21
HAMLET’S HISTORY LESSON
‘Eliza,’ Thordric said to Lily’s mother, ‘have you had any word from your son?’
Eliza stared at him. ‘I don’t wish to talk about him,’ she said coldly.
‘But Lily told me he had gone with some archaeologists to the dig site,’ he pressed. ‘Surely you’ve heard what happened there. Aren’t you worried?’
‘If that boy has managed to get himself turned into a tree, then it is his own fault. I told him not to go, but he refused to listen.’
‘He’s a half-wizard, isn’t he?’ Thordric asked. ‘And why did you just call him “that boy”? Surely he has a name?’
‘He’s called Kal,’ Lily said, glaring at her mother. ‘But only Father calls him that.’
‘He was an orphan,’ Eliza said, sniffing as though she had caught a whiff of something nasty. ‘My husband found him wandering aro
