Viggo frowned. “There they go, licking each other.”
“That’s how they express their love,” Astrid said as she stroked both of them, smiling.
“For once,” Viggo said gratefully, “I’m even going to let him lick my hand.” He offered it to Camu, who licked it happily. Then, before Viggo could escape, he licked his face.
Viggo leapt to one side. “I said my hand, you fiend!”
Nilsa grimaced. “You know I hate magic with all my heart,” she said, putting her finger on her heart, “but this time I have to admit that Camu’s magic has saved our lives.”
“Perhaps not all magic is bad after all,” Gerd admitted.
“Magic isn’t good or bad,” Lasgol replied. “It’s just that the person who uses it can use it for good or for evil.” He was trying not to sound as if he were lecturing them. He knew perfectly well that Nilsa loathed it and Gerd feared it.
Ingrid nodded. “It’s certainly powerful.”
“And there are plenty of situations where it would be really useful to have it on our side, like just now,” Astrid added.
Nilsa did not protest about magic anymore and was silent, weighing up the hatred she felt for it and what had just happened with Camu. Gerd was nodding silently, and seemed more convinced than his friend, the redhead. Lasgol sensed that they were both a little closer to accepting magic, even though they still had some way to go before they fully accepted it as something positive.
“Let’s focus on the subject at hand,” Ingrid said, imposing order on the conversation. “We’re in a really difficult situation, and we have to find a way out of it.”
“I’d say a deadly situation,” Nilsa added, looking horrified. “That Sorceress Queen of Water doesn’t pussyfoot around.”
“At the moment we’re still alive and safe, so we mustn’t lose hope,” Lasgol said in an attempt to raise the group’s spirits.
“It’d be great to have Egil with us here,” Gerd said. There was longing on his round face.
“That’s true,” Ingrid said. “He’d be sure to think of a good plan, but we can’t rely on him, so we’ll have to sort this one out by ourselves.”
“Something tells me it’s not going to be by force,” said Viggo, who was looking out of the hut. “I can see more than a hundred turquoise savages, just here around us.”
“Escape by night?” Nilsa suggested. She indicated the sun, which was beginning to set.
“Now that we could manage,” Astrid said confidently.
“How would we cross the waterfall?” Gerd asked.
“That is a problem,” Ingrid admitted.
“We’d have to dive, to avoid being caught,” said Astrid. “Dive long and deep. The savages do it.”
“It might be managed …” Lasgol said optimistically.
“I can’t see it,” Viggo objected. “Let’s say we manage to pass the waterfall without being seen and without drowning, which is a lot to ask. Once we’re out, then what? Do we swim all the way back to Norghana? Not to mention that we wouldn’t be taking the wretched Star with us.”
“It pains me to have to agree with this numskull,” Ingrid said, “but this time he’s right. That plan wouldn’t work.”
Viggo batted his eyelashes at her. “Thanks, Blondie.”
“I’m going to …!”
“So, let’s think of something else,” said Astrid. “Something that includes stealing the Turquoise Queen’s Star and escaping by ship.”
Nilsa made agitated gestures. “But we don’t even know where it is!”
“Well then, we find out.”
“She must have it,” Gerd put in.
“The sorceress queen, you mean?” Viggo asked.
“Of course.”
“Well, then it’ll be easy as pie to steal it, and while we’re at it, we steal a ship too.”
“Great idea.”
“I see you didn’t pick up my touch of sarcasm.”
“Aren’t you the best of the Natural Assassins in Norghana?” Gerd asked.
Viggo’s chest swelled. “So I am,” he said.
“Well then, stealing a jewel must be like falling off a log for you.”
“Well … Astrid’s better than I am at that kind of thing. What I do best is murdering, killing and that sort of thing.”
Astrid smiled. “Thanks for the compliment. What we need to do is find out where she keeps it, and start from there.”
“That sounds terrible.” Gerd objected.
“Don’t be a whiner,” Viggo said. “We’ve been in worse messes.”
“And we came out victorious,” Ingrid added enthusiastically.
“And we can’t count on Eicewald’s help either,” Gerd pointed out. “Why have they put him in another hut?”
“Probably because he’s a Mage,” said Viggo, who was looking out curiously. “He’s being watched by the Shamans.”
“And he knows these people,” Astrid pointed out. “The Queen doesn’t want him to start plotting anything with us.”
“Quite honestly, a bit more information would come in very handy,” Lasgol said. He had sat down on the floor of the hut and was petting Camu and Ona.
Ingrid too was looking out of the hut in the direction of Uragh’s dwelling. “What’s clear is that the Queen was going to put an end to us, and changed her mind at the last moment. That’s sure to be for some reason.”
“Something about Camu interested her a lot,” Astrid commented. “I’d say she’s thought she can use him for something, and that’s why she hasn’t killed us.”
“If that’s so, we might be able to negotiate with her,” said Ingrid.
“I don’t see the Turquoise Queen as much of a negotiator,” Viggo objected. “It’s one thing to have caught her by surprise with Camu’s power, so that she’s had to rethink. It’s quite another to say what she’s going to do when she’s decided. I don’t think she’s going to negotiate anything. She didn’t give me the impression of someone you could make deals with.”
“And she doesn’t take any notice of pleas either,” Astrid added. “Look how she treated Eicewald, and he’s supposed to be her friend …”
“Exactly,” Viggo agreed.
Ingrid was looking
