A Song of Shadows Read Online Free PDF

remained new and unsullied, and other unknown treasures that might be concealed inside. Grandma Isha had been really annoyed, and gave Amanda a long lecture on the right to privacy. Since then, Amanda had always been careful not to pry, but the man was walking on a beach, in full view of anyone who happened to be around, so it wasn’t like she was doing something wrong by watching him. Even so, her attention might have drifted elsewhere, leaving him to become an object of ever-decreasing interest, until she finally failed to notice him at all, were it not for what he did next.
    He stopped, reached down to the sand, and picked up something black and red before continuing on for another while. Finally, he stepped to his left, on to the clean white sand beyond the reach of the incoming tide, and dropped the item. He then turned and walked back to his own house, moving even more slowly and carefully than before. The expression on his face was one of tiredness and, she believed, pain.
    She waited until he was out of sight, and, when she was certain that he had returned to his home, left her bedroom and wandered on to the beach. It didn’t take her long to find the small bundle, for the breeze grabbed at the strip of red fabric that marked its position.
    The man had discarded a cloth bag of what felt like stones, its mouth tied shut with the red material. The knot wasn’t very tight, so it didn’t take her long to open it. The contents, when revealed, didn’t appear to be terribly interesting. They were just plain old stones, with no pretty patterns, no unusual striations. She examined them all, just in case there might be a gem hidden among them, but she found none. When she was done, she returned the stones to the bag, retied the knot, and replaced it in the little depression in the sand from which she had lifted it.
    Later, the rain came. They listened to it beat upon the roof of their new home while they ate takeout pizza at the kitchen table, surrounded by possessions both boxed and unpacked, and Amanda asked her mother if she knew anything about the man who lived in the other house.
    ‘No,’ her mother replied, but she was only half-listening. She was always only half-listening, half-speaking, half-noticing. She had been that way ever since she’d announced that they were leaving Pirna for Boreas. ‘I think his name is Mr Parker, but that’s all. Why?’
    ‘Nothing. I just saw him walking on the beach, and I was wondering.’
    ‘Maybe we’ll introduce ourselves, once we’ve settled in. Until then, you know about talking to strangers, right?’
    ‘Yes, Mom.’
    ‘Good.’
    Her mother’s attention wandered again. She’d been nibbling at the same slice of pizza for so long that it must have grown cold in her hand. Amanda had eaten two slices already, and was now on her third. She was ravenous. She finished that final slice and asked if she could be excused.
    ‘Sure, honey,’ said her mother. ‘We’ll be okay here, you know?’
    But she didn’t really look at Amanda when she spoke, and Amanda thought that she was trying to convince herself as much as her daughter.
    And still the rain fell, washing away sand, and dust, and not far to the south of where they sat, a little blood …
    That night Amanda had a strange dream. She was standing on the beach in her pajamas, and in the distance the strip of red material flapped like a flag above the sand. A figure knelt over it, but it was not Mr Parker. This one was smaller, and as Amanda drew closer she saw that it was a little girl, younger than she. The girl wore a nightgown, although she didn’t appear to feel the cold. Her long blond hair obscured her face. Her right hand toyed with the red fabric.
    Amanda stopped. In her dream, she sensed that it would not be right to approach this girl. She wasn’t frightening. She was simply other .
    ‘Hello, Amanda,’ said the girl.
    ‘Hello. How do you know my name?’
    ‘Because I’ve been watching you. You had pizza