The Circle of Stone (Darkest Age) by A. J. Lake Read Free Book Online Page B

with that shining blade. There’s no way to know whether these bandits are in the thrall of Loki but there’s fighting ahead of us, I’m sure of that. So, here.’ A little red in the face, he thrust the package at her.
    Inside the heavy oiled cloth was a sword, sheathed in leather. ‘It’s not fancy,’ Cathbar said. ‘But the blade is good, and it’s light. I told the smith it was for a boy,’ he added, his tone apologetic.
    Is that what I must do now – walk about like a soldier, with metal at my belt? Ioneth – where are you?
But there was no answering voice. Wordlessly, Elspeth took up the sword, trying not to wince as the unfamiliar hilt met her still raw palm.
    Cathbar nodded. ‘Good. And when we stop tonight, you can practise with it.’ He showed her how to fix the sheath toher belt, and then strode ahead to talk to Cluaran as if he had no more to say to her. But Elspeth saw him glancing back at her as he went.
    The light around them was fading when they reached the first signs of the fire. There had still been no sight or sound of flames. But suddenly Edmund coughed, and at the same instant Elspeth felt the familiar, acrid tang in her throat. An opening in the trees ahead showed the grey sky, yellow-tinged with sunset. Curls of smoke rose against the yellow – and there was enough light to see the first blackened trees on the far side of the clearing.
    Cluaran was bending over something, and when Elspeth saw what he was looking at her throat tightened painfully. What had seemed like a large stump or a mound in the earth was a building: the remains of a hut, part-burned.
    ‘This was a woodcutter’s hut,’ said Cluaran quietly. ‘There’s an axe blade on the floor. The clearing must have stopped the flames: there would have been snow on the ground here yesterday.’ He straightened. ‘We’re at the edge of the fire.’
    ‘Any sign of the man?’ Cathbar asked, his voice flat.
    Cluaran shook his head. He had broken off a piece of the charred wood and was sniffing it. ‘We can hope he escaped – but there’s no way of telling. The fire has been out for many hours, perhaps more than a day.’
    ‘We should go on, then!’ Elspeth said. The thought of walking into the blackness beyond the charred hut made her feelsick – but she had come this way to find Loki. ‘We need to find the source of the fire, don’t we?’
    ‘It is the best lead we have,’ Cluaran agreed. ‘But not at once – tomorrow, when we can see where we’re going. We might as well spend the night here.’
    Edmund and Cluaran laid out their bedding and supplies under the trees on the unburned side of the clearing. Cathbar insisted that Elspeth should practise with the new sword while the dim light lasted, and she could find no reason to refuse. To begin with it was hateful to hold the thing, it felt so alien to her, and she was slow and clumsy, giving way before the captain’s feints and failing to get any blows in herself. After a mere dozen exchanges, Cathbar knocked the sword from her hand entirely.
    ‘No, no!’ he cried in exasperation. ‘You’re fighting like a . . . like a beginner! Try again.’
    ‘You might try switching hands,’ put in Edmund, who had been watching. ‘Your right hand must still be sore.’
    Elspeth took up the suggestion gratefully. The new blade still felt strange and unwieldy in her left hand, but the sense of wrongness had gone. She began to make progress, and by the time darkness fell, Cathbar pronounced that she would do fairly. Cluaran extinguished their tiny cooking fire before they slept; without the massed bodies of yesterday’s travelling companions around them, it would be a cold night, but Elspeth hardly cared. At least there was no snow here. She felt exhausted, and gladly dropped on to her blanket beneath the trees, lying close to the others for warmth.
    They were woken in the night by shouts. Elspeth opened her eyes, shivering, to see the leafless branches above her swaying in