The Nightmare Game by Gillian Cross Read Free Book Online Page B

precious girl who’d been stolen away.”
    â€œNO!” said Lorn.
    The word was out before she could stop it. She found herself on her feet, yelling across the circle at Zak.
    â€œWhy are you telling them lies? That’s not how it was! It’s not true !”
    There was a gasp, all around the circle. No one had ever challenged Zak like that before. No one had ever broken a story. Horrified faces looked up at her and Bando tugged her arm, trying to pull her down again.
    â€œDon’t be cross, Lorn,” he whispered. “It’s only a story. Stories don’t have to be true.”
    He sounded bewildered and upset. The others were starting to look angry and Lorn knew they wanted her to sit down and be quiet, but she couldn’t stop. Her whole body was rigid with fury.
    â€œYou’re twisting everything!” she yelled. “That old man kept his daughter locked up—and you’re turning him into a hero.”
    â€œOh, come on !” Perdew joined in, rolling his eyes at the ceiling. “He kept her locked up because he was trying to protect her. It’s not like real life. It’s a story .”
    But it was like real life. Couldn’t he see that? That was why Zak’s stories held them so that they listened almost without breathing. He knew how to mirror the things they tried to hide. Perdew was the bravest hunter of them all, and the strongest, too, apart from Bando. But even he was afraid, like the rest of them. Afraid of the animals that could gulp him down in a second. Afraid of the terrible, deadly cold that would kill anyone who stepped outside the cavern now. When Perdew listened to Zak, surely he knew—
    But none of them seemed to know. They were all muttering at Lorn, as though she’d interrupted just to be awkward.
    â€œWhy don’t you sit down?”
    â€œWait and see what happens!”
    â€œIt’s Zak’s story. He knows what he’s doing!”
    They just wanted her to be quiet, so they could find out what happened next. But how could she be quiet? Zak had taken Hope’s story— her story—and turned it into something false. She had only just got her memories back and now he was trying to take them away again. Twisting them into nonsense.
    â€œThat’s not how it was,” she said again. Speaking steadily this time. Meeting Zak’s eyes across the circle.
    Zak didn’t attempt to contradict her. He danced his fingers lightly over the drum skin. “All right, then,” he said. “Give us your version, Lorn. What was it like?” He smiled a small, taunting smile.
    For a second, she couldn’t speak. What was it like? She knew now, but there were no words to fit what she knew. The memories were too strong, too vivid. They wouldn’t fit into the neat pattern of a story. I was . . . I felt . . . it was like . . .
    How could she make the others understand?
    Zak’s clear, blue stare was fixed on her face as he went on with his version of the story again, speaking every word as though it was aimed straight at her. “The old man’s wife and son set out from their house, looking for clues to help them find the lost girl. Their darling. Their treasure. They were determined to get her back from the wicked robbers.”
    Lorn couldn’t go on standing where she was. All the others were scowling up at her, angry and impatient, because she was in the way. She had to let Zak go on—or tell them her own version.
    But where could she start? Zak had already conjured up three evil robbers, three villains who kidnapped defenseless people and imprisoned them in a tiny world. His words were echoing in every heart in the cavern. Snatched away . . . too small to get home . . . They all knew how that felt.
    That was what Zak’s stories did. He told them who they were. They’d all been shocked and helpless when they arrived in the cavern, terrified at finding themselves in a world that