The Citadel and the Wolves Read Online Free PDF

outer regions and changing to a metallic state near the centre due to the enormous pressures.”
    When I yawned at this point, daddy’s eyes narrowed.
    “I’m not boring you, am I, Jade?” asked daddy sternly.
    I giggled nervously. “Oh no, Daddy, I’m just a little tired, that’s all.”
    His eyes softened. “It has been a long day for all of us, sweetheart.”
    I murmured. I tried not to think about Doctor David Newton and the International Space Platform.
    Daddy switched off the computer. “By the way, Jade, what did you come up here for?”
    I’d almost forgotten. “The area of a triangle, Daddy?”
    Doctor David Newton looked amused. “Space walks? No, we leave that sort of thing to the real professionals up here.”
    “Professionals?” I queried.
    “The space engineers,” elucidated the doctor.
    I was soaking in a deep, hot bath as I let my mind wander to other places that I’d never visited before. They were dreams of faraway lands, and I found myself swimming naked in a warm sea. It felt so good. I wanted to stay here forever. Don’t let this dream end yet, I thought from another place faraway from here, my little piece of paradise. I felt safe here. When I looked back for the first time, I could no longer see the shoreline. It had vanished. I was alone. I began to feel a little uneasy in my paradise. After awhile, I looked up at the red sun in a milky blue sky. The red sun puzzled me, for it somehow seemed out of place here. It didn’t belong. Where was I? I’d travelled far. Then I realised what it was; I was swimming in an alien sea upon an alien world, for I was no longer on earth. I’d been here before, and I suddenly felt very, very cold.
    Doctor Newton looked surprised. “Your father is an astronomer?”
    “Yes,” I replied proudly.
    As I turned up the stairs in my plain dressing gown and satin pyjamas with a hot, bedtime drink in my hand, I paused on the landing. The bedroom door was ajar. The other was taking chances, or perhaps she didn’t know. A light, evening breeze ruffled the curtains, which hadn’t yet been drawn. Wendy stood by the open window in her pyjamas on this warm, summer’s night with a cigarette in her hand. I was standing in the door watching her amused. She looked around startled after a moment when she caught me.
    Her eyebrows knitted into a frown. “Jade Robinson, don’t you ever knock before you enter my room?”
    I smiled sweetly. “I’m your sister, Wendy. Do I need to knock?” I sat on the bed sipping my hot, bedtime drink.
    She flicked the cigarette out of the open window imperiously. “You might have been mum, Jade.”
    “I had a strange dream while I was soaking in the bath earlier,” I revealed. “I was swimming in a warm sea.”
    She looked puzzled. “That’s not very strange, Jade.”
    I added, “When I looked up at the sky, the sun was red.”
    “Was it sunset?” asked Wendy curiously.
    “I think it was midday.”
    “Then it was a strange dream.”
    She took my bedtime drink, sipping a little before she returned it to me.
    “I think I was swimming naked in a warm sea on an alien world,” I said.
    “Naked?” quizzed Wendy.
    “Yes.”
    She chuckled. “Now, that is strange for you, Jade.”
    Yes, it’s true. I am a little bit modest when it comes to flashing my flesh around in public.
    Wendy sat in front of her dressing table. I watched her out of the corner of my eye amused. I glanced at her hair brush that lay on her dressing table beside her. She chewed her nails nervously. She was waiting for me, but she didn’t like to ask me because it made her sound like a little girl asking a parent for something that she longed for. I put down my bedtime drink and crossed to her. I noticed the dark look in her eyes in the mirror as I picked up her hair brush. The darkness in her eyes vanished as I began to brush the long strands of silky gold. She wore a sleepy look in her eyes. Although there is sibling rivalry between us, in moments like