“Birds, haven’t ye heard? The Windwitch daughter is back, they say, sneaking about with imps and crows and perhaps a pet devil with a taste for faeries?”
“What? They think ’Pie—? They think we—?” Calypso stuttered, stunned.
“It must be so, neh? Ye lot show up and—spit spot!—faeries start to vanish? That queen’s behind it, telling the whole city how Magpie was with Poppy Manygreen last anyone saw of her, and how they were talking devils with some crusty scavenger imp.”
“Er,” said Calypso. “Mistress, so far that’s so.”
“And where are the lasses now?”
“Well, ’Pie, she’s at Rathersting Castle, with the old healer.”
“Healer?” Snoshti growled. “Is she—?”
“Her wings...they’ll take some mending. Lady Orchidspike says she can do it. But that’s not the worst. She’s...lost, like. Been a bad blow to her, losing Poppy...”
“Losing Poppy?”
“Aye,” Calypso said. “’Twas terrible. We...we lost a crow, too. There’s a bad devil come, we never seen its like. It got thebetter of us, and good. Mistress...” He looked hard at Snoshti. “It’s time. We got nothing left but our secrets, neh? It’s time ye told ’Pie the truth and let her be who she’s going to be. Ready or not.”
Snoshti returned his hard look, and, at length, she nodded. “Perhaps ye’re right, old feather. Time can rush up to meet ye before ye’re ready. But what are ye to do? Ask it to wait?” She shook her head. “Neh. I’ll come to the castle, and we’ll see.”
Calypso nodded solemnly. “After all these years,” he said, “it shivers me a little to think what’s next. It’s like turning a page, neh? And starting up at the top of a new one?”
“That’s thinking small, crow. It could be a whole new book.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Magpie was lying on the bed with her eyes closed when Talon peered in. The room had cleared out considerably. One bespectacled crow sat reading at her bedside, a bandage wrapped round his neck, and he looked up when Talon hesitated in the doorway. “Come in then, laddie,” he croaked.
Talon entered. “Is she...?”
“Asleep, I reckon, or pretending. She don’t much feel like talking.”
“Ah, well, then I’ll just...” He backed away.
“Neh, lad, stay. Here, sit with her. I’m starved for a smoke.”
The bird got up, and Talon saw he was the one with the peg leg. Hethunked heavily out of the room and down the corridor. Talon sat on the edge of the chair and looked at Magpie. Even though her eyes were closed, he felt awkward staring, so he looked away.
Magpie wasn’t asleep. Her weariness kept trying to pull her down into darkness, but each time she felt herself slipping away, she struggled against it. The oblivion and numbness of sleep felt too much like that sea of nothing. The terrible scenes of Issrin Ev were playing over and over in her mind, and there was no safe escape in sleep.
When Talon looked back over at her, her eyes were open and gave him a start. “Hello,” he said.
She didn’t respond.
“I thought you’d want to know, the vultures are gone,” he told her. “After the crows ran ’em off, they seemed keen to get out of Dreamdark, back to wherever they came from. It seems the devil’s cleared out of Issrin, too. We don’t know where he’s gone. And that scavenger imp? The crows told us about him. We found him looting East Mirth. He’s in the dungeon now.”
Magpie’s face seemed vacant, and Talon didn’t know what else to say, so he pulled out something he’d tucked into his belt. “I found this at Issrin Ev. I recognized it from the other day in West Mirth, when you near killed me with it.” He laid Skuldraig on the bed beside her.
She stared at it for a long moment, then blinked. She looked up at him. Some expression flickered in her dulled eyes. “You...you touched it?” she asked.
“Eh? Aye,” he answered. “Just to bring it to you.”
“You shouldn’t have. Never touch it! Never again.”
He stared at her, incredulity turning to anger. “What?” He stood up. “Sure that knock on the head is why you’ve forgotten the wordsthank you, so, you’re welcome. And while I’m saying it, you’re also welcome for your life. But by all means, I won’t touch your knife again.” He spun to leave.
Magpie sat up and opened her mouth to call after him, but dizziness overcame her, and she clenched her eyes shut and clutched at the knife.
