Hexult

by Perry Aylen

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Jacob told him. ‘Let’s go inside, and we’ll tell you.’

  Aulf and Ingar listened intently while Jacob related the conversation they’d had with Gabriel.

  ‘Gabriel is going to explain the light tower concept to the council,’ finished Jacob, when he had recounted the rest of their interview with the wizard. ‘He seems certain they’ll be delighted with the idea and keen to fund the project. And I get to design the towers and help oversee the building.’ There was a glint in his eyes as he added, ‘I’m going to get paid to do it too! And Elya and I are going to be given somewhere to live. A house of our own! You will come and visit us, won’t you?’

  Aulf laughed. ‘Just try and stop us!’

  A little silence descended on the cabin as they all absorbed the impact of the latest turn of events. It seemed they had reached a parting of the ways. Aulf couldn’t suppress a certain disappointment. He hadn’t realised how much he had enjoyed meeting Jacob and Elya. He’d only known them for a very short time, but now it seemed as if their friendship was about to end before it had ever really begun. He tried to shrug off the despondency and sound cheerful. After all, this was good news for the twins. Left orphaned and homeless, they now had a promising future and a home of their own to look forward to.

  ‘We should celebrate,’ he decided, shaking off his sadness. ‘We should go up to the market and get some cakes and spicy fruit beer.’

  ‘We’ll go,’ said Ingar. ‘You can stay here. You’re supposed to be taking it easy until that hole in your side is properly mended, remember?’

  So Jacob and Elya set off back into the town, with Ingar at their side, and Aulf watched them go, still struggling with mixed feelings. He looked at the lodestone fixed to the deck and ran his hand over it with undiminished awe. It still fascinated him. He realised he felt the same way about Jacob and Elya; they fascinated him too. There was something inexplicable and unexpected about them, like discovering a new colour that changed everything familiar into something new and exciting.

  Ingar always enjoyed the market, and Aulf imagined the twins would want to wander around the stalls and soak up the atmosphere, but they barely had time to get up the hill and back when he saw them returning along the quayside, a small crowd following about twenty paces behind.

  ‘Everyone is staring at us, pointing and whispering,’ Jacob complained as they clambered back on board the Aurora and made for the sanctuary of the cabin. ‘A couple of people asked if we knew any spells for making people well. And they were all muttering about magic and prophecies, and doing this with their fingers.’ He linked his two forefingers in front of him.

  ‘It’s a sign to ward off curses,’ Aulf explained, ‘or bad magic.’

  Jacob looked horrified. ‘They don’t really think we’re sorcerers, do they? We haven’t done anything!’

  ‘It’s my fault,’ confessed Aulf. ‘I told the sheriff yesterday that you were magicians because I thought it would stop him from treating you too roughly. Gossip spreads very quickly on a small island. I should have thought. Don’t worry. The excitement will die down soon enough. They’ll find something else to gossip about before you know it.’

  Despite Aulf’s assurances, interest in the newcomers, rather than dying down, seemed to increase as the evening drew in. Small clusters of inquisitive townspeople gathered along the quayside, talking excitedly and pointing at the Aurora. When Aulf or Ingar ventured onto the deck, they found themselves accosted by people asking endless questions about the twins.

  ‘They want to know if you can cure warts and deafness,’ Aulf said, looking bemused as he closed the cabin door firmly behind him. ‘Even word of the light towers seems to have got round already. Wizard towers they’re calling them, and they seem to think they’re about magic and spells and stuff.’ With a small frown, he added, ‘There’s also a lot of muttering about the Vajra’s prophecy. I don’t know how that got started. The sheriff has put a couple of extra men on the quay to move the people away and make sure we’re not mobbed!’

  They ate their cakes and drank the fruit beer together, but the presence of the inquisitive crowds on the quay made them uneasy and dampened their spirits. As dusk fell, a messenger arrived from the town hall with the promised letter from the mayor to Orking Do, and Aulf sent back assurances to the mayor that he would set off to deliver it at first light. Jacob spent some time working on his calculations for the towers, and in deep discussion with Aulf and Ingar about the layout of the islands and the most likely places for tower building. Elya said little but listened intently, curled in the corner of Ingar’s bunk with a book in her hand. Aulf thought she seemed subdued. Leaving Jacob and Ingar still in earnest conversation, he went to sit beside Elya.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  Elya looked up at him from beneath her thick swathes of dark hair and forced a vague, distracted smile to her lips. ‘Fine.’

