Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death.
Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is maste...
Corvus's voice grew solemn. "The year you were born it became compulsory for every birth to be witnessed by a State official. The Brotherhood might give little credence to the Metaphorical Canon in this day and age, but they are by nature cautious, and would never take the risk that a prophecy contained within it wasn't true. If they had discovered a baby born in that year with a mark on its foot – any kind of mark – that baby would never have been seen again. Had there been a doctor or midwife at your birth, you would surely not be speaking to me now. On the other hand, your mere might have lived."
"She died when...?"
"There were complications. Women often die in childbirth."
Ward wasn't sure how to feel about this. He felt like he was somehow responsible for the death of a stranger.
"Your pere was inconsolable," Corvus said. "The Brotherhood had learned of your birth – I never discovered how. I feared for you. Not just because of the Brotherhood. I feared that in his grief your pere might do something rash that would endanger you. I managed to convince him that I could keep you safe."
"You took me away," Ward whispered.
"Hardly a day has gone by that I haven't questioned that decision. I acted only with your safety in mind. I hope one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Ward was surprised to see a tear trickle down the old man's cheek.
Ward turned away. His throat burned with the unfairness of it all. Corvus had taken him from the only family he had and given him over to a cruel pig who locked him in a cellar. It was just too bitter. "Where's my pere now?" he said.
"I don't know."
"Is he alive?"
"I believe so."
"Does he know where I am?"
"Yes. He may make himself known to you when he is ready. But that decision is his."
"I'm safe in the underground though," Ward said. It sounded like a question.
Corvus didn't reply, and his face remained impassive.
The room went silent, but for the ticking of the tempus on the mantelpiece, the roar of the fire in the flue, and the crumbling sound of a log easing deeper into the coals. Ward pulled back the grey curtains of his mind and peered through the foggy glass into his future. All he saw there was a vague shape of fear, like a shadow on a wall. But to think that only a year ago he had had neither friends, nor a real home, and now he had both. And what was the illusion of safety to such things?
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Thanks for reading Book One of The Cave of Wonders. Hope you enjoyed it.
