Read Online Scramasax by Kevin Crossley-Holland - Free Book Online

found us a pilot,’ Edith explained, ‘but when we went down to the water-steps to meet him, he wasn’t there. We looked for him everywhere; we waited all afternoon.’
    â€˜We couldn’t find Mihran either,’ Edwin said.
    â€˜Anyhow,’ Edith said brightly, ‘we’ve found another pilot. Well, Edwin has. And this one’s trustworthy.’
    â€˜Thin ice can look trustworthy,’ Solveig warned her with a smile. ‘That’s what my father says. His mouth is full of sayings.’
    â€˜Oh, Solveig!’ said Edith. ‘You look so … bright-eyed!’
    The two of them embraced again, as best they could with the bump of the baby between them.
    â€˜I’ve got the ring,’ whispered Edith, ‘and when my daughter cuts her teeth on it …’
    â€˜Daughter!’ exclaimed Solveig. ‘How do you know?’
    â€˜I just do!’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜It’s not so strange, is it? After all, she’s living with me day and night, and I’m living with her.’
    â€˜Oh, Edith!’
    â€˜I won’t know what to call her until I see her.’
    â€˜You told me that before,’ Solveig said.
    â€˜Not long now. Kata, maybe.’
    â€˜Kata,’ repeated Solveig slowly. ‘Kata. I don’t know that name.’
    â€˜And when she cuts her teeth … I’ll think of you.’
    Solveig took a deep breath. ‘But I’ll never see her. You’ll have gone back to England.’
    â€˜Oh, Solveig!’ cried Edith, and the two of them clutched each other.
    â€˜I’ll never see her, and I’ll never see you again.’
    â€˜You can’t know that,’ said Edwin.
    â€˜It’s our fate,’ Solveig replied.
    â€˜Fate …’ said Edwin. ‘As I’ve told you before, fate moves in the mind of God.’
    â€˜Did you meet the Empress?’ Solveig asked him.
    â€˜And the Emperor.’
    â€˜She gave me an audience too.’
    Each of them met the other’s eye but neither said a word. But then Solveig screwed up her face as if she’d sucked a sloe or a lemon, and Edwin laughed so that his buck teeth stuck right out of his mouth.
    â€˜The Empress asked me exactly what King Yaroslav had said to me,’ Solveig told them, ‘and when I explained the king wanted to send a messenger to Miklagard as a matter of great urgency, she challenged me.’
    â€˜Oh?’
    â€˜â€œTo Miklagard”, she repeated. ‘“To Miklagard, not to me?”’
    Edwin was listening intently, chafing the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth.
    â€˜I told her the message was for her. I said I was sure King Yaroslav meant that. And I told the Empress how the king had praised her.’
    Edwin smiled. ‘You could be an emissary,’ he said. He nodded and linked his fingers over his paunch.
    â€˜A what?’
    â€˜A go-between.’
    Solveig shook her head. Wordsmiths, she thought. Isn’t that what go-betweens are? Pushers and pullers and twisters?
    Edith read her thoughts and shook her head. ‘Red Ottar didn’t like wordsmiths,’ she observed.
    â€˜Neither does my father,’ Solveig replied. ‘He says they’re dark magicians. They shape-change meanings.’
    Edwin smiled. ‘You credit us with more power than we really have,’ he told them.
    â€˜King Yaroslav’s message,’ Solveig pressed him, ‘it was for the Empress, wasn’t it?’
    â€˜And the Emperor.’
    â€˜I mean …’
    â€˜I know what you mean, Solveig. My mission was from King Yaroslav to the Empress Zoe and Emperor Michael.’
    Solveig narrowed her eyes at him.
    Edith laughed. ‘Trying to get Edwin to say something when he doesn’t want to is like squeezing a stone for water.’
    â€˜I know,’ agreed Solveig, ‘or trying to shove our cows when they dig in their