Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher Page B

too.’
    ‘Father!’ Katla was scandalised. ‘You can’t do that, not without consulting us, at least. And what about our debts? There’s the new pighouse, and we owe Uncle Margan already for the shieling . . . And—’
    ‘Katla: the money you make from the weapons stall is all your own to keep, since it is your hard work’s earning; but the outlay on the tradegoods was mine, and thus the risk in the trading is all mine, so I shall make the decision as to how any profit from it shall be spent. Fent and Halli’s plan is a bold one, and I admire ambition in my sons: I know their mother would, too, and while there may be trinkets she hankers for from the Fair, I am sure she will see the sense in postponing her pleasure till it comes back a thousandfold from the Far West! Besides, daughter, I had not thought you would be wanting to have your bride-price in hand so soon!’
    ‘I – no.’ She tossed her head, was made aware again of the loss of her hair by the unexpected lightness of the movement. ‘I want no husband at all!’
    ‘Never say that, child.’
    ‘I’ll buy mother the silks and grains she wants out of my own pocket,’ Katla said fiercely. She turned to Fent. ‘But if you’d said I could come, you could have had my share from the sardonyx, and all I make from the swords, and welcome to it.’
    Fent punched her lightly on the arm. ‘Keep your pocket-money, small sister. Anyway, you’ll need all you can get to bribe a man to marry you with your hair shorn like an urchin’s!’
    And then he dodged.
    Aran watched the pair of them duck and dive their way through the growing throng until they had disappeared from view. Gradually, his eyes lost their focus.
    ‘The Ravenway,’ he breathed, staring into nothing. ‘Ah, the Far West!’
    ‘So, Halli: how did Jenna like her mirror?’
    ‘Rather better than she likes me,’ Halli replied ruefully. ‘I caught her whispering love-talk to it as if it were the King.’
    Erno laughed. ‘She’s a silly girl, Halli. I don’t know what you see in her.’
    Tor Leeson grinned. ‘When did you become an expert in such matters, Erno Hamson? A girl has only to look at you and you go bright red and run away.’
    Erno flushed now, and hung his head.
    ‘Besides,’ Tor carried on with a mischievous glint in his eye, ‘if you are so vehement as to Jenna’s failings, it must surely mean you have your heart set on another . . .’
    ‘I do not!’
    Halli, ever the peacemaker, intervened. ‘She’ll grow out of her fantasies once the King’s picked his bride and she has a man of her own. And she comes from a good family.’
    ‘You wouldn’t have your eye on one of her father’s longships, would you, Halli?’ Tor asked shrewdly.
    Halli held his look steadily. ‘It would not be the sole reason for my interest.’
    Tor laughed. ‘It’s not a bad one, though. I swear I could almost tup plump little Jenna myself to get my hands on one of those beauties!’
    ‘You’re each as bad as the other!’ Erno declared furiously. He stood up awkwardly, his arms wrapped around his chest as though to keep something in place, and regarded his cousins with burning eyes. ‘I’m going for a walk.’
    He clambered over the piled blocks of sardonyx, each piece weighed, registered and certified that long afternoon by the Fairmaster and his assistants, and pushed his way out through the doorflap.
    Tor watched him go with a strange light in his eye. ‘He’s got it bad for Katla,’ he said.
    ‘Hmm.’ Halli shrugged. ‘She won’t have him, you know.’
    ‘Of course not,’ Tor laughed easily. ‘She’ll have me.’
    Erno walked unsteadily past the Eyran booths, his heart hammering in his ears. ‘Idiot!’ he said to himself repeatedly. ‘Idiot!’ If Halli suspected he loved his sister, he’d be sure to tell Katla, and that Erno could not bear. Katla Aransen was not, he had to admit to himself, a kind girl: no, she’d laugh at him, tell her friends and then go on ignoring