Wormwood Gate by Katherine Farmar Read Free Book Online Page B

said Prawo Jazdy.
    â€˜It was white, wasn’t it?’ said Julie, still looking at Aisling, who nodded. ‘With a red mane.’
    The three men looked at each other in shock. ‘White, with a red mane – and it came through the Gate to mortal lands?’ said Abayomiolorunkoje.
    Julie tried to replay the scene in her mind. ‘Well …’ she said hesitantly.
    â€˜I think so,’ said Aisling. ‘Though we weren’t really paying attention. It had just knocked us over.’
    Jo Maxi’s face fell. ‘She can’t. She wouldn’t!’
    â€˜She could come back,’ said Abayomiolorunkoje.
    â€˜But all the gates are closed,’ said Prawo Jazdy.
    â€˜Except the Wormwood Gate,’ said Aisling. ‘And you said she was good at finding things.’
    But Abayomiolorunkoje was shaking his head before she even finished the sentence. ‘The Wormwood Gate cannot be seen from the other side,’ he said. ‘Even she … This is grave news,’ he said, shaking his head sadly.
    Jo nodded. ‘No point being careful now,’ he said. He took a handkerchief out of his trouser pocket and wiped his forehead with it, then blew his nose with a trumpeting sound. ‘That horse was Molly Red, the Oathbreaker,’ he said after he’d put the handkerchief away. ‘She used to work for the Queen of Crows and the Lord of Shadows. Then she worked for the Queen-that-was, and now …’
    â€˜No,’ said Prawo Jazdy, ‘no, no, no! She would not do that! Not Molly Red!’
    â€˜She has only one life left,’ said Jo Maxi, ‘and she’s using it to escape the City and go to mortal lands. What else can it mean? She’s left us behind. Molly Red has left us behind.’
    Prawo Jazdy and Abayomiolorunkoje exchanged glum looks. ‘Then there is no hope,’ said Prawo Jazdy.
    â€˜No hope for us to get home?’ said Julie, her heart sinking.
    â€˜That too,’ said Prawo Jazdy. ‘But I meant that there is no hope for the City. Without Molly Red, there is no one who will stand against the queen.’

3
    Aisling had always liked the idea of travelling to a magical world, but the prospect of being stuck in one was less enticing, even if she was stuck there with Julie, who was easily the most attractive girl in their year and very good company when she wasn’t in a bitchy mood. (Really, if she was honest with herself, she enjoyed Julie’s company even when she was in full-on hyperbitch mode, which was probably evidence of masochistic tendencies or unhealthy attachment patterns or something.)
    She listened to the three men talking for as long as she could stand it, trying to make sense of the situation they were all in. The conversation had revolved around Molly Red and somebody called the Lord of Shadows who they hated but were apparently obliged to be friendly to, and somebody called the Queen of Crows, who was definitely not the Queen of the City. (They had been positively offended at the question, which Aisling thought was a bit much. It seemed a reasonable thing to ask.) Her attention had wandered after her third futile attempt to get an explanation of who these people were and why they mattered. She could tell that all three of the men were pessimistic, Jo Maxi most of all, and that he in particular seemed to think that the City of the Three Castles had gone badly downhill lately and was doomed to destruction, but she got nowhere when she tried to figure out why he thought that. It was like watching a current affairs programme in a foreign country: the general shape of what was happening seemed to make sense to the people talking, but none of the details meant anything to her.
    So she had taken out her phone and started fiddling with it. There was no reception, of course (wherever they were – and she didn’t even have a theory about that – they were miles away from the nearest Vodafone tower),