  ‘Are you worried about the towers?’

  Elya didn’t answer directly. ‘Jacob gets a bit carried away sometimes,’ she said. They both looked in Jacob’s direction. He was bent over his drawings, eagerly adding minor improvements and alterations to the design while Ingar looked on with interest.

  ‘He’s very clever,’ commented Aulf with undisguised admiration. ‘He knows what he’s talking about.’

  The smile came back to Elya’s face and this time it looked sincere. ‘Yes, he is very clever. And he maps everything out so clearly in his head.’ She gave a deep sigh of regret. ‘The trouble is, things are rarely as simple and straightforward as Jacob would like them to be.’

  Aulf looked puzzled. ‘You think the towers won’t work then?’

  ‘What?’ Elya looked momentarily confused. ‘Oh no, I didn’t mean the towers. That’s not what’s bothering me.’

  ‘What is it then?’

  Elya pursed her mouth. Her eyes wandered back to her brother, bent over his diagrams, then back to Aulf. For a moment, she seemed about to speak, then she shook her head and sighed. ‘No,’ she said, ‘it’s nothing. I’m sure it will all be fine. I mean, we’ve been very lucky, really. You and Ingar, and Ma, all looking after us, and now we have work, and an income, and somewhere to live.’

  Aulf nodded. ‘And if it doesn’t work out, well, you’ve still us.’

  Elya smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she said, and this time there was no mistaking the heartfelt sincerity in her voice.

  Chapter 14

  The cabin of the Aurora was not big. Jacob and Elya slept on the floor between the two bunks, on makeshift beds of furs. Aulf, habitually the earliest riser, had to pick his way delicately over and around the twins’ sleeping bodies, to make his way out onto the deck, generally just as the sun was rising. So, he was surprised the following morning when, waking at his usual hour, he saw an empty space on the floor where Elya should have been.

  He pulled on his outdoor clothing, fastened his precious goggles around his neck, and climbed carefully over Jacob’s muffled form to the cabin door, where he paused to pull on his boots.

  Elya was standing on the deck looking out towards the open ice beyond the harbour, where the sun was gently nosing its way above the horizon. She had on her fur coat and her oversized woolly hat, yet she looked cold, her arms wrapped round her body and her shoulders hunched.

  ‘You’re up early,’ Aulf greeted her with a smile. ‘Couldn’t sleep?’

  She smiled back, but he thought she looked even paler than usual, and there were shadows around her eyes. She looked back towards the horizon where the rising sun was coating the frozen flatness with a rose-gold blush.

  ‘It’s beautiful out here,’ she said.

  ‘My favourite time of the day,’ Aulf agreed, leaning on the rail of the Aurora and following her gaze to the luminous rim of the world.

  ‘How far away is the Vajra?’ asked Elya.

  Aulf waved his hand in a wide arc. ‘It’s never very far away when you’re sailing between the islands. There’s the main crevasse that more
or less divides Hexult into two – we call it the Vajra’s belly – but it has long claws that stretch out over the ice in all directions, ready to grab and pull you in if you get too close. It’s why so few people risk sailing very far from the islands. You really have to know your way around.’

  ‘You talk about it as though it’s alive. It’s just a crevasse.’

  Aulf threw her a sideways glance. ‘It’s not just a crevasse.’

  He hadn’t meant to sound so sharp. Elya turned her head to look at him more closely.

  ‘When you see it, you’ll understand. It’s huge and dangerous. It changes without warning. It can open up the ice beneath your feet and swallow you without warning, and it can crush a man or a boat in its jaws as easily as you or I could crush a leaf.’ He paused to take a breath and saw that Elya was watching him, bemused. His face softened instantly.

