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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 16</title>
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<h1>16</h1>
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<p>Dermott the Wolf crouched beside the cage-wagon. He was as big a man as Corriwen had ever seen. As wide across the shoulders as she could span with both hands, and head and shoulders taller than the rest of the men except the strange thin creature who stood beside him.</p>
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<p>The thin man was the dangerous one, Corriwen sensed. Dermott could crush her with his hands, but the thing in the hood, face painted with tattoos, cloak fluttering around him in the breeze, he looked as if he would pick at your soul like a buzzard on a carcass.</p>
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<p>"So this is her then?" Dermott turned to Fainn, twirling his bullwhip in one hand. "She doesn't look like much to me. She's more a girl than a woman."</p>
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<p>"She's a fighter, my Lord." The leader of the troops stepped forward. "It took ten to bring her down. And before that she unhorsed two lancers and then found a way to escape from a secure lock. She's got wierden-shee ways for sure."</p>
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<p>"That's still to be found out," Dermott said, still measuring Corriwen with her eyes.</p>
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<p>"What's your name girl?"</p>
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<p>Her throat was still sore and dry. Her voice came out ragged.</p>
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<p>"I am Corriwen of the Redthorn of Temair," she said, knowing he wouldn't know where Temair was.</p>
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<p>"Never heard of you, nor your kin. So, you're a scrapper are you?"</p>
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<p>"Only when I have to be. I'd rather walk in peace."</p>
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<p>"That's not what the runes say, is it spellbinder?"</p>
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<p>"That's true, My Lord. And the runes never lie. She may be young, but she's a red-haired fighting woman from a far place. Can there be two?"</p>
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<p>"I'd prefer to see more fight," Dermott declared. "Bring her out."</p>
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<p>Two of the guards opened the cage and dragged her through the gate, set her on her feet but left her hands bound. Dermott examined her knives, running a thumb along the edge.</p>
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<p>"Beat two of my horsemen, and yourself on foot. I'll give ye credit for that, girl. But it would take ten of you to best me, maybe even more."</p>
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<p>"Why should I want to fight you?" she asked.</p>
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<p>"Ah, why indeed?" Fainn hissed in Dermott's ear. "So it is written".</p>
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<p>Dermott shrugged. "Where did you learn to fight, girl?"</p>
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<p>"At my father's knee."</p>
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<p>"Aye, and ye'll wish ye were still sitting on it by the time we're done. We'll have fine sport with you, come the day."</p>
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<p>He glanced at Connor who slumped in the corner.</p>
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<p>"And who's this wretch?"</p>
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<p>"A poacher, my Lord," a soldier said. "Taken with the woman."</p>
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<p>"A cripple? Hardly worth the effort. We'll send lame dogs after him and watch him hobble." He loomed over Connor. "You poach my deer, boy, and you pay the price."</p>
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<p>Connor said nothing. He simply looked Dermott straight in the eye. He had nothing to lose.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>They had seen the castle from the breast of the hill, and Corriwen knew straight away that once inside, she would be in real danger.</p>
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<p>It hunched there on its cliff, one steep cleft in front of its gate and a precipice behind that plummeted straight to the roiling sea below. Thin arrow-slits served as windows. Towers crowded behind high battlements. A black flag with a red wolfs head fluttered in the wind.</p>
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<p>"Wolfen Castle," she said. "Not a joyous place, I think."</p>
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<p>"At least this cart will be stopping. Looking on the bright side, they could have made me walk all the way, but now my teeth are rattling like nuts in a jar. And I'm hungry."</p>
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<p>"Are you afraid?"</p>
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<p>Connor grinned. "Sure I'm scared. But life is hard anyway. We'll soon find out what Dermott's made of, and I'll give him a fine run for his money, that's for sure. Maybe I'll get a chance to die like a hero and win a place in TirNanOg. You think they have good horses there?"</p>
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<p>This time Corriwen had to smile. Trussed like a duck all those long rattling miles, three days and nights, and Connor still had his optimism. Or bravery. Whatever it was, it gave her some heart.</p>
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<p>She had dropped like a sack in the town square and Connor had tried to help her. He had been growling and snarling like a cornered beast as he fought his way towards her.</p>
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<p>She had yelled at him to run. These men wanted her more than they wanted a poacher, but he hadn't run when he had the chance to escape. After that, it was all a blur of pain from the heavy blows that rained on them, but in the midst of it all, she had seen something.</p>
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<p>It had come back to her on the long journey south, and the memory of it have her some hope.</p>
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<p>At first she was not sure if she had dreamt it, but the image of Jack Flint's face in the crowd came back to her time and again until she was convinced she <em>had</em> seen him, before she went down hard on the cobbles, and then again as they trundled her out of the village in the prison-cart.</p>
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<p>It had to be Jack. <em>Had to be.</em> And that meant he and Kerry had come through the gate to find her. They had not abandoned her. In her heart, all this time, she had known that neither he nor Kerry ever would.</p>
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<p>The thought of that kept her spirits up, despite the tight bonds and the ache of the bruising. She had come round in the cart, minus her knives, with Connor bloodied and bruised in a corner, unconscious for a full half-day of rough travel before their captors brought him round with a face-full of cold water.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Score Four-arm flexed his wide shoulders and threw a battle-axe straight at Jack's head.</p>
