From Light to Dark by Irene L. Pynn Read Free Book Online Page A

headache returned at full power. He gripped the counter top, his knees buckling, the room spinning.
    “Am I dying?”
    No one answered him. The Dark World house was empty.
    “Eref!”
    “ Eref, we’d be arrested for that. They’d take us to the End.”
    “Not if they can’t find us. We’ll live somewhere far away from the Center.”
    Balor couldn’t tell whether Eref was kidding again. Was this another one of his jokes? He wanted to believe… “Do you think we can?”
    “There has to be a way.”
    “How?” Balor looked at the shade. It was almost comforting, hidden there in the light. “Like what Rinelest said about that place?”
    Eref shook his head. “You mean the Safety? Rinelest was probably just crazy. But we’ll find somewhere. Just you wait. Now let’s get back before someone finds our magic shadow.”
    “All right,” Balor said. And then a horrible thought occurred to him. “Hey, isn’t today Dewcres’s birthday?”
    Eref looked up, his face suddenly as grave as Balor’s thoughts. “It’s today?”
    “Yeah. He told us last week.”
    A faraway expression clouded Eref’s face, as if a shadow had found its way to his eyes. “He’s so much older than we are.”
    “I know.”
    “He’ll be eighteen…”
    “I know.” Balor almost didn’t want to ask the next part. What if Eref said something he didn’t want to hear? “Do… do you think he’ll still play with us?”
    A second passed when Eref said nothing. But then, as if the shadows had been removed from his eyes, Eref brightened up and smiled again. “Dewcres? Nothing could change him. Stop looking so worried, Balor. Can you really imagine Dewcres like the other grownups?”
    “No.”
    “Exactly. He’ll be back here any minute, and we’ll get to hear all about the stupid Eighteener Entrance thing.”
    The sound of feet crunching the sand echoed nearby.
    “Here he comes now, Eref. Over the hill.”
    “Come on! Let’s go see him. ”
    “This…isn’t…real…,” Balor cried. These were just memories, creeping into his head, poisoning him, blocking his sight and his sanity.
    He couldn’t hold himself up any longer. Strength dropped from his body like weights falling to the floor, and he felt light. Dizzy. Empty. The brightness took complete control. A blinding pain in his head forced him to close his eyes, and he collapsed to the floor.
    Eref and Balor ran down the hill to meet Dewcres. The three of them had been friends ever since Balor could remember. Though he was eight years older, Dewcres had always played with them as if they were the same age.
    “Dewcres!” Balor bounded down to meet his friend. Eref had renewed his confidence, once again. Everything would be fine. Dewcres would be fine.
    Today Dewcres had been to the Eighteener Entrance, a ceremony that the older kids feared and the people Balor’s age only wondered about.
    The kids called it a “brainwashing ceremony.” They said it could take anyone, even the nicest kid in Light World, and make him hard, prejudiced, and evil. No one knew how it worked, but it never failed, the kids said.
    Nothing could prevent the Eighteener Entrance. The Governors sent for you at your house when the clock struck midnight on your eighteenth birthday. If you weren’t there, they drew up a warrant for your arrest. The ceremony was closed, and it took most of the day. By midafternoon on the person’s eighteenth birthday, he was a different person.
    But not Dewcres. Eref was right. Dewcres would tell them all about the secret ceremony. Balor and Eref would learn the forbidden facts of the Eighteener Entrance that no other kid knew.
    Then they’d show Dewcres the special shade they’d found under the stone.
    “Dewcres!” Balor had reached the bottom of the hill, but Eref grabbed him around the waist.
    “Wait, Balor.”
    “What? Let’s go talk to Dewcres.”
    “I don’t think we should.”
    “Why not?”
    But then Balor saw him. Their old friend, standing there, still