Read Online The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven - Free Book Online Page A

has come."
    Jack looked at Esme — at the way she held herself, the set of her mouth and the cold hard glow of her strange amber eyes.   At that moment, the gulf between him and her seemed so wide as to be uncrossable.   What must it be like for her, living like this?   Really, he knew, he could have no idea.   To dedicate your whole life to one purpose, to spend every single day training and preparing...   Sometimes, in the past, Jack had imagined himself doing something similar.   Sometimes he'd even liked the idea.   Just then, however, he knew that imagining was going to be as close as he was ever going to get.   And to be honest, he wasn't very sorry about it.
    "What about the other one?" asked Charlie suddenly.
    Everyone looked at him blankly.
    "The other Brotherhood person.   You know... what's-er-name?" Charlie snapped his fingers.   "Jessica?"
    "Oh," said Raymond, surprised.   "Well, Jessica and Nick had a row."
    "What about?" asked Charlie.
    "After... what happened," Raymond said, "Nick had... doubts.   He must've felt guilty for what happened to Belinda:   maybe he wished he'd done like his dad had said and never brought the rest of us into this thing in the first place.   At any rate, he made a decision.   He announced he was going to find a new place to keep the Scourge:   another tree, but somewhere secret, where supposedly none of us would know about it.   Now..."
    He leaned forward in his seat, which creaked dangerously under his bulk.
    "Jessica disagreed with him," he said.   "She reckoned no one should be trusted with the Scourge alone — none of us, not even Nick.   And when Nick set out on his own anyway, Jessica stormed out too.   She left the Brotherhood, left all of us.   And no one's heard hide nor hair of her in what must be—"
    "So," Charlie interrupted, "two suspects."
    Everyone stared at him again.
    He scowled.   "Come on, people, keep up .   Whoever let the Scourge out this time had to be one of the Brotherhood; otherwise how would they have known about the demon in the first place?   Right?"
    No one replied.   Jack wasn't even sure he understood the question.
    "Look," said Charlie with a sigh, "I assume we all agree it wasn't Nick who was possessed — right?"
    Jack blinked — but Charlie was already pressing on.
    "Well, if it wasn't Nick ," he announced, as if to a room full of idiots, "and it wasn't you two," he added, looking at Raymond and Esme, "then who else is left?   Jessica and Felix!   Come on, it's not exactly complicated."
    Jack winced inwardly.   Charlie was   making a kind of sense, he supposed, but he didn't have to be so smug about it.
    "So," Charlie repeated, "which of those two d'you think's the baddie?   Felix or Jessica?"
    "Felix," said Raymond firmly.   "He was the one who let it out last time, so—"
    "I think Jessica," said Charlie, interrupting again.   "Especially if you've no idea where she is.   That's right," he added, "isn't it?"
    "What is?"
    "That you've no idea where Jessica is," Charlie repeated sweetly.   "Bit suspicious, that, don't you think?"
    Raymond opened his mouth — and closed it again, annoyed.
    "I'm afraid that's true," said Esme for him.
    " So ," said Charlie again, grinning triumphantly, "how do we find her?   How do we find this... Jessica?"
    Raymond looked Charlie dead in the eye.   "I'm open to suggestions," he said.
    It wasn't the answer Charlie had been expecting.   His grin became uncertain, then faded.   An uncomfortable silence was just starting to develop, when Jack spoke.
    "Er... can I ask something?"
    In fact, Jack had a whole bunch of questions.   How come Charlie was suddenly able to move at lightning speed and make magic powers come out of his hands?   (He was still getting his head round that one, frankly.)   And the enormous tattoo that had appeared on Charlie's back:   was that some mark of the Brotherhood or what?   But if Charlie wasn't going to ask about these things himself, Jack