Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling

Author:Victoria Gosling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

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“Got any skates, Rob?” Priss asked, but the question wasn’t meant seriously, for while the ice on the lake was thick enough—so thick that when I picked up a stone, a fist-sized rock, and launched it with all my strength at the cold rink, it merely bounced, skittered, and then slowed to a sliding halt out in the middle—there were ominous black patches, lacunae in the cloud of ice suggestive of the dark and freezing depths beneath. Goli wove her way down to the edge of the lake and rested one clawed paw and then the other on the ice, before creeping backward, hackles raised.

“Of course, you could give the game away, Em. They are your oldest friends after all,” Alice was saying.

“No cheating,” Marcus said.

“Are you quite sure about that?” Alice’s voice had an edge to it and in response Marcus flushed.

“Maybe you want to check our bags when we leave, Alice. If you think we can’t be trusted—”

Rob stepped between us.

“Calm down, Andy. Alice didn’t mean anything. Let’s all play nicely now.” He turned to Zack. “I’m really not capable of doing this straight. I’ll need a line of your coke. Chop, chop. There’s a fellow.”

“Didn’t bring any, old chap.”

“Liar!”

“Does the person that finds them get to keep them?” Priss asked. We all looked at Em.

“I think they should,” David said carefully. “Finders keepers to make it more interesting.”

“What if we find the real ones, Rob?”

“Finders keepers,” said Rob. “Same if I find Zack’s coke while searching for the necklace in his bag. Finders keepers start to finish. My money is on Peter, of course. We don’t know what he’s capable of, you see.”

The tour had been for Priss and Zack, who didn’t know the layout of the grounds.

“How do we start?”

In the end, we went back inside, to the room where I had slept.

“Can we have a clue, Em?”

She shook her head. “They’re somewhere clever.”

“You have to lie on the bed, Andy,” Peter said.

So I did. I got up on the mattress and lay back feigning sleep while the others stood around me in a circle.

“Go on,” Zack said.

So I raised by arms and stretched them out while miming a yawn, and then, rolling over, I reached out a hand for the bedside table, groped at its surface, drew myself up, and then howled, howled loud enough to shake the windowpanes.

“My necklace, it’s gone. Someone has stolen my diamonds!”

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