Free The Wildkin’s Curse by Kate Forsyth

clean, and there was a platter of cold partridge, and a jar of some kind of preserves, with muslin tied about the top. Three chairs had been drawn up around the table.
    â€˜I don’t know where she got the other chair from,’ Liliana said.
    â€˜Well, I’m just glad she did. I’m starving!’ Zed drew a chair out and sat down, attacking the partridge with relish. Merry and Liliana were only seconds behind him.
    The food was delicious. With the sweet scent of honeysuckle drifting from the vase on the table, and the sound of birdsong, it was hard to remember the rest of the castle, dank and ruined and garlanded with banners of filthy cobwebs.
    Zed said so, and Liliana nodded, laying down her knife. ‘Yes. Stiga would like to clean the castle from cellar to tower, but she has a great fear of the soldiers and dreads them discovering her. She has little boltholes and hiding places all over the castle, and through the forest too. She was the one who made this room for me.’
    Merry looked at her questioningly.
    Liliana bit her lip. ‘I remember when we first came here. I was about seven or eight. My mother was sick. I think she knew she was dying. She was trying to go back to the Evenlinn, but it was too far, she wasn’t strong enough. Stiga found us in the forest and brought us back here. We had been running and hiding for so long, it was so good to rest. And I was hungry! Stiga caught us a hare and cooked it, even though she is terribly afraid of fire. And she looked after my mother. I was so glad I wasn’t alone when she died—that had been my biggest fear.’
    â€˜What did she die of?’ Zed asked gently.
    â€˜Poison. That was how my father died too. He was a wildkin lord my mother had met in the forests of Zavaria. He had sworn to help her find the lost Spear of the Storm King, so that the throne of stars could be struck asunder.’
    Neither boy felt the impulse to tease her by echoing her words. She went on wearily, ‘My mother had been searching for years. She must’ve walked the route Prince Zander took from Stormlinn Castle to Zarissa a thousand times, looking for clues. There are some old stories that say the spear never made it to Zarissa, you see, though I do not believe them. A starkin prince wouldn’t just lose a sacred spear! Anyway, my father had the Gift of Finding lost things. He was sure he could help her find it. My mother was . . . she would not rest until she had found the spear. It was, she thought, the only hope . . .’
    Her voice failed and she drank a sip of water.
    â€˜What happened?’ Merry asked.
    â€˜They married in the old way—the wildkin way—in a forest under the stars, swearing to be true. In time, I was born. I don’t remember that much of when I was little. We were always walking, always searching, always listening to rumours and old tales.’
    She sighed. ‘One day we met a man in an inn. The way he spoke, the things he said, my parents thought he must be of wildkin blood too. They told him all about our quest. He said he had heard tales about a spear that had been found hidden in brambles some miles away, in Swartwood Forest. I’ll never forget my mother’s face. She was sure she had found the Spear of Thunder at last. But he tricked us. He led us away from the towns and villages, deep into the forest, and then he left us there with nothing but a single loaf of bread. He took all the other supplies, and all my parents’ weapons and money, and so they did not suspect him of trying to murder us. But that is what he did.’
    â€˜The bread was poisoned?’ Merry was horrified.
    Liliana nodded. ‘I did not eat, though my mother tried to coax me. I did not like the bread, it was black and hard and bitter. I took only a mouthful and that I spat out. My parents argued over the little that was left. My mother made my father eat it, as he was to go hunting, to find us