  ‘It moves, groans, eats people, and breathes. How much more alive does it need to be? I guess we all live in fear of what it will do next. You see, once there were six islands in Hexult. The sixth was in the middle, close to the Vajra’s belly. The Guardians lived there. But when the Guardians upset the Vajra, their island was swallowed into the crevasse, and their spirits joined with the Vajra. Whenever the Vajra moves, we know how easily it could swallow another island. Gabriel is the only one who knows when and where it will happen next.’

  ‘How does he know?’

  Aulf shrugged. ‘He’s a wizard. He knows. At least, that’s what people say. The Vajra hasn’t moved very much in a long time, but Ma remembers it happening, and how Gabriel could tell when it was going to happen and how bad it would be.’

  Elya frowned, puzzled. ‘He said yesterday about consulting the Vajra. What does he do?’

  ‘People say there’s a temple somewhere at the heart of the Vajra. Gabriel goes there, and the spirits of the Guardians tell him when the ice will move again.’

  ‘A temple?’ questioned Elya, intrigued. ‘What’s it like?’

  Aulf shook his head. ‘No one knows. If it exists at all! The story goes that, years ago - before Ma was even born - a small child walked out of the Vajra. Nobody knew who he was, only that he had mystical powers, given to him by the Vajra. That child was Gabriel, and only he knows the secret way back into its heart.’

  Elya looked back towards the crimson-gold horizon, as though she hoped to see the mysterious shrine silhouetted dark against its brilliance.

  ‘You’re a good sailor, Aulf. Have you never tried to find it?’

  Aulf shook his head. ‘To get close to the Vajra, you have to be either very brave or very foolish.’ He gave a small grimace. ‘Most of the people who try to explore it never come back. You can’t sail that close between the arms of the crevasse. It’s madness. I knew some people who tried once, but they never came back.’

  He pursed his lips, and turned his back on the sunrise.

  ‘I leave the wizards to their temples and their mysteries. I have my job to do. I know where it’s safe to sail and where it’s not. Your Skymirror is the only mystery I’m interested in,’ Aulf looked back at Elya and saw how pale her lips were.

  ‘You’re cold. Come into the cabin and I’ll make some tea. The sun’s almost up and I have to leave for Orking Do.’

  Chapter 15

  Standing on the quayside, watching the Aurora shrink to a minute speck on the horizon, neither Jacob nor Elya gave voice to the empty longing they each felt to be back on board, snug in the now familiar confines of the cosy cabin. It was only when the speck had finally vanished into the blank flatness of the ice that Jacob eventually stirred and said with forced brightness, ‘Time to go then.’

  They started on their way back up the hill through Quayven, leaving the harbour behind them. It was still early and there were only a few people about, but still enough to draw stares and murmurs as the twins passed by.

  ‘I wish they’d leave us alone,’ Elya moaned. ‘Why does this always happen to us?’

  They passed a handcart at the side of the road. Wooden crates full of cabbages and carrots were stacked upon it, and more crates were piled on the road behind. Two boys, who were obviously supposed to be loading the boxes, were instead playing catch with one of the cabbages. When they saw Jacob and Elya, they ceased their game and stared.

  ‘Are you really wizards?’ called out one of the boys. Can you do some magic to make my friend here less ugly!’

  He laughed madly at his own joke. Jacob fixed him with what he hoped was a withering look. The boy pretended to cower.

  ‘Ooh, careful, Jan, he’s fixing us with his magic eye,’ he warned his friend, in a mocking tone.

  Jacob felt Elya tense. Something snapped inside him. He rounded angrily on the boy.

  ‘What about if I curse you both and make you both as ugly as toads?’ He drew himself up to his full height and lifted his hands dramatically. His green eyes flashed dangerously.

  The boy’s courage evaporated and he cowered again, this time for real. ‘I was just joking,’ he pleaded. ‘I didn’t mean anything. Please don’t!’

  Jacob glared down at him for several frightening moments before finally lowering his eyes and turning away. As he and Elya resumed their path up the hill, they heard the second boy mutter, ‘I thought he was supposed to be the good one!’

  ‘What did you think you were doing?’ Elya hissed at her brother. ‘That’s only going to make things worse.’

