Rook and Shadow by A. G. Marshall

Author:A. G. Marshall [Marshall, A. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avanell Publishing
Published: 2015-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, Madame Delilah was in town, and Elsie was admiring those ribbons-”

“Not that! What happened to Estrella?”

“Oh. Castanian style magic goes wrong sometimes.”

“Lady Alma uses Castanian magic. She never faints.”

“Neither has Estrella while she was making clothes. But the well had gone really salty, and that takes a lot of energy to fix.”

“So she fixed it?”

He nodded.

“We’ll go to Gerta’s farm,” he said. “Shadow will look for us there once he realizes we’re not at Edsel’s. That little traitor.”

“He asked me to marry him.”

“I’m surprised it took him this long.”

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

“You weren’t interested?”

I laughed.

“Just making sure. Love can be strange. Sometimes it takes you by surprise. In fact, there is something I’ve been meaning to say.”

“Don’t you dare, William!”

He winked at me.

“Well, I am apparently free now. Elsie’s gone, and Roslynn is avoiding me like the plague. If you want to-”

“I knew you liked Roslynn!”

“What? Who told you that? Some people will say anything.”

He propped Estrella against his shoulder and walked faster. I jogged to keep up with him.

“I hope those good for nothing cobblers are miserable as servants in the palace. If Estrella doesn’t recover, I’m holding them personally responsible.”

He clenched his fists.

“Does this happen to her often?”

“No, not often.”

William shifted Estrella to his other shoulder.

“Ready for your turn to carry her?”

I stared at him. He winked, and I laughed.

“But seriously, she isn’t light. Do you mind carrying the gold?”

“Of course not.”

I regretted agreeing as I stuffed the bag of pirate gold into my apron. Gold was heavy.

We entered the forest. The salty stream rippled beside us. At least I had socks this time.

I stopped suddenly, staring. William stood beside me and stared as well.

It was as if autumn had come for half the forest. I stood in the summer side covered in green, leafy trees. But across a line, brittle leaves covered the ground. Bare branches stretched to the sky like skeletal hands.

I knelt and examined the ground.

“Salt,” I told William.

He nodded.

I ran my finger across the blackened ground. A single green blade of grass on the edge turned brown and crumbled to dust. I gasped.

“It’s spreading.”

“Obviously.”

“No, I mean it is moving right now. Watch.”

William leaned over the best he could without disturbing Estrella.

“I don’t see anything.”

I traced the line between life and death in the ground. William shifted Estrella in his arms. I adjusted my apron, making the coins jingle.

“William, I saw it move.”

“We need to go.”

Estrella remained unconscious as we walked through the dead forest and blackened fields. Larger plants looked charred. Grass and flowers had disintegrated to dust that swirled in the wind like gray snow.

“Gerta may have to send the orphans to the docks to look for work,” William said. “If this keeps up there won’t be any food left to buy.”

“Were you one of her orphans?”

William laughed.

“Hardly. My parents have a farm by the Weeping Mountains. Out in the middle of nowhere, but there’s a mining station nearby that buys lots of food.

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