Free Goblins Vs Dwarves by Philip Reeve Page A

him. So Zeewa fetched her cloak, and, still barefoot, ventured out with him into the streets of Coriander.
    It was true; in the bright sunlight her ghosts were almost invisible, and the noises of the busy city masked the buzzing of the phantom flies. But a strange chill went before her where she walked. Dogs sensed the presence of the ghosts at once and fled, yelping. Horses reared and whinnied as Zeewa passed, and people shivered and moved out of her path without knowing why.
    They soon came to the place where Madam Maura’s tent was pitched, on a patch of greensward above the harbour. Seen by daylight it was a shabby thing. Madam Maura was standing outside it, telling a small audience of onlookers the things she had foreseen. All sorts of visions of the future had come to her since the Lych Lord’s star rose, but they were so strange that it was difficult to make anyone believe her.
    â€œMen and women will fly across the sky in birds made of metal which soar high above the clouds!” she prophesied, as Henwyn and Zeewa approached.
    The onlookers shook their heads and grumbled. It sounded a bit unlikely to them.
    â€œPeople will talk to each other across great distances, by means of magic boxes which they shall carry in their pockets!” Madam Maura added. “And lo! These magic boxes shall have Personalized Ringtones!”
    The audience sighed, unimpressed. “She’s just making it up!” someone said.
    â€œA popular celebrity chef will be arrested for stealing cheesy pancakes from the freezer section of Morrisons in Cleckheaton!” Madam Maura foretold. But her audience had never heard of such a place, and couldn’t imagine what a celebrity chef might be. Besides, many of them had started to sense a strange, unearthly chill. They started to drift away, and soon the sorceress was left alone with Henwyn and Zeewa.
    â€œHello, dears,” she said, sitting down on a barrel and mopping her large face with a spotted handkerchief. “Oh, it takes it out of a body, this here prophesying. It used to be much easier in the old days when I was just making it up. Now I gets these visions all the time, and they shows me the strangest things. Talking boxes and moving pictures. Boats that move with no sails and lamps that shine with no flame.”
    â€œDoes the future really hold such things?” asked Henwyn.
    â€œWho knows, dearie? I just tell what I see. Maybe the visions are showing me the future of some other world. Anyway, what can I do for you? I suppose it’s about these here ghosts, is it?”
    Until then, Henwyn and Zeewa had both suspected her of faking her strange powers, but now she looked straight at Kosi, Tau and the rest of Zeewa’s spectral retinue, and it was clear that she could see them.
    â€œCan you get rid of them?” asked Henwyn. “I mean, exorcize them? I mean, lay them to rest?” (He did not want to offend the poor ghosts.)
    Madam Maura sadly shook her head. “I’m sorry, dearie. Not up my street, that sort of thing. I do prophesies mostly, and a few love potions and things like that. But. . . Ooh yes! Oh, dearie me! Yes, I do see something. . .” She stood up and beckoned them to follow her into the purple tent. “Come in, dears; come quickly!”
    They followed her in through the heavy canvas flap, into darkness and swirls of smoke from an incense burner which hung from the ridge-pole. The ghosts became visible as they stepped in out of the sun: frail antelope with soaring horns; spotted hyenas; the big lion padding; Kosi looking as wary and intrigued as Henwyn and Zeewa.
    Beneath the incense burner stood a bathtub; an ordinary copper bathtub of the sort that you could find in any merchant’s house in Coriander or Adherak. It had been filled with clear water, and the water’s surface reflected the swirlings of the smoke above it. Madam Maura waved her plump hands above the tub, and suddenly the reflections