Scramasax Read Online Free Page A

sob.

3

    â€˜W hat is it?’ exclaimed Solveig.
    She trailed her pink fingers along the flat marble rim. She stared at the steeple of water rising from the brimming basin, four feet, five feet, almost as tall as she was, rising and falling back, plashing and bubbling.
    â€˜A fountain,’ Snorri told her.
    Solveig’s face shone. ‘I’ve never seen one before. Not indoors. Does a spring rise right under this hall, then?’
    Snorri closed his eyes, as if he’d never met anyone who knew so little. ‘Of course not. The builder used machines. A contraption.’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜At great expense, I’d say. Our Empress has more wealth than she knows what to do with.’
    â€˜It looks like a water-tree,’ Solveig said, ‘and it sounds like a water-harp.’
    â€˜I’m the wordsmith,’ said Snorri. ‘Near our farm …’
    â€˜Where?’
    â€˜In Iceland.’
    â€˜You come from Iceland?’
    â€˜I just said so. Near our farm, there’s a boiling fountain as high as the dome of Hagia Sophia. Well, half as high. A geyser, we call it.’
    â€˜Geyser. Is that made with machines and contraptions too?’
    Snorri gave a scornful laugh. ‘It’s a wonder that was made when the nine worlds were made. Like the bluestone mountains that divide us from the world of the giants. Like the flaming rainbow bridge between middle-earth and the world of the gods.’
    â€˜I wish I could see it,’ Solveig said.
    â€˜Maybe you will, girl.’ Snorri dug into a pocket and pulled out a coin. ‘Here! Throw this into the water and make that wish.’
    â€˜What? Throw away a coin?’
    â€˜Much that happens begins with a wish,’ Snorri told her, ‘and this is a wishing fountain. If you throw a coin into it, it will help your wish to come true.’
    Solveig tossed the coin into the dancing water, then she dipped in her hands, and for a moment they looked as though they had been severed at the wrists and were floating free. Solveig wriggled her fingers.
    â€˜It’s strange,’ she said, ‘when you know things are not as they look.’
    â€˜Like everything in this Christian … this godforsaken court,’ Snorri replied. ‘Ugh!’ The guard sucked his cheeks, and then spat into the fountain.
    As if to prove the truth of Snorri’s words, the heavy door between them and an inner hall was thrown open so violently that it thudded against the marble wall.
    Three men burst into the room, dragging a fourth behind them. This wretch was bound in chains, but that didn’t stop him from kicking his captors, headbutting them and howling.
    Solveig backed away from the coping of the fountain.
    Then the poor man snarled. He thrust his neck forward and seized the thumb of one of his captors between his teeth.
    â€˜Vermin!’ yelled one of the guards.
    And that was all Solveig and Snorri saw before thethree men manhandled the wretch through the other door.
    Solveig looked wildly at Snorri. ‘Who were they?’
    â€˜How should I know?’
    â€˜What had he done?’ she demanded, and her breath was jerky.
    Snorri shook his head. ‘The names of this palace are Rumour and Fear and Suspicion. You don’t have to do anything to be punished. It’s enough for someone to point a finger.’
    â€˜But that’s wrong,’ Solveig protested. ‘It’s rough justice.’
    â€˜It’s not justice at all,’ Snorri said.
    â€˜What will they do to him?’
    Snorri gave her a stony look.
    â€˜I’ve seen worse than you know.’
    â€˜If they don’t behead him, they’ll dig a hole and put him in it, right up to his neck, and then they’ll stone him. If they don’t stone him, they’ll strangle him.’
    Solveig lifted her hands to her pretty neck.
    â€˜Or else they’ll blind him, or else … the