Spy High Read Online Free PDF Page A

thanks,” I said for the third
time.
    Orion was handing the roach back to
Skidmark when the sudden clamour of bells made me flinch and
swear.
     

Chapter
4
    “Jesus, not again,” I muttered.
    “Come on!” Orion seized my hand and
dragged me into a full run. The pealing of the bells mounted to a
frenetic crescendo, and I dug in my heels as we reached the first
bend of the road.
    “Hang on!” I pulled free of his grip.
“You go ahead if you want, but they can honour the Earth Spirit
without me this time. Moonbeam already hauled me out of bed in the
middle of the night a couple of days ago. I’m all honoured-out for
this week.”
    “Come on, Storm!” Orion grabbed my hand
again and pulled. “Hurry up!”
    Damn, he was strong. Dragged into a
reluctant jog, I protested, “Hell, Orion, you’re a smart guy. You
don’t really believe the ground’s going to open up and swallow us
if we skip some hokey ceremony, do you?”
    He skidded to a halt. “It’s not hokey!
This is important! Why are we here if not to honour the Earth
Spirit?”
    “Honouring the Earth Spirit is fine if
that’s what you believe in, but these random rituals are bullshi…”
My heart smote me as his beautiful eyes widened with hurt. I blew
out a breath. “Sorry.” I let him pull me into a run again.
    When we panted up to the main building,
Aurora Peace Rain was practically dancing with impatience beside
the door.
    “Hurry, hurry!” she brayed. “You’re the
last ones, and the Earth Spirit needs us!”
    Clenching my teeth against the
onslaught of her voice, I accepted the rolled-up mat she pushed at
me and followed Orion into the darkened building. Weaving between
supine bodies, I tiptoed to my designated spot, where I unrolled
the mat and lay down.
    Blissful humming rose from the commune
members and I closed my eyes, trying without much hope to achieve
the meditative state Moonbeam wanted. It hadn’t happened in four
months, so it didn’t seem likely now.
    I drew a deep breath and let it out
slowly. Hell, even the little kids were lying perfectly still and
humming along with their parents. Surely I could manage some form
of meditation. What had Moonbeam said? Something about grounding my
root chakra to the Earth Spirit…
    But wasn’t my root chakra somewhere
down around my ass? So if I was going to ground it to the Earth
Spirit, wouldn’t it make more sense to sit instead of lying
down?
    But sitting on the Earth Spirit’s face
seemed a tad disrespectful.
    Then again, dragging me out of bed in
the middle of the night for a ‘Spirit Calling’ was damn
disrespectful, too.
    Maybe the Earth Spirit could just kiss
my chakra.
    My eyes popped open in defiance of
Moonbeam’s ‘eyes closed’ edict and I studied my surroundings
without moving. The heavy hand-hewn beams above us were barely
visible in the dimness cast by the heavy shutters shrouding the
windows. The wall beside me radiated a damp chill, and I wondered
what architectural madness had impelled the builder to pour a
four-foot-high concrete base and then finish the building with wood
frame construction.
    A soft green glow swelled into the
room, and I slitted my eyes to peer between my lashes, shifting
slowly to get a clear sight line without disturbing my humming
neighbours.
    The raised dais at the front of the
room always held a large copper gong suspended from a wooden frame,
with a small table a few feet in front of it. But now green light
pulsated from the heart of the large crystal that occupied the
centre of the table.
    While I watched, Aurora and her
sidekick Zen rose from their mats below the dais and stepped up to
the crystal, each pressing an ear against it from opposite sides
while their hands stroked a complex pattern over its surface.
    The green glow brightened, illuminating
their exalted expressions, then abruptly extinguished.
    Blinking to clear the afterimage, I
barely saw Aurora and Zen exchange nods. Zen crossed to the back of
the dais and struck the gong