Crik Read Free Page A

hand on the dark wood outside. ‘Being of an odd shape and colour I had to see what it grew into.’
    His heart quickened. ‘You took it from outside.’ He rushed past his mother to poke his head out the window. Studiously he scanned the grass bordering the house for any sign of the Giant. The wet ground yielded no evidence of the Giant having left the seed. Someone of his size surely would have left behind a footprint in the damp soil. Remembering how the Giant used its hands to dig, he hunted for soil on the sill, but saw none.
    ‘You’re very pale, are you unwell?’
    He ducked beneath his mother’s hand as she tried to feel his forehead, mumbling that he felt fine. With a hurried promise to be back in time for dinner, he headed for the door.
    An appreciative gust of wind welcomed him as he left the warm kitchen. Ignoring his tingling nerves, he paused. Trapped in the house for days had him draw in a long breath. Satisfied he allowed his impatience to resurface. He trotted along the garden path watchful for any sign that the Giant had revisited his home after he had fallen asleep. Did the Giant leave that seed for his mother to find? If not it was a strange coincidence that she should find it this morning.
    At the end of his garden, he clenched his hands in excitement when he saw the deserted street. He wanted to run up the cobbles to the rosebush, but before he could take another step, he spotted Dwayne and Liza. Hoping neither would see him, he carefully opened his gate, with the intention of cutting across Miss Mistletoe’s backyard. Having pointed his boots in that direction, Yang slammed the gate, alerting them to his presence.
    Dwayne’s huge eyes swivelled around, catching Jack in a glare. A rash of gooseflesh always coursed up Jack’s arms when Dwayne focused on him, and again he felt the accustomed roughening of his skin. The boy’s stare reminded him of painted eyes that followed you around a room. Uncomfortable, he turned his attention to Liza. With her upturned chin, she looked down at him with suspicion. Yang liked nothing more than to lift her skirt and hear her wail. Fearing his wayward shadow, Liza clasped her hands tight against her thighs.
    ‘I suppose, like everyone else, you want to run off to the river and gawp at the body.’ Disgust laced her remark.
    Following a storm the bloated Tristle River tended to break its bank, flooding Long Sleep. The loose soil gave up graves easier than an old man coughing up a clod of phlegm. Only the tombs set high up on the hill were safe from the water. Yang would be eager to see the body and anything else the rain had disturbed. His shadow had a knack for finding some artefact to add to his collection; Mr Bane’s canteen, half filled with whiskey, being his favourite. Where the other half of the drink had gone, following Mr Bane’s burial to his untimely excavation, remained a mystery. A shiver ran down his spine.
    ‘I won’t bother.’ Noticing a suspicious glance between them, Jack added, ‘Seeing the body will only excite Yang. If we went to the river he’d cause trouble.’
    ‘We all know you control your shadow Yin,’ said Dwayne, ‘so stop trying to pretend otherwise.’
    ‘Crows eat your eyes.’
    Although Dwayne took a step closer, he was bigger than Jack and liked to use his fists, the sight of Yang extending himself from the fence made him take two hasty steps back. One advantage of having a living shadow was he never fought alone.
    ‘The body isn’t from one of the riverside graves,’ Liza interjected. ‘Someone opened one of the tombs.’
    This declaration sent ice fingers playing a discordant rhythm up along Jack’s spine. The memory of the Giant’s huge hands, filled with gnarled roots, made his breath rattle in his throat.
    Dwayne scratched his red hair. ‘I bet it was a grave robber from Grenville. They must’ve used a sledgehammer to knock in the stone door.’
    ‘What tomb?’
    ‘The one overlooking the deep well; you