Black Feathers Read Online Free PDF

skim stones and paddle my feet in the pools. But I had this feeling in my chest, Mr Keeper, like it was full up to burst. I didn’t understand it at all. But I had a sense I’d find the answer in Covey Wood. Seems silly now, that does.”
    “There’s nothing silly about it,” says Mr Keeper. “It was the night country breaking through into the day. It wanted you to return to the darkness even in the light. It wanted you to enter shadow. And, more than that, it wanted you to keep your promise. When you speak, little thing, the world listens. The Great Spirit, the Earth Amu and every other living thing hears your voice. Never forget that.”
    He takes a pouch from one of the many pockets in his boilasuit and a pipe from the top of his sack. He fills the pipe with a moist-looking herb and lights it with a burning stick from the stove fire. Once he has resumed his position on the stool and blown a few puffs of strange-smelling smoke at Megan – deliberately, she thinks – he says:
    “What was your decision?”
    “I walked towards the wood and the nearer I got, the more puzzled I was by the shadows in there. Or the light. It’s difficult to explain. Inside the wood, it was a different day to the day it was outside. The wood was… charmed somehow. But it was dangerous too.”
    Megan sighs.
    “I’m trying not to miss anything out, but it’s hard to describe.”
    Mr Keeper blows a big smoke ring and pops three smaller ones through it before they all unravel.
    “You’re doing fine, little thing. I can tell you’re keeping your promise, so don’t worry. Once it’s all out and we’ve talked about it, you’ll feel better. You’ll feel clearer . Right now it’s all still muddy, isn’t it?”
    “Muddy. Yes, it is.”
    Megan stands up and fetches water from the ewer. Even now she stands on the threshold of the forest and does not want to enter. Mr Keeper is patient. She offers him water but he declines with only a tiny shake of his matted head. Megan resumes her place on the chair and continues.
    “The air inside the wood wasn’t cool like I’d imagined it would be. It was warm, as though the sun had made an oven of it. It was a lovely feeling to be so… embraced. Entering the wood was like being welcomed into the arms of strangers in a distant land. It’s funny, Mr Keeper. I’ve been in Covey Wood a hundred times but I’ve never felt like that before.”
    Megan takes a sip of water and replays the events, making certain that this part, most of all, is as accurate as she can possibly make it.
    “Time felt strange. Falling leaves took forever to touch the ground, then moments later, I’d notice the sun had shifted. I found a fallen tree. The roots were exposed and the way they met the trunk made a natural place to sit. All I wanted to do was watch the magic of the wood in comfort for as long as the spell lasted. I climbed up and it became my throne. I sat like a princess surveying the territory that might one day be hers.
    “Everything the sun touched lit up from inside and suddenly it was brighter in the wood than it had been under a clear sky. It doesn’t seem possible now. The leaves of the oak trees glowed and where the shafts of sun touched the ground, those places were like pools of molten gold. I was tempted to dip a toe, but everything felt so fragile I stayed as still as possible. I didn’t want to break the spell.
    “My body felt strange too. The fullness in my chest was only part of it. The crown of my head was fizzing like a pint of ale and warmth spread down from there all the way to… well, all the way down. Everything was tingling, and then a buzz started. I thought it was a swarm of bees coming through the wood but the buzz was inside me. All the way through me. And the buzz got harder and stronger and I got scared it might do something to me – hurt me somehow.
    “The moment I got frightened, some of the light went out of the wood and the buzzing went away. The whole thing was a trick