Northwood by Brian Falkner

Author:Brian Falkner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 9781434286666, 9781434286673, 9781623700836, 9781434288172, fiction, Stone Arch Books, Juvenile Fiction--Fantasy & Magic
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Published: 2014-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

***

Cecilia had started work at seven in the morning, right after breakfast, and finished at four in the afternoon. It was a long day and her arms ached at the end of it, but Jazz’s job was much harder than hers and she never once complained.

Everyone else was involved in the harvest, even David Ovink, the usual grain-pourer, which was why Cecilia had been given that job.

There were only a few jobs that had to go on every day, regardless of the harvest, and grinding the grain was one of them.

When she finished, despite her exhaustion, she raced straight over to the twins’ house, but found them halfway there, lying on the riverbank with their toes in the water, arguing.

“I hate picking crawling beans,” Evan was saying. “They go everywhere. I had three crawl up inside my shirt today. They give me the chills.”

“Better than being up to your waist in mud, picking gobbage,” Avery said.

Both of them were streaked with sweat and dust, and barely had the energy to raise their heads when Cecilia arrived.

“Hi, Avery. Hi, Evan,” Cecilia said, plonking herself down beside them and taking off her shoes and socks so she could dangle her toes in the river also.

The water was cold, but soothing for her poor feet, which had been working very hard to hold her up all day long.

“Hi, Cecilia,” Avery said.

“How was your day in the mill?” Evan asked.

“It was okay,” Cecilia said. “Jazz is nice.”

“She’s a snob,” Avery said. “She never talks to me.”

“No she’s not,” Evan said. “She’s just shy.”

“I think she’s mostly sad,” Cecilia said.

Evan and Avery thought that over for a moment as the river strolled past, tickling their toes as it went.

“I loved your idea about the balloons,” Evan said.

“You didn’t even know what a balloon was,” Avery said. “You had to ask Mom.”

“Neither did you.”

“I did so!”

“I’m really worried about it,” Cecilia said, interrupting them. “I’m afraid that they will have stopped searching in a week.”

“But you said your father could afford to keep searching for weeks,” Avery said.

“You told the King,” Evan said, agreeing with his sister for once.

“I know what I said,” Cecilia said. “But what if I’m wrong? Then we could fly the balloons all day long and it wouldn’t do any good.”

“You won’t be able to change his mind,” Avery said. “Not now that the harvest has started.”

Evan said nothing. He was just looking at Cecilia and she had the distinct impression that he was reading her mind.

“You don’t want to wait, do you?” he said. “You want to sneak out and try to do it by yourself.”

A group of workers was making their way back up the river from the harvest, sacks full of something hoisted over their shoulders. Cecilia stopped talking as they came within earshot.

The man at the front of the group was huge — even taller than the grizzly bear guard. His shoulders were wide like the stones in the mill, and his chest was a big barrel full of muscle.

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