The Spell of Rosette - Kim Falconer [143]
‘The temple cats don’t choose by rank, if they choose at all.’ He turned to look at Makee. ‘You know they are rare familiars.’
‘They often choose by bloodline, though, An’ Lawrence. I find it quite curious that both you and Rosette have, or had, such bonds. Don’t you?’
‘Pardon?’
‘I think you’re hiding something.’
A chill wind blew through the door, fluttering the candles and making them both shiver.
He looked her straight in the eye. ‘I’m not hiding from you, Makee.’
She paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow. ‘That’s not quite the same thing, is it?’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘I believe you do.’
Neither spoke for a while. The air, fragrant with camphor and sage, grew thick.
‘How soon can you ride?’
An’ Lawrence stretched his neck from side to side, exhaling long and slow. ‘As soon as Scylla’s fully recovered. A week. Maybe less.’
‘I want you to follow her, as soon as you’re able. She flew north, we know that much. I want you to pick up her trail and see what she’s doing. Get to the islands, if that’s where she’s going. We need to keep a close watch on that witch.’
‘If you think that’s best.’ He disguised his exuberance. This was exactly what he wanted but couldn’t have asked for.
‘I’d like to see you on your way before the new moon.’
‘No problem. And you? What will you do?’
‘I’m going to see what’s in the vial so I can work out where the rest of the spell is. If all the Lupins in Los Loma were after you, then Kreshkali doesn’t have it.’
‘You suspect Nell?’
‘Don’t you?’
He looked into her brilliant green eyes. ‘I do.’
‘Then go get her.’
Rosette and Jarrod led the horses into Morzone, their rhythmic hoofbeats punctuated by the severe hobble of the mountain horse; her unshod hoof had cracked right to the quick and she limped with each step as if the leg was broken.
‘Farrier first?’ Rosette asked.
‘Definitely. We need to burn the top of those cracks before they go any higher.’
‘Can she be re-shod?’
Jarrod bent down as they walked, studying the damaged hoof. ‘I think so. There’s enough wall left on the sides, in places anyway.’
‘We can’t leave her here.’
He nodded. ‘She wears a Treeon brand and it’ll be as clear as your tattoos when she sheds in the spring—might as well be sending a letter to Makee saying, Rosette’s alive and she went this way.’
‘Is that who we’re running from? Makee?’
Jarrod kept his eyes on the lame horse. ‘According to Nell.’
‘In any case,’ Rosette said, ‘we’re taking her with us. We’d never sell her lame.’ She shielded her eyes and scanned the long thoroughfare. ‘Do you see a blacksmith’s shingle?’
He pointed into the distance at a barn with wideopen double doors and smoke coming from a chimney in the high rooftop. ‘That looks like one.’
She squinted. ‘Demons, I’d forgotten how good your eyesight is.’
‘Can’t you see it?’
‘I can now,’ she said.
‘We’ll need to find the docks and book our passage as well.’
‘I can smell the docks from here.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Reminds me of home. Doesn’t it you?’
He nodded, quickening the pace.
Rosette ignored the stares from the early-morning shopkeepers and the townsfolk hurrying up and down the street. Drayco was the main attraction, an oddity it seemed. A familiar walking at her side marked her as a witch, and not everyone—or every town—was comfortable with that. She hoped that in Morzone it would work to their advantage and not against, but that was looking like a slim chance already.
‘Wait out here in the sun,’ she suggested to her temple cat when they reached the farrier’s barn. ‘If you come in with us, it could cause a commotion.’
The people out here are more uncomfortable than the beasts in the barn.
‘I know. We won’t be long.’
After giving their horses a thorough grooming