Anne Downer - Hatching 02 by Dragon of Never-Was

Author:Dragon of Never-Was [Never-Was, Dragon of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

As they left, the sunlight glinted on the wet rocks at the base of the Veil, and one of the little dark wading birds landed and gripped the slick surface with sure, clawed toes. It pecked at something bright, drew back, pecked again, and flew off in search of better prey.

What lay on the rock, flashing in the light, was a twin to the scale Colin had found, the one that now lay in a clear plastic box on a bed of cotton in Andy Oglethorpe’s pocket.

12

Hic What?

THE NEXT MORNING Theodora was quiet, thinking about everything that had happened on the trip to the waterfall—the ride on Colin’s moped, Bridie’s smiling teasing, the carvings behind the falls, Colin’s intent expression as he’d made his own rubbing, and the little dark birds darting in and out of the mist.

The brief moment she’d locked gazes with Mad John and shared the hermits pain. But mostly she thought of the letters she had seen carved into the rock face.

H C S V N T

That, and how long it had taken her to stop shivering once they’d gotten back into the sun. It was only in Bridie’s bright kitchen, drinking tea and eating toast with marmalade and listening to the vet talking to Colin in that soft Scots accent, that she had felt warm again. Then she had been able to forget, for a little while, the look in Mad Johns eyes.

The funny thing about HCSVNT was that it was so familiar, as if she had seen it before, if she could just remember where.

Her father put his hand on her shoulder, and she jumped about a mile.

“Sorry, Dodo,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was going to walk into the village to send a fax.

Wanna come?”

“Sure.”

“Then I thought we could rent a couple of bikes in town and ride them back. We can use them as long as we’re here.”

It had rained earlier that morning, and now the sun was drying up the puddles. The sky had a fresh, washed look to it. Theodora felt a wildly happy feeling well up inside her. It made her want to skip, except she was too old for skipping.

Halfway to the village they had to stop as a girl, younger than Theodora, herded some Highland cows with long, shaggy red hair across the road into a new pasture. Neither the girl nor the cows were in any great hurry, and at last Mr. Oglethorpe and Theodora sat on the fence beside the road to wait.

All of a sudden one of the cows began to low miserably, and to kick, and this discontent soon spread through the herd. The girl tried to control them, but the cows bolted back across the road and down a slope into a rocky creek bed. Two men in a truck coming the other way were also waiting for the cows to pass, and when they saw the animals begin to panic they jumped out of the truck and ran to help round them up, but not before one calf had slipped down the slope and injured itself.

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