Read Online Spirit of a Hunter by Sylvie Kurtz - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sylvie Kurtz
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that Tommy had such a loyal friend.
“Right-handed people tend to circle to the right,” Sabriel said.
The unfinished thought implied left-handed people would tend to circle left.
“A trail is a string of clues,” Sabriel said. “The more I know, the faster I can follow.”
Without signaling, he turned into the trees. She gasped and grabbed the dashboard, bracing for a collision. Were the Colonel’s men back? Her glance zipped to the missing mirror and met nothing but darkness.
The seat belt jammed into her chest, stealing her breath, but the Jeep kept moving forward—not directly into the trees, but down a narrow lane.
The Jeep bounced along the rutted dirt track barely wide enough for the tires. Tree branches, bushes and weeds scratched along the sides and the undercarriage of the truck in a nails-on-chalkboard grate.
How far had they gone? Far enough to have found Tommy’s starting point? The black landscape gave away none of its secrets.
“Where are we?” she asked as her breath returned.
Sabriel stopped before a primitive gate of weathered planks. A red stop sign, whose phosphorescent paint flared in the headlights’ beams, warned, “Private Property. Keep Out. Trespassers Will Be Shot.”
Sabriel said, “Welcome to your corner of hell.”
Chapter Five
The Jeep’s headlights sliced across a clearing where a ramshackle cabin squatted. The building stooped old-man crooked with its sagging tin roof spine, liver spots of mold and cracked board skin.
A string of questions lashed at Nora’s mind, but she didn’t voice any of them. She let them turn inside her mouth until their knots lost their sharp flavor. But the words
Can I trust you?
kept buzzing in her ear with a bloodthirsty mosquito whine. Was this just another ploy to strand her while Sabriel charged into the wilds alone?
What choice did she have other than to trust him? Going back to the Colonel? Losing Scotty?
Not a chance.
Sabriel powered the Jeep right up to the front steps, then rummaged in the backseat and emerged with a headlamp.
“Why are we stopping?” Nora asked, frantic to keep going.
“Supplies.”
Supplies made sense. They couldn’t go trekkingthrough the mountains without food or water. But the place looked as if no one had set foot there in decades. “Here?”
He didn’t answer, but unlocked the padlock guarding the door and disappeared inside, leaving her alone in the dark. A restless edge nagged at her that they were wasting time. Each minute they stopped allowed Tommy to take Scotty farther away from her, gave the Colonel another chance to find her son before she could.
Help him. It’ll go faster
.
She scrambled out of the Jeep. The damp scent of night and decaying leaves pressed against her as she headed to the cabin. The wind’s cold fingers chased her inside.
Groping the darkness, Nora stepped into the scrubby building. She’d never seen a dark so deep. In the city, there were always lights. At the Colonel’s, the security spotlights turned midnight into midday. Here nothing, except for the tiny beam attached to Sabriel’s head. Going suddenly blind must feel like this.
How was Scotty handling this black hole of night? Surely, Tommy had thought to bring along flashlights.
Sabriel’s light bounced crazily against the cracked wood of the walls, highlighting snakes of cobwebs, fangs of trusses and skeletons of cupboards.
Nora followed Sabriel to the back of the building. “Is this your place?”
He grunted and stopped.
She bumped into his hard body and rebounded just as quickly, but had to grasp his forearm for balance. The subtle scent of mint and pine struck her now as it hadwhen they’d hidden in the fissure of rock at the adventure camp. Clean. Pleasant. Masculine. Heat rose to her face. Hanging on to him like that wasn’t the way to prove she could stay on her own two feet, that she wouldn’t get in his way. “Don’t you have electricity?”
“I’ll get the oil lamp in a
“Right-handed people tend to circle to the right,” Sabriel said.
The unfinished thought implied left-handed people would tend to circle left.
“A trail is a string of clues,” Sabriel said. “The more I know, the faster I can follow.”
Without signaling, he turned into the trees. She gasped and grabbed the dashboard, bracing for a collision. Were the Colonel’s men back? Her glance zipped to the missing mirror and met nothing but darkness.
The seat belt jammed into her chest, stealing her breath, but the Jeep kept moving forward—not directly into the trees, but down a narrow lane.
The Jeep bounced along the rutted dirt track barely wide enough for the tires. Tree branches, bushes and weeds scratched along the sides and the undercarriage of the truck in a nails-on-chalkboard grate.
How far had they gone? Far enough to have found Tommy’s starting point? The black landscape gave away none of its secrets.
“Where are we?” she asked as her breath returned.
Sabriel stopped before a primitive gate of weathered planks. A red stop sign, whose phosphorescent paint flared in the headlights’ beams, warned, “Private Property. Keep Out. Trespassers Will Be Shot.”
Sabriel said, “Welcome to your corner of hell.”
Chapter Five
The Jeep’s headlights sliced across a clearing where a ramshackle cabin squatted. The building stooped old-man crooked with its sagging tin roof spine, liver spots of mold and cracked board skin.
A string of questions lashed at Nora’s mind, but she didn’t voice any of them. She let them turn inside her mouth until their knots lost their sharp flavor. But the words
Can I trust you?
kept buzzing in her ear with a bloodthirsty mosquito whine. Was this just another ploy to strand her while Sabriel charged into the wilds alone?
What choice did she have other than to trust him? Going back to the Colonel? Losing Scotty?
Not a chance.
Sabriel powered the Jeep right up to the front steps, then rummaged in the backseat and emerged with a headlamp.
“Why are we stopping?” Nora asked, frantic to keep going.
“Supplies.”
Supplies made sense. They couldn’t go trekkingthrough the mountains without food or water. But the place looked as if no one had set foot there in decades. “Here?”
He didn’t answer, but unlocked the padlock guarding the door and disappeared inside, leaving her alone in the dark. A restless edge nagged at her that they were wasting time. Each minute they stopped allowed Tommy to take Scotty farther away from her, gave the Colonel another chance to find her son before she could.
Help him. It’ll go faster
.
She scrambled out of the Jeep. The damp scent of night and decaying leaves pressed against her as she headed to the cabin. The wind’s cold fingers chased her inside.
Groping the darkness, Nora stepped into the scrubby building. She’d never seen a dark so deep. In the city, there were always lights. At the Colonel’s, the security spotlights turned midnight into midday. Here nothing, except for the tiny beam attached to Sabriel’s head. Going suddenly blind must feel like this.
How was Scotty handling this black hole of night? Surely, Tommy had thought to bring along flashlights.
Sabriel’s light bounced crazily against the cracked wood of the walls, highlighting snakes of cobwebs, fangs of trusses and skeletons of cupboards.
Nora followed Sabriel to the back of the building. “Is this your place?”
He grunted and stopped.
She bumped into his hard body and rebounded just as quickly, but had to grasp his forearm for balance. The subtle scent of mint and pine struck her now as it hadwhen they’d hidden in the fissure of rock at the adventure camp. Clean. Pleasant. Masculine. Heat rose to her face. Hanging on to him like that wasn’t the way to prove she could stay on her own two feet, that she wouldn’t get in his way. “Don’t you have electricity?”
“I’ll get the oil lamp in a
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