Bone Jack Read Online Free PDF Page B

his head. ‘You’re the one who saw them. You tell me.’
    ‘Stop playing mind games with me,’ said Ash. ‘You got Callie to bring me out here so you could talk to me. I know what I saw.’
    ‘You know what you saw,’ said Mark. ‘Except you don’t know, do you? You’re the stag boy, but you don’t even know what it means, not really. You don’t know anything about the Stag Chase. You don’t know its history. You’re not fit to be the stag boy.’
    ‘Tell me then,’ said Ash. ‘You seem to know it all.’
    Abruptly Mark’s eyes hardened and his mocking smile twisted into a snarl. He took three long, running leaps at Ash, flung out his fist, caught Ash a hammer blow on the jaw. Ash staggered backwards, his legs collapsing under him. His mouth flooded with the thin taste of metal. He gagged and spat blood.
    Mark loomed over him. ‘This isn’t a game,’ he said.
    ‘What isn’t a game?’ said Ash. ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’
    He was on all fours on the forest floor, the dry mulch of last year’s leaf-fall under him. His mouth felt thick and raw. His voice sounded as if it was rolling over pebbles.
    ‘You’re the stag boy,’ said Mark. ‘Do you think it’s just about winning a race?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Ash. ‘I think it’s just about winning a race. Like it was last year and every year before that.’
    ‘You’re half right,’ said Mark. Softer now, serious. ‘Mostly it’s just about winning a race. These days, anyway. But sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it’s about a lot more than that. Sometimes it’s about the old ways. About life and death and the past and the land. It’s about making wrong things right again.’
    ‘You’re crazy,’ said Ash.
    Mark crouched in front of him and cuffed him on the shoulder. ‘Sorry I hit you,’ he said. ‘You had it coming though.’
    ‘Did I?’
    ‘Yeah, you did,’ said Mark. Still smiling, but the vicious edge creeping back into his voice. ‘My dad died. Remember that? He was all we had, Callie and me. Then he died and you couldn’t be seen for dust. My best mate. You just abandoned me.’
    ‘It wasn’t like that.’
    ‘Don’t lie to me, Ash. It was exactly like that.’
    ‘I didn’t know what to do.’
    ‘So you ran away.’
    ‘Yeah. I suppose so.’
    ‘And now your dad’s come back. My dad died but yours came back. Do you think that’s fair?’
    ‘Callie told you about Dad coming home?’
    ‘Of course she told me. She’s my sister. She’s loyal, that one. Not like you. Do you think it’s right, that my dad died and yours came home? You’re useless and a coward but your dad is fine. And I didn’t do anything wrong but mine died. Is that fair?’
    ‘It’s not my fault that your dad killed himself.’
    ‘I didn’t say it was your fault. I asked you if you think it’s fair.’
    ‘No,’ said Ash softly. ‘I don’t think it’s fair.’
    ‘See, I’ve got to make it right again. Whatever it takes, however hard it is.’
    ‘Is this why you got Callie to bring me out here? So you could beat me up and blame me for everything?’
    Mark’s eyes glittered in the firelight. ‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not why.’ Then his mood seemed to change again. He helped Ash to his feet, draped his arm across Ash’s shoulders. ‘Do you want some water?’
    Uneasy, Ash nodded. Mark seemed capable of anything, laughing one minute, punching him the next. Now this.
    ‘Here.’ Mark handed him a bottle. Ash rinsed blood from his mouth, spat, rinsed again.
    ‘Are you hungry?’
    ‘A bit.’
    ‘Good.’ Mark picked up a charred length of stick, crouched by the fire. He raked the stick through the embers and rolled out a heavy lump wrapped in blackened tinfoil. ‘Venison. Road kill.’
    ‘Road kill?’
    ‘Yeah. Don’t worry, it’s fresh, not some maggoty old carcass. A stag hit by a car this morning along the valley road. Its blood was still wet and warm when I found it.’
    They squatted on their