Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) Read Free Page A

survived, they'd each played an important role in the
    evolution of Atherton.
    But Edgar had never stopped feeling restless.
    The rope between them moved ever so slightly and Isabel
    leaned out, craning her neck down in search of Edgar in the
    darkness below. For a while she'd been able to see him clearly,
    but he was too far away now.
    She noticed that the rope seemed to lie differently than it had
    when he'd started. Gravity pulled every thing in toward the
    bottom of Atherton, so the rope didn't exactly hang straight
    down. It curved inward with a big looping shape. She could not
    see its end.
    "Edgar?" said Isabel. She couldn't yel his name too loudly. The
    village was only a half-hour walk away and voices carried
    something fierce on Atherton. What if someone were out
    looking for them? She said his name once more, a little louder,
    and then she scampered away from the edge and began
    hauling in the rope. It was much lighter than it should have
    been. The rope was a hundred feet long and as it piled up
    beside her she grew more and more afraid.
    "Keep pulling!" said Samuel, still lying at the edge of Atherton.
    "I don't see him!"
    Soon the end of the rope came over the edge with a soft
    snapping sound. There was no one tied to the other end.
    Edgar was gone.
    The rocky terrain of Atherton's outer shell was a perfect place
    for Edgar to regain his confidence. Giant rocks and fissures
    provided plenty of hand-and footholds. And the surface was
    bursting with sharp edges and protruding masses of grey and
    brown stone. The gravity on Atherton pushed against his back
    so his legs and arms didn't dangle out into the air. And yet, if
    he'd let go altogether, he felt certain he would freefall until he
    smacked into something hard. The thought of crashing into the
    bottom of Atherton made Edgar extra cautious as he continued
    down the curved side of the strange world he lived on.
    One thing had made the going slow and tedious: the rope tied
    around his midsection, which had bothered him from the start. It
    kept getting in his way, wrapping around an arm or a leg and
    forcing him to rethink his position. And what was worse, the
    rope kept snagging on sharp rocks and jerking him to a stop as
    he descended. He actually felt unsafe with it tied around him.
    He didn't want to scare Isabel and Samuel, so at first he'd
    managed to untie the rope and put it between his teeth. But it
    kept snagging, pulling his head back, and soon he'd decided to
    let go of it altogether. He opened his mouth and let the rope
    swing lazily against the rocks.
    "It hangs almost like someone's holding on," Edgar said aloud.
    "Maybe they'll think I'm still attached to it."
    He looked down at the vast space left to be explored.
    "Just a little farther..."
    Samuel had only been half right when he'd guessed about what
    drove Edgar to climb. It was true Edgar had first begun climbing
    so long ago because he'd had a distant memory of something
    hidden in the stone walls above him and he wanted to find it.
    But somewhere along the way the climbing became something
    more.
    There was something amazing about holding on to Atherton
    itself, like he was truly part of Atherton. Whenever he reached
    the top or the bottom of a climb he felt sadness at having to let
    go. It was like cutting himself away from the world.
    Tonight Edgar wanted to go far enough to see where the
    orange light came from. There were two men Edgar had asked
    about this: Dr. Kincaid, the often secretive old man of science,
    and Vincent, Dr. Kincaid's protector and companion. Both men
    had lived in the Flatlands long before Atherton's violent
    collapse. They'd had years and years near the edge without
    anyone else around.
    When he asked the two men about the light, they re sponded
    with what seemed to Edgar like rehearsed shrugs. Either they
    didn't know where the light came from or they wouldn't tell.
    The light glowed brighter as Edgar traveled down a certain
    fissure, but he couldn't guess how much