The Topaz Quest Read Online Free

quickly. ‘I can earn my keep.’
    Jofranka patted Tia’s shoulder. ‘Why don’t you go and look round the market while I talk to Hawkon,’ she suggested.
    â€˜All right,’ Tia agreed, giving them a big, beaming smile before she wandered off. She knew that they wanted to talk about her, and as soon as she was out of sight she doubled back and crouched down behind Hawkon’s stall where she couldn’t be seen.
    â€˜I’m not sure you should’ve lied about Nadya being your niece,’ she heard Hawkon say.
    â€˜Claiming she was a relative was the only way to get her a work badge, you know that. Even then I had to use bribes.’
    â€˜Oh well, it’s done now. And I’m sure she won’t have any problem working in the fields with the other children,’ Hawkon said.
    â€˜That’s what I thought – and now I’d better find her. Yonas will be back home soon.’
    Tia quickly crept backwards and then strolled round to the other side of the stall.
    â€˜Ah, there you are,’ Jofranka said. It’s time for us go and for Hawkon to lock up the stall for the night.’
    They waved goodbye and went back to the green house where Jofranka showed Tia to a simple, white-painted room on the ground floor. She opened the lid of a large chest, gathered up an armful of blankets and dropped them onto a couch underneath a small window overlooking the garden.
    â€˜You can store your bag in the chest and make up a bed while I prepare our meal.’ She bustled away and Tia arranged the bedding on the couch.
    Tap, tap, tap
. Someone was rapping on the window pane.
    Tia looked up in surprise to see Loki perched on the windowsill. He rapped again, impatiently.
    As she scrambled onto the couch and opened the window Tia thought how strange it was that such an ordinary house had real glass in its windows. Usually only palaces and castles had glass panes. The people of Stoplar must be wealthy.
    Loki flew in and landed on top of the chest. ‘I’ve had a busy day following you around,’ he said. ‘What’ve you learned from the boy and the Trader woman?’
    She told him and then asked if he’d found out anything useful about Stoplar.
    â€˜It’s full of cats. The white ones are the worst – I’ve had a few narrow escapes while I’ve been trailing after you instead of paying attention to my own safety.’
    Tia got out a piece of pie crust that she’d put in her pocket for the jackdaw, crumbled it up and spread the pieces on the chest. ‘You should look after yourself first,’ she told him.
    He was too busy pecking at the crust to reply and when Jofranka called Tia for a meal she left him eating the last of the crumbs.

Chapter Six

Purple and Gold
    The evening was a very jolly one. Hawkon roared with laughter at his own jokes and Yonas encouraged him while Jofranka teased them both. Tia enjoyed being part of a family; she missed curling up with Finn and Freya in their cave in the Drakelow Mountains, watching firelight dancing on the walls and listening to Freya tell tales of mighty dragons and their deeds.
    But if Tia was to steal back the magic topaz she needed to know more about Stoplar, and especially Luona.
    So while Hawkon drew breath between jokes, Tia asked Yonas what she would have to do in the saffron fields.
    â€˜Patrol the plain to make sure the bulbs don’t get eaten by mice or bugs and slugs, and check the wallaround the plain. If animals get in they trample on the ridges and crush the bulbs.’
    â€˜What about the cats?’
    â€˜We try to keep them out too but they get in to hunt the mice and scratch up the soil.’
    â€˜Are they all Luona’s?’ Tia asked.
    â€˜The
Lady
Luona’s cats are the pure white ones. No-one else is allowed to keep those.’ Yonas yawned. ‘We ought to get some sleep now – we have to start at sunrise.’
    Tia was tired too –