Read Online The Shadow of Malabron by Thomas Wharton - Free Book Online

impossible things that had happened to him since coming here. Instead he remembered what had brought him here in the first place. He had stolen his father’s motorcycle, and he wasn’t looking forward to admitting that. But that wasn’t really the beginning, either. There was the move from their old house, and all the days before it, when it had seemed he hardly said a word to Jess or his father. When he stayed out late with his friends or shut himself in his room all evening. And before that, the day that what he had most feared had come true. When he returned home and his mother was gone, and he knew, he really understood for the first time that he would never see her again. It had seemed to him that day that his story had ended and that from then on there was nothing left to tell or say.
    He could not tell them all that. Not yet. And so he began with the theft of the motorcycle and how it led to his encounter with the fetches, and all that had happened afterwards.
    Pendrake sat frowning in his armchair by the fire as Will told his tale. He did not ask questions, nor did he offer any explanations for the strange and terrifying things that had occurred. He simply listened while Will, stumbling over his words and often backtracking to add details that he had forgotten, slowly got the story out. Once or twice Rowen jumped in to give her version of the events she had witnessed. Pendrake neither asked her to keep quiet, nor commented on what she had to say.
    When Will was finished, the old man continued to sit for a time, his gaze distant and his hands pressed together in front of his lips, as if he were deep in thought over what he had heard. The silence was broken only by the snap of the fire, and the ticking of a clock, carved to resemble an owl, that hung on the wall above the desk.
    Finally Pendrake stirred. He rose from his chair, took a poker and stood near the fire.
    “As I’m sure you’ve guessed,” he said, “you have strayed very far from home. Luckily you have come to a part of the realms that is not utterly different from the world you know. It could have been far worse.”
    “How could it?” Will said, close to tears. “You told me I can never go back.”
    “I said you cannot go back the way you came. You will have to find another way, as everyone does who comes here and wishes to leave. The border between this realm and yours is always shifting. What is a door one moment may be a wall the next.”
    “But nobody knows where I am. It’s been hours since I left. My father, Jess, the police – they’ll all be looking for me. I have to get back
now
.”
    “You cannot,” Pendrake said simply. “But I can tell you this. The border between realms shifts in time as well as space. You could spend days here, and return home to find that only moments had passed. Or the other way round. Much depends on the way you return.”
    “Do you know the way?” Will whispered, though he already suspected what the answer would be.
    “I know of only one way. To find the path that is yours, not anyone else’s.”
    “But what about the fetches, Grandfather?” Rowen interrupted. “They’re probably still out there. It was a lucky thing that Moth found us.”
    Pendrake turned to her with a smile.
    “Yes, thank goodness for the Nightwanderer. Since he and Morrigan make their home in the Wood, I asked them a long time ago to keep an eye on my granddaughter. I have had at least that comfort when she goes off in search of adventure without telling anyone.”
    Rowen frowned and glanced at Will, her face flushing as red as her hair.
    “But I have not forgotten the fetches, Rowen,” Pendrake added. “The Council met in emergency session when reports came in about strange ghostly creatures prowling our borders. Thanks to Moth we now know they are fetches, and this is of grave concern. Things are stirring in the world beyond the Bourne. More storyfolk driven from their lands by Nightbane arrive here every day. And we must