Page 6 of Witchcraft and Fury (Chronicles of the Divided Isle #1)

She walked over to the captain’s side, hands shaking with nerves.

True to what Bayen had said the night before, Grubber did not think to hide his hand from Solar.

Indeed, he had not spared her a glance the whole evening, and now a bead of sweat rolled slowly down his temple as he squinted intensely at his cards.

Solar gave them a furtive look, not daring to let her gaze linger for more than a moment.

She drew in her breath sharply. Three squires and two alchemists!

It was a good hand, good enough for the captain to chance everything on perhaps, but not good enough to beat Day’s.

She began to fill the captain’s tankard, preparing to let the liquid spill ever so slightly over the rim, but when the tankard was half-full Grubber signalled her to stop with a raised finger.

‘No more for me tonight, girl. I need to be able to think clearly. Go and make yourself useful in the kitchen. Bring more rabbit.’

Solar stood rooted to the spot. She had no idea what to do.

She risked a glance at Day but he was looking determinedly at his own cards and not at her.

The captain looked up angrily at Solar and was about to repeat himself when recognition dawned on his face.

‘You’re that egg vendor girl who—’ he began, but before he could finish Solar turned on her heel, letting the jug career headlong into the captain’s tankard as she went.

It was the only way she could think of to convey the signal to the doctor.

Ale splashed all over the captain’s front.

The captain leapt to his feet, his face a mask of absolute fury. He stretched out both hands as if to throttle Solar, but the doctor’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

‘All in. I’m all in. I bet everything I have in front of me against everything of yours.’

Grubber half turned back to the table, and in his eyes the desire to win the game fought with the urge to commit murder.

He looked again at his hand of three squires and two alchemists.

A strong hand. Most likely a winning hand.

‘Then I am all in as well,’ he growled. ‘Now let’s see what you’re made of, Day. ’

Day placed his three warlocks and two squires out on the table side by side, revealing each one with slow and obvious enjoyment.

When the final squire was face up the captain threw his cards into the air, stunned.

He staggered and clutched the arm of an onlooker for support.

He had lost. It was a humiliating defeat.

Half the men in the audience were members of his city watch.

They would be talking about this game for years, making snide remarks about him behind his back.

He watched helplessly as Day opened a sack and swept the table clean of gold, Bayen at his side slapping him on the back .

Out of the corner of his eye he suddenly registered that Solar was still standing there, empty jug in hand, grinning gleefully at his defeat.

He rounded on her and shouted at the top of his voice, his words sharp with vengeance and spite, ‘Members of the city watch! In the name of the king, arrest this girl!’

Solar was about to make a bolt for the exit, but before she could take even a step Day had kicked away his chair and placed himself in front of her, shielding her from the guardsmen and their unsheathed swords.

‘Even the commander of the watch cannot make arrests without just cause,’ he said coolly. ‘Now what could a simple barmaid have done to land herself in such trouble that she has to be arrested by a gang of armed men?’

Grubber leered at him. ‘Witchcraft,’ he spat, as if the very word repulsed him.

‘I set my man Feran to tail her yesterday after our encounter, and he witnessed her attack Hroth Archdale, youngest son of the earl, with dark magic. A female cannot perform magic lawfully. Witchcraft is a disgusting practice, a heinous crime, and in King Algar’s name I’ll have her burned at the stake. ’

‘Excellent detective work, captain,’ replied Day, speaking as calmly as if they were debating the quality of the inn’s ale. ‘Although there is just one small snag: witchcraft is not a crime.’

‘Not a crime?! Does your impudence know no bounds?’ thundered Grubber.

‘True, it is established practice for the youngest sons of noble houses to enrol in the magic classes of royally approved instructors. This has been the custom for generations. That said, there is nothing in the law itself that specifically prohibits a girl from enrolling in such a class, should she happen to have the instructor’s approval. ’

‘So, doctor,’ sneered the captain, ‘you mean to tell me that this girl, a commoner, is a student in classes authorised by the king? That she is studying alongside the sons of dukes, earls and barons?’

‘Certainly,’ replied Day. ‘As a matter of fact, she is my student.’

Solar furrowed her brow. What was Day playing at?

‘Wha—’ she began, not even knowing what exactly she was going to ask, but Day made a swift motion below waist level with his hand that she took to mean be silent .

Grubber was clearly also taken aback by this outrageous claim.

Then he gathered his wits, barked a short laugh and hawked a glob of spit onto the floor between Day’s feet.

‘That’s what I think of your lies, you ass.

I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.

A girl being taught magic by the likes of you, a mere doc—’

‘I am Gaderian Irenbend Freomund Loveday,’ said Solar’s protector, cutting over Grubber and raising his voice for the first time. Shouts and gasps of amazement went up around the inn, and this time Solar grabbed hold of a chair to steady herself.

Gaderian Loveday. She knew that name. Of course she did. Hadn’t she joined in a thousand songs about its owner, and listened breathlessly to tales of his daring exploits as she served beer on countless winter nights?

Loveday advanced towards Grubber, who had suddenly gone rigid with shock. He spoke with deliberate slowness as he walked, his words and footsteps resounding throughout the inn.

‘And if my name alone is not enough, allow me to elaborate. I am the younger brother of Duke Aiken Loveday.’

