Read Online The Island by Teri Hall - Free Book Online Page B

got.”
    “Maybe that’s the difference. Since you have honers here, maybe they just helped everyone develop their gifts better.” Rachel stopped walking. “Maybe everyone Away has a gift, too, but without someone to bring it out—like a honer—they don’t all know it.”
    “Makes sense, in a way. We all come from people who got exposed to the bombs, and that’s what causes the gifts, isn’t it?” Pathik started walking again. “Is the cave entrance we came in the only one?”
    Hannah and Tom exchanged another look. Neither replied. After a moment, Tom pointed toward the benches that had made Rachel think of the council room Away. “That’s where we hold meetings, to decide things like who’s doing what jobs, or how—”
    “Look.” Pathik cut Tom off. “Are we actually guests here, or prisoners?” He asked the question quietly, but Rachel could hear the challenge in his voice.
    Tom heard it, too. He stopped walking and waited until Pathik stopped, too. “As far as Hannah and I are concerned, you’re guests.” Tom looked around him to see if anyone was watching them. “I thought the idea was that you wanted to start new here—is that right?”
    “As far as you two are concerned.” Rachel ignored Tom’s question and asked one of her own. “What about the rest of the people here?”
    Once again, Hannah and Tom were silent. Finally, Hannah stepped closer to Rachel and whispered.
    “Most of the people here are just like us.” She looked around like Tom had, checking to see if they could be overheard. “They don’t want any trouble. As long as you don’t plan on causing any, they’ll welcome you all here.”
    “What sort of trouble would we be planning on causing?” Rachel watched Hannah and Tom.
    Hannah shrugged. “I guess there was a lot of fighting here at first about how to run things, but that was back when the bombs first hit, and everyone was panicked about surviving. They figured out a system—they elect council members and have lots of meetings before they decide on things—it works pretty well. It’s been that way forever. A few years back we had some trouble from outside for a while. But we’ve had peace here for a long time now.”
    “At a cost.” Tom made the comment in such a way that it was obvious he and Hannah had had many discussions about the subject.
    “From outside?” Rachel wondered what that meant. Outside the cave? Outside the island?
    “Hannah. Tom.” A woman called from some distance. She approached them, threading her way through groups of people. When she got closer she noticed Rachel and Pathik, and slowed. After a moment she resumed her pace and when she reached them she put her hands on her hips. “Didn’t I say not to be late for dinner?”
    Hannah grinned. “Ma, we have our own unit now. We can get our own dinner if we don’t eat at general.”
    “Your food’s always better than what they serve at general, though.” Tom gave the woman a charming look.
    “Are these the new ones?” The woman ignored Tom and eyed Rachel and Pathik.
    “Two of them.” Hannah shot an apologetic look at Rachel. “Sorry, Ma’s not in a polite mood right now, I guess.” She grinned again when her mother grimaced. “Ma,” she said, making a formal gesture toward Rachel, “this is Rachel. And this, “she indicated Pathik, “is her  . . . are you two formally attached yet?”
    Pathik blushed deep red. Rachel looked at the ground, unsure what to do. They’d never talked about what was between them—not in that way, anyway. The future seemed so uncertain most of the time that Rachel didn’t let herself think about what it might mean to say more than I love you , and she suspected it was even more complex for Pathik. He was one of the Others, she was a Reg. Even Pathik’s grandfather, Indigo, hadn’t been able to make that kind of love work, and Rachel wondered sometimes if Pathik thought of that, too.
    “Have to get a unit of your own soon if you are,