No Survivors Read Online Free PDF Page A

noise behind her and whirled. Had anyone seen her? No, the road behind her was empty.
    She walked quickly through the winding streets of the port town. She drew the black cloak more tightly around her. Perhaps she should find a place to hide till nightfall. Then she would begin the journey back to her village of Ravenswoode.
    She knew that even in her mother’s cloak and hood, she might be recognized.
    Someone might see her and realize that the wrong person returned home from the island.
    The island. That had been Deborah’s punishment. The village had condemned her as a witch. They spared her life. But ordered her taken to an uninhabited island, where her evil magic could hurt no one.
    Deborah knew she was innocent. As the men came to take her to the ship, she had learned the truth. Her mother had been the one casting evil spells on the village.
    Katherine allowed the villagers to accuse Deborah—so that no one would suspect her. She willingly sacrificed her own daughter to save herself.
    Passing the last of the village shops, Deborah couldn’t keep a smile from crossing her face. For she had triumphed over her mother.
    On the boat Deborah found her mother’s spell book. The book she now carried. The book that taught her how to fight her mother.
    When they reached the tropical island, Deborah had cast a spell on the sailors. She switched cloaks with her mother. Katherine wore the blue cloak. Katherine the witch, the true evil one, had been tossed into the waters.
    Katherine had been abandoned on the island.
    The ship had returned to England with Deborah on board.
    No one knew. No one.
    And no one from Ravenswoode will ever know I’m back, Deborah thought. I shall sneak home by night. Then I will gather as many belongings as I can.
    And carry them to another village. I will find a new home where no one knows who I am. And I will start a new life.
    Good-bye, Mother. Your evil can harm no one now.
    I am in England, and you are alone on a distant island forever. Forever.
    I will not even think of you.
    Â 
    Deborah walked for two days. When a wagon came bouncing by or a farmer on his cart, she hidbehind bushes or trees.
    She reached her village in late afternoon. I’m too weary to go another step, she thought. My legs ache and my stomach growls with hunger.
    The cottage she’d shared with her mother was on the other side of the village. Under the sinking sun, men were still working the fields. Deborah recognized two women in white bonnets, carrying baskets of food home from the green market.
    I cannot let them see me, Deborah thought. I’ll have to hide until after dark.
    She turned and realized she was standing in the shadow of Lemuel Hanford’s grain barn. Making sure no one was around, Deborah slipped along the barn wall to the door.
    She crept inside and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. The sharp aroma of barley seed and rye greeted her.
    A creature scampered over her feet as Deborah made her way to the back of the barn. A barn rat?
    Deborah was too weary to care.
    She settled on a low mound of grain. Loosened the cloak for the first time since leaving the ship. And bunched it behind her head as a pillow.
    A few seconds later, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
    â€œOh!” Deborah was awakened by a cry.
    She opened her eyes to see a bearded man in dark work clothes. Lemuel Hanford!
    â€œThe witch!” he screamed, eyes bulging in horror. “The witch has returned!”
    Before Deborah could move, Lemuel raised a three-pronged pitchfork high in the air, aimed it at her chest—and plunged it straight down.

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    â€œAAAAIIIIIIII!”
    A shrill, terrified wail burst from Deborah’s lips.
    She shut her eyes—and cast a spell.
    In the second before the pitchfork touched her, its three pointed prongs became wriggling snakes. They slid harmlessly off Deborah’s chest and vanished into the grain pile.
    Lemuel Hanford staggered back, his entire