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<p>Jack almost jumped out of his skin.</p>
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<p>But something else happened.</p>
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<p>The wagons had formed a tight circle just on the forest edge. They had emerged from that eerie mist into a grey day and far down the hill they had seen the brooding castle in the distance.</p>
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<p>It was squat and massive, with turrets and stairs and battlements built haphazardly behind thick walls. The turrets bore black and red pennants that whipped on the sea-wind, black and red flags bearing the shape of a wolf-s head, but still too much like Mandrake's flag for Jack's liking.</p>
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<p>The castle stood right on the edge of the sea cliff. The chasm before it was a narrow defile that dropped into a surge of waves. The precipice behind it went straight down to jagged rocks in a lashing sea under a leaden sky. It was a formidable and forbidding place and to Jack it looked nigh-on impregnable. No boat could surprise it from the sea and the fissure in front of the drawbridge would make it impossible to assail from the front.</p>
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<p>If Dermott the Wolf had taken Corriwen there, it would be a devil of a job getting her out.</p>
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<p>Brand ringed the wagons and they lit their campfires. After the unearthly mist, even the thin rain from low dark clouds was bearable. Natterjack got busy with a big pot that soon bubbled on the coals while Brand strode around on short legs urging the rest of the troupe to get practising.</p>
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<p>"Big day tomorrow," he told them. "We have to put on a fine show, and they'll expect the best."</p>
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<p>Jack and Kerry stood by a big oak tree while Tig and Tag went through their somersaults and cartwheels, intricate, serpentine movements that told Jack their minds were completely in tune. Score was practising his juggling, this time with long bladed knives and double-bladed battle-axes that twirled in the air, hissing as they went and it was a miracle he didn't slice himself with all that flying sharp metal.</p>
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<p>Brand strolled over to him and Score bent down to listen, never pausing in his manoeuvre and then he turned smoothly and with no hesitation at all, he threw one axe at Jack and another at Kerry.</p>
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<p>"Jeez!" Kerry blurted. </p>
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<p>And in the blink of an eye, before either of them had time to react, they were twenty feet up in the tree.</p>
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<p>Below them, just at head height, both axes were dug deep into the trunk, quivering like tuning forks.</p>
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<p>"What happened?"</p>
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<p>Before Jack could respond, Score turned and flicked two knives at them, one after the other. Kerry yelped again and then Jack found himself fifteen feet further up the tree. And the amazing thing was that Kerry was even higher, white-faced and gripping a thin branch with even whiter knuckles.</p>
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<p>"What do you think you're playing at?" he demanded in a shaky voice. "You nearly killed us."</p>
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<p>Way below them, Score grinned up at them, never missing a beat with the spinning weapons. Brand was rolling about on the grass, convulsed with laughter.</p>
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<p>"How did we get up here?" Kerry asked. It had happened so blindingly fast that neither could understand how they could be on the ground one second and forty feet up an oak tree the next.</p>
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<p>"All right fine fellows, you can come down now."</p>
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<p>"Not with that loony chucking hatchets at us," Kerry bawled back.</p>
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<p>"Oh, that was just a wee experiment. Get yourselves down here. You've passed the entrance test to Brand's Vagaband. And anyway, Natterjack's got the stew ready."</p>
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<p>It took a lot longer to descend than it did to climb, if climbing was what had actually happened. They made it to solid ground and Score clapped them both on the shoulder with his big strong hands, chuckling all the while.</p>
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<p>"I knew it," Brand told him. "Didn't I recognise Rune's cobblery?"</p>
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<p>He pointed at Jack's new boots.</p>
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<p>"None like him for the shoemaking," he said. "Thirteen different leathers, shoe horn from the four-horn goat and a bit of Cluricaun magic. Turned you both into a pair of acrobats, and that's just what we need."</p>
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<p>"I don't understand," Jack said. He remembered the bewildering moment in the dark forest when the snake had lunged at him. It had all happened so fast he hadn't had time to think about it, and then they were running for their lives while the trees blurred past them.</p>
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<p>"When Rune makes shoes, he puts all his skill into it. And he's made you both the best, as far as I can see. He told us you'd be at the crossroads and he said you'd make a fine addition to the troupe."</p>
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<p>"But we've never done anything like this before," Kerry said.</p>
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<p>"Well, you'll have to learn quick, if you want to save that girlfriend of yours."</p>
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<p>Kerry's face went red. "She's not my girlfriend."</p>
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<p>"No matter," Brand said. "Once we get in yon Wolf's den, you'd best be slick as spit an' polish. That's where they've taken her and the place will be bristling with armoury. Not to mention that snake of a spellbinder that does the Wolf's bidding."</p>
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<p>Jack looked down at the castle.</p>
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<p>"It won't be easy."</p>
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<p>"Nothing worthwhile ever is," Brand agreed. "But that doesn't mean we can't have fun. Like I said, mystery, magic and a little mayhem is what it's all about."</p>
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<p>It amazed them both how quickly they melded into the routine. And Rune's special shoes made all the difference. </p>
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<p>By the end of the day they were tired and bruised and sore all over. </p>
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<p>But Brand seemed quite happy with their progress.</p>
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<p> </p>
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