Chantress Alchemy Read Online Free Page B

hunched in the King’s carriage, bracing myself against its interminable bounce and jiggle. My one comfort was that I couldn’t hear the strange drone anymore—though that might have been because I was toosick to my stomach to hear anything. Listening for Wild Magic required patience and concentration, and right now I had neither.
    We were lucky, Knollys told me, that the weather had remained so cold, and the ground was frozen. Otherwise, we’d have been mired in mud, for the roads from Norfolk to London were a mess of ruts and holes.
    As we jounced along, however, I did not feel in the least lucky. Nor could I take any pleasure in the luxurious trappings of velvet and gilt in the carriage itself. Every mile seemed endless. My only comfort was that Norrie was not having to suffer the journey along with me.
    This particular stretch of road was one of the worst yet. Trying not to retch, I clenched the padded arm of my seat. My head jerked this way and that. Not for the first time, I wished I knew a song-spell that would allow me to fly.
    I’m opening a window , I decided at last. I don’t care what Knollys says. I need some fresh air.
    It was Knollys who had ordered the windows shut and the curtains drawn. When I’d protested that the weather wasn’t as bad as all that, he had shaken his head. “It’s for your own safety that we do this. No need for all and sundry to know that the Lady Chantress is passing by.” Only when we were rumbling through lonely countryside did he allow me to open the windows, and only for the briefest of intervals.
    We were not in the countryside now. Above the jostle of the carriage, I could hear the clatter of cobbles, the cries of children, and the barking of dogs. When I pushed back the curtain, myeyes confirmed it: We were in a town. Not a very considerable one, but a town nonetheless, with its own pump and market cross.
    “My lady!” The carriage slowed, and Knollys cantered his horse to the window. “You must not be seen.”
    “I have to have air,” I said, “or I’ll be sick—” I broke off as I caught sight of the people pressing forward to line our path. “Dear heaven, look at them. So thin you can almost see their bones.”
    “Never mind, my lady,” Knollys said. “It is your safety that concerns me.”
    The carriage juddered to a halt. I leaned out the window and saw why: a rabble of scrawny children had darted out in front. They ran toward me, hands outstretched. “Please, mistress. Please, my lady.”
    “Away with you!” Knollys drew his sword.
    “No!” I cried out. “Let them come.”
    Knollys gave me a furious look, but he stayed his sword. “My lady, you must leave this to me.”
    “What is it they want?”
    “Food, of course. Like everyone else.”
    “Everyone else?”
    Knollys’s voice hardened. “England’s a hungry place these days. But hungry or not, this rabble can’t be allowed to block our way, not with so much at stake.” He called out to his men. “Prepare to advance.”
    “No,” I said again. “Not yet. Surely we can give them something.”
    “We have only our own rations. And yours.”
    The men’s rations were not mine to give. But the King’s servants at the hunting lodge had laden me down with rich provisions—far more than I could eat by myself, even if my appetite hadn’t deserted me.
    “Give them my food,” I told Knollys.
    “You cannot be serious.”
    “I am.”
    In the end, he did as I asked—in part, I suspected, because it was the quickest way to get the children out of the way of the carriage. As two of our men hauled the provision baskets over to the market cross, Knollys ordered the company forward.
    “Close that window,” he commanded, looking at me. This time I reluctantly followed orders.
    The last thing I saw before the curtain fell were children leaping into the air for grapes and biscuits.
    “Boudicca blesses you, lady!” The cry came as the curtain sealed out the light.
    The syllables rang out