Read Online Tales of Noreela 04: The Island by Tim Lebbon - Free Book Online Page A

not yet known in their underground fledge seams, and other creatures of Noreela were not even whispers in a sleeping child’s ear. So the people were alone in their vain defense of the land
.
    But though she had often gone to sleep with such stories in her mind, Namior was a young witch, with a kindly heart and a soul filled with hope and confidence for the future. Even as a child she had known those tales for what they were—stories, passed from grandparent and parent to child and remembered down through the years. If the Violet Dogs had been so powerful, brutal and unbeatable, she reasoned, where were they now?
    So she watched the masts bobbing closer to Noreela, as the strange island behind them was touched by dawn and painted green and lush with vegetation. And though she was fearful of something new, she could not help but feel a childlike optimism as well.
    “I should get home!” she said. “Commune with the land, see what’s there.”
    “We have to go,” Kel said.
    “Go where?”
    “Away from here.” He sounded different, and his face was drawn, eyes wide and fearful.
    “Kel, just because we don’t know—”
    “I
do
know, Namior.” He looked out to sea again andgrabbed her arms, pulling her down as he jumped from the wall. “Just look what they’ve done already!” He pointed down toward the harbor, then closer at the bodies lined carefully across the Temple yard.
    “Maybe they didn’t mean—”
    “How can you even think otherwise?” He stepped back from her slightly, raising his voice, scaring her. This was a Kel she had never seen before. She was confused, but she thought herself better than this.
Can we instantly fear them?
Every bone in her body, every fiber of her that had ever communed with the land and shared a touch of its magic, said no.
    “So let’s march down there and kill them as they come ashore,” she said.
    “It’ll never be that easy.” Kel’s eyes narrowed, hands fisting at his sides. He looked across the river of devastation at Drakeman’s Hill, as though seeking his own home.
    “Caution, yes,” Namior said. “I’ll agree to that. But this is something new, Kel. This could be a new tale in Noreela’s history, a whole new beginning!”
    “Or an ending.” He looked at her so intently for a few beats that she thought he was going to strike out, and she flinched back against the wall. His eyes softened, and he took her in his embrace. “I’m not all you think I am.”
    “I was just starting to realize that.”
    He guided her away from the other people still atop the wall. He was looking around, guilty, suspicious, and she did not like this new Kel. Not one bit. He had always been a man with history, and that had excited her. Now, it suddenly scared her as well.
    He spoke softly. “I used to be part of an organization called the Core. A secret group, only hundreds of us.” He sighed and looked away. “They’d kill me even for telling you. They’d kill you for knowing.”
    “Kel?” She did not understand a word of this. Each utterance made him stranger to her.
    “We tracked and killed Strangers from beyond Noreela.Spies. Intruders. We think they were planning an invasion, and it has been our duty for generations to—”
    Namior pushed him away. “You’re a wood-carver.”
    “Here, yes. But not beyond here. Even the duke doesn’t know about us. Before I came to Pavmouth Breaks, I’d been on a job in—”
    “Kel!” she shouted, drawing the attention of several people hurrying from the Temple. News of the amazing new turn of events was spreading fast.
    Kel held up his hands, but every effort he made to subdue her angered Namior more.
    “I’m going home to the groundstone,” she said, softly. “If there’s any threat, magic will let us know.”
    “Like it let your mother and great-grandmother know about the waves?”
    She pressed her lips together and stared at him, never relinquishing eye contact for a beat. “I’d like you to come with me.”