Hexult

by Perry Aylen

  ‘Might as well take it all,’ responded the surly tone of his father.

  ‘What about that thing on the deck?’

  ‘Too big. We’ll never manage that and these boxes.’

  ‘I thought Gabriel might be interested in that. You know how he likes weird gadgets. He’s not going to be chuffed that we didn’t find anything to lead us to the girl. What about those papers? Any clue there to her whereabouts?’

  ‘No, just charts of the islands. We’ll take him those. He might find them useful. Beats me why he wants to find her, anyway. She was only trouble. He should be pleased she’s gone. Shame they didn’t all disappear!’

  ‘Seems to me it’s these wizard strikers he’s obsessed with. Maybe that’s why he wants to find the girl.’

  ‘We already got him the secret of the wizard strikers, didn’t we? No magic there. Just a stupid, fat blacksmith! Strikes me these wizards are no more magical than you or I. Now, you and Rolf get those strikers back to the store, and I’ll finish up here.’

  `What have you got in mind?’ There was no mistaking the malice in Thorold’s voice.

  ‘Payback. That postman owes me for what happened to Ector.’

  ‘As well as the two boats he ruined that day over Pelago way, when we got snagged on the trips.’

  ‘Exactly! So it’s only fair he should lose his boat too, isn’t it? No boat, no mail runs. Teach him to mess with us.’

  Ingar’s mouth had gone dry and her heart was racing. She had no idea what Ivor had in mind other than that he planned to destroy the Aurora. She was on her own and there were three of them. What could she do? In desperation, she risked a peek around the edge of the cabin wall in the hope she might see Aulf’s reassuring figure striding down the quay towards his beloved boat. At least if there were two of them they would stand more chance against the three thugs on board.

  It was bad timing. Just as Ingar poked one eye around the edge of the wall, Rolf turned his head in her direction, and although she drew back instantly, he caught the movement and bellowed a warning. There was no time to consider. She had been seen and there were only two choices in Ingar’s mind. Escape over the rail and leave the Aurora to her fate, or stay and fight. She had no intention of running away. Raising her knife, she sprang.

  She collided head on with Rolf, taking each of them by surprise. Ingar was fast and light, but Rolf was solid and the collision winded Ingar harder. As she reeled back, momentarily stunned, he raised his arm and something heavy smashed with force into the side of her neck. She toppled clumsily, with a crash, against the cabin wall, and her knife clattered uselessly from her hand onto the boards of the deck.

  She must have blacked out for several moments because the next thing she was aware of was hitting the cabin floor with a bone-jarring thud, and Ivor’s voice growling, ‘Serves you right, you little vixen. This is for Ector!’

  A foot hit her hard in the ribs, twice, and then, through the blood spinning in her head, she heard the cabin door swing shut with a crash. She lay curled on the floor. In front of her she could see the locker beneath her own bunk, floating strangely, as though in a black mist. She stared at it vaguely, momentarily unable to move.

  Her dazed wits began to regroup. Her vision focused and the black mist thinned. She saw the locker clearly and registered that she was in the cabin and alone. A smell nudged at her senses, familiar and yet troubling.

  Smoke. The realisation hit her like another kick in the ribs. Not the reassuring smell of wood smoke, but the acrid stench of wool or hair burning. Gasping with pain, she rolled over and got onto her knees.

  Both bunks were alight, the fur coverlets and blankets oozing a foul smoke. She cried out, and looked around in alarm, but she was alone and the door was shut. She got clumsily to her feet, and stumbled to the door, but it would not open. In desperation, she threw her full weight against it several times, but it was well and truly jammed shut.

  ‘Help!’ she yelled in desperation, but no answering shout came from beyond the door, even though she bellowed again and again.

  The little cabin was fast filling with evil-smelling smoke. Ingar’s eyes were watering, and she was coughing. She gave one more yell, then dragged off her coat and rushed back to her own bunk, throwing the thick fur garment over the flames and beating at it with her hands.

  The curtain surrounding the bunk was alight. Within moments, the ceiling would be too. Heedless of the flames, Ingar tugged at the fabric and dragged it down. It fell in flaming tatters over the bed and the floor, and she stamped and slapped at it in a frenzy of desperate fear.

