EDGE - A Rivets Short Story: Freak of Fortune by Ali Sparkes

Author:Ali Sparkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781445108490
Publisher: Hachette Children's Books
Published: 2011-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5: STONE

“And still you bicker,” sighed the figure. “Even with the stone near dead and fortune near turned forever.”

Nic and Rav froze, staring. The dark figure was something like a man. He was thin and stooped over, with wild hair and a ragged beard. His eyes were pools of black ink with a tiny blue spark at the centre and his skin, taut across his bones, was covered with fine dust.

The figure wore a rough woven tunic and animal pelts were bound to his feet with strips of leather.

“Who are you?” Nic’s throat was so dry with fright the words clicked in his mouth. “I keep the stone,” said the figure. “And I watch the light. And with it the turn of your fortune. Come.” The man moved back down the passage, his words pulling Nic and Rav after him.

Around a bend in the rock, the source of the pallid blue light sat at the dark man’s feet. A large misshapen lump of glass or crystal – the size of a rugby ball. It had beautiful spiral markings across it. The stone was set into a cradle of rock and the shaft of light it sent up picked out the glitter of tiny quartz particles floating in the air.

Rav gazed down at the stone. “What is that?”

“It is the Fortune Stone,” said the man. “And it ails.”

“What do you mean ‘it ails’? A stone can’t be ill,” said Nic. “Is the colour wrong? It was yellow before… Now it’s turned blue. Is that bad?”

“You know it is,” said the man. “For it is you who have turned it.”

“What?” Rav wondered if he had been concussed in the river and was imagining things again.

“Who turned it?” asked Nic. “Him or me?”

The man let out a very long sigh. The blue light contracted and grew dimmer. “And there it is. Another blow to the light. See how you bring your people down? See how you turn fortune from you?”

Rav stared at the man, tilting his head to one side, working things out. Then Rav took hold of Nic’s fingers in a kind of handshake. “Sorry,” he said. Nic gaped at him. This day could not get any weirder. “I mean it,” added Rav. “I’ve said some horrible, narky things to you. I shouldn’t have.”

The light changed again. But this time it grew just a little brighter. Suddenly Nic understood.

“I’m sorry too,” he said, and was surprised to find he meant it. “For laughing at you – and the gob and paper pellets. And… for hitting you in the face.”

The light was tinged with violet now. Just a hint of warmth seeping back in. “This is it,” said Nic, sinking to his knees. “This is actually the stone. It’s Fortune’s Stone.”

The man nodded and also knelt down.

“What are you on about?” asked Rav, stooping down too.

“The ancient settlement of Fortunestone – it began with the discovery of a stone which brought good fortune to the people,” said Nic, a smile emerging across his battered and bloodied face.

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