Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess

Author:Melvin Burgess
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2011-11-14T16:51:40+00:00

BOOK II

1

When Signy knew that her brother was alive she held a grim celebration. So now she had to live.

There was fish and cream for the cat and wine for her and the girl to toast the return of Siggy and the Volsons.

Cherry was in heaven. Her beloved mistress was going to live! She chased round and round the table, as a cat, as a girl, as a bird. She hung on Signy's neck and wept for the love of her, and swore she would never stop.

Signy banged her hands down on the table.

'And now we will destroy Conor,' she said. With that she put the darkness aside and began to make her plans.

The next morning, a small brown bird flew in through the window of a flat in Leytonstone, close to the edges of the Wall, where the shape-changer had hidden her find with the pig-woman, Melanie. Siggy had refused to move without her. She found them lying on piles of cushions in the middle of the floor, a huge fire blazing in the grate, blankets stuffed all around and under the door to keep out the draughts, duvets and eiderdowns piled up on top of them. All around were scattered paperbags stained with grease, crumbs, apple cores, empty bottles and small heaps of food. Cherry picked her way across the debris, her nose slightly wrinkled, and dropped a letter into Siggy's lap. Then she changed into a cat. The garbage was just too good to miss.

'Oh, God!' shouted Melanie from her heap of blankets. Cherry leapt into the air and turned back into a girl as she hit the ground. Melanie groaned; Siggy giggled. There was something sickening about seeing shape treated so lightly.

'Don't worry, Mels, she does it all the time,' said Siggy.

'Whow! One shape orta be enuff fer anyun,' grunted Melanie. She crept deeper under the blankets, but kept a sharp eye on the man and the girl. Melanie wanted to know everything that was going on.

Cherry stared at him, and Siggy smiled back as he opened the letter, then frowned and looked quickly away. She was a pretty girl. Just for a second he was flattered before he remembered the scabby wound that was his face. But Cherry was staring with the simplicity of a cat She had no feeling for looks at all. Actually, she was thinking that underneath the warm reek of grease and smoke that filled the room, the man smelt really rather good. She crossed her legs and began to purr under her breath as Siggy opened his letter and began to read.

It was the first communication between them since the massacre, and Siggy was filled with the overwhelming sensation that the letter was a fraud, written by a stranger. It was Signy all right; he knew her style as well as his own. But it was Signy as he'd never known her. And what nonsense she talked!

Revenge? Defeating Conor? Recovering the Volson lands? Restoring their father's dream? Siggy stared down at his wrecked body, and he began to laugh.

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