Half Lost (The Half Bad Trilogy #3) - Sally Green Page 0,55

we looked at it in the map room the birds and animals and rivers were alive and moving. Here it feels like time has stopped. It has that same quality of silence and stillness. Ledger must be powerful to do this: make the maps, keep me stuck here, and stop time. And I think back to what Mercury said about Ledger, that she is the most powerful, but what’s the point of it? And I think that’s like saying what’s the point of anything? Of life, of being able to run, to turn into an animal, to go invisible, to change appearance. The ability is the thing. And here Ledger is showing off her ability but so far not harming me by doing so. I just have to hope that doesn’t change when time starts up again.

If time starts up again.

And so I wait. I try to work out what to say to Ledger if she turns up but I’ve no idea what to say and I end up thinking about Gabriel, wishing he was here with me.

And then something changes.

In the distance I see movement.

A figure: slowly walking up the valley toward me. Whoever it is—and I assume it’s Ledger—isn’t in a hurry. Then the figure waves an arm, indicating I should come down. I get up and walk and find that I can make progress now, so I go downhill. There’s a slight breeze. Time has started up again.

As I get nearer to the figure I see it’s a young man and, as I get closer, he turns and walks ahead of me. He’s slim and agile. I speed up to get close to him and he disappears.

Fuck!

I keep my eyes on where he was. I could see that he was dragged away through a cut. I walk on, my arm out feeling for it. I think I’m at the same spot but nothing happens and I can feel my heart beginning to race. But I keep trying and then I feel my arm and then my whole body being sucked through and then I’m spat out on to my knees on warm grass.

Birds are singing. I’m on a grassy meadow, distant hills and trees off to my left. There’s a warm breeze and the sun is low in the sky. There’s a wide river to my left and up ahead is a large stone-built cabin, and I can see that the door is open and the boy is disappearing inside. I walk to it slowly, looking around all the time, but there isn’t anyone else to see. I consider going invisible to have a proper scout but I don’t think that would be polite and might cause more trouble than it solves. At the end of the day, if Ledger is so powerful and she wants to kill me, she probably will.

The Cabin

I push the cabin door wide open. There’s a sitting room and beyond that a kitchen. The boy’s in the kitchen. His dark blond hair is cut short at the back but falls in front of his face. I can’t quite see his eyes. He’s maybe eighteen or nineteen. He’s nice-looking but nothing special.

I take a deep breath and go in. “I’m looking for Ledger,” I say, not sure if this is her in disguise.

“You’re Nathan,” he replies. He gives me a shy smile and I see one of his front teeth is a little crooked. He blinks through his hair, then extends his hand to shake mine, saying, “I’m Ledger. I’ve been looking forward to you coming. Welcome.”

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Ledger, but a boy not much older than me wasn’t it. I shake his hand, though, and he looks into my eyes. His are similar to mine, though steel gray, not black, but he has triangles turning in them; the more I look, the more I’m drawn to them—to how empty they seem. Then he takes his hand away and turns his back on me, saying, “I’m making coffee. Do you want some?”

“Ummm. No.”

“Tea your thing? Or something stronger?”

“No.” Though I’m thirsty. I’ve been sitting in the dry heat of the badlands for hours. “A glass of water?”

Ledger lets the tap run and then fills a glass and passes it to me.

I say, “I have a friend, Gabriel. I was with him but we got separated.”

“Yes.”

“Is he still in the map room?”

“He’s safe.”

“Safe where?”

“The map only allows one person in at a time. After you came through he tried