The Witch's Daughter (Lamb & Castle Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

something, that means it’s made of amaranthine. Gold-plated, here, but that’s just to make it look fancy.”
    Before Amelia could ask what amaranthine was, or the meaning of the other marks, Percival interrupted. “And are you going to tell her that cage’s intended purpose?” he asked, meaningfully.
    Meg glared at him. “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she snapped at his expressionless visor, “You know I’ve never used it for that. But you can’t say it hasn’t come in handy.”
    “What’s it for?” asked Amelia, not sure she wanted to know.
    For a moment, Meg looked like she wouldn’t answer. Then, “Fairies. It’s for trapping and keeping fairies. Not that I approve of such nonsense, but it was a gift and besides, amaranthine isn’t the sort of thing you just throw away. It has some extremely useful magical properties,” she told Amelia, intent on continuing her impromptu lesson despite Percival’s interruptions.
    “I’d melt it down, if it were mine,” said Percival, sulkily. “Not that I’d have accepted such a ‘gift’ in the first place…”
    Meg rolled her eyes. “Oh, for the love of… I’ve told you before, I don’t much approve of trapping fairies. I’ll even admit they’re reasonable creatures, left well enough alone. And anyway, if you want to get all up in arms over something, try this beastly little device here. A spy for sure, and who knows how long it’s been following us.”
    Amelia examined the cage: the slender close-set bars and the way some of the gold had flaked away, revealing a dull purplish-grey metal beneath. She’d never seen a fairy, only read about them in books. She hadn’t even known that they were real.
    “All right,” said Meg, swooping in to lift the cage, and making the clockwork dragonette squawk in surprise. “Show’s over. Everybody back indoors.”
    The snails continued through the woods, completely unruffled by events.
    ~
    At sight of a tea house at a crossroads up ahead, the snailcastletank drew to a halt – as per Meg’s plans, they’d reached Lannersmeet just about lunchtime. Besides the tea house, Lannersmeet turned out to consist of not much more than a few small cottages, sleepy and quiet in the sun.
    Meg studied the multitude of signs bristling from the signpost at the crossroads, where four roads led off into the unknown, and one back to Springhaven. “This looks like a good place to stop for a bite to eat,” she announced. “Put your books away, Perce.”
    They tethered the snails in the shade at the side of the road, Meg leaving them with the patted assurance that she would be back in no time at all, and went into the tea house.
     

    The place was already busy with merchants, making deals or chatting amiably over their drinks, but they moved aside quickly enough to let Percival through, and the two women followed in his wake to a reasonably secluded booth.
    “So, are you getting used to the idea of Mimi and Tallulah?” Percival asked, while Meg went to fetch food. Amelia detected more than a hint of amusement in his tone, but she couldn’t make up her mind if she imagined the smile behind the visor to be sympathetic or teasing.
    “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to them. Giant snails? Honestly?” She’d never heard of such a thing.
    “Oh, yes. They would have been a relatively common sight in this part of the world, thousands of years ago. What tremendous pests they must have been… Nearly extinct now, of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if Meg’s were the only two left.”
    “Good,” said Amelia with feeling, then regretted it, mostly because she couldn’t see the knight’s expression.
    “I wouldn’t say that sort of thing to Meg, if I were you,” he said, rather stiffly. Then he leaned down to add in a softer tone, “and if you think Mimi and Tallulah are bad, you should see the old Mammoth Battlesnail shells in the Iletian Museum. I remember visiting the museum as a young boy. The biggest of the