The Color of Darkness (31 page)

Anyway, it was getting dark. He ought to be going home. His parents would be frantic by now—he'd been away for days.

He turned to Cath.

“We should go,” he said. “It's time to go home.”

She shook her head. “I'm stopping here,” she said.

“But you've got to come back! They're looking for us.”

“So? I ain't going back to my dad. No one's gonna tell on me, unless you do. No one's gonna find me here.”

He looked around at the bare beach, the low dunes, and the little cottage with the wild mountains beyond.

“Where are you going to live then?”

Cath shrugged. “Here.”

She held out a hand to Barshin, beckoning him to follow her.

“You can't take him!” said Danny. “He's a traitor.”

But quite why this was, he wasn't sure. It was just a feeling he had, that the hare wasn't to be trusted.

“He ain't bad,” said Cath. “He ain't good. But he ain't bad. And maybe he needs a home too. Call Zadoc for Danny, Barshin. Let him get out of here.”

“I'll try,” said Barshin. “I don't know if there's enough of him left. Falling through two of those holes should have killed him completely.”

He let out the growling shriek, and the air trembled, but with barely the strength of a summer breeze. The shape that shook itself out of the air was a ghost horse, as translucent as a sheet of glass. The only substance to it came from a shimmer around its outline that echoed the dry beach sand with a hint of sea-moistened darkness, and the thousand colors of Chromos in its eye.

“Be quick,” was all Barshin said.

Cath shrugged. “So long, Danny. You did what you wanted, I reckon. I'd say see you, but I don't reckon I will. I'm not ever going back, at least not to where you belong.”

“You can't—” Danny tried, but she gave a small shake of her head and turned toward the path between the dunes. He watched her walk away from him and could think of no more words to call her back.

And then the sky stirred and he knew Zadoc was going. He felt a strong surge of hope that in a few seconds he'd be flying, soaring up into the wings of his own mind, galloping over the boundless world with freedom at his heels. He'd go anywhere he liked—anywhere he wanted—and nothing was ever going to hold him still again.

He scrambled up onto Zadoc's back, felt the invisible mane and smooth coat under his hands, and clapped his heels to Zadoc's fading sides.

“Go on!” he shouted to the snorting, dying horse. “Go on! Fly!”

And Zadoc leapt up into the green-blue of the sparkling plain, and it was wild, and empty, and wider than the entire universe.

 

CHAPTER 30

FORGETTING

They didn't fuss too much. They were just glad to have him home. His mum made dinner, and even though it was half past ten by the time it was ready, they sat down to eat around the kitchen table, all together.

“We'll go to Aunt Kathleen's next week,” said his dad. “It's time we all had a vacation together. I know Sophie'll be back from university soon. You two still get on fine, don't you? She'll be so glad you're safe and sound again.”

Danny nodded happily. Even though she was seven years older than him, he'd always gotten on well with Sophie. They were both only children, and only cousins too. It would be great to go on vacation at the farm again—Sophie was the closest Danny had ever gotten to a sibling of his own, and he was the little brother she'd never had.

He picked up the fork and began to eat. Maybe Sophie would take him horse riding. She was always patient with him, even though he'd been really nervous at first. She was much nicer than Cath had ever been on that crazy journey they'd had escaping from her dad.

It was going to be a good summer. Everything was fine again.

*   *   *

The night settled around the window frames and the kitchen lights were bright, and Danny ate until he felt so sleepy that he almost fell face-first onto his plate.

“Get to bed,” said his mum. “We'll sort everything out tomorrow.”

As Danny climbed the stairs to bed, the summer stretched out before him, endless and sunny. He was going to sleep. And for the first time in months, he wasn't going to dream. Not about Cath or Zadoc or deer or hares or the rolling sea or the silver moon. And certainly not about Sammael.

He belonged to himself. And the world was his.

*   *   *

Outside in the darkness, the moon slid from behind a cloud and the air began softly to shiver.

 

About the Author

Ruth Hatfield
is a sometime archaeologist, sometime technician who lives in Cambridge, England. When she's not writing or digging or making circuit boards, she spends her time belting around on a bike and roaming the countryside on her cantankerous horse. This is the follow-up to her debut novel,
The Book of Storms
.

ruthhatfield.jimdo.com
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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Prologue

  
1
   
Tom

  
2
   
Dad

  
3
   
The Hare

  
4
   
Chromos

  
5
   
Sand

  
6
   
Nature at Your Fingertips

  
7
   
Danny O'Neill

  
8
   
The Message

  
9
   
The Farm

10
   
The Stag

11
   
Iaco

12
   
Escape

13
   
A Warning

14
   
Isbjin al-Orr

15
   
Phaeton

16
   
Down to Earth

17
   
Hiding

18
   
Nightmares

19
   
To the Sea

20
   
Revenge

21
   
Beyond the Sea

22
   
The Ether

23
   
Talismans

24
   
By the Lake

25
   
Death

26
   
The Fire

27
   
The Great Plain

28
   
A Mistake

29
   
The Beach

30
   
Forgetting

About the Author

Copyright

 

Text copyright © 2015 by Ruth Hatfield

Illustrations copyright © 2016 Greg Call

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Hatfield, Ruth, author.

    The color of darkness / Ruth Hatfield. — First American edition.

        pages          cm. — (The Book of storms trilogy)

    Summary: “Danny thinks he's left magic and mystery behind, but Sammael, a creature of terrible imagination, refuses to let him go. A strange new girl, Cath, enters Danny's world, bringing with her a message: Danny's cousin Tom has sold his soul to Sammael. It's up to Danny and Cath to find Tom and stop Sammael, who seeks to destroy humankind once and for all”—Provided by publisher.

    ISBN 978-1-62779-001-7 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-62779-002-4 (e-book)

[1.  Adventure and adventurers—Fiction.   2.  Soul—Fiction.   3.  Supernatural—Fiction.   4.  Human-animal communication—Fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.1.H38Co 2016            [Fic]—dc23            2015018270

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eISBN 9781627790024

Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Hot Key Books.

First American hardcover edition 2016

eBook edition June 2016