The Coven's Daughter by Lucy Jago

Author:Lucy Jago
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

C H A P T E R 14

Cess blinked. Again. Were her eyes open? It was black.

“Edith?” No reply. Panic tightened her chest. She had never been in such complete darkness before, or such silence. She clapped her hands to make sure she could hear, took a deep breath, and tried to calm her galloping heart.

Groping around, she felt the fire lid and lifted it. She blew toward the warmth, and a slight red glow showed her that her eyes were still working. She found Edith’s tinderbox and lit a torch. Edith was sleeping by the hearth, and Jasper on the thin straw pallet on the shelf.

It was impossible to tell the time of day. Quietly, she climbed the ladder and unbolted the hatch. As she lifted it, the smell of wet leaves and bluebells seeped in. The urge to throw wide the hatch and run around the clearing was great, but she peeped quickly at the sky and bolted herself inside again. Who knew who might be standing by the hatch.

The sun was up, its rays checkered by storm clouds. They had slept for a long time. Cess’s stomach growled and she drank a cup of small beer to slake her incredible thirst. Trying not to disturb the others, she picked up some rushlights from a pile on the shelf and put them in her apron, which she tucked up into her girdle. Wondering what to do with the coppers chinking in her purse, she looked around for a small herb pouch and eventually found one in a niche by the ladder. She put the coins in and hid it in a sack of lavender stalks.

“What are you doing?” asked Jasper, sullenly. Cess jumped. He had been watching her from the pallet.

“Those are my takings from the market.”

“Why are you hiding them?”

Cess shifted uncomfortably.

“As it’s only you, your friend, and me here, I can only assume you think I might take your coppers. Be assured, Maid Perryn, it is beneath my honor to steal from a pauper child.”

Cess sucked in her breath at Jasper’s rudeness. “Indeed? Although stealing tobacco from your own mother is not?” she retaliated.

Jasper snorted. “That’s different,” he said, stretching his arms above his head and sitting up.

“Some might say it was worse.”

Jasper was peering at Cess as she moved about the dark space. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going exploring,” she replied, heading into the tunnel that led downhill, toward the priory cellars and Montacute House.

“What! You really are soft in the head. They’ll catch you.”

“I don’t think they’ll be expecting me.” Cess ducked into the tunnel.

“Wait!” he called. “Is this your solution? To get yourself killed?”

Cess did not wait nor reply. She stumbled into the dark tunnel, stooping, for it was low. The ground was flat for a few paces but suddenly sloped downward so steeply that she found herself slipping and skidding out of control. All she could see was within the small pool of light cast by her smoking torch, not enough to

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