After the Fire (After the Fire: Book the First) Read Online Free PDF Page B

hand. He saw her and gestured to a similar rock next to him.
Eleni froze, looking around. The white raven let out a scream in her
ear as it flew past her head and alighted on Fin's shoulder.
    “I
saw that raven yesterday,” she said.
    “It
belongs to a friend of mine,” said Fin. “Please. Sit.”
Eleni felt nervous and twitchy. She couldn't remember the last time
she had been invited to sit with another person. Not since she'd been
separated from her mother. Fin watched her with patient eyes. He
lifted the tusk and Eleni heard the sound of a cork being pulled. Fin
lifted it to his lips and drank, making a face as he re-corked the
container.
    “You
drink from the tusk of a pig?” she said, suddenly curious
again. She took a step toward him, but stopped again. She was afraid
to be close to him, but at the same time she did not want to leave
him. She looked behind her, into the thick of the woods. Two golden
eyes grew larger as the wolf emerged from the brush. She looked at
Eleni almost chidingly, then walked over and lay down next to the
large stone Fin had invited her to sit on. Haltingly, Eleni followed,
stopping every few steps and looking around, as if she would find a
reason not to stay. The man, the raven and the wolf all watched her
progress in silence. All three seemed to know the difficulty of what
Fin had asked her to do.
    Fin
looked down as she sat. He lifted up the object he had raised to
drink. “This is a horn, not a tusk,” he said without
looking at her. His voice was friendly, without a trace of the
contempt she felt from most of the villagers. All but Alin. Though
she had felt fear from the old man quite often. Fin did not seem to
fear her. He did not seem to loathe her either. Eleni did not know
what to think about him. She felt a great curiosity towards him, but
she was afraid he, too, would
leave when he grew tired of her. Either that or
he would come to loathe her.
    “A
horn,” Eleni repeated. Fin handed her the object. It was nearly
as long as her forearm and heavier than it looked. It had a strap on
it so it could be worn.
    “From
the head of a steer,” he said. “Great wooly beasts. As
tall as you and ten times as heavy. At least.”
    Eleni
stared at him, transfixed at the way he spoke, the languorous way he
leaned back watching her. She could listen to him all day. She looked
down at the horn in her hands. It was polished to a sheen, and was
cool and smooth in her hands.
    “You
don't see many these days, of course. But every once in a while I
come across one.”
    “Where?”
she said suddenly, surprising even herself.
    Fin
smiled. “I come from the West,” he said. “From the
Islands.”
    Eleni's
eyes widened and her heart beat in her throat. “The West,”
she repeated.
    “Have
you never been away from here?” he asked.
    Eleni
averted her eyes. It made her nervous to meet his eyes. “I was
born after the fire,” she said. She was quiet for a long time,
staring at the horn, turning it this way and that to make the ivory
catch the light of the moon. “They tell us that nothing
survived,” she said. “Only our village and the monsters
and the Reivers.”
    “Who
tells you that?” he said.
    She
didn't meet his eyes and spoke as if he hadn't. As if she had to
continue or she wouldn't be able to say it. “They tell us that
all this is because of me. I am a bad omen. We are being punished. We
survived the fire so we could see what happens. So we could see what
has come because they were kind to take me in.” She fiddled
with the cork in the horn. Fin was silent. “They tell us
nothing survived,” she said again. “But you are here. So
either they are wrong, or you are not real.”
    “I'm
real,” Fin said softly.
    “I
could not find your horse's tracks,” she said, glancing up at
him. “I looked for them last night. You left no trace.”
    Fin
looked up at the sky. The moon was rising and was almost directly
overhead. It was almost full. “You and me,” he said
softly,