Mysterious Ways (Viatanesian Mysteries Trilogy Book 1) by Abbie Evans

Author:Abbie Evans [Evans, Abbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Cerys rolled her eyes at the sword. “Put that away. They’re sleeping now, we can get up again. Bring one of your warmth charms.” She drew her head back and disappeared as quickly as she had come.

Bewildered, Isabella took one of the charms from her bag and followed her.

“Shhhh,” Cerys said, fingers to her lips as they tiptoed along the corridor. “Avoid the creaky floorboards.”

“But that’s all of them.”

She knocked on the door of the room they had given to Theo next, and moments later a similarly bewildered-looking Theo stood before them rubbing his eyes.

Cerys led them up the stairs and out a back exit, a small door little more than a hole. They were in an enclosed area behind the hovel, where in Solistopian houses there would normally be a patch of grass, flowers would bloom, and some people would grow their own vegetables. Here there was no grass nor flowers, no sign of colour or life to speak of. It was completely burnt out, blackened dirt and ashes everywhere, skeletons of dead trees lining the enclosure.

Isabella and Theo hung back, cautiously alert, and watched to see what Cerys was up to.

She dragged a rusty tin barrel into the centre and whispered a few words of an incantation into it. An uneasy knot formed in Isabella’s stomach. She would never get used to hearing a human hiss in those malevolent tones. But the words made a fire spark up, the flames springing high and burning brightly in the chilly air, and she understood the need for the warmth charm. She stepped forward and tossed the miniature sun into the barrel, a cosy warmth immediately spreading towards them.

Cerys set a blanket on the ground and sat. “You two gonna join me?”

Isabella and Theo took a careful look around them, still on the lookout for danger. But the place was deserted, and Isabella was coming to realise that was perhaps the point. It wasn’t just deserted, it felt deserted too, in a way that other empty spaces didn’t. Waves of isolation constantly swept over her, each one stronger than the last. It was as though Calamitadel was actively working to make its residents feel the loneliness in their bones.

They stepped forward and joined Cerys next to the hellfire, but sat opposite her, huddled away as far as the blanket would allow, and kept watchful eyes on her every movement.

She gave them an exasperated look. “If I were going to harm you, it’d have been your head with a throwing star sticking out of it.” She opened her bag and rummaged around in it.

“For all we know, that’s exactly where you aimed,” Isabella said.

“Maybe next time I will.”

Theo’s eyes darted nervously between them. “What time is it?” he asked, in a hesitant attempt to break the tension. “I can’t tell here.”

Isabella glanced at the sky. It was still dusk, but dusk without the Goddess-given beauty of the colours that would sweep across the sky at sundown. There was no sun, only a heaving mass of colourless clouds weighing down on them.

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