The Sapphire Quest Read Online Free Page A

procession. ‘There he is!’
    Sindri was skipping into the crowd hurrying to the castle.
    â€˜You should’ve held onto his hand, Bryndis,’ Ingvar said.
    â€˜And you shouldn’t have left the cellar in the first place,’ his sister blazed back.
    Tia knew they were angry because they were scared, but arguing wasn’t going to do any good. ‘I’ll go and get him,’ she said.
    â€˜We’ll all go. It’ll give us a better chance of finding him,’ Ingvar said firmly.
    Leaving a safe gap between themselves and the end of the crowd, the three children followed until the waggon lumbered to a stop in front of the castle. They hid behind a cart and watched as the men driving the team of horses climbed into the waggon and cut the ropes keeping the statue from toppling over. The throng fell silent. It waited anxiously. Tia wondered what for.
    Then a gasp rippled through the gathering. Skadi had appeared out of nowhere to stand in front of the waggon. She had her hand on the arm of a man who’d appeared with her.
    Tia gasped too, not just at the sight of her beautiful aunt with a streak of white zigzagging through her dark hair like a bolt of lightning, but also at the man.He was shorter than Skadi, and very strong-looking. And he resembled the portrait of Tia’s father that she carried in her locket: his eyes were as dark, his hair as black and curly and he had the same curving nose.
    The crowd began to cheer and call out, ‘Long live the Lady Skadi!’
    The witch held up her hand and the gathering instantly stopped shouting. ‘My people, as you can see, Master Zeno has completed his tribute to me.’ She gestured at the statue and then at the man beside her. He bowed and helped Skadi onto the waggon. She put her hand on the statue.
    â€˜He has brought this to me but cannot take it to the place where all can see and admire it.’ She pointed to an alcove cut into the stone above the castle gates. Before Tia could even blink, the statue was inside the alcove with Skadi standing on the ledge next to it. In the time it took Tia to draw breath in amazement, the witch was back beside Zeno.
    She smiled in the cruel way the statue did. ‘The Master Sculptor will accompany me to dinner where he will be my guest of honour.’ The witch laid her hand on Zeno’s arm again and they vanished.
    The crowd let out a final gasp, this time of relief. Skadi wasn’t coming back, at least for now. Littlegroups formed, chatting and laughing or talking solemnly, shaking their heads and pointing up at the statue.
    Tia leaned against a cart. No wonder everyone in Iserborg was jumpy and tense! Although she’d known Skadi used the sapphire to transport herself from place to place, she hadn’t known the witch could carry people – and statues – with her. That was what people meant when they said Skadi ‘took’ men for the quarries or women and children for servants. Tia wondered what had happened to her friends’ mother. Where had Skadi ‘taken’ her?
    Bryndis elbowed Tia. ‘There’s Sindri,’ she whispered. The little boy was near the front of the crowd, gaping at the statue, entranced. ‘You stay here,’ Bryndis ordered. ‘We’ll get him.’ She and Ingvar moved off.
    â€˜Where’ve you been?’ a voice said close to Tia’s ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
    â€˜Loki!’ The jackdaw was perched on the cart. Tia quickly explained where and why she hid in the daytime and what she’d discovered about Skadi and the sapphire. ‘I’m going to get into that room as soon as I can and steal it.’
    She pulled a fat wad of paper out of her pocket.‘I’ve written it all down for you to take to Finn. It’s quite a big message, I’ll need to tie it on.’
    With a shake of his head, Loki held out a leg and Tia fastened the package on with twine she’d found