Dawn of Wonder (The Wakening Book 1) by Jonathan Renshaw Read Free Book Online

that could both have been stolen, how do we know he is who he says? Aedan
and I think he’s a Lekran who has prepared himself for this act.”
    Aedan had been thinking. Something bothered him
and suddenly he realised what it was. He had not heard the floorboards. The lieutenant,
or whatever he was, had not left.
    “I can prove it!” he said, and ran to the door,
yanking it open. The light of the lamps fell on the man’s surprised face.
    “See. He’s been listening the whole time!”
    “Not at all, my young friend,” said the tall man,
stepping inside and putting his hand on Aedan’s shoulder. The grip tightened
like a horse’s bite, but nothing was betrayed in the man’s face or the smooth voice
in which he continued. “I returned from my rounds and decided to wait until you
were done talking. I simply wanted to avoid interrupting.”
    “But the floorboards –” Aedan began.
    “Aedan, that is enough!” Dresbourn’s voice struck
like a bullwhip. “You have insulted my guest along with my judgement. I forbid
you to spread these disrespectful ideas any further. Due to the present crisis
I will tolerate your presence here tonight, but at first light I want you out
of my house. Now leave!”
     
    After beating a miserable retreat through the hall
and back to the upstairs room, Aedan closed the door behind him and dropped
onto the floor. He nursed the shoulder Quin had gripped, while Kalry recounted
the ordeal to the others.
    “Maybe he’s right,” said Thomas after they had sat
in silence awhile. “How could children have spotted what everyone else couldn’t?”
    “Because we haven’t killed off our imaginations,” Aedan
mumbled behind a wrapping of arms and knees.
    “I don’t think you are wrong just because you are
young,” said Dara. “Anyway, Dorothy always says you and Kalry are too clever by
half. What’s the word she always uses?
    “Prodigies,” Kalry mumbled, “but I’m sure it’s
more Aedan she means.”
    “Maybe your dad just got embarrassed ’cos you two
thought out something he didn’t.”
    Aedan finished off for her, “And I made him hate
me forever.”
    “Not if we are right about this,” said Kalry.
    “If we are right,” Aedan retorted, “then we will be
marching in a line with ropes around our necks by morning. How is that better?”
    “Isn’t there something we can do?” asked Dara. Her
voice was small.
    “Don’t be frightened.” Kalry put an arm around
her. “Maybe we are wrong.”
    “I don’t like him!” the little girl said with characteristic
fire. “I saw him looking at Tulia like he wanted to eat her. Tulia had her back
to him and when he saw me walk into the kitchen he smiled in a way that made me
want to run. I don’t think he is a good person at all.”
    Everyone was quiet. They had all climbed onto Aedan’s
roof now, his vantage on the situation, and what they saw terrified them.
    “Kalry,” Aedan finally said, “do you still have
that rope?”
    She pulled it out from under the bed and tossed it
to him. “What are you planning?”
    “Something that will either save everyone or put
us in enough trouble to last a year. You don’t have to join me if you don’t
want. I’m going to the town for help.” He stood up.
    “But it’s too far,” said Thomas. “In this mist it
would take all night. By the time you get back with help, that’s if anyone believes
you enough to come out, it will be morning. If there really are slavers around,
that might be too late.”
    Aedan sat down again with a dejected thud. He
plucked at the coarse fibres in the coils of rope and let his eyes drift upward
and across the thatch for a while.
    “We’re going to have to split up,” he said. “Two
will need to stay here and watch, but without being seen, and two will need to
go for help. The two who stay will need to count how many slavers and say which
way they went, because rain might spoil the tracks. The ones who go will need
to take horses, so I think that