The Tenth Power by Kate Constable Page B

we’ll never learn its songs. I don’t even know what sort of magic it is, what it controls.We’ll never find out now.’
    ‘P’raps we’ll find out some other way,’ said Mica stoutly. ‘Can’t be a whole other power of chantment just gone . Everyone thought the Power of Beasts was lost, but you still knew it. And the Power of Fire was lost, only you found the Clarion, and saved it.’
    Trout coughed indignantly. ‘ I found the Clarion!’
    Mica waved her hand. ‘ Someone found it, that’s what I’m sayin. It weren’t really lost. And this power won’t be neither, you’ll see.’
    Calwyn frowned. ‘There was something else: a Wheel.’ ‘Marna said it’s an object of power, like the Clarion; she said it holds the answer to ending the long winter, and this sickness.We have to find it.’
    ‘An object of power. That isn’t much to go on,’ said Trout gloomily.
    ‘Wait. Marna did say – she said the Wheel is safe with your friends.’
    ‘ Us ?’ squeaked Mica. ‘We ain’t got it! If we had somethin else magic like the Clarion, we’d know it. You could feel the Clarion buzzin from the bottom of the sea!’
    ‘Darrow then?’ suggestedTrout. ‘Could Marna have given it to Darrow before you left Antaris?’
    ‘Don’t be a goose!’ exclaimed Mica. ‘He couldn’t have carried somethin magic around for two years without knowin it, any more’n we could!’
    ‘Then Marna must’ve been talking about your friends here in Antaris,’ said Trout.
    Calwyn was silent. She had never had many friends among the sisters.The older priestesses had kept their distance, and so had the other novices. Darrow was the first person she called a true friend; a lump came into her throat at the thought of him. She had spent her time at the top of the western tower, gazing across the forests, or else down in the orchard, with the bees.
    Marna had smiled, and her breath went zzzz .
    With a cry, Calwyn scrambled to her feet. ‘That’s it!That’s what she meant! Mica, I need you to come with me. I know where we’ll find theWheel.’

four
The Treasure of the Bees

    AT NIGHTFALL, THE snow-storm was raging as fiercely as ever. Mica peered through a chink in the wall. ‘Gilly ain’t comin through all this. There’s bits of ice big as your hand flyin round out there!’
    ‘Gilly is a priestess of ice-call,’ said Calwyn. ‘She’ll be able to sing a clear path.’
    ‘Here she comes!’ Trout ran to let down the ladder, and Gilly’s head emerged into the hayloft. She was out of breath and red-eyed; she stole one glance at Marna’s white-wrapped body, then turned quickly away, saying, ‘It’s wild out there! I cleared the snow, but the wind nearly blew me down!’
    ‘I could’ve kept the winds off,’ said Mica almost shyly.
    ‘That’s right, you’re a chanter of the winds.’ Gilly pushed back her hood and the two girls looked at each other for a moment. ‘We’d make a good team! Could you – would you come with me to Anary tonight?’
    ‘I need Mica tonight,’ said Calwyn abruptly. ‘She and I are going to the orchard.’
    ‘To the orchard ?Whatever for?’
    ‘I can’t tell you,’ snapped Calwyn. ‘It’s secret lore Marna told me before she died.’
    ‘Oh.’ Gilly’s eyes dropped. ‘Then I suppose you have to go. But be careful, Calwyn. If Tamen finds you, she’ll put you in the Wall with the others. She wants to make an example of you. It was your disobedience that started everything going wrong, she says, and all this is the punishment of the Goddess.’
    ‘You don’t believe that, surely,’ said Trout.
    ‘It’s what Tamen believes that counts,’ said Gilly. ‘Even if she knew Calwyn couldn’t sing any more, it wouldn’t make any difference – ’ She stopped, and bit her lip. ‘Ursca told me. I’m so sorry, Calwyn. You were the strongest chanter of all of us.’
    Calwyn could not bear Gilly’s pitying look. She felt herself flush. ‘We must go.’ She turned away to fasten