The Harvest Tide Project Read Online Free PDF Page A

people.’
    ‘That was brilliant, though. Did you see him jump into that stuff? I couldn’t even walk too close to it. This isn’t turning out to be such a bad day after all.’
    ‘Well, let’s get out of here. Have you got the quill?’ Taya asked.
    Lorkrin knelt down by his tool roll, but then lifted his gaze to the pile of rubble under the hole in the ceiling.
    ‘Aw, bowels!’
    ‘Don’t swear like that! What’s wrong? Where is it?’
    ‘I dropped it when the roof caved in.’ He rolled up his tools and walked over to where Groach had been lying. ‘Itwould have been about here. I can’t see it.’
    ‘He picked some things up …’ Taya started to say, then stopped.
    They shared a look of horror.
    ‘He’s got the quill,’ Lorkrin gulped. ‘How far do you think we’ll have to run away now?’
    ‘How could you drop it, you idiot?’
    ‘Sorry! I was busy trying not to be killed ! How was I to know that … that a man was going to fall through the roof and… and land right there and pick it up? How was I to know that?’
    ‘We have to get it back; we have to find him,’ his sister groaned.
    ‘Well, we’d better do it fast, ’cos he’s in that river and he’s getting further away all the time.’
    Whipping out their tool kits, they quickly fashioned their fingertips into claws and clambered up the wall where the path ended, then set off along it after the man they had just scared away.

    The water went up Groach’s nostrils and burned a path down his throat. He flailed and threw his head back, snatching a breath before going under again. Sound roared in his ears, which gummed up more every time he submerged. The world numbed around him as the fight to catch gulps of the fetid air became the only thing that mattered. He knew he was moving; he did not know where, and he had never been a very good swimmer. The deep water was alien and overwhelming, trying so hard to fill his lungs and cover his head. He had never felt so out of control. Then strong lightwashed over him and he was able to breathe. It lasted only an instant; he was falling out into daylight. He splashed down into more water, but this time his hands and feet dug into mud, or something soft anyway. He pushed upwards and was rewarded with fresh, clear air.
    Groach heaved in gulps of it – heaven compared to the stench he had been struggling not to inhale moments earlier. He studied his surroundings. He was in a river, a real one. The pipe that had dumped him in here was above and behind him, gushing sewage into the muddy water. He was standing in it, but it was bliss after the tunnel. His legs were knee-deep in the riverbed, his chin just above the waterline. The banks of the river were high and bare. Bushes and trees lined the top, but he could see no place to climb out. He waded out into cleaner water and found himself out of his depth. But he was too exhausted to care. He lay back and floated, drifting with the current.

    Rak Ek Namen regarded the garden wall with an impassive face. The ruler of Noran was a tall, handsome man with wise eyes and a warm smile. Despite his greying hair and the few lines on his face, he was the youngest ever to reach this position . He had got there through a combination of cunning and charm and was used to having things go his way. The jagged gap, now filled with large rocks, was an irritation.
    Hovem, the Groundsmaster, was a somewhat less impressive figure, and stood nervously by as the Prime Ministrate surveyed the damage. He was struggling to come up with an explanation for how most of his staff had ended up wandering aimlessly around the marketplace.
    ‘And you say that there is still one man unaccounted for?’ Namen asked.
    ‘Yes, Prime Ministrate. Shessil Groach. At first, we thought he might have been buried beneath the rubble. He was standing by the wall when it collapsed. He wasn’t buried, but the wall crashed right down into the sewers and it’s possible he was lost down there. We still