Grubber’s face drained of colour .

‘Cousin to King Algar.’

Grubber’s right eye began to twitch.

‘And member of His Majesty’s Magic Circle.’

Grubber’s jaw finally fell.

Loveday jabbed Grubber in the chest with a long, elegant finger. He loomed over him. ‘Now get out of my way, so I may leave this place with my winnings and my pupil.’

Solar edged round the crowd to see Grubber’s expression.

A final thread of courage was causing him to stand his ground, and Solar recognised the same thought process that was going through her own mind and likely that of everyone else in the room: the doctor was not lying.

Everything added up: his rich clothing, the arms he bore, his utter disdain for a high-ranking local authority such as Grubber – and the fact that he carried vials of magical ‘medicine’ in his cloak.

He was the famed wizard Gaderian Loveday.

But what in the name of the underworld had brought this renowned figure, this hero , to squander his time in Falcontop’s seediest quarter?

At last, Grubber seemed to recognise that his authority was overruled. If he had any more protests to make, he swallowed them. He stepped aside, and Loveday brushed past him.

The inn’s clientele – merchants, labourers, brothel workers, everyone except the captain’s own men – began to clap.

*

Solar followed Loveday and Bayen out of the Inn of the Fickle Friend, applause thundering in her ears.

Standing tall beneath the inn’s swinging sign, shouldering his bow in the light of the full moon, Loveday looked every inch the hero that Solar knew from the songs.

This was a man who served the king, who performed legendary feats of magic, who had slain minotaurs and dragons. A man with royal blood.

She suddenly felt very small.

‘I’ll, um … I’ll be going home now. Thanks for stopping Grubber’s men from arresting me. It was … it was good meeting you.’

Bayen gave a snort of laughter.

‘Good meeting me?’ said Loveday disbelievingly. ‘Is that all you have to say? Solar, this is just the start of our relationship. You are my student now.’

Solar felt her heart race. The prospect of learning magic, let alone under such a famous instructor, was too dizzying to believe. ‘You were being serious about that? But … but it was just a lie, a stupid ploy to stop Grub—’

Loveday stopped her with a raised hand. ‘Yes, I was being serious. I am being serious. And just so we’re clear, I don’t go in for “stupid ploys”, as you so politely put it. I plan carefully where possible, and improvise when necessary, and stupidity never plays a part in either.’

‘But why would you be interested in me ? You have the pick of every aristocratic boy in the kingdom! Why take me on as a student? I can see maybe why you’d save me from Grubber – I helped you win at cards, and he’s a pig. But now we’re shot of him why not just dump me and be on your way?’

‘Three reasons,’ said Loveday. ‘First, I may be shot of Grubber, but you are not. If I were to leave this city without you, Grubber would arrest you and string you up in a heartbeat.’

‘I’m not scared of—’ began Solar, but Loveday continued over her.

‘Second, I’ve saved your neck twice in two days now.

That’s a significant investment. And third …

you’ll have to wa it until morning to find out.

Bayen and I will come for you at sunrise.

Make sure you explain everything to your family; you’ll only be seeing them once a year now, if that.

Magical training is taxing, and it will take us all over the kingdom.

And once you’re enrolled, you leave only by qualifying as a fully trained magician, expulsion or, as is regrettably a possibility, death during training.

There’s no backing out once you’re in an encampment. It’s the law.’

‘What if I don’t want to go?’ said Solar, though even as she spoke the words she knew it was a pointless question.

The full weight and significance of what Loveday was saying was beginning to sink in.

He was offering her a life in which she didn’t have to steal to survive, in which she could earn enough money to lift her family out of their wretched poverty.

A life of excitement and danger and thrills.

A life – she felt an almost giddying level of anticipation – in which she could learn the skills necessary to find her father.

The reality of her situation hit her like a war horse in full gallop.

She was never going to save enough coin to fund a trip to the Arid Lands in search of her father, no matter how many magic books she smuggled and sold.

And even if she did, she didn’t have a demon’s chance in heaven of successfully rescuing him herself.

She needed an edge. She needed something that would give a peasant girl in a man’s world a fighting chance. She needed magic.

Becoming Loveday’s student wasn’t just what she wanted. It was what she had to do.

‘Didn’t I promise you adventure?’ said Loveday. ‘That’s why you agreed to help me at Danger! tonight, after all. Well, this is it. Tell yourself you don’t really want to come, if it makes you feel better. But you’d only be fooling yourself.

‘You’re like me, Solar. Once you’ve had a whiff of the possibilities a life in magic has to offer, you won’t ever be able to resist.’

Loveday and Bayen turned, walking away, and Solar knew that every word the wizard had spoken was true.

‘Sir Gaderian?’

Loveday stopped and looked quizzically back at Solar.

‘Why even pretend to be a doctor? What’s this all about?’ She made a wide, sweeping gesture that took in Loveday, Bayen, the inn and herself.

‘Go home, Solar. Get some rest. You’ll need it. All will be explained in the morning,’ Loveday said, and resumed walking.

Left alone, Solar made her way home by the light of the night sky, returning to her family for the last time as Solar Carpenter, petty criminal and barmaid, and the first as a witch in training.