Crystal by Rebecca Lisle Read Free Book Online Page A

had not shown anyone the acorn holder except Copper. He’d wanted it to be absolutely perfect before he’d shown it off. Had Greenwood perhaps found it and worked out that it was hollow? Had Greenwood in fact been using it to send a message, like in an empty bottle, and not, as Questrid had first thought, been throwing the acorn away?
    But then where had the message been going?

9
Spying on the Spy
    The next day, Effie and Crystal had a surprise visit from one of the Town Guard. He brought a summons. Effie had to go to see Grint again that evening.
    But why again so soon? Crystal wondered. Was it because Annie Scott had died? Or was it because of her mother’s recent odd behaviour? Or was Raek going to try to scare her again?
    Crystal had relived that awful flight from the skweener over and over. How could Raek have done that to her? Raek was more hateful than she’d ever imagined he could be. And now because of him the poor animal had died a dreadful death. She would hear the sound of its cries and the thrashing noises in the mud forever and ever.
    She must be careful, really careful.
    Raek opened the door for them. He didn’t mention what had happened on their last visit. He looked narrowly at Crystal and then snatched the sly-ugg’s carry-box from her and set it down on a marble sideboard.
    ‘Put your umbrellas in there,’ he said. ‘Don’t let them drip on the floor. Grint, Bless and Praise his Name, will see you straightaway. It’s wet so you ’d better sit in the waiting room,’ he told Crystal. ‘Come on, Effie.’
    ‘Why does he want her again?’ Crystal asked.
    Raek assumed a look of disgust. ‘She was no use last visit, was she?’ he said bitterly. ‘She was ill. Grint, Bless and Praise his Name, wants Effie tonight. Effie must do as he says!’
    The small waiting room where Crystal sat was bare except for a line of benches around the walls. No one else was waiting to see Grint. Crystal sat sucking a sweet and staring at a door in the corner. She had never really noticed that door before.
    The house was silent. Crystal got up and tried the door. It wasn’t locked. It opened onto a long corridor. The walls were close; the floor was made of uneven stone slabs. At the end was a small green metal door.
    Crystal went back to the waiting room and sat down. She was shaking. Could she go out that way? Out into the space behind the House and perhaps spy on Grint? Ever since she had found her mother lying on that divan and not in the receiving room, she had been suspicious. Where did Grint take her mother when Crystal left? What did he do to her?
    Of course the green door could be locked, but … it might not be.
    She got up swiftly, went down the corridor and tried the green door at the end. It opened. Two seconds later she was outside, behind Grint’s house in a high-walled garden.
    The rain had almost stopped, but anyway Crystal loved the rain. She liked to feel a thin veil of it covering her bare skin; she loved the damp earthy smell rain released from the ground. She loved getting wet.
    She ran straight to a group of tall thin trees and stood there looking at the House. This was dangerous! She could hardly get her breath, as if she were wearing a too-tight belt. She’d be in terrible, awful trouble if she were caught …
    There were two dimly lit windows on the ground floor of the House. One, she was sure, would be where her mum was. Crystal laid her hand against the slender tree; it exuded a scent – a sort of clean greenness, which made her feel braver.
    She scampered over a patch of soil and tufts of grass; the ground was rough with shards of pointed steel, broken pipes and rocks. She stopped beside one of these windows and peeped inside.
    It was a laboratory. The walls were lined with shelves of glass tubes and beakers, pots, bottles of powders and strange instruments. On the long metal table in the centre of the room was an open-ended steel box with large screws jutting out on either