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Something about Clariel’s expression made Belatiel go on to answer the question she hadn’t actually voiced.
‘This is Abhorsen business, you know. Dealing with Free Magic creatures. There might be Dead things too. And I am in training to be a proper Abhorsen, even if I do only have the pipes.’
‘Training? Attempting to learn by yourself is not training,’ said Kargrin, but his words had no sting in them. ‘I would have preferred your great-uncle or cousin, but it seems the Abhorsen and the Abhorsen-in-Waiting are too busy, or at least too busy to answer my entreaties. I suppose in the circumstances we should be glad to have any assistance. Even that of a self-taught, self-proclaimed Abhorsen-in-Waiting-Waiting, if I may call you that. Gather close now. I wish to set a spell of unseeing upon us all.’
They huddled together, shoulders touching. Kargrin looked along the street to make sure no one was about, then took a small tin box out of a pocket on the inside of his dark red cloak. Opening it, he reached in with two fingers and spoke three words, words that were imbued with a complex chain of Charter marks, some of them visible in his breath as he exhaled, others running down his arm and fingers, joining with many more marks that began to froth out of the box. Kargrin pinched them together and slowly drew out a faint, shimmering net of lights that was composed of thousands of marks.
‘Closer!’ he commanded, and they all leaned in, helmets and heads touching. Clariel felt the cold steel of Gullaine’s helm against her forehead as Kargrin’s hands flew up, casting the net of thousands of faintly glittering marks into the air. The shining tracery spread out above the group like the branches of a sheltering tree, then faded into nothing. Kargrin grunted. He waited a moment, stepped back, and indicated for the others to do likewise.
‘What was that meant to do?’ asked Clariel, for she could see no change in anyone. They were all perfectly visible. Surely a spell of unseeing would cloak them in darkness or something, at the very least?
‘It was meant to divert attention from us,’ said Kargrin. ‘As it will. Onlookers will see us but make no note of it, nor remember our passage, unless we actually bump into them, or make physical contact. So be sure you don’t. It should be easy enough until after first light, when the streets get busy.’
‘But I can see everyone clearly,’ protested Clariel.
‘You are inside the spell,’ said Kargrin. ‘Trust me. It worked. The marks are still around us, if you look carefully. Squint, and stare upwards, that may help.’
Clariel narrowed her eyes and bent her neck back. At first she couldn’t see anything, but as her eyelashes brushed together, lids almost closed, she saw the marks, suspended in the air above her like falling leaves caught in an instant, never to descend.
‘If you’re satisfied, perhaps we can be on our way?’ asked Kargrin. ‘Roban, take the front.’
Roban nodded, and stepped outside, sword still held ready. His wariness made Clariel think of other hunts, and the seriousness of the hunters, and she remembered something Sergeant Penreth of the Borderers had told her long ago.
‘Never underestimate your quarry, be it boar, sow, deer or even fox. I have seen hunters slain by all of them, fast or slow. A fox bite gone bad in the deep forest can be as much a death blow as having your guts torn out by a boar’s tusk, or your head broken by a stag.’
chapter ten
to the islet
‘I’m not any kind of Abhorsen-in-Waiting really,’ Bel confided to Clariel as they walked next to each other along the Street of the Cormorant and turned left to take the sloping alley known as the Little Steps down to the next street below. ‘I expect you know that they don’t take the family business very seriously back home. Great-Uncle Tyriel thinks it’s just a title, and I doubt Cousin Yannael has even read The Book of the Dead. They’re all mad for hunting –’
‘Hunting?’ interrupted Clariel, her interest sparked, even though she thought it would be better to stay silent.
‘The Grand Hunt,’ said Bel, rolling his eyes. ‘Hundreds of people on horseback, with hounds and beaters and tremendous rigmarole, whole days wasted charging backwards and forwards and stupid ceremonies and lots of drinking afterwards. Instead of our proper business as Abhorsens. But I intend to make sure at least one of the family is properly prepared to deal with the Dead, or Free Magic or whatever comes up, or out, as the case may be. It is very unusual for the Kingdom to have had no trouble for so long. Do you read history?’
‘No,’ said Clariel.
‘There’s a lot to be learned from history,’ said Bel. ‘I read other things too. Have you read The Binding of the Free?’
‘No,’ said Clariel shortly. She wished he would stop talking. Nobody else was, and she had been enjoying the relative quiet of the city so early in the morning. Though now as the day edged closer, and they descended towards Winter Street, there were more people about, working people going to jobs or beginning to carry out early morning tasks like sweeping in front of houses that were probably merchants’ shopfronts, or would be in a few hours when they opened the shutters.
‘I haven’t either,’ continued Bel. ‘I have seen a copy, at the Abhorsen’s House – the old place, you know. But there isn’t one at Hillfair or in the apartments here. Pity. Still I guess the magister knows how to bind this thing, if we do find it.’
‘Yes,’ replied Clariel, not turning her head to look at Bel as she spoke. Hopefully he would get the idea and shut up.
‘I’m annoying you, aren’t I?’ he said ruefully. ‘Sorry about that. I suppose I tend to talk too much when I’m enthusiastic about what we’re doing. I mean, a Free Magic creature hasn’t been seen for decades, maybe longer!’
Clariel nodded absently, hoping this would be taken as an understanding gesture that would also end any further conversation.
It worked. Bel stayed silent at her side as they continued towards the southeast, not taking Winter Street itself, but a series of smaller back streets, where they would be less conspicuous, just in case the spell of unseeing failed. Clariel wondered what people would think if they did notice the strange quintet: Gullaine, Captain of the Royal Guard; Bel in his faded Abhorsen’s coat; the huge Magister Kargrin striding ahead with a great staff of yew in his massive hand, which was topped with what looked like a thistle, presumably an arcane weapon of some sort and not an eccentric piece of costumery; the slight but deadly Roban, a Goldsmith guard; and herself.
In such company, if the spell should fail, Cla
riel was fairly certain she herself would not be memorable, and that was how she liked it to be. A hunter should stay unseen as much as possible, but if not unseen, at least unremarked.
They came to the South Gate with the sun still not high enough to reach past the city wall, though it was now light enough to see well. The breeze had dropped again, as it so often did, and it was already warm. Clariel was glad she was not wearing an armoured coat, though the thought did cross her mind that she might think otherwise later, if the Free Magic creature was found. Not that she intended to fight it, nor did she plan to be as constricted as an actual tethered goat.
Waking a little faster, she left Belatiel and moved next to Kargrin. Gullaine was a little further ahead, using a key as large as her hand to open a small sally port set into the wall about thirty yards west of the South Gate proper, which would be shut until full dawn. There were two guards nearby, but they stayed facing the other way, talking quietly to each other. Clariel guessed this was not because of the spell of unseeing, given the noise the door made when it squeaked open, but because both guards, despite the surcoats showing the golden bee and bowl of silver of the Confectioners, were ex-Royal Guards and part of Kargrin’s association.
Clariel caught up with Kargrin inside the narrow zigzag tunnel through the wall, just before a rusty portcullis that looked like it hadn’t been fully lowered in years.
‘What will this Free Magic creature look like?’ asked Clariel quietly. ‘Will it use weapons? What else should I know about it?’
‘It may look like any number of things,’ said Kargrin. ‘If it fully reveals itself, its very presence will sicken you, and the air around it will smell like hot metal. But I do not expect that to happen. It has hidden itself well, leaving few signs and traces. But your presence should make it rise more to the surface of whatever … or whoever … it hides within, it will not be able to resist the temptation.’
‘So how do I bait the trap?’ asked Clariel.