  All at once she realised that her bunk was no longer burning, though the blackened bedding still smouldered thickly. She grabbed the kettle from the stove and threw the contents over the remains of the burnt blankets. Plucking up her charred coat she fell with it onto the blazing bunk on the other side, smothering the flames with her own weight, and tearing again at the burning curtains.

  The fire had gained more of a hold on Aulf’s bunk. She hauled up the rug from the cabin floor, dragging it over the bed. The smoke was blinding her now. With her lungs full, she gasped and choked for breath, her throat scorched by the heat. She knew she was burnt. She could feel the pain, but in a distant detached way, as though it was happening to somebody else.

  ‘Please, help!’ she croaked, as she flailed at the fire with the tattered remains of her coat. She remembered the slop pail and groped for it in the corner. No longer able to see, breath rasping in her throat, she upturned the bucket over the bed.

  It was the last thing she recalled. Overcome with smoke, she fell, choking to the floor.

  Chapter 43

  ‘Come on down to the shed and we’ll show you how the boat’s progressing,’ said Tomas to Aulf, with his usual enthusiasm.

  Aulf shook his head. ‘I’d better not. Ingar will wonder where I’ve got to. I left her to look after the Aurora.’

  ‘Are you still having trouble with Ivor?’ Noah asked him. ‘We’ve not seen so much of him down at the harbour since Ector disappeared. And we still don’t know what happened to him.’

  Aulf pursed his lips and regarded Tomas and Noah thoughtfully. ‘He’s dead,’ he said, with certainty. ‘He fell into the Vajra.’

  The brothers gaped at him. ‘You’re joking! How do you know that?’

  ‘I was there.’ Aulf pursed his mouth. ‘I didn’t know it was him at the time. You remember I told you about our first trip to Zanzo, when we got stranded there because we were chased by a couple of armed boats?’

  Noah nodded.

  ‘Well, I’m almost certain Ector was on the boat that went over the edge of the crevasse. Mayor Potts told Jacob afterwards that there were boats from Quayven following us when we left for Barley. With all that was going on at the time – Elya disappearing and everything – Jacob only told us about it a long while later, but it had to be Thorold and Ector.’

  Noah nodded, thinking back. ‘The timing would be about right.’ He shook his head, in disbelief. ‘I don’t know what to say, really. I never liked Ector, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.’

  ‘It certainly hasn’t done anything to improve our relationship with Ivor,’ Aulf returned, his face grave.

  ‘Have you told the sheriff?’ asked Tomas and Aulf pulled a face.

  ‘I’ve no real evidence. Anyway, Proctor likes me almost as much as Ivor does. Although I’ve never been clear why Ivor hates me as much as he does.’

  ‘He didn’t like your father,’ Tomas told him, ‘so he doesn’t like you either.’

  ‘And you took in Ingar the Orphan,’ Noah reminded him. ‘She was never popular with the forces of law and order, and she’s given Ivor a run for his money on plenty of occasions!’

  Reminded of Ingar, Aulf picked up his scarf and mittens, and the three of them headed back through the town to the harbour, still discussing Ivor and his sons.

  ‘Let’s face it,’ said Tomas as they drew near the harbour, ‘if you’re always up to no good,
it’s bound to catch up with you eventually. Everyone knows Ivor’s involved with dodgy dealings. Noah and I reckon he’s behind a lot of the attacks on the trading barges out on the ice.’

  ‘Not raiders?’ asked Aulf, surprised.

  ‘We think he works with the raiders,’ said Tomas. Aulf raised his eyebrows. ‘Again, like you say, it’s finding the evidence to prove it. Ivor’s crafty, and too many people are scared of him. People won’t talk if they’re scared.’

  ‘And there are a lot of business people in the town who wouldn’t snitch on him because he supplies them with cheap goods,’ added Noah.

  They had reached the quayside. Aulf looked along the dock to where the Aurora was berthed. He always experienced a surge of pride and pleasure when he saw his sleek little boat. There was no sign of Ingar moving about on deck. She had to be inside.

  ‘What’s that?’ he said, as they drew closer.

  ‘What?’ asked Noah, frowning as he looked toward the quay.

  ‘On the deck. There’s something propped up.’ Aulf frowned as he stared. ‘Someone’s wedged the door shut!’

  Before Tomas or Noah could take in what he meant, he was off at a sprint along the quay. They were only steps behind as Aulf leapt onto the deck and yanked away the wooden spar jammed beneath the latch of the cabin door. He hauled the door open and a dense cloud of smoke rolled out of the cabin, knocking him back a pace or two, coughing.

  ‘Ingar!’ he yelled.

  ‘Aulf, wait!’ shouted Noah in warning, but Aulf had already vanished into the smog-filled cabin. Tomas and Noah plunged in behind him and found him crouching over a hunched bundle on the floor. The smoke was beginning to clear as it made its escape through the open door. They could take in the blackened bunks, and the scorched panelling on the walls and ceiling. The fire, however, appeared to be out.

  Aulf gathered up Ingar’s limp form from the floor, and they made a hasty exit into the fresh air, coughing the smoke from their lungs. Aulf set Ingar down on the deck. Tomas was already shrugging off his coat to wrap around her against the freezing air. Ingar’s breath was coming in painful rasping wheezes. Little could be seen of her features beneath the soot from the fire, but her hair was badly singed, and her eyebrows were burnt away.

  ‘Noah, get the harbour marshal, and the doctor,’ Tomas ordered his brother, and Noah nodded, vaulted the rail and loped away on his long legs.

  Ingar’s eyes opened. She stared at Aulf, uncomprehending for a brief moment, before pain reminded her of what had happened.

  ‘The fire!’ she gasped.

  ‘It’s all right. It’s out. How did it happen?’

  ‘Ivor.’

  ‘Ivor!’ Aulf looked shocked.

  Ingar nodded. ‘Ivor and Thorold.’

  ‘I’ll get the sheriff,’ Tomas said.

  Ingar sat up, still coughing, her lungs wheezing, but breathing easier now that she was in the fresh air. Aulf saw how she winced as she moved. ‘Where are you hurt?’

  She shook her head. ‘I’ll be all right. Just a few bruises.’ But as she lifted her hand to adjust the coat Tomas had draped around her shoulders, Aulf saw how her hands and arms were burned.

  ‘Here,’ he said, quickly, ‘let me help.’

  Herman, the young harbour marshal’s assistant, arrived at a run.

  ‘I was only talking to her a moment ago,’ he told Aulf, his face pale and shocked. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Did you notice anyone or anything suspicious?’ Aulf asked him and he shook his head.

  ‘Sorry.’ He nodded at Ingar. ‘I was sorting the mail like she showed me. Look, bring her down to the marshal’s office. Your friend’s gone for a doctor. We can catch him there. At least it’s warm.’

  ‘It was pretty warm in there!’ Ingar told him nodding her head towards the cabin, and Aulf looked relieved that she was still able to joke.

  The doctor arrived first and then the sheriff. The doctor pronounced Ingar a very lucky young woman, although she didn’t feel it.

  ‘If your friend hadn’t arrived back when he did, this might have been a very different situation,’ he told her.

  The sheriff was less encouraging. ‘It’s you, is it?’ he grunted, eyeing Ingar with distaste. ‘Trouble seems to follow you around, doesn’t it?’

  ‘She was attacked!’ Herman intervened boldly.

  ‘Maybe,’ Proctor said, fixing Ingar with a hard stare. ‘And maybe not.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ demanded Herman, with such indignation that Aulf looked over at him in surprise. ‘You can see she was!’

  ‘I can see she was caught in a fire. What I have yet to ascertain is who or what caused that fire.’

  ‘Then you had better find Ivor and Thorold,’ Aulf told him coldly, and the sheriff’s hard glare swivelled to fix on him.

  ‘You stick to delivering the mail. I’ll do my job.’

  ‘You can stay at our house,’ Noah told Aulf and Ingar after the sheriff and the doctor had left. ‘It’s small, but we can fit you both in.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Aulf, ‘but I think I’ll take Ingar across to Ma’s. If we leave now, we can just about make it by nightfall.’

  * * *

  Over the next few days, Ingar remained propped up in bed, while Ma fussed over her. At first, there was little she could do for herself with her burnt and blistered hands, but gradually her bruises and her burns began to heal. She was quiet and subdued, which Aulf put down to the pain. He spent the time making repairs to the Aurora, stripping out the ruined bunks and repairing damaged panelling, even making a couple of trips back to Quayven to get new mattresses fitted. While he was there, he went up to the tower to get a message sent to Jacob on Orking Do, explaining why they were delayed. Then he sought out Proctor to find out how the sheriff’s investigations were progressing.

  ‘Nothing so far,’ said Proctor, as dour as ever. ‘Are you sure there really were any intruders?’

  Aulf fixed him with a hard look. ‘What are you implying? That Ingar is lying?’

  Proctor shrugged. ‘Well, if she accidentally caused the fire, she might want to cover up the fact.’

  ‘Accidentally caused both bunks to catch fire at the same time? Then broke her own ribs and hit herself across the back of the neck to make her story sound true? I don’t think so!’

  The sheriff jutted out his jaw belligerently. ‘She always was a sneaky little fox, that one.’

  Fighting to restrain his anger, Aulf said, ‘So, what about Ivor and Thorold? Have you questioned them?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, I have. They both have firm alibis for the time in question.’

  ‘And you believe them?’

  Proctor looked defiant. ‘You believe the orphan girl.’

  Aulf returned to Jakir Chine, seething with the injustice of it all, but when he related the tale to Ingar, she only shrugged and seemed unsurprised.

  ‘What did you expect?’ she asked him.

  ‘I expected Proctor to do his duty for once!’ he responded with passion. ‘They tried to kill you!’

  Afterwards, when Aulf thought about the situation more deeply, it struck him that Ingar had spent most of her life being persecuted, and had grown used to contempt. Still he boiled with rage at the unfairness, and his own inability to make things right. It was his mother who calmed him down and drew his attention back to what was most important.

  ‘Ingar’s very unhappy,’ she told him one morning. ‘She thinks she let you down.’

  ‘Let me down!’ Aulf looked dismayed. ‘Why would she think that?’

  ‘You left her in charge of the Aurora. She feels she failed.’

  Ingar was up and about by then, but she had barely spoken to Aulf. She reminded him of a scolded dog, with its tail tucked between its legs.

  ‘Time to get back to Orking Do and find out how Jacob got on at the joint council,’ he told her. ‘He’ll be wondering where we’ve got to. And get back on the mail runs before we lose all our business. Are you ready to go?’

>   She shook her head. ‘You go without me.’

  ‘You’re my crew,’ he insisted. ‘I need you on board.’

  Ingar shook her head again. ‘No. I nearly lost the boat.’

  ‘Nearly lost the boat! If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have a boat now. Any normal person would have run while they had the chance, but not you. You stayed and fought, and nearly got yourself killed in the process. You are the bravest person I know. I’d rather sail with you than anyone!’

  For the first time since the attack, he saw a flicker of brightness spark in Ingar’s yellow eyes.

  ‘Do you really mean that?’

  Aulf put his arm around her shoulder and, mindful of her sore ribs, gave her a gentle squeeze. Her eyes widened with astonished pleasure. He’d never hugged her before.

  ‘Besides which,’ Aulf added, with a glint of playfulness in his blue eyes, ‘that Herman’s been asking after you.’

  Chapter 44

  ‘I’ve been so worried about you,’ Jacob told Ingar, relieved to see her looking almost her old self again, although her hands and arms still bore the livid scars of her battle with the fire, and her hair and eyebrows had yet to grow back. She and Aulf had headed straight to Orking Do, only to discover that Jacob was back on Spinnyridge, so they sailed on, arriving to find the Spinnyridge tower complete, and Jacob, delighted to see them.

  ‘Aulf’s message was a bit cryptic. I wasn’t sure what to make of it,’ Jacob went on. ‘It just said something like: AURORA ATTACKED. INGAR HURT. DELAYED SEVERAL DAYS. DON’T WORRY. Bit difficult not to worry when you get a message like that!’

  Aulf looked apologetic. ‘Sorry. I had to word it carefully. I didn’t want to mention any names.’

  They told Jacob the whole story about what had happened. He listened horrified.

  ‘You could have been killed!’ he said to Ingar, and Aulf nodded. ‘I really thought she had been when I wrenched open that cabin door. It was a terrible moment!’