Read Online The Lightning Bolt by Kate Forsyth - Free Book Online Page B

see?’
    He shook his head, not looking at them. ‘No. I don’t remember much after that. Stevo threw me in the water barrel, and then brought me home. You know all about that.’
    He lifted his stump helplessly.
    Fairnette nodded.
    â€˜I asked Stevo if he had the lightning bolt charm, and he said he knew nothing about it,’ Luka said angrily.
    Van looked at him wearily. ‘He would not want to give it up for anything. It’s forged from a falling star, did you know that? By the very first gypsy, the one that made the nails for the crucifixion. It’s the Smith family’s most precious thing. The Big Man always wears it. It means . . . I guess it means power.’
    â€˜But we need it,’ Emilia whispered. ‘Truly we do. Without it we’ll never be able to save our family.’
    Tears stung her eyes, and she wiped them away.
    â€˜But why?’ Fairnette whispered. ‘I don’t understand.’
    â€˜It’s magic,’ Emilia said. ‘The charms have magic. Apart, their magic is . . . well, not broken . . . but weaker. Together, they are so much more powerful.’
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜I just do,’ Emilia said. ‘I feel it.’
    Luka was frowning. She knew he did not have the same faith in the charms that she did. So far,he had humoured her insistence that they search for all of the charms because he had wanted to get more practical help, like the sleeping drug the innkeeper Joe Wood had given them, or Milosh’s promise to come with men and ponies. She did not know how to persuade him. She put her hand up to finger the charms, rubbing them one after the other. ‘It’s hard to explain. Things have happened, just when we’ve needed them to. Rain coming, or mist, or Coldham’s coach being held up by Lord Harry.’
    â€˜Luck, pure and simple,’ Luka said.
    â€˜It’s too uncanny to be simply luck,’ Emilia argued. ‘And there’s more. The longer I’ve been wearing them, the more clearly I seem to see things. It’s like . . .’ She struggled for words. ‘It’s like on a really bright, frosty morning, when you can see for miles, and everything is so sharp against the sky, and you can smell things, like you were a fox, and hear them too. Everything seemsso much clearer. That’s what it’s like, wearing the charms. And each time I add a new one, the powers of the ones I already have get stronger. I can’t explain how. I just know it.’
    â€˜What powers?’ Fairnette whispered, fascinated and afraid.
    â€˜Making things happen,’ Emilia said after a moment. ‘Changing things.’
    â€˜I wish you could turn rocks into gold, and then we could buy our family free,’ Luka mocked, and she sent him a hurt and furious look. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged, and on his shoulder Zizi bounced up and down, shrieking derisively.
    Emilia’s fingers caressed the golden crown. Luck, and life, and magic . . .
    â€˜Without them we would not have come so far,’ she said insistently.
    Van stared at her, his hand thrust in his pocket, his eyes troubled.
    Luka shook his head. ‘Stevo will never give usthe charm, Milly. You heard Van. He’ll never give it up.’
    â€˜Not for us,’ Emilia said. ‘But he might, if Van asked him.’ She looked pleadingly at the scarred boy.
    Van shook his head. ‘No. I can’t. I can’t go to the foundry. No.’
    â€˜You wouldn’t need to go to the foundry. You could go to the inn in the town. They said your brothers are there every night.’
    â€˜No! Are you mad? Go to town, looking like this?’ He flung back the hood and shook back his sleeve so they could see the full horror of his scars.
    Emilia was struck dumb with pity. He met her look challengingly.
    â€˜You only need to go once,’ she whispered. ‘To help us, Van.’
    â€˜You could go at night,’