Read Online A Single Stone by Meg McKinlay - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Meg McKinlay
Ads: Link
boy, no man, must ever go.
“You can’t be here, Thom!” Min’s voice was shaking. “I’m so sorry, Jena. I–”
“It’s not her fault!” the boy said quickly. “She didn’t know.”
Panic flooded Jena. “Get out!” It took everything in her not to crawl down and haul him roughly from the tunnel.
When he was out, perched before her on the ledge below the opening, she turned on him. “You can’t go in there! What were you thinking?” A knot snarled in her chest, fear and anger coursing through her in equal measure.
“I didn’t go far,” he protested. “I just went in for a second. I was coming straight out again.”
Jena fought to keep her voice level. “It doesn’t matter. You know that.”
“I’m sorry. I just …” Thom hesitated. “Min was talking about it last night. I wanted to see what it felt like.”
“I wasn’t bragging,” Min said. “It was because of Mama. She never got to tunnel. I just … I wanted her to know.”
“Please,” Thom urged. “Don’t tell anyone. I won’t do it again.”
A moment hung in the air between them, deciding which way it would turn. After a long minute, Jena took a deep breath. “Go. And don’t come back here.”
Thom was over the ledge almost before she finished speaking. He scrambled down, a shower of grit and small stones accompanying his rapid descent. She winced as he half-climbed, half-fell to the ground below but he did not seem hurt. A boy did not break the way a girl might. There was something surer about their bodies, less brittle about their bones.
Jena waited until his retreating shape had disappeared into the trees before turning to Min.
Don’t tell anyone
, Thom had said. And they both knew who he meant.
She considered. The fault was Thom’s alone but Jena knew only too well how the transgressions of one might fall upon another.
“The Mothers don’t have to know,” she said finally. “But it can’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” Min said quickly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. If judgement comes, it will be from the mountain.” She leaned back against the rock, her heart pounding: a boy inside the rock, and here of all places. It went against everything they had been taught, everything they knew.
It was men who had dug into the mountain, angering the earth. Men who had brought about Rockfall and the wall of water that had followed to destroy their village, their world. Only a handful had survived – those who had been in the shelter of the valley, away from the water and clear of the mountain.
All those men saw was that the mountain had come down. Where their friends had been working was a chaos of twisted stone – no sign of life, no hope of it. But there was more to come, for when they tried to leave the valley, they found themselves trapped.
In the days that followed, they hauled themselves through fissures in the tumbled rock, only to find the way sealed at every turn. They climbed the mountain, casting ropes across its dark face like ragged stitches. But the slopes were treacherous, the fingers of stone curving into impossible overhangs that thwarted every attempt. And all the while, the mountain trembled and shook, as though it were trying to throw them off. The earth growled beneath them with the guttural sounds of a beast defending its territory, or its life.
About a week had passed when two men standing at the base of this very spot, ropes slack at their sides in despair, heard a different kind of sound. It was a sort of scrabbling, like a scuttler might make, only purposeful somehow as if there was a will behind it. As if something was in there, trying to get out.
At first, their hearts leaped. Perhaps those who had been working in the mountain that day were not lost after all?
There was someone alive – that much was true. But it was not men whose eyes locked on theirs from an impossible seam in the rock. Not men who pulled themselves clear – dirt-smeared, bleeding.
“I always think
“You can’t be here, Thom!” Min’s voice was shaking. “I’m so sorry, Jena. I–”
“It’s not her fault!” the boy said quickly. “She didn’t know.”
Panic flooded Jena. “Get out!” It took everything in her not to crawl down and haul him roughly from the tunnel.
When he was out, perched before her on the ledge below the opening, she turned on him. “You can’t go in there! What were you thinking?” A knot snarled in her chest, fear and anger coursing through her in equal measure.
“I didn’t go far,” he protested. “I just went in for a second. I was coming straight out again.”
Jena fought to keep her voice level. “It doesn’t matter. You know that.”
“I’m sorry. I just …” Thom hesitated. “Min was talking about it last night. I wanted to see what it felt like.”
“I wasn’t bragging,” Min said. “It was because of Mama. She never got to tunnel. I just … I wanted her to know.”
“Please,” Thom urged. “Don’t tell anyone. I won’t do it again.”
A moment hung in the air between them, deciding which way it would turn. After a long minute, Jena took a deep breath. “Go. And don’t come back here.”
Thom was over the ledge almost before she finished speaking. He scrambled down, a shower of grit and small stones accompanying his rapid descent. She winced as he half-climbed, half-fell to the ground below but he did not seem hurt. A boy did not break the way a girl might. There was something surer about their bodies, less brittle about their bones.
Jena waited until his retreating shape had disappeared into the trees before turning to Min.
Don’t tell anyone
, Thom had said. And they both knew who he meant.
She considered. The fault was Thom’s alone but Jena knew only too well how the transgressions of one might fall upon another.
“The Mothers don’t have to know,” she said finally. “But it can’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” Min said quickly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. If judgement comes, it will be from the mountain.” She leaned back against the rock, her heart pounding: a boy inside the rock, and here of all places. It went against everything they had been taught, everything they knew.
It was men who had dug into the mountain, angering the earth. Men who had brought about Rockfall and the wall of water that had followed to destroy their village, their world. Only a handful had survived – those who had been in the shelter of the valley, away from the water and clear of the mountain.
All those men saw was that the mountain had come down. Where their friends had been working was a chaos of twisted stone – no sign of life, no hope of it. But there was more to come, for when they tried to leave the valley, they found themselves trapped.
In the days that followed, they hauled themselves through fissures in the tumbled rock, only to find the way sealed at every turn. They climbed the mountain, casting ropes across its dark face like ragged stitches. But the slopes were treacherous, the fingers of stone curving into impossible overhangs that thwarted every attempt. And all the while, the mountain trembled and shook, as though it were trying to throw them off. The earth growled beneath them with the guttural sounds of a beast defending its territory, or its life.
About a week had passed when two men standing at the base of this very spot, ropes slack at their sides in despair, heard a different kind of sound. It was a sort of scrabbling, like a scuttler might make, only purposeful somehow as if there was a will behind it. As if something was in there, trying to get out.
At first, their hearts leaped. Perhaps those who had been working in the mountain that day were not lost after all?
There was someone alive – that much was true. But it was not men whose eyes locked on theirs from an impossible seam in the rock. Not men who pulled themselves clear – dirt-smeared, bleeding.
“I always think
Similar Books
