Varjak Paw by Sf Said

Author:Sf Said
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409047667
Publisher: RHCP

Chapter Nineteen

Varjak and Holly talked through the night by the giant bronze lions. There was nothing to distract them but the fountain’s trickle and the birds’ trilling.

It was strange at first. No one else had ever wanted to talk about hunting before. Varjak could still barely believe that someone his own age was interested in it, and not senseless kitten games like Jay, Jethro and Jerome. But it was true. Holly was easy to talk to because she was like him. She liked the same things. Her mind worked in the same way.

Sometimes it was hard to keep up with her. Whenever he thought he had the answer to something, she asked another difficult question: why like this, not like that? And she had ideas he would never have thought up. But he had a few of his own, too; and together they worked out their plan.

That night, Varjak felt something he’d never felt before. Or rather, he didn’t feel something. He didn’t feel alone any more.

They woke Tam just before dawn and explained the plan to her. Her eyes grew round with fear.

‘Me?’ she said. ‘You want me to do that? Why me?’

‘Can you do my part of the plan?’ said Holly. ‘Or Varjak’s?’

‘Well, no – but—’

‘You’ve got to do it, Tam,’ said Varjak. ‘It’s impossible without you.’

‘It is?’ she said.

‘Of course it is,’ said Holly. ‘And if you do it, I promise I won’t say her name any more.’

‘Well then,’ said Tam cheerfully, ‘what are we waiting for?’

They took up their positions as the first rays of sunshine splashed onto the white buildings, filling the square with light. Everything began to glow: the ground, the sky, even the water in the fountain. Varjak crept up on the pigeons from one corner of the square. Holly crept up from another. Tam stood in front of them, on the far side of the flock.

At Holly’s signal, Tam sprang at the pigeons. A hundred birds beat their wings, fierce and dangerous in their flock. Tam kept going, never slowing, just aiming for the other side in a blur of speed they couldn’t stop – and Varjak and Holly flew out of the morning sun behind them.

It should have been easy. The birds were distracted by Tam and didn’t see them coming in the haze of brilliant light. That was the plan.

But even as Varjak dived in, the thrill of the hunt in his veins, it started to go wrong. Tam was clear through, but there were still too many pigeons in a mass. He and Holly were on the edge of the flock, but couldn’t get close enough to any single bird to strike.

The birds turned on Holly, wings flapping savagely, claws curving out. She didn’t run. She stood there bravely, trying hard, but now they were surrounding her, pecking at her with shrill, sharp beaks.

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