The Crossing of Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Author:Helen Dunmore
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9781443400961
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2008-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Faro is shaking me. My heart is thundering. “Wake up! Wake up, little sister!”

I struggle back to consciousness. “Where is she?”

Only Faro is there, wide awake, watching me with concern. “You had a nightmare,” he says. “You were screaming.”

“No, it wasn’t a nightmare, Faro. It was real. It was the Atka.”

“The Atka? What is that?”

“A girl, a girl like me. She had my face but no body, at least I don’t think she had a body. There was a fog swirling around her, and then she had a crown.”

I expect Faro to laugh at me, but he doesn’t. His brows draw together in a frown. “You have been visited by a spirit,” says Faro decisively. “I have always been told that the world of ice is haunted by spirits, some bad, some good. Your Atka, I think, was a bad spirit.”

“But she said she was here to protect me. I think she was, in a way … but she only wanted me; she didn’t care about the rest of you. I wish you’d told me about the spirits, Faro,” I add shakily, trying to make a joke of it. “I would have chosen the southern route and the sharks.”

“Maybe you were asleep and it was all a dream,” says Faro, but I can tell he doesn’t really think it was. His expression is clouded. I can’t get the face of the Atka out of my mind. Even though I’m still shaking with fear, I want to see her again. I think that Faro is wrong. She wasn’t a bad spirit. Just very, very frightening.

You will know me again, when it is time.

“Maybe you’ve got an Atka too, Faro,” I say, but Faro wrinkles his nose in disdain.

“No evil spirit of the ice is going to run my life,” he says. “If I see my Atka, little sister, I will do – what is that word you told me for not looking at a person?”

“Blanking.”

“I will blank my Atka,” says Faro grandly. “Good luck with that, Faro.”

I force the memory of the Atka down into the depths of my mind. Think about now, Sapphire. Think about everything you can do to find Conor again. Think about Saldowr.

“We had no choice,” says Faro, and it takes me a minute to know what he’s talking about. Our route, of course.

“I know that, Faro. The sharks would have killed us if we’d gone south.”

“We will do it this way, little sister. We will not fail,” says Faro between his teeth, and I know that he’s talking to himself as much as to me. The Atka’s words echo in my head. You must stay in your world and fight its battles.

Day is coming again. The rising sun sends a bloody stain through the water, and then cloud covers it and the sea turns grey. The light is wan and heavy, as if winter is almost here. It’s the second day, the one when we have to go north, but still there’s no sign of Conor or Elvira.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.