Read Online Half World by Hiromi Goto - Free Book Online

were still. Melanie raised her head. A large crow, head tilted to the side, peered at her with one bright black eye.
    Melanie swallowed. “Thank you,” she said hoarsely. “Thank you for coming back.”
    The crow stared into Melanie’s face. It seemed to bob its head, then hopped to the edge of the outcropping and dropped away, wings outspread.
    Melanie rolled onto her back.
    The sky. It was not dusk, here. No sunset hues marked the skies. It was washed out, a glare of light that Melanie could not differentiate between clear or overcast.
    She was in Half World. . . .
    She sat up and gazed across the vista, toward the Gate she should have come from. But nothing was there, not even the other mountain. The wind keened with a cold voice in the empty expanse of sky.
    How would she get back?
    Maybe, she thought, maybe at dawn. When the crows went the other way . . .
    She sighed. Plucked a strange two-petaled flower and raised it to her nose. She thought it might be blue . . . her hand. Though it was dirty and pale with cold, her skin stood out against the black-and-white hues of Half World, almost glowing with Life. Her jeans had taken on a dark cast and her mother’s overcoat was dark gray.
    â€œWe must climb down the mountain,” a small voice said.
    Melanie looked down. Jade Rat sat on her haunches, her paws clasped together. Her imperial green hues looked closer to black in the light of Half World. She looked so dark her eyes were barely discernible.
    Melanie blinked slowly. “You left me,” she said, her voice catching in her throat.
    Jade Rat did not look away. “You were going to fall. There was nothing I could have done that would have helped you.”
    Intense feelings writhed inside Melanie’s stomach. Jade Rat had bitten off her own finger when she couldn’t do it herself. The rat had helped her twice already, even risking her life. But the rat’s abandonment on the bridge of crows tasted bitter, bitter on her tongue. Melanie narrowed her eyes and clung fiercely to the wrong that had been done to her. “You deserted me,” she repeated.
    â€œDo you think you’re the only one who has a task to undertake in Half World?” Jade Rat asked evenly.
    â€œSo you’re using me,” Melanie said woodenly.
    Jade Rat just stared at the girl without blinking. Melanie saw that the rat was cupping one paw with the other.
    â€œWe must go down this mountain,” Jade Rat said once more and turned to a small path that led to stairs cut into stone. The rat did not clamber up Melanie’s arm to perch on her shoulder. The animal moved with a skipping hop, holding her front paw against her chest.
    Melanie, following after, did not offer to carry her.

SEVEN
    THE STAIRS HEWN into the mountainside were not treacherous, but each step was high, and after half an hour Melanie’s thighs screamed in pain, ankles wobbling with exhaustion. And the heat from the colorless sun kept the stone steps unbearably hot. Melanie imagined that her aching feet were sizzling slabs of steak. Sweat streamed down her flushed face and stung her eyes despite the bite of cold air. They had stopped, after several hours, to rest and eat, but the break seemed only to add to their exhaustion. There was no end in sight and the afternoon glared mercilessly, the wind stinging, as they continued down the series of stone switchbacks.
    Melanie had stopped talking to the rat. And the rat struggled silently. She had to scrabble from one step to the other, for they were almost twice her height, and her sides heaved with her jagged breath.
    Melanie had looked back when she passed the rat. The rodent was practically dragging her injured paw, unable to keep it raised.
    There’s no blood, anyway, she told herself angrily. I’ve carried her the whole time until now! And my feet are sore, too. The exercise is probably good for her. Besides, she’s made of stone. Stone can’t feel pain. .