Chapters (53)
- Cover
- About Alison Stuart
- Also by Alison Stuart
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Preview of The Goldminer's Sister
He rested Danny’s hand on a large, flat rock and Adelaide held the boy’s wrist. Caleb glanced at her terrified face then opened the knife and made several small cuts over the fang marks. Danny flinched and cried out but his mother held him still. Taking a deep breath, Caleb bent his head and sucked.
Fighting back the nausea at the acrid tang of blood in his mouth, Caleb turned his head and spat. Adelaide released her grip on Danny and ran down to the river, scooping up water in her hat. It tasted of mud and worse but Caleb rinsed his mouth and sucked and spat again. Danny whimpered and jerked his hand back but Adelaide had it held firmly.
‘Good boy. Now I need you to keep very still,’ Caleb said.
Danny complied, his eyes round with fear as Caleb stood up and looked around. The worst of the initial firestorm had passed but, here and there, scrubby bushes and undergrowth still burned. He gathered a pile of dry tinder and ignited it from one of the spot fires. Keeping his back to the boy, he laid the knife in the embers until it glowed red hot.
He turned back to Danny. ‘Now, this is going to hurt,’ he said. ‘Close your eyes real tight and your mother will be holding your good hand.’
Danny stared at him. The boy’s eyes were already unnaturally bright as the poison began to take effect. ‘You’re not going to cut my hand off?’ the boy whimpered.
Caleb allowed himself the luxury of a smile. ‘No. Now close your eyes.’
Danny obeyed, his mouth a thin line and his face screwed up in anticipation.
Caleb drew out the heated knife and without hesitation applied the flat of the blade to the wound.
Danny screamed, bucking against his mother’s grasp. She held him down as Caleb removed the knife, revealing the red raw burn of the cauterisation. Adelaide drew an audible breath and Caleb looked up,
Adelaide’s stricken eyes said the words she could not voice. Don’t let him die.
‘Your scarf, Adelaide.’
She handed him the scarf from around her neck and he took his off too, binding Danny’s hand as best he could.
Danny whimpered, tears making tracks on his dirt- and soot-stained face.
Caleb laid Danny’s hand on the boy’s chest. ‘You hold it right there. Don’t move it. You’ve been very brave, Dan.’
‘I feel sick,’ Danny said.
They carefully rolled him onto his left side and the child was ill, drawing his knees up to his chest. It seemed he’d eaten little all day, and there was not much to throw up.