Read Online The Frost Child by Eoin McNamee - Free Book Online Page A

Wayfarer crossed the fields and the river, hit the ground hard in front of
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    the Workhouse, and slithered to a halt in the snow. Before the boat had stopped moving, Owen and Cati leapt over the side and ran toward the Starry. With trembling fingers Cati took the key from around her neck and unlocked the door.
    Inside, after their frantic dash across time, the quiet struck them like a blow, and for a moment they stood looking down at the rows and rows of sleeping Resisters. Then Owen broke the silence.
    "Come on," he said, "you start on that side."
    Owen moved toward the first Resister, a young soldier in red who was smiling in his sleep. Owen tapped him sharply on the shoulder.
    "Wake up!"
    The soldier stirred in his sleep and after a moment sat up, rubbing his eyes. But by this time Owen had moved on. Cati hesitated as she realized she was standing beside Samual, the angry, suspicious leader of a group of Resister soldiers, who was no friend to her, or to Owen. She touched his shoulder.
    "Wake up, Samual," she said. "The Watcher calls you."
    Samual's eyes snapped open and he sat up, studying Cati as if she was up to no good. Cati moved on to the next sleeper, a man in a red coat, another of Samual's soldiers.
    As fast as they could, Owen and Cati moved through the Sleepers. They tried not to stop too long at old friends. Owen woke Contessa, and the wise and gracious head of the Workhouse kitchen smiled gently at him on
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    opening her eyes. Cati woke Rutgar, the leader of the Resister army and a grizzled veteran of many fights.
    "Wake up, Rutgar. The Harsh are coming!"
    "Are they indeed," Rutgar said, rubbing the great scar on his cheek, sitting up and swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. "I'll be ready, Cati!"
    Owen woke Pieta, the subtle and dangerous warrior.
    "Time to fight, Pieta," he said. But as he started to walk away, her hand closed around his wrist in a grip of iron. With the grace of a panther she rolled out of the bed to stand beside him.
    "Call my children next, Navigator," she said.
    Hello would have been nice , he thought, but in his heart he knew why she asked. Her children had once not woken when called because the Harsh had been interfering with time.
    "Aldra, Beck. Wake up!" he said. And this time they woke easily and stood, a tall, quiet boy and girl who took up their stations at their mother's shoulder.
    Owen was tiring as he reached Dr. Diamond. He touched his old friend's shoulder gently and the doctor's strange blue eyes opened. He stretched his lanky frame and smiled at Owen.
    "Owen, you see to Good," he said, and grinned apologetically. "I have to stop speaking backward."
    "times old like Feels," Owen replied with a smile. When the Harsh had turned time backward, Dr. Diamond had sometimes got mixed up and started speaking in reverse.
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    "Very clever," Dr. Diamond said, "and you have grown, Navigator. But why are you waking us so soon after we went to sleep?"
    "I'll explain at the Convoke, but there's a Harsh fleet close by."
    "What? Why didn't you tell me?" Dr. Diamond said, leaping to his feet. But before Owen could answer, Dr. Diamond had darted off through the crowd.
    After an hour the Starry was thronged with just-wakened Resisters, making their way out to the snowy Workhouse. Owen had called a Convoke, which was what the Resisters called their gatherings. It was to take place immediately in the Workhouse.
    "Give us time to shake the sleep off, boy," Samual snapped.
    "There is no time," Owen said, and something in his voice made Samual stop and stare.
    So they gathered in the still roofless Convoke hall, the last of the Resisters straggling in as Owen began to speak. Contessa, Rutgar, and Samual sat on the dais. Pieta took her usual seat by the fireplace. Owen wondered where Dr. Diamond was. Contessa motioned for Cati to get up onto the dais.
    "You are the Watcher," she said. "It is your entitlement." Then she clapped her hands sharply.
    "It is my privilege to address you first. I