Read Online Wormwood Gate by Katherine Farmar - Free Book Online

we’re on the roof, and then we can – GAH!’
    Aisling shrieked at the same time as Julie, for the window behind them had opened. Aisling twisted her neck round, her heart pounding in her throat, and exhaled sharply when she saw who it was: not one of the three men, but the wizened old face (she couldn’t tell if it was male or female) that had opened the door for them.
    She shifted around to face it properly and her stomach lurched: it was just a face, or perhaps a head, with a shock of white hair with one red streak, floating in the air with no body attached. ‘What are yous two up to?’ said the face.
    â€˜Um,’ said Julie, her face completely blank.
    â€˜Er,’ said Aisling, her mind racing to come up with an excuse.
    â€˜Are yous trying to get out of paying the rent?’ the face went on, ‘because I wouldn’t advise that. No, I wouldn’t advise that at all.’
    â€˜We’re not –’
    â€˜Rent?’ said Aisling. ‘We haven’t even been here a whole night! I hardly think you can charge us rent for that.’
    â€˜When you have a house with a lock on the door, you can charge me rent when I come and visit,’ said the face, ‘but this is my house, and it runs by my rules.’
    â€˜Charming,’ muttered Aisling. She looked at Julie and shrugged, mouthing, Any ideas?
    â€˜What kind of rent do you want us to pay?’ said Julie. ‘We have to get out of here quickly.’
    The face eyed them both. ‘Would yous be on the run from the guards, by any chance?’
    Julie glanced at Aisling, and Aisling nodded. ‘You could say that,’ she said. ‘We’re not from here, and we don’t really understand what’s going on, but we don’t want to be locked away.’
    The face grinned, which was a most uncanny sight: all of the wrinkles rearranged themselves in a different pattern, and the eyes grew bright and almost mischievous. ‘Foreigners!’ it said, chuckling. ‘Doesn’t that beat the band? Well, then, in that case you can pay your rent now: swear an oath to me that you’ll leave the City with a better ruler than it had when you came here.’
    Aisling and Julie exchanged dubious looks. ‘I’m not sure that’s the kind of thing we can promise to do,’ Aisling began. ‘I mean, with the best will in the world, humanitarian interventions have a way of backfiring.’
    â€˜Yeah,’ said Julie, ‘and it’s not like we know who’d be the best ruler for this place. We’re not even from here.’
    â€˜There’s things a foreigner can do in the City that none of us that are from here can do. And yous don’t need to promise to give the City the best ruler it can have. Only to leave it with a better one than it has now.’
    â€˜What do you think?’ Julie murmured.
    Aisling glanced around, avoiding looking straight down. ‘I don’t think we have a choice, frankly. And this isn’t a promise to actually do anything, so I think we’ll be all right.’
    â€˜Don’t have a choice? It’s a floating head. What can it do to us?’
    â€˜It’s a disembodied head that is floating in mid-air . What can’t it do?’
    â€˜Good point.’ Julie turned back to the head. ‘So, we have to promise to –’
    â€˜Leave the City of the Three Castles with a better ruler than it had when yous came.’
    â€˜Fair enough,’ said Julie, raising her right hand as if she were in court. ‘I swear that I will leave the City of the Three Castles with a better ruler than it had when I arrived.’ She nudged Aisling to do the same, and Aisling repeated the words. As she said them, she felt a strange tightness settle down over her head, and then over the rest of her body. It vanished as suddenly as it had come, but she had an uneasy feeling that she had done more than say some words and