Free Destiny's Rift (Broken Well Trilogy) by Sam Bowring

if I ask how you came by it?’
    ‘The Grand High Mage put it there,’ said Bel. Tomeo gave a little intake of breath and withdrew his hand. ‘Can you undo it?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Tomeo. ‘But I don’t know that I should go tinkering with the High Mage’s work. Perhaps he had a very good reason to . . . um . . .’
    Bel upturned his pouch and coins spilled across the table. ‘I can think of several very good reasons why it should be undone.’
    Tomeo stared at the gold, which did indeed glint in the sun that spilled through the window behind him.
    ‘All right then,’ he said. ‘I guess I don’t see what harm it could do for a fellow to have his real hair colour.’ Again he reached forward, but this time set both hands on Bel’s head. He muttered something under his breath, and from out of Bel’s brow appeared a tiny mote of light. Tomeo brought it towards him, still chanting. The mote quaked and broke apart in a tiny pinprick of an explosion.
    ‘Shame to destroy such a finely made spell,’ he sighed, and then his jaw fell open.
    Jaya reached up to run her hand through Bel’s curly blue hair.
    ‘Well, there we are,’ she said. ‘And my – what vibrant eyebrows you now possess. And eyelashes too!’ She laughed as she glanced towards his trousers. ‘Wonder what else has changed.’
    Bel gave the wide-eyed Tomeo a grin and pushed some coins across the table.
    ‘Thanks,’ he said, rising. ‘Come on, Jaya.’
    As they walked out, Tomeo came to his senses. ‘Wait . . .’ he tried, running to the hallway in time to see the front door shut. ‘Oh dear,’ he muttered. ‘Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What harm indeed? I knew it was a dangerous thing to get up so early in the morning.’
    •
    Bel realised he should have thought more carefully about the effect of walking down the street with a head of bright blue hair. Folk gathered to stare, as if an impromptu parade was being staged, but many seemed uncertain, some downright afraid, edging away or openly fleeing. He was puzzled by the reaction. What was the problem?
    Ahead a group of men sitting outside a tavern, the kind who started their drinking in the morning, began to whisper and point, and he wasn’t sure he liked the tone of their voices. One, who seemed to be the leader, stood to move into the thoroughfare, and others quickly gathered behind him.
    ‘You think us so meek,’ said the man, ‘that you dare walk our streets in plain view?’
    Bel pulled up, Jaya close behind, as the issue began to dawn on him.
    The man drew his sword, glancing around to make sure he was flanked by his fellows.
    ‘Think you can come and go as you please, shadow?’ he went on. ‘Waltz in on a whim and murder whoever you like? Mock us with your presence on this day of mourning? Well, Gerring here,’ he thumped his chest, ‘will not stand for it.’
    ‘They think I’m Losara,’ muttered Bel. How could he have been so stupid? As far as the people of Kainordas were concerned, there was only one blue-haired man, and he had recently murdered the Throne.
    Bel raised his voice loud enough for all to hear. ‘My good man,’ he said. ‘I’m not who you think I am. There is a blue-haired man on the shadow’s side, true enough, but he is not the only one! Did you really think Arkus would forsake you, that there would be no deliverance from evil?’
    Gerring looked uncertain, and his companions mumbled amongst themselves. All around a crowd gathered to listen, some from the street, some from windows or balconies above.
    ‘I have been in hiding,’ said Bel, ‘waiting until the time was right. Perhaps I was foolish to delay so long, foolish to allow the shadow to make the first strike. But I swear to you, I am born of light, and I fight for the light! Look at me – do I look like a creature of the shadow?’
    Gerring frowned. ‘The shadow can take many forms,’ he said.
    ‘The blue-haired man is finally here!’ came a hopeful cry from above. Others echoed