Alchemy, Book Two of the Mercian Trilogy Read Online Free Page A

come here, that perhaps his intention was not only to destroy Will, but also Lorcan Labraid, to unravel everything that had been woven together here over a thousand years and more.
    They walked in silence for a short while and finally Eloise said, “What will you do if he has betrayed us?”
    It was an interesting choice of words, he thought. As much as she didn’t want to believe, she was already subconsciously deciding who the guilty party must be, suggesting it would be Chris rather than he and Rachel together who’d been treacherous. Yet on the other hand,Eloise didn’t believe it was just Will who might have been betrayed, but both of them, both of their destinies, and in that perhaps she was right.
    “What am I to do? In my own time the answer would have been obvious, but now? Perhaps, as you suggest, we should hope for a credible explanation.”
    And Will hoped against hope that there would be one, because if there wasn’t, he couldn’t see how he could allow them to live, posing an ever greater danger to him. A spy was one thing, but if Chris and Rachel had betrayed him, he would have no choice but to kill them, and in so doing, he feared he’d also kill everything that existed between him and Eloise.

4
    E loise had doubted the taxi would come – she’d assumed the cab company, getting a call from a teenager asking for a car to come twenty minutes out of the city, would mark it down as a hoax. Maybe it was something in Will’s tone of voice, some remnant of his former life, but Eloise’s doubts proved unfounded, the booking was accepted and the taxi came. When asked to give a surname, he hadn’t hesitated in saying “Wyndham” though he wasn’t sure why.
    As the car left Marland, the driver said, “What on earth were you doing out here at this time of night? It’s closed in the winter.”
    Eloise looked alarmed, but Will said simply, “We’d prefer not to talk, if you don’t mind.”
    “Fair enough,” said the driver and turned the radio a little louder.
    Eloise looked both shocked and amused that Will had spoken to him like that. But of course, the way she saw it, he was a young person speaking to an adult. As faras Will was concerned, he was a noble speaking to an inferior, someone being paid to carry out a simple service.
    They travelled in silence. Will was thinking of the situation that lay ahead of them, and after ten minutes, Eloise gave away the fact that she was thinking about the same thing.
    Unprompted, she said, “There has to be an explanation.”
    He nodded and no more was said, and then, as they travelled on into the suburban edges of the city, he found himself dreaming. He was walking as he had been several times before, among ruins on a sunny day. Someone called his name, but in an odd form, “William Dangrave?”, a surname that he predated by more than a century, and he turned and saw Eloise, beautiful, luminous.
    “I’m William Dangrave,” he said, and stirred from the dream, nervous for a moment that he’d said those words aloud.
    But the driver was staring intently at the road which looked icy here and there in front of them, and Eloise was sitting quietly next to Will. At some point in the last few minutes she’d slipped her hand into his. The warmth of her ran through him, seeming almost to fill him, and he clasped his fingers round hers.
    She smiled at him, as if this simple act had been meantto offer her reassurance, and he smiled back, though he knew that right now he could assure her of nothing.
    They had the taxi drop them in a side street close to the city centre. Will paid the driver in full and told him to keep the change, but once Eloise was out of the car, he said, “Just a second.” He opened the passenger door and climbed back in.
    The taxi driver looked hostile. “What do you think you’re doing? We’re …” His eyes caught Will’s and his words disappeared somewhere in his throat. The radio, which had been blaring some jangly and infectious