The Black Isle Read Online Free PDF

terrified.
    “Brother, don’t!” I yelled. Li did not respond. He’d either grown deaf or I had become irrelevant. “Don’t hurt it! Please!”
    The old man continued watching Li. In a flat, unemotional voice, he said, “Break its neck. Quick but firm.”
    My brother nodded, matching his solemnity.
    The kitten fought at the nothingness as Li’s fingers closed around its neck. My brother, murdering an innocent being with the same soft hands I’d held just minutes before. A child’s hands.
    I couldn’t allow it. I lunged forth with all my might, aiming to snatch the kitten from him but instead I found myself hurtling onto the grass yards away. The old man. I never saw his arm move.
    The kitten’s mewing grew muffled, but its terror was undiluted. I picked myself up and screamed one long piercing scream to cover up the horror. Even so, I heard its tiny neck snap with a crisp click. An unnerving hush followed. When I peered at Li, the lump of gray fur had gone slack in his hands. He let the lifeless bundle fall to the ground.
    The old man nodded at him with avuncular approval and pulled from his pocket a small disk wrapped in shimmering gold foil. I knew at a glance that it was butterscotch candy, the kind we’d ogled in shop windows but were told was too expensive to be wasted on children like us.
    “Young man, I want to thank you for your time. And your courage.” The man handed the reward to Li, who accepted it gratefully. He then turned to me with a supercilious smile. “Nothing for you.”
    Usually Li would have protested on my behalf, but this time he didn’t.
    Lowering himself to the drain with great agility, the man scooped up the dead kitten in the palm of his hand. In one seamless motion, he folded up its legs and tucked the carcass into his pants pocket like a used handkerchief. With the same soiled hand, he patted Li on the head, his fingers slithering through the forest of my brother’s hair before finding a comfortable hold and kneading his scalp. Li closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
    When he opened his eyes, his features went slack, as if he’d been blessed. I will never forget that look, that taint.
    The man waved at the distance and smiled. “You are now free to go.”
    Li turned to me. There was a new coldness to his face that I didn’t like. I found myself wishing we hadn’t disobeyed Mother, that we hadn’t caused Sister Kwan to faint. But for the first time in my life, I couldn’t share those feelings with him.
    “Don’t you dare say a word.” He made me swear as we ran, him clutching the butterscotch disk like a prized talisman. “And don’t expect me to share this with you.”
    He needn’t have worried. I wanted none of it. I did, however, want my brother back.
    Running to the commons, I had to keep slowing down to wait for Li. The violence seemed to have sapped his vigor, for he paused every so often to catch his breath. Gray rings appeared around his eyes, the kind I often saw in hungry beggar children. And his scent, too, turned strange. No longer did he smell of chalk, of cleanliness; he now smelled slightly off, like rice vinegar. Could the same thing be happening to me? Could turning seven mean having less energy and a new odor? But no, I was running at my usual pace and smelled like my usual self. These changes seemed to be occurring only in Li.
    When we returned to where we’d left Sister Kwan, she was hoarse from shrieking our names, her eyes rimmed red with worry. Her bun had come undone, leaving streaks of black hair plastered to her tear-stained cheeks. For the first time, I realized how pretty she actually was. In a different, perhaps better world, she would have been a rich man’s plaything. When she saw us, she clutched us to her chest and I felt the shivers coursing through her. Her shaking masked mine.
    Sister Kwan never told Mother about her fainting spell or our little detour. Most crucial of all, I kept my oath—I never breathed a word to anyone