. You smuggle an illegal book into the city, get into a fight with Hroth Archdale, and then agree to help a man you’ve only just met to cheat Captain Grubber out of two hundred gold coins?

Any one of those crimes would be enough for Grubber to lock you up!

’ Arlice Carpenter was so furious with her daughter that she had risen from her sickbed for the first time in a month.

Her nostrils were flared, and her voice cracked like a whip.

Solar, standing in the centre of their timber-framed, single-room home, was too excited to pay heed to the warning signs. ‘Grubber, that ass,’ she snorted. ‘Only if he can catch me. And you left out the most important part of the story: I performed magic !’

She looked over to their home’s sole table, where An Instructive Manual in Wizardry lay face up, its lettering gleaming in the light of the fire. ‘Just imagine what I could do if I studied the book, if I memorised the spells and brewed the potions! We’d never go hungry – we could be rich! ’

‘Solar, enough! This is the last I’ll hear you speak of witchcraft. And you’re absolutely never to repeat that you cast a spell on Hroth Archdale. Not if you value your life.’

Solar bit her lip, wondering whether she dared give voice to a thought that had been forming in her head ever since she first performed the spell. It took only a few moments for her to decide that she must; if anything might persuade her mother of the value in magic, it would be this.

‘I could use my powers to find father,’ she said. ‘We’d be a family again.’

Her words were met with stunned silence.

Then Arlice’s tired eyes flashed, restored fleetingly to the green vibrancy Solar used to know.

‘I will also not stand for foolish talk about finding your father. It’s too dangerous for a girl to travel alone abroad.

Are you so cruel that you would try to get your mother’s hopes up with such idle dreams? ’

‘But—’

‘Now,’ Arlice continued, striding towards the table, her voice brittle with anger, ‘I’m going to throw that damned book on the fire, otherwise if you’re not careful you’ll find that it’s you who is being burned in the square!’

Solar felt a stab of panic. She lunged for the table, but her mother was closer.

Arlice swept it up and tossed it on the fire.

Solar swore and fell to her knees on the hearth.

She made to grab the book, to snatch it from the fire, but the pages were consumed with unnatural speed by vivid flames of green and purple.

She got to her feet and turned on her mother, rage seething inside her, her hands clenched into tight fists.

Before she could speak her mind, the front door opened, letting in a draught that made the flames flicker and dance.

Tolan, Solar’s ten-year-old brother, entered the house. A storm was brewing outside, and his dark-chestnut hair was wet from the first drops of rain. A catapult hung loosely at his side.

‘What’s all the shouting about?’ he asked, before he took a shocked step back as he realised that his mother was standing up. ‘Mother! Are you feeling better?’

‘No, Tolan, I’m not. I just got emotional, that’s all.’ With these words the strength seemed to fade from her. She staggered the few steps to her bed and sank down onto it. ‘Tolan, help your sister with the supper. There’s a good lad.’

Tolan put his catapult down on the table. ‘Well, it won’t be anything nice. I didn’t hit any game, as usual,’ he said morosely.

‘Don’t worry, we can manage without,’ said Arlice, but her disappointment was obvious. She arranged the burlap and straw cushions and threadbare blanket into a comfortable position, her thin arms shaking with the effort. Then she lay back with a sigh and closed her eyes.

Solar made a conscious effort to unclench her hands. She would not argue with her mother in front of Tolan, especially not now that her energy seemed once more to have abandoned her.

It had been four years since Arlice’s husband, Ro, had been called upon to join the king’s army and fight his wars in the Arid Lands, and two since the army’s return.

One spring morning the county recruits had been spotted marching back to Falcontop, defeated but alive.

Arlice had stood at the city gate with the other wives, ready to welcome Ro; by the morning’s end she had been one of the many women left to make the walk home alone.

She had never recovered from the shock, and from that day Solar had become the family’s main provider.

With time the authorities told the other widows the manner of their husbands’ deaths: some had died in battle, others of starvation and others of illness.

Yet Arlice heard nothing about Ro other than that he had gone missing during an enemy ambush.

His commander presumed him dead, but Arlice clung ardently to the hope that he was going to return home one day.

Unlike her mother, Solar could not bear simply waiting.

She dreamt of venturing abroad to find him herself.

Armed with a spell book that had a life of its own, she might have stood a chance.

She would have found him, and then they would have journeyed home, overcoming all obstacles together.

They would have been a team once again, just like when she used to help him in his carpentry workshop.

And, when they arrived back in Falcontop, her mother would have got better.

But the spell book was no more, reduced to ash, and with it burned all hopes of using it on such a quest.

*

The Carpenters ate their supper in silence, huddled by the fire.

It was a watery vegetable soup, and they were grateful for the fresh loaves that Solar had stolen.

Solar was so hungry that she didn’t even notice the pain in her swollen jaw as she chewed.

Outside the storm was raging, and rain lashed against the wooden walls and thatched roof.

Though she did her best to hide her feelings from Tolan, Solar couldn’t help but shoot her mother bitter glances.

Before they all turned in for the night, Arlice had a final warning for Solar.

‘You’re not to go to that inn tomorrow night, do you hear me?

I don’t like the sound of this doctor. What’s more, Hroth Archdale may have reported you to Grubber.

You need to lie low. Find a job in another inn that’s not visited by the captain or his men.

There are more than enough in the city. ’

Solar did not answer. She could not stop thinking about what the doctor had said: ‘Adventure beyond your wildest dreams.’ The temptation was too great.

She got into the bed that she shared with her brother and extinguished their bedside candle.

Her mother could try to persuade her all she liked, but Solar’s mind was made up: she was going to help Day win at Danger! .

*

Day and Captain Grubber were three hours into their card game.

In front of the captain stood enormous towers of gold.

At one stage he had lost more than a hundred coins to his opponent, and it looked as if he might soon lose the game, but then he had won fifty of them back, as well as Day’s bow and five vials of potion.

Before Day lay piles of gold, silver and bronze coins; twelve more vials of potion; and his sword.

The cards were dealt by a rotund man with russet hair and a beard the colour of winter ale.

Both the captain and Day played with precision and acumen.

Cards flew back and forth between them and the dealer; the opposing piles of goods and money grew and shrank as the evening wore on.

Sweat beaded the brow of the previously unflappable Day, and the captain’s face was pink and scrunched in concentration.

It seemed that half of Falcontop had heard of the captain’s challenge to the doctor.

They had flocked to the inn in the hour before dusk to watch what promised to be an evening of thrilling entertainment.

Solar found that she could barely make her way through the inn without spilling drinks such was the press of spectators, and she worried that she would miss the signal from Day.

Shortly before midnight she was carrying yet another jug of ale to a table when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She looked round and saw Bayen hunched beside her.

‘My friend and the captain are thirsty, girl. Kindly bring refreshments,’ he said in his deep voice.

Solar was about to ask in a whisper if this was the sign she had been waiting for, but he disappeared into the crowd before she could even open her mouth.

This has to be it , she told herself. She forgot about the customers she was taking the ale to and made instead directly for the card table.

She heard Day’s voice calling over the clamour of the crowd.

‘Let her through, let her through, ladies and gentlemen. Here come our refreshments.’ Solar emerged from the throng and refilled Day’s tankard.

As she did so she stole a quick look at his cards.

Three warlocks and two squires. It was a strong hand.

The captain could only play one hand that could beat it: three warlocks and two knights.

The odds of that were fantastically low.

The doctor meant to make his move. All she had to do was check the captain’s cards and give Day the appropriate signal.