Read Online Yesterday's Magic by Pamela F. Service - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Pamela F. Service
Tags: Fiction
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Hungry.
It could be poisoned or have bad magic.
She felt mental giggles.
Live here. Get to know poison and bad magic. This clean.
Well, then, it’s yours. But be careful.
Heather looked at her guests more closely. One was smaller and gray-white. A female, she felt. The male was a darker gray. They shared the food without fighting, stopping occasionally to clean whiskers and muzzles with the back of a paw.
When they’d eaten every crumb, they both nodded toward her, then scrambled off to what must be their hole in the wall, a small chink of greater darkness.
Wait. I’m trapped here. Where is this?
The rats stopped.
Big stone fortress,
the female answered.
Stone fortress in mountains,
the male added.
Bad place, but food’s here. Have to be careful or bad things make food of you.
Heather sighed. A stone fortress in the mountains didn’t tell her much. But she could hardly expect rats to know geography.
What sort of bad things?
Again, giggles.
Every sort. Flying bad things, crawling bad things. Human bad things baddest of all. But you’re a human, right?
I try to be.
Thought so. If flying bad things come through window, don’t let them bite.
With that, both rats vanished into their hole.
Uneasily Heather looked out her window and gasped. The hazy moonlight showed a cloud of small black shapes fluttering just beyond the arched opening. Sharp hungry squeakings scratched at her mind. But they didn’t fly in, almost as if an invisible screen kept them out.
For ages, it seemed, she watched the threatening cloud, but nothing changed. Finally, exhausted, frightened, and very cold, she lay down and struggled to fold one end of the thin mattress over herself. But she still couldn’t sleep. She tried to think back over the things she’d read at Llandoylan School, searching for any clue about her whereabouts. The school had collected surviving books from all over, and she’d been perhaps the school’s biggest bookworm, reading almost everything that didn’t fall apart in her hands. Of course, fiction had been her favorite, but sometimes it was hard to tell what the pre-Devastation people thought was true and what they made up, because their real world was so different from hers. But still…
Suddenly a memory jolted into her mind, and she fervently wished it hadn’t. She’d read a book once, set in some place on the Continent. Eastern Europe, maybe. At the beginning, there’d been a stone castle in the mountains. This really scary guy, a count or something, was keeping another guy prisoner there. And there’d been bats. Awful bloodsucking bats. Vampire bats.
Shivering from cold and fear, Heather got only fitful sleep that night.
The fluttering shapes beyond the window disappeared with the pale orange of dawn. Shortly after, the door rattled open a crack and another plate of food slid in before the door slammed closed again. Heather unrolled herself from the prickly mattress and stared at the plate. She was hungry enough now to risk eating just about anything. At the whisper of tiny footsteps, she turned. The rats were peeking out of their hole.
I must eat something,
she thought at them.
But I’ll share. Half for you, half for me.
They crept fully out and waited patiently while Heather brought the plate back to her mattress. Breaking the bread in two, she used part to scoop up half of the green glop. It tasted like boiled leaves, but her stomach welcomed it, then growled in complaint when she put the remainder of the food down for the pair of rats. But she had said she’d share.
Finally, meal finished, the rats were gone and Heather was alone. She clutched her bracelet, trying to draw comfort from its presence. Then, lying back, she attempted to clear her mind. If only she could hear some of those voices now, that would be some company. But she’d never actually
tried
to hear them, just waited until they intruded on her. She wished she and Earl had been able to experiment. He’d been so excited by
It could be poisoned or have bad magic.
She felt mental giggles.
Live here. Get to know poison and bad magic. This clean.
Well, then, it’s yours. But be careful.
Heather looked at her guests more closely. One was smaller and gray-white. A female, she felt. The male was a darker gray. They shared the food without fighting, stopping occasionally to clean whiskers and muzzles with the back of a paw.
When they’d eaten every crumb, they both nodded toward her, then scrambled off to what must be their hole in the wall, a small chink of greater darkness.
Wait. I’m trapped here. Where is this?
The rats stopped.
Big stone fortress,
the female answered.
Stone fortress in mountains,
the male added.
Bad place, but food’s here. Have to be careful or bad things make food of you.
Heather sighed. A stone fortress in the mountains didn’t tell her much. But she could hardly expect rats to know geography.
What sort of bad things?
Again, giggles.
Every sort. Flying bad things, crawling bad things. Human bad things baddest of all. But you’re a human, right?
I try to be.
Thought so. If flying bad things come through window, don’t let them bite.
With that, both rats vanished into their hole.
Uneasily Heather looked out her window and gasped. The hazy moonlight showed a cloud of small black shapes fluttering just beyond the arched opening. Sharp hungry squeakings scratched at her mind. But they didn’t fly in, almost as if an invisible screen kept them out.
For ages, it seemed, she watched the threatening cloud, but nothing changed. Finally, exhausted, frightened, and very cold, she lay down and struggled to fold one end of the thin mattress over herself. But she still couldn’t sleep. She tried to think back over the things she’d read at Llandoylan School, searching for any clue about her whereabouts. The school had collected surviving books from all over, and she’d been perhaps the school’s biggest bookworm, reading almost everything that didn’t fall apart in her hands. Of course, fiction had been her favorite, but sometimes it was hard to tell what the pre-Devastation people thought was true and what they made up, because their real world was so different from hers. But still…
Suddenly a memory jolted into her mind, and she fervently wished it hadn’t. She’d read a book once, set in some place on the Continent. Eastern Europe, maybe. At the beginning, there’d been a stone castle in the mountains. This really scary guy, a count or something, was keeping another guy prisoner there. And there’d been bats. Awful bloodsucking bats. Vampire bats.
Shivering from cold and fear, Heather got only fitful sleep that night.
The fluttering shapes beyond the window disappeared with the pale orange of dawn. Shortly after, the door rattled open a crack and another plate of food slid in before the door slammed closed again. Heather unrolled herself from the prickly mattress and stared at the plate. She was hungry enough now to risk eating just about anything. At the whisper of tiny footsteps, she turned. The rats were peeking out of their hole.
I must eat something,
she thought at them.
But I’ll share. Half for you, half for me.
They crept fully out and waited patiently while Heather brought the plate back to her mattress. Breaking the bread in two, she used part to scoop up half of the green glop. It tasted like boiled leaves, but her stomach welcomed it, then growled in complaint when she put the remainder of the food down for the pair of rats. But she had said she’d share.
Finally, meal finished, the rats were gone and Heather was alone. She clutched her bracelet, trying to draw comfort from its presence. Then, lying back, she attempted to clear her mind. If only she could hear some of those voices now, that would be some company. But she’d never actually
tried
to hear them, just waited until they intruded on her. She wished she and Earl had been able to experiment. He’d been so excited by
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