Read Online Voices in the Dark by Catherine Banner - Free Book Online Page B

behind me that she was still awake and thinking. Maybe it was remembering all those people who were gone now – Aldebaran and my grandfather, and somewhere far back the ghost of my real father – or maybe it was because I had never really worked out the truth about what happened the year I was born, but I could not sleep either that night.
    * * *
    The Imperial Order marched every night during those last days of July, and every morning the newspapers carried more reports of rioting in the north of the city. Leo did not sleep. He sat up at nights in the back room of the shop, smoking an endless line of cigarettes and studying that red book. And in those days, the world began to change.
    We did not realize it at first. No one spoke about it, only the newspapers. First there were those reports of militants rioting in the north. Then General Marlan of Alcyria threatened the states to his east with war, and Titanica threatened retaliation. Marcovy, a country I knew only from geography lessons, threatened Titanica in return to protect its coal-mining interests. Maybe we did not pay enough attention. But those places were hundreds of miles from us, and Aldebaran’s death still went unresolved. The king’s face appeared on the front of the newspaper every day, looking old and tired. ‘My duty to you is to promise you what Aldebaran always promised,’ he stated. ‘Our country will not go to war.’
    The last days in July were national holidays, and in former years we had shut up the shop and gone to the Royal Gardens every evening to dance as the stars came out. Neither Leo nor my mother seemed much inclined to go this year, and we kept the shop open. Then, one morning, Mr Pascal came to our door before seven o’clock. Leo was still lighting the stove, and I was out in the yard fetching water.
    ‘I just spoke to Mr Barone,’ he said breathlessly, shoving a newspaper at Leo. ‘Alcyria has declared war on all the states along its eastern border. It’s official. It’s no longer just a threat, North.’
    Leo took the newspaper; I leaned over his shoulder. On the front page was a line drawing of General Marlan with his fist raised. Below it a map was striped in black arrows that covered half the continent. Leo ran his hand backwards over his hair. ‘What does this mean?’ he said.
    ‘I hardly know,’ said Mr Pascal.
    Jasmine came skipping down the stairs at that moment. Leo threw Mr Pascal a quick glance. ‘We are getting on well with those old books,’ he said in a voice that hardly faltered. ‘Come and see.’
    Mr Pascal folded the newspaper. They went to the counter and turned over the contents of the box he had given us. I followed them. Jasmine wandered into the room and looked up at Mr Pascal. She could tell when something was wrong in half a second; our only hope was to conceal what the trouble was, and from Leo’s fierce glance, I knew Mr Pascal wouldn’t dare say anything more about the newspaper report.
    ‘What’s this?’ he asked absently instead, picking up another book from the counter. It was
The Darkness Has a Thousand Voices
, still lying there from last night.
    ‘That’s something else,’ said Leo.
    Mr Pascal picked it up and flipped over the pages, from front to back and then the other way. ‘Harlan Smith,’ he said.
    ‘Do you know anything about him?’ said Leo.
    Mr Pascal shook his head and studied the first page of the book. ‘This is old-fashioned writing,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if there is much call for it nowadays.’
    ‘I’m not selling it,’ said Leo.
    ‘Seven Sisters Press,’ said Mr Pascal. ‘It doesn’t sound like a real publisher to me. Not that I know much about bookdealing, but if it was a real publisher, I would have seen it about the city. What about John Worthy, the printers?’
    ‘They closed down two years ago,’ said Leo.
    I glanced at him. He must have looked that up somehow. Mr Pascal set the book down again distractedly and said, ‘I don’t know what