The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness

Author:Patrick Ness
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 2013-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

He dreamed again. That he was flying.

The world was islands floating in the air, connected by rickety bridges or rope walkways. The crane flew beside him, its legs trailing behind it. ‘Which is typically crane-like,’ the crane told him. Pieces of the world spun beneath them, and they flew past flat stone saucers with rivers that flowed in rings, past ball-shaped stones where JP and Henri, both dressed as the Little Prince, walked in a happy circle, waving to him as he flew by.

‘People don’t dream like this,’ George said, setting down on a rock shaped like a football field.

‘You mean a football pitch,’ said the crane, landing next to him.

George frowned. ‘No, actually, I don’t.’

The crane shrugged, then looked away as George peered at it more closely.

‘Your eyes are wrong,’ George said.

‘Eyes are eyes,’ said the crane, still not quite looking at him. ‘Especially in a dream.’

‘Especially not in a dream, I would have thought.’ George stepped closer to the crane. It flapped its wings and flew back a few steps.

‘Manners,’ it said.

‘Your eyes are green,’ George said. ‘When they should be gold.’

The crane looked at him full-on. Its eyes were indeed green, a burning, flaming, sulphurous green. ‘And what do you know of gold?’ it asked, its voice different, wrong.

‘Who are you?’ George demanded, angry, but fear rising in his chest.

‘A question that needs no asking,’ the crane said. Lava erupted from its eyes and poured down in great cataracts towards George.

Who ran. Or tried to. The rocky surface hurtled beneath him at great speed, rushing him away from the tidal waves of molten lava, though in actuality he couldn’t quite seem to move, to make any motion except a sort of lumpy gesture at running.

‘Okay, this feels like a dream,’ he said.

‘No,’ the volcano said, rising beneath him, putting a fiery fist around George’s neck and lifting him into the air. ‘You were right the first time.’

‘Please,’ George tried to say. ‘Please, stop.’

But the volcano wouldn’t listen, lifting him higher and higher, its face blocking out the stars with smoke and flame. ‘I will not stop,’ the volcano roared. ‘I will never stop!’

It reared back and threw George across the sky at impossible speed, rocketing past the melting world, past scalding clouds that used to be lakes and oceans, past the cries of the doomed in their burning cities. George flew fast as a comet, until he could see his target, see the white silkiness of it, see the great muscular motion of its wings furling and unfurling across the impossible expanse.

He hit it, piercing it.

And it destroyed him.

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.