The Rosetta Codex Read Online Free PDF Page B

on the lake, but when he turned to look, all he saw were quickly fading ripples. The moon glowed like the low flames of a fire, but it generated no warmth, and Cale shivered inside his jacket.
    â€œWinter’s coming,” Aglaia said.
    Cale nodded, wondering if she expected a response from him, but he still did not know what to say.
    â€œI’d like to leave someday, like Blackburn,” she said, turning to him. “Wouldn’t you? I’d like to get out of this rotten place.”
    â€œWhere would you go?”
    â€œMorningstar,” she replied.
    Morningstar. Blackburn had mentioned it, too. The name sounded familiar, but he didn’t think he had heard it from Petros or any of the others there. Not from anyone here, either.
    â€œWhat’s Morningstar?” he asked.
    â€œA city. A real city with millions of people.”
    Millions. Cale could not conceive of how many people that truly was, and he could not imagine what a city with that many would be like. He had vague recollections of cities, from his infancy, but those memories were so fragmentary, and so actively suppressed, that they did not provide