BooksBarbecue
Back Rise of the Shadow Dragons Save as PDF
Contents ( 50)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. EPILOGUE
  48. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  49. Also by Liz Flanagan:
  50. COPYRIGHT

It was like the night watchman Gabriel had said: Joe’s parents would be better off if he were dead. And now he was. That would be his gift to them. Until he had become someone his parents could be proud of, he would stay dead.

70

CHAPTER TEN

Joe and Winter fell into a kind of rhythm. Winter would bring food: simple, but good – cheese, bread, sardines, pears. Joe ate and slept, recovering slowly. When he woke, sometimes Winter was there, changing the bandages on his burned hands, keeping his head injury clean. More often, he was alone. He had no idea how many days passed: night and day were the same in this cave. He lost great swathes of time to strange unquiet sleep. Sometimes he woke up scream­ing and beating at himself, thinking he was on fire. Slowly, slowly, he let his old life slip away, grieving for it in dreams and nightmares.

Finally, one day, he found he could stand without sway­ing. His shoulder would take longer to heal. In the end, Winter tied his arm in a sling, and Joe tried to forget about it, focusing on walking further down the corridor each day, determined to get better, till he could even tackle the steps: one by one. The top still seemed very far away. 71

Even when she was there, Winter didn’t like to talk for long, Joe realised. She could manage a short sentence or three before she got that hunted look and she’d need to fly away.

Joe’s questions multiplied in the hours of solitude. He planned his words carefully in the spaces when he was alone, polishing them into small shiny nuggets to be ready for Winter’s return.

‘Do you know all the tunnels?’ he asked.

‘Not yet. Exploring slowly,’ she explained. ‘Didn’t want to get lost.’

‘How far do they go?’

‘Far.’

‘What are they for?’

She shrugged. ‘Escaping.’

Did she mean them, or someone else? Joe wanted to ask more, but she was already eyeing the passageway and getting up to leave.

One day, he was very bored, and his head was itching terribly. He decided to explore, but his legs collapsed half­way up the nearest flight of stone steps. Joe crawled back to the cave just as Winter arrived. He was ready to scream with pain and frustration. He heaved himself into the cave, slumped against a wall and put both hands over his mouth so he couldn’t let out his anger. It was like fire. And like fire, he had to control it, or contain it. Otherwise it would destroy him and damage others. This was his new start and he would not wreck it. He breathed in and out till he was sure he could speak without raging against the pain. 72

Winter just stood there looking at him in her quiet way.

Suddenly he needed to know more about her too. What did she want? What did she do? She’d seen his worst moment, on his birthday, and yet she’d still helped him.