Read Online The Color of Darkness by Ruth Hatfield - Free Book Online Page A

then they can talk to some other kind of animal. You’re one too, ain’t you?”
    Danny shook his head. “No, I’m not. And how do you know he’s telling the truth, anyway?”
    How did she know? She didn’t. But she knew when people weren’t telling the truth: she’d seen plenty of that. And Barshin had an honest feeling about him, something strong and clear.
    Cath turned to the hare. “He don’t believe you. We might as well go.”
    â€œNo!” said Barshin. “This is important! Tell him I came to learn of this from a hare in a place humans call Great Butford woods. That hare saw Tom there, meeting with Sammael in the dead of night, in the middle of a storm. Since then there have been many stories, here and there—Danny O’Neill must know how these stories reach around, like the tendrils on a creeping plant—and I have spoken to many hares to try and find the truth of them. I have my own reasons for fearing Sammael. He made a bargain with a hare I knew, a long time ago, and I saw what came of that. But the danger for Tom is greater still. Danny O’Neill is the only one who can reach out to Tom and stop him. It is vital that he take on this responsibility. Please tell him that.”
    Cath shrugged. “If you want.”
    She told Danny as much of what Barshin had said as she could remember. Danny didn’t answer. Instead, he left the bus shelter and went over to the hare. He didn’t seem to notice the rain either. Cath liked him a little bit for that. She didn’t like that he clenched his fists when he looked at Barshin, though. She’d kill Danny O’Neill if he tried to hurt Barshin.
    A car splashed along the road. The driver turned her head sideways to stare at the two children out of school, both standing in the rain. Hopefully she was going too fast to see they were talking to a hare in the hedge.
    Cath shivered. The rain had soaked her to the skin. She was cold, and there wasn’t enough of her to make herself warm again. And she was hungry, too, and her ribs were hurting. People were stupid, Danny had been right. They were stupid, and they stood in the rain and got cold and didn’t give each other enough to eat, and these were some of the things that made life rubbish.
    It hadn’t been raining in Chromos. She hadn’t felt cold or hungry—her body hadn’t seemed to matter much at all. Why couldn’t Danny O’Neill say what he had to say and do what he had to do, so Cath and Barshin could go back to Chromos?
    â€œThis rain’s horrible,” said Danny. “Let’s go somewhere dry.”
    *   *   *
    They went to the wasteland next to the supermarket and crawled into a huge drainpipe that had been dumped in the corner by the road. Danny went and bought hot fries from the burger van, and Cath ate most of them before anyone had time to speak. Barshin wrinkled his nose at the warm, fatty smell, but didn’t ask to try one.
    Danny cheered up as soon as he was in the pipe, eating fries.
    â€œI can’t do anything about it,” he said. “I know what’s happened. Tom’s been e-mailing me since last summer, loads of junk about birds and badgers and trying to get me to visit his farm, because he’s got all this stuff he wants to show me. He never did that before—I knew something was up. But if that hare’s right, and it’s to do with Sammael, then there’s only one thing Tom could have done, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Really, nothing.”
    â€œGeek,” Cath said, not really caring and wishing that there were more fries. “You’re scared of everything, ain’t you?”
    â€œYeah,” said Danny. “I am scared. You’ve got no idea what Sammael did before. Tom never wanted to believe it either—he just told me I was being a stupid little kid. Now he can find out for