The End of Magic by Mark Stay

Author:Mark Stay [Stay, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbound
Published: 2019-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Oskar’s Questions

Pain was a fact of life now for Oskar. He understood that it would always be there, like the weather and the mountains and the sea. Even lying completely still, his body burned. He was permanently taut, his muscles and tendons frozen in tension, his whole being clenched tight like a fist. The smallest movement broke his scabbed skin and left him gasping. Worst of all, it was so exhausting that he could barely think straight. All night he had tried to comprehend what had happened to the world – to him – but there were too many unanswered questions. The only witness to his pain was a solitary chicken in its cage, its companions having been served up in lieu of the soiled rations before they picked up fresh supplies in Port Byle. She was, no doubt, the most prolific egg layer of the lot. Oskar reflected mournfully that she perhaps served a greater purpose in the world than he ever would.

Yanick came down into the hold. Instinctively, Oskar backed away, hissing in pain. He was manacled to the deck. And not with a mere pin this time.

‘That’s an iron lock from Sachari, laddie.’ Yanick carried a bucket and a ladle, which he set down by Oskar. ‘And I have the only key. No chance for you to go sneaking around in the middle of the night, spoiling our food, drowning rats in the rum.’

He grinned yellow teeth, then reached back to tie his long white hair in a pony-tail. With a graceful swoop, he sat cross-legged before Oskar, then swirled the ladle in the bucket a little before taking it out and proffering it to the boy.

Oskar hesitated, eyes flitting between the ladle and Yanick’s face, trying to read for any kind of duplicity.

‘Don’t worry. I’m under orders to keep you alive, son.’ Yanick took a sip of the rum himself. ‘If you die, I die.’

He offered the ladle again and the boy leaned forward and lapped it up like a kitten.

‘Why the act?’ Yanick asked. ‘From the moment we found you, you played the fool. Even around your mother. You lied to your mother?’ Yanick’s face wrinkled in disgust at that.

Oskar fought back a smile. This man was a cold-blooded murderer who led a vicious gang of cutthroats who revelled in torture and torment, and yet lying to your mother was apparently the worst crime in the world.

‘It wasn’t…’ Oskar coughed and choked on his words. It was the first time he had spoken without screaming since he was brought back on board. Words didn’t come easily. Yanick fed him the ladle of rum again, and the liquid felt syrupy and warm in his throat. ‘It wasn’t an act.’ His tongue felt thick in his swollen mouth and his words were slow and clumsy, but merely speaking his mind aloud was almost as liberating as having his chains removed. ‘I don’t know what happened. I woke up one morning… and my mind was clear.’

‘That easy, was it?’ Yanick’s heavy-lidded eyes remained unimpressed.

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