Half Wild by Sally Green Read Free Book Online Page B

my arm through one loop of my rucksack so all I have to do is stand and I’m ready to go. I set off, eager to see Nesbitt, eager to get going.
    The forest is silent and still. Nothing moving except me. But something is different. I stop and listen.
    Silence.
    The sky is lightening now, pale blue, not much more than white. I stop by a tiny spring. I know the water tastes good: I’ve been here many times before. There’s moss on the jagged stones, the water seeps and dribbles rather than flows, and the life it brings is lime-green, plump moss. I hold my hand against the rock and let it fill with water.
    That’s when I hear it.
    c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h
    It’s not buzzing. I don’t know why I think of it as buzzing—that doesn’t describe it at all. It’s static. The only way to put it into words is to say it’s the sound of electricity. The sound of a mobile phone.
    Nesbitt didn’t have a mobile with him earlier.
    Fains do, and so do Hunters.
    Has Nesbitt betrayed me already?
    I let the water fall, wipe my hand on my jeans, and draw my knife. The cave is across and down the slope from me, a few hundred meters away, and I move toward it. The hiss is faint but getting slightly stronger. I can feel the animal adrenaline rise a little but I breathe slowly, in and out, calm myself, concentrate on what’s happening.
    c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h
    I’m twenty meters from the cave, level with it, my knife in my hand.
    C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H
    There’s movement below me, a black figure partly hidden by the forest. Then there’s a grunt. I tread softly but quickly down. The black figure moves away from me and is lost in the trees. Only Hunters can be that fast and quiet—no fain could do it. And I follow. We’re racing downhill, fast and silent, and I gain on the figure and see it’s not one but two men in black. And I’m jumping down a small cliff and sliding down the slope on my backside and I’m up again and below them now but they’re further along and I see one black figure leap downhill onto the first. And I run to them and slow. The two black figures are fighting on a small area of flatter ground.
    It’s not two Hunters. It’s Nesbitt. The Hunter was chasing him but now Nesbitt has got his arm round the Hunter’s neck. The Hunter’s face is quickly turning purple. Nesbitt looks up as I step toward him but he doesn’t change his grip on the Hunter.
    “Kid, you gave me a scare. For a minute I thought you were the other one. I’d love to ask this fella a few questions.”
    The Hunter Nesbitt is holding I recognize as Kieran’s partner.
    “He won’t tell you anything and we’ve got bigger problems,” I say. “The other one’s invisible. And fast,” I remember to add.
    “Great.”
    Nesbitt keeps hold of the Hunter and his body jerks and struggles but seems to know it’s already lost. It gives up. Hangs there. It twitches once again and then is still. Nesbitt lowers the body to the ground.
    “I know the other Hunter,” I say. “He wants me.” And I know I want him too, and I think I can take him but I’m not sure, if he’s invisible. I wonder if the animal in me will come to help.
    I look up the slope. We’ve come a long way.
    I say, “Your best chance is to run. I’ll deal with the other one.”
    “Sure?”
    I keep scanning the mountainside above me but it’s all still and quiet. “Keep out of the way for a few hours is my advice.”
    “This one hasn’t got a gun. Just a knife,” Nesbitt says. “They weren’t