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Back Timberdark Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. Contents
  3. Dedication
  4. Praise for Wranglestone
  5. Epigraph
  6. Map
  7. Part I
  8. Prologue
  9. 1
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. 7
  16. 8
  17. Part II
  18. 9
  19. 10
  20. 11
  21. 12
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. 16
  26. 17
  27. 18
  28. 19
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. 23
  33. 24
  34. 25
  35. 26
  36. Part III
  37. 27
  38. 28
  39. 29
  40. 30
  41. 31
  42. 5 Years Later
  43. Acknowledgements
  44. About the Author

A carpet of stars stretched beyond the cabin now. There were no mountains on the horizon, or islands to break the perfect mirror. The black lake reflected the starry night completely. It was as if Peter occupied an empty ribbon in space where the Earth should be, somewhere between the galaxy above and the one below. Peter peered down into the inky water, but there was no reflection staring back at him, just more stars reaching further back into space. He set one foot down upon the lake. He didn’t break through the surface. It held him, forming a rim of water around his heel and toes. It took his weight, so Peter set the other foot down. The stars quivered at the pressure of his body on the surface, making them dazzle more brightly. But they held their shape. Briefly, he turned back. There was no cabin behind him any more, just a door-shaped hole. It closed and the galaxy surrounded him infinitely. In the distance was a little red canoe. Peter set one foot down after the other and journeyed on towards the middle of the lake.

21

Peter bolted forward in his chair. He couldn’t have nodded off for more than a moment or two, but by the time he came round, the circle of empty chairs they’d laid out for the meeting had begun to fill and the town hall echoed to the thrum of a dozen different conversations.

Everyone was due to attend. People his dad’s age or older weren’t expected to take part in the workshop on account of the fact they needed little reminder of what life was like before, let alone take a refresher for all those independent living skills you needed to make it through. But a series of stands strewn with red, white and blue bunting framed a sequence of white lines painted on the floor where the hall had been used for sports, offering advice on a range of topics such as budgeting, health insurance and CV building. And now several older community members were milling among them while Sheriff O’Hurn tried to coax many to the chairs with promise of a fresh donut, in the hope they’d stick around long enough to give the younger ones some advice.