  ‘Why?’ demanded Jacob, surprised and a little hurt that she had not appreciated his efforts to defend her. ‘They keep insisting we’re wizards, don’t they? So why not use it to get them off our backs?’

  ‘That’s not going to get them off our backs!’ Elya tutted with impatience. ‘That’s just going to make us even more unpopular. Just for once, it would be nice if people actually liked us!’

  She marched faster up the hill, deliberately leaving Jacob a pace or two behind. He hurried to catch her up, ready to retort hotly, but then he saw how close she was to tears. He bit back what he had been going to say, and instead muttered, ‘I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have let them get to me.’

  Elya didn’t answer. They were almost at the town hall when she slowed her pace again, and looked round at her brother. ‘What did he mean?’ she demanded. ‘That boy. What did he mean when he said you were supposed to be the good one?’

  Jacob thought back and frowned. He shrugged as he shook his head. ‘Search me!’

  * * *

  Ironically, it wasn’t raiders that delayed the Aurora’s swift run, but a fleet of sheriff’s vessels from Orking Do, patrolling the ice between the islands. Aulf was forced to stop and wait while the sheriff’s men searched his boat and interrogated him as to where he had been and who he had seen and what his business was, although all the officers already knew him as the mailman, and had seen the Aurora making the crossing countless times before.

  ‘What’s this?’ questioned the officer in charge, looking closely at the lodestone on the deck.

  ‘It’s a lodestone,’ Aulf told him. ‘A navigational device.’

  It was obvious this explanation was not about to satisfy the officer’s suspicion so Aulf had to describe how the lodestone worked. As he demonstrated, he could see suspicion turning to curious fascination on the man’s face.

  ‘Where did you get it?’ demanded the officer, unable to disguise the hint of envy in his voice.

  ‘We rescued some survivors from a wreck, some days back,’ Aulf told him. ‘They’re on Quayven with the mayor. It belongs to them, really.’

  The mention of the mayor brought the man back to the present. Aulf had already explained that he had an urgent letter from the mayor to be delivered with all haste. Now it seemed the presence of the lodestone would hold him back as the sheriff’s man shook his head doubtfully.

  ‘I can’t let you sail on to Orking Do unaccompanied with that device on board,’ he told Aulf. ‘You’ll have to go in under escort, and I’ll send a boat on to Quayven to check out your st
ory.’

  There was little point in arguing, Aulf knew, but it was frustrating to have to sail at the pace of the sheriff’s convoy, adding an extra half day to his usual two day journey. His frustration deepened when, on reaching Orking Do, he was informed he would not be able to depart again until confirmation of his lodestone story was received from Quayven. In the meantime the Aurora was detained, under guard, in the harbour, while Aulf and Ingar paced the quayside restlessly, impatient to be on their way again. The delay, Aulf knew, was going to cost him five days at the very least.

  ‘We’ll lose business if we don’t get moving again soon,’ he fretted to Ingar on the fourth day of their confinement.

  Ingar voiced the thought that had been on both their minds for the last few days, although neither of them had yet admitted it. ‘I wonder how Jacob and Elya are doing.’

  Two more days of seemingly interminable waiting passed. Aulf’s usual good humour was beginning to fray with the enforced inactivity. He was most at home on the open ice, with the breeze filling the Aurora’s sails, and Ingar could sense how he chafed to be free again. To Ingar, orphaned and alone for so long, the most precious things in the world to her were Aulf and Ma, but she secretly suspected that if Aulf had to choose the thing he loved most, it would be the Aurora.

  ‘I think we’ve got visitors,’ announced Aulf, straightening up from the locker he was tidying for the third time in six days.

  Ingar, whittling at a stick with her fierce looking knife, looked up. Two people were heading along the dockside, a short, fur-clad woman and the sheriff.

  ‘News at last, do you think?’ wondered Ingar.

  ‘Let’s hope so!’ Aulf peered hard at the woman leading. ‘If I’m not mistaken – although I’ve never actually met her personally – I think that might be the mayor.’

  As Aulf had suspected, when the officials reached the Aurora’s berth, they stopped and the woman smiled up at Aulf in greeting.