‘Aren’t you forgetting something, Lex?’ the enchanter asked sharply.
Lex turned back to inquire what that might be and instinctively caught the velvet pouch the enchanter threw to him. He could feel the three Swanns clicking lightly together through the fabric.
‘But… I thought you said… one million pieces of-’
‘I changed my mind,’ the enchanter said brusquely. ‘Now please go. My crone requires rest.’
Lex was eager enough to comply with the request. He still had quite a lot of stolen goods in his backpack but he’d had enough of the midnight markets for one night, and had enough cash to be going on with now at any rate, so he decided to head back to the docks. He was almost there before he realised he was wearing the black and white bracelet, which was odd because he distinctly remembered seeing the enchanter replace it in his pocket. And the alarming thing of it was that he didn’t seem to be able to take it off.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lex managed to snatch two hours of sleep in one of the brightly-painted gypsy wagons stationed down by the harbour before Cara was knocking on the door, waking him up and telling him it was time to go. With an effort, Lex forced himself reluctantly from the cosy warmth of the wagon into the cool early-morning mist outside. The stalls of the midnight market had been shuttered up for the day and a temporary peace lay over the harbour, the bright flags from the gypsy ship fluttering softly in the early-morning breeze.
Lex had always loved ships, but for a long while his favourite had been the gypsy ships for they were painted bright colours and were adorned with bright sails and flags and Cara’s family’s ship — the Breathless — was no exception. Painted sea monsters danced across the hull and a sculptured wooden mermaid rose up along the prow.
Lex stood at the hull as they set sail, and gazed back at the roofline of the Wither City, not knowing when he would ever be able to go back. It didn’t bother him overly. He had enjoyed the city with its books and its museums and law courts, but in some ways the Wither City had been too civilised for him. Thieving from the museums had been a passing amusement but few things compared to the thrill of travelling.
The one faint pang of regret Lex felt was for Mr Lucas since he knew that his employer would suffer the consequences of Lex’s flight. But even this did not overly prey on his mind for it was not in Lex’s nature to give much thought to the plight of others. It served the old lawyer right, really, for trusting him. Selfishness was part of human nature. And at least Lex was honest about his dishonesty. He didn’t hide behind a screen of pious hypocrisy like the rest of the world.
The gypsies had not said much to him but had merely quietly accepted that he was to be accompanying them on their voyage. Lex had been careful to conceal the bracelet on his arm. The gypsies were a superstitious lot and it would not do for them to discover that an enchanter had put it there. Still, the thing itself seemed to be harmless. It was just a bracelet, after all. It wasn’t tight to the point of being uncomfortable, but it followed the curve of Lex’s wrist exactly and no matter how he fiddled with the thing it would not come loose.
The enchanter had called Lex by his name before he left. His real name. Lex had been too preoccupied to notice at the time. But it came back to him later with a small thrill of unease… But, after all, nothing dreadful had happened and it was a small price to pay for the beautiful Wishing Swanns of Desareth. Lex took them out of his pocket and balanced them in his palm, examining them in the glimmering half-light of the morning. He felt a great pride in owning these utterly priceless things and felt glad now that he had ventured into the enchanter’s tent.
‘My name is Lex Trent,’ Lex muttered smugly to himself. ‘And I always get what I want.’
Then he turned from the railings and walked straight into Mr Schmidt.
‘You’re actually going to have a heart attack if you carry on like that,’ Lex said eventually, eyeing the elderly lawyer warily.
As someone who had studied the laws on murder, manslaughter and causation, Lex was feeling distinctly uneasy about the state that the lawyer was winding himself into. It would be just like the spiteful old man to land Lex with a manslaughter conviction. Apparently he had decided to give chase and had paid for his way on the gypsy ship as the only vessel leaving the harbour that morning. Of course, he had believed Lex to be on the ship that had left the harbour some hours earlier, having witnessed the cabin boy scampering aboard wearing Lex’s coat.
‘How is it possible?’ he had spluttered, on running into Lex. ‘I saw you board that other-’
‘Lost sumfing, guv?’ Lex asked with a grin, holding up the coin that the lawyer had given him the previous night, believing him to be a cabin boy.
A look of startled comprehension crossed Mr Schmidt’s face and that was when he got really angry and started shouting and a couple of nearby gypsies became aware of the dispute and came to watch. Entertainment was scarce when you were at sea.
‘I’m flattered, Mr Schmidt, I never realised you hated me quite that much,’ Lex drawled. ‘But surely you must realise that you have no jurisdiction over me now that we are outside the province of the Wither City.’
‘You contemptible villain!’ the lawyer snarled. ‘Are you not even going to show any remorse for what you’ve done?’
‘What, the thieving or the lying?’
‘Both!’
‘No. Why should I? I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.’
The nearby gypsies laughed. One of them smacked Lex on the back.
‘This is not a laughing matter!’ Mr Schmidt snapped. ‘I am placing this boy under a citizen’s arrest. Fetch whoever’s in charge at once. I demand to be taken back to the mainland.’
Lex winced involuntarily. Only a very stupid person would attempt to order a sea-gypsy to do anything. Lex knew his employer to be a clever man and could therefore only assume that it was the sheer extent of his anger clouding his judgement that made him do such a foolish thing. The gypsies glared sullenly at Mr Schmidt.
‘We take orders from no one, lawyer.’
‘Then I will pay for a life-raft and the two of us will row back to the shore-’ Schmidt began, dropping his hand to grip Lex’s wrist.
It felt more like a mild electric shock than anything as the black and white bracelet split, as if the two halves had suddenly become magnets that were repelling each other. The black half pressed into Lex’s skin as the white half shot from his hand and straight round the wrist of Mr Schmidt. The lawyer withdrew his hand with a yell and the nearby gypsies shrank back in fear.
Lex glanced at the black bracelet around his wrist, puzzled.
‘What have you done?’ Mr Schmidt hissed on finding himself unable to remove the bracelet.
‘Where did they come from?’ one of the gypsies asked sharply.
Lex thought about lying but there seemed little point in attempting to deny that the bracelets were anything other than magical objects.
‘Where did you get them?’ the gypsy repeated loudly.
Lex sighed. ‘From an enchanter.’
Lex couldn’t help feeling a little resentful. After all, it wasn’t like the sea-gypsies themselves never meddled in the magical arts. They were all up on deck, near the prow of the ship, as it was one of the only places large enough for everyone to gather. Below deck the ship was a catacomb of tiny rooms, tunnels and hidey-holes and the galley was one of the only places big enough to accommodate everyone inside. Indeed, with his height, Schmidt would probably be forced to keep his head carefully lowered inside the ship if he wanted to avoid getting a concussion.
Gypsy families tended to be large and always travelled together. All twenty-three of the crew were now clustered up on the deck around Lex and his distinctly unhappy employer. The Globe had four suns, each ruled over by a different God. Weather was an arbitrary affair, very much dependent on whose sun happened to be in the sky that day. Unfortunately, it was Heetha’s sun that morning. As the God of War and Strife, Heetha’s sun was the hottest and the most unrelenting. The wooden boards of the gypsy ship had warmed whilst they had all been gathered there and the steel railings were scalding to the touch.