Contents
Cover
Title Page
Leave us a Review
Copyright
Dedication
I The Cuckoo
1
2
3
4
II The Grey Wolf
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
III The Great White Shark
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
IV The Green Sea Turtle
35
36
37
V The Honey Bee
38
39
40
41
42
Acknowledgements
About the Author
‘An impressive novel from Hannah Mathewson. Rich and intricate world-building evokes a London that is both familiar and unfamiliar. The reader is swept into a world that is sometimes unsettling, sometimes terrifying, but always exciting.’
JODI TAYLOR, AUTHOR OF JUST ONE DAMNED THING AFTER ANOTHER
‘Witherward is catnip for fans of complex characters and delightfully messy worlds. It delivers on a world of intricate factions and intrigue, without ever losing track of the vividly written living, breathing characters that are at the heart of it. This book broke my heart in the best ways.’
A.J. HACKWITH, AUTHOR OF THE LIBRARY OF THE UNWRITTEN
‘Mathewson has delivered a dazzling, fantastical adventure where magic awaits you on every page, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. With a magnificent world I’d love to get lost in, intriguing magic, and a wide cast of dynamic characters you can’t help but love, Witherward is a phenomenal and immensely fun debut that will leave readers wanting more.’
ADALYN GRACE, AUTHOR OF ALL THE STARS AND TEETH
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Witherward
Print edition ISBN: 9781789094435
E-book edition ISBN: 9781789094442
Published by Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP
www.titanbooks.com
First edition: February 2021
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.
© Hannah Mathewson 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Hannah Mathewson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
For my parents, for welcoming me home
THE WHISPERERS
Whitechapel
LEADER: LORD JERICHO VOSS
MILITIA: THE STEWARDS
THE SORCERERS
The Heart
LEADER: HIGH SORCERER LUCIUS
MILITIA: THE ENFORCERS
THE ORACLES
The Docklands
LEADER: THE SEER
MILITIA: THE ACOLYTES
THE ORDER OF SHADOWS
GUILDMASTER: EWAN GRIMM
THE WRAITHS
The North
LEADER: LADY JOSAVIE WRIKE
MILITIA: THE BLADES
THE CHANGELINGS
Camden Town
LEADER: ALPHA HESTER (WARDEN)
MILITIA: THE WOLVES
THE PSI
The Underground
LEADER: THE TRINITY
MILITIA: THE CLOAKS
I
THE CUCKOO
Cuculus canorus
A woodland bird found in Europe, Asia and Africa, the cuckoo is a symbol in many cultures of desire and longing. The female lays eggs that match those of another species in colour and pattern, and deposits them into the host’s nest.
1
Ilsa did not need to pick pockets any more, but some people deserved it.
And the heckler at her shoulder had it coming. It wasn’t just that the boy looked hungry, and his upturned cap was nearly empty of change. Or that he was only trying to entertain, even if his card tricks were well worn. It wasn’t even that, as a fellow performer, Ilsa felt his blushes every time the man booed.
It was that he was distracting her.
She had squeezed to the front of the small street crowd so she could be sure of anything untoward in the boy’s technique. Rarely, once in a hundred days perhaps, she would spot something that shouldn’t be. A man moving too quickly through a crowd. A girl who noticed Ilsa and Martha whispering about her from fifty paces away. A teacup hitting the café floor with a smash, then being whole a moment later.
It was hardly worth her vigilance, but if there were other people in London with peculiar talents, then they were to be found among magicians, and so Ilsa would scrutinise every single one.
This little magician was no older than ten or eleven, and his pack of cards was too large in his hands. His levitating card was clumsy, and its method on show, if you knew where to look. He made cutting the aces harder than it needed to be, but when it worked, the crowd didn’t seem to mind.
But whether his next sleight of hand was standard, Ilsa couldn’t be sure. The man to her right raised his hands to cup his mouth, and hissed loudly, obstructing her view and snagging her attention. For that, he was losing his wallet.
Martha sighed loudly; she was losing patience. But when Ilsa winked and indicated the man’s fat pocket, a finger’s breadth from her hand, the other girl’s eyes twinkled.
For Martha, unlike Ilsa, was not a reformed thief – she was a practising one. She smiled sweetly at the couple behind Ilsa as she repositioned herself to obscure their view, and when she nudged Ilsa’s elbow to indicate the all-clear, Ilsa dropped her hand deftly into the heckler’s pocket.
Her fingers closed around a wallet, and without hesitation, she lifted it smoothly and softly, and deposited it into her own bag. A serendipitous spatter of applause from the crowd was distraction enough for the girls to slip casually to the side. They were nearly away when Ilsa’s attention was drawn back to the boy, and the cause of the clapping.
He was performing a simple snap change. The three of spades was gripped between his thumb and forefinger. He snapped his fingers and it
