Read Online Valentine's Rising by E.E. Knight - Free Book Online Page B

point on the quartz. It was sharp enough. “How’d he fix the quartz in so tight?”
    â€œHe soaked the wood after he carved it,” Mrs. Smalls said proudly. “When it dried, it shrank down on the crystal.”
    â€œGood thinking,” Valentine replied, handing it to Ahn-Kha for his opinion. The Golden Ones were accomplished craftsmen in their own right.
    â€œThis is fine work,” Ahn-Kha agreed, fingering the point.
    â€œHave him make some more, if he can,” Valentine said.
    Smalls nodded, and Valentine led Ahn-Kha off. They watched the Smalls boy search the tree limbs, but the squirrels were making themselves scarce. “Smart kid. In the Wolves we used to take boys on patrols, called them ‘aspirants. ’ That spear point alone would have got him a place with my company.”
    â€œHe thinks quickly. Remember what he did with the wagon.”
    â€œWe could use another sharp set of eyes,” Valentine said. “Want to bring him along?”
    â€œHe’d have a better chance at a squirrel with us,” Ahn-Kha replied, his long ears twisting this way and that.
    â€œSettled,” Valentine said. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. “Hey, Hank, come over here.”
    The boy ran up to them. “Yes, Mr. Ghost?”
    â€œWe’re going out on an all-night scout. You want to come?”
    â€œYes, sir!” Hank answered, his voice breaking with excitement.
    â€œGo on, ask your parents. If it’s okay with them, catch up to us.”
    â€œThanks, Mr. Ghost,” the boy said, and ran off toward the wagon.
    Valentine and Ahn-Kha moved off into the woods. After a hundred yards, Valentine touched Ahn-Kha’s shoulder.
    â€œTime for his first lesson,” Valentine said. “Keep going.”
    Valentine held his sheathed knife in his hand and waited next to the trail. Ahn-Kha disappeared into the brush, leaving a Grog-wide trail. Soon he heard the boy’s footsteps as Hank ran to catch up with Ahn-Kha’s furry back.
    As Hank passed, Valentine stepped out from behind the tree. Quick as a Reaper, he got the slim youth in the fold of his left arm and put the sheathed knife to the boy’s throat. Hank let out a squeal of fear.
    â€œJust me, Hank,” Valentine said, releasing him. “Don’t pass so close to trees big enough to hide somebody.”
    â€œYou didn’t have to grab me!” Hank said.
    â€œYour heart beating hard?” Valentine asked.
    â€œYeah. I don’t like being grabbed.”
    â€œThen move a little more carefully when you’re going through the woods. Long time ago, over on the other side of Arkansas, some friends and I weren’t. They’re both dead. The Hood stepped right out from behind the tree and grabbed Gil, as easily as you’d pick up a rabbit knocked out with your slingshot.”
    â€œHood? That’s another word for a Reaper, right? We were supposed to call them Visors.”
    â€œDo you know how it all works, Hank?”
    â€œI know the Vis—the Reapers drink blood.”
    â€œA Reaper’s like a puppet. There’s another person pulling the strings. We call them Kurians because they’re from another world, a planet called Kur. They use the Reapers to feed because it’s less dangerous for them when they get the energy. The donor puts up a fight.”
    â€œThat energy they get, it’s something in us, right? Like our souls?” Hank said.
    Valentine felt as if the boy had kicked him in the stomach. He thought back to the graves of his parents, brother and sister who fell in Minnesota when he was eleven. He had asked Father Max if their souls had been eaten. “Nobody knows. Yes, it’s something humans have more of than other creatures. The man who raised me called it an ‘aura.’ There’s more aura in an intelligent being than there is in a dog or something. That’s why they feed on us.”
    â€We