‘I doubt that this Wislaw will have any real interest in your father now that he knows about you. That was a big mistake. Now he’ll be wary and we have lost all chance of surprise. See where your stupidity has led. You could have ruined everything with your blundering. Let’s hope you’ve managed to gain something at least. Have you any idea of their plans?’
Iwa shook her head. She’d brought the amulet, wasn’t that enough? This was all so unfair. ‘Krol Gawel has cut down the trees to plant crops, so that he’ll tickle food from the stomach of Matka Ziemia.’
‘So he wants to be a farmer,’ Miskyia said, unable to keep the mockery from her voice. ‘Here in the forest? That’s a fool’s errand if ever there was one.’
‘But they have already burnt away part of the forest, scorched Matka Ziemia with fire and cut down her trees.’
‘There’s far more to being a farmer than cutting down a few trees: this krol sounds more foolish than I’d imagined. Maybe they will force the captives to till the earth for them.’
‘But if they can’t tickle out these crops of theirs, won’t the woyaks just go away? Some of them have tried to get away but there’s this man, Grunmir, and they’re all afraid of his axe and his tongue.’
‘If the crops fail, so will the krol’s plans and then the woyaks will have no choice but to leave.’ Miskyia said simply, not even bothering to ask who this Grunmir was. ‘They will take the men to sell as slaves, the women too. I know these woyaks; greedy for gold and lazy. They’ve no fondness for hard work and farming is far harder than they realise.’
‘But will they sell my father to the Arabs, and the other women in the ships too? The priest wanted to sacrifice me because he thought he’d be able to drink up my craft and make it part of him.’ Iwa looked into Miskyia’s blue eyes; more than anything she wanted somebody to talk to, somebody who understood about the craft and could help her get rid of it. ‘He has a doll too, with my hair and a drop of my blood. It calls to me, even in the forest.’
‘So he has a manikin of making,’ Miskyia said as if to herself. ‘He must be more powerful than I thought: such dolls are difficult to conjure, and you were a fool to let him trap you like that.’
‘There was nothing I could do.’
‘So this is where your actions have led you? You could have been killed, and if he has bound your soul to a manikin of making then he could have followed your tracks through the forest as surely as any hunter.’
‘But not to this place. I felt his magic in the forest but when I came to the border it was gone.’
‘But now he knows that a hidden place lies nearby.’ Behind Miskyia there was a rustle of bushes as Sturmovit came to stand by her side, a small axe glinting in his hands. ‘If Krol Gawel and his woyaks attack I do not know if I’ll have the strength to repel them.’
‘I could help,’ Iwa said and looked to the ground.
‘You’ve done far too much already. I should have chained you to the temple walls. You can be thankful that this place might not be so easy for Wislaw to find, even with his doll.’
‘But you said that I could help summon Lord Bethrayal,’ Iwa continued, desperate to gain some approval. Yaroslav’s safety depended on this strange woman. ‘You need me to summon him to his world.’
‘Even with the talisman it will be difficult. I have spent so much of my own magic just to get him here for even a short while.’
‘But I can help. Tell me what to do.’
‘This isn’t one of your childish games. Are you really so foolish to take on such a thing lightly?’
‘You have to help me. I got the amulet and now it’s your turn.’ She didn’t trust Miskyia, but she couldn’t free her father by herself and anything was better than leaving him in the hands of Wislaw and his krol. ‘You have everything you need now, the amulet…’ she let her voice trail away. Where has she hidden Jacek’s totem? she wondered, but decided not to mention it. She’d never really believed Miskyia’s story about not having found it. Let her keep the thing for all I care, so long as she helps me free my father.
‘Perhaps I need you still.’ Miskyia’s voice was distant. ‘It is a strange fate when so much depends on one such as you.’
‘If I do help, will Lord Bethrayal kill the woyaks and help free my father?’
‘Oh, he will have his vengeance and that idiot priest will curse the day of his birth as he dies in agony alongside that pathetic excuse for a krol.’
‘Will this Lord Bethrayal let the hunters go?’
‘He will rule, as he was born to do, with you as his handmaiden.’
‘What about my father, will he be free?’
There was a long silence as the words hung in the air. Then Miskyia stood to one side and motioned for Iwa to follow. ‘The Lord Bethrayal does not take orders, he makes his own way.’
‘If I am to be his handmaiden, won’t he listen to me, especially if I help him break through the firmament?’
‘Perhaps,’ the sorceress said, ‘though you’d not be of use until the craft has fully wakened within you. May Jezi Baba be there to guide you through that ordeal. Many have failed the test and the price they pay is often terrible.’
‘Then you’ve got to stop it.’ She didn’t like all this talk of the craft, or anything to do with payment and prices. Miskyia was beginning to sound like a trader at a summer fair. The witch drew back and was
