however big or small, it’s never anything compared to what they did!’
‘Now Leveret, I’m—’
‘No! Let me finish for once! Nobody ever listens to me! I’m sick to death of hearing about Yul all the time. I hate my brother being the magus and I wish he’d never become magus. I wish we had the old magus back because he can’t have been as bad as you all say, and even if he was it’d be better than having my perfect brother held up as some kind of god all the time! I hate you and Yul and Rosie – all of you – and as soon as I’m old enough I’ll leave this stupid Village and go and live by myself somewhere! And if you ever touch me again I’ll tell Yul! We’ll see if he’ll banish his own perfect mother or if he’d bend the rules for you!’
Her tirade finished on a crescendo and she stopped for breath, chest heaving. Maizie had stood up too and faced her daughter across the table.
‘Keep your voice down!’ she hissed. ‘The whole Village’ll hear you!’
‘I don’t care!’ shouted Leveret. ‘I don’t care if they hear me!’
‘Well I do!’
‘Oh yes, you do because we can’t have the ordinary Villagers seeing that Yul’s mother isn’t the perfect woman she makes herself out to be! Oh no, she hits her daughter! What would they say to that?’
Leveret laughed triumphantly, green eyes still blazing, delighted to gain the upper hand for once. But Maizie was having none of it.
‘Get to your bed, Leveret! I was wrong to slap you, but you’ve shown me no respect at all. Don’t you dare speak to me like that!’
‘Or what? What’ll you do?’
‘You’ll see,’ muttered Maizie darkly, feeling quite willing to inflict a deserved punishment on her. ‘Go upstairs. We’ll talk tomorrow when you’ve remembered how to behave towards your mother.’
Knowing the row had gone as far as it could, Leveret marched into the kitchen and snatched her wicker basket off the dresser. If it hadn’t been so late she’d never have risked bringing it here tonight. Chin in the air, she stomped back into the sitting room and headed for the stairs.
‘Leave that basket!’ commanded Maizie.
‘No!’ yelled Leveret and raced up to her room, sliding the wooden bar across the door with a loud and final thump.
Sylvie sat in the window seat, forehead pressed against the cold, latticed glass. As the bright moon rose higher behind the trees, her fingertips tingled and her heart beat faster … but only a little. She smiled wistfully at the memory of her frantic desperation as a young girl. As dear old Professor Siskin had warned, moongaziness wasn’t necessarily a blessing. Even though she’d been released from the bonds of the Stonewylde moon-dance that had claimed her every month, she still felt the pull on her soul. Part of her longed to be with the wild hares up on the hill, dancing like a moon angel in the starry night, singing her ethereal song and marking the magic spirals into the earth with her bare feet.
Curled into the cushions and bathed in silver light, Sylvie gazed up at the brilliant moon riding the shredded clouds. The Hunter’s Moon held dark memories that she found impossible to lay to rest. Even now, thirteen years later, she felt the past close behind her. It was as if the dust had never settled properly but still swirled and danced in the air with a life of its own. The pool of moonlight around her failed to penetrate the shadows of the cavernous sitting-room, and Sylvie peered alone into the darkness.
She’d put up so much resistance when, after their hand-fasting, Yul had wanted to move into these apartments. This was where her final ordeal had taken place, the prison Magus had kept her in for the last weeks of his life. Today, the leather sofa where she’d slept in silk and diamonds was gone, as was the black marble bathroom and all the priceless fittings of his great bedroom. The only way she’d been persuaded to use these chambers was by altering them beyond recognition; by wiping out all traces of the man who’d been so obsessed by her moongaziness but had treated her so cruelly.
Yet still he haunted her as if he’d never truly gone. So red-blooded and commanding when alive, echoes of Magus reverberated all around Stonewylde, particularly in the Hall and especially in these rooms. At moments like this, when the full moon blazed