Shadowboxer Read Online Free PDF Page A

world. She was a part of something; she’d known that for a long time. Until now she had believed she was part of something good.
    But now she was helping Mr. Richard abandon this young man who was not yet dead, who had no means to escape the immortal forest on his own.
    Mya’s throat was tight. She couldn’t believe any of this was happening. The young man was only a translator for Marco; half-Thai, half-British, according to Johnny, and probably innocent of whatever wrong his boss had done. If they left him here alone, he would die.
    The forest was moving around her. There were immortal beings here instead of earthly animals. Things with big eyes, iridescent scales, flashing claws. Creatures that dissolved as smoke, then reappeared somewhere else, as bright and unreal as reflections on still water.
    Mya could go no farther. She stopped dragging the man, as if to catch her breath. Mr. Richard caught her up.
    ‘We have had a narrow escape,’ he said. ‘Why do you look at me like that?’
    Mya said nothing.
    ‘This fool would have destroyed me and turned you over to the Burmese army. The orphanage would have been closed down, and then what would happen to all the refugee children I care for? Mya, the small-minded are always a danger to people like us. After this man’s soul has grown and learned, he will return to the world to try again in another life. Do you understand?’
    Mya nodded, even though she didn’t understand why someone who wasn’t dead in the first place had to reincarnate. She offered a silent prayer for the man’s protection. When Mr. Richard led her away, she tried hard not to look back, but she couldn’t help taking one little glance over her shoulder.
    In the darkness between trees, she saw golden eyes and a black mane. The lion’s gaze followed Mya.
    Mr. Richard was not well. He appeared insubstantial, even as the apparitions in the trees were becoming more solid all the time. A group of deer were soundlessly keeping pace with the humans. Their coin-colored eyes flashed, and one of them assumed the form of a young woman just for a moment. She smiled at Mya.
    Embarrassed, Mya looked away. Mr. Richard staggered a little.
    ‘I must return,’ he said. ‘The night orchid hurts me.’
    He sank to his knees. His eyes closed. He wrapped his arms around his gut, clutching the pain from the plant extract he had injected in himself to come here. Tears streamed down his face.
    Mya felt suddenly alone. She had lived her first ten years in a forest village and she was at ease with the smells and subtle sounds of the earthly jungle, but this forest was not the same. It was a place of many moods, and she would never understand it no matter how many times she came here. Now the trees seemed to crowd around her. They were huge and green with moss. Their leaves hissed and muttered. The deer girls had gone, but Mya knew there were other creatures living here, beings from stories and songs. You never knew what was waiting for you in the shifting green shadows.
    Like that face. She could just make it out. A child’s face, hovering in the air above the suggestion of hands and a body. A boy, not much older than Mya.
    A ghost.
    The ghost looked at Mya and before she could look away, he had appeared right beside her. Quick as a thought. He was vividly present, complete with the smell of rotting flowers.
    ‘Do you know what he is praying for?’ said the boy. Mya shrank away, shaking her head no . ‘Protection from ghosts. He has murdered so many, you see. Even a monk.’
    Mya reeled. ‘That can’t be. No one would hurt a monk.’
    ‘I was like you once,’ the ghost said. ‘You think if you do everything right it will get better. It won’t. You will never be free.’
    Mya shrank away, quivering. The ghost’s ill-will flooded over her like cold water.
    Mr. Richard got to his feet. The boy had gone without a sound. Mr Richard reached over and gripped Mya’s hand.
    ‘Let’s go,’ he said in Thai, reaching