with expertise, savouring the heady experience that he thought of with longing most afternoons. It was worth keeping in with the crones just for this – nobody else at Stonewylde mixed a pipe like they did. Sweyn and Gefrin coughed and spluttered on the strange mixture of dried herbs and plant material that Vetchling had tamped into the bowls of the clay pipes, but then it started to take effect and they relaxed into a haze of gratification. Starling sent Jay to get the cider from the kitchen and they all indulged in this pleasure too, their tankards being topped up at regular intervals.
‘I remember your father,’ mused Vetchling, looking at the two visitors in their midst.
‘Aye, I remember Alwyn,’ added Violet. ‘A fine figure of a man he were.’
‘A real man – you’re like him,’ said Starling, regarding Sweyn’s heavy, flushed face.
‘Terrible what happened to him,’ said Violet, sucking on her pipe. ‘He were cut down in his prime like corn not ready for the harvesting.’
‘Aye, sister, cut off afore his time and we know who’s doing that was.’
‘Aye, we know. We know ‘twere dark work afoot there.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Gefrin, his head reeling with the smoke and alcohol.
‘He choked,’ added Sweyn, equally addled. ‘Our father choked and had some sort of stroke, Mother said. He held on for months but he never got his health back and he were a Death Dancer at Samhain that year.’
The crones cackled at this.
‘Aye, my good lads, he choked alright. But there were dark work afoot.’
‘Aye, meddling and dark work and poor Alwyn were cut down before his time.’
‘Are you saying it weren’t an accident? Someone killed him?’
The old women looked at each other, their toothless mouths puckered in their attempts at a smile.
‘Aye – someone hexed him. And apart from us there were only one other it could’ve been,’ said Starling, regarding them over the mound of her stomach spread hugely before her as she relaxed back in her chair.
‘Who?’ cried Gefrin. ‘Who hexed him?’
‘Old Mother Heggy!’ said Jay. ‘Who else?’
‘And we know why, don’t we, sister?’
‘Aye, we know why. Alwyn did a good job on the bastard in his midst. Kept him in his place, kept him down where he belonged.’
‘You mean Yul?’
The crones spat into the fire in unison.
‘Aye, we mean him. Alwyn treated the boy hard, as he deserved. Whipped him and beat him regular. What man wouldn’t, forced like a cuckold to raise another’s as his own?’
‘But then that bitch Heggy had to meddle, her and her scrying and her prophecies. She were the one who hexed your father.’
‘Aye, sister, and she didn’t work alone. She got the dark-haired one to aid her, do her bidding. He were the one who carried out her hex.’
‘I don’t understand! You mean Yul did it? Yul killed our father?’
‘Yul didn’t kill him,’ said Starling. ‘But he did Heggy’s bidding and made it happen. ‘Twas down to him the hex worked.’
Sweyn jumped up and almost toppled into the fire. He stood there swaying, huge and sweating, his fists clenching and unclenching. Starling regarded him admiringly. He was as fine a figure as his father had been – pity he was so young.
‘I’ll kill him!’ the boy cried. ‘I’ll avenge my father!’
‘And me!’ said Gefrin, his rat face twisted with bitterness. ‘All these years we thought it were an accident!’
‘’Twas no accident, be assured,’ muttered Old Violet. ‘But steady, lads – not so hasty.’
‘No, not so hasty. It must be done right. There’s other things to be thought of.’
‘You won’t succeed if you rush in,’ said Starling. ‘You must listen to the old ones, lads. Bide your time and be patient.’
‘’Tis not yet time,’ crooned Old Violet. ‘But it will be soon, and then we’ll be ready. The dark-haired one will be cut down and the silver one put in his rightful place.’
‘Aye, sister. The Magus is silver, not dark. We know the ways, we know how it should be.’
‘Why can’t you just hex him now?’ asked Jay. ‘Why have you let him rule us for so long?’
Old Violet spat into the fire again, the hiss making Gefrin jump.
‘He’s shielded. There’s protection, with his love binding him safe and making a ring around him. Him and that Outsider girl – pah! She may be Clip’s daughter but she don’t belong here. We know.’
‘Aye, we know. The darkness and the brightness were strong together but there’s trouble brewing, dark trouble enough to break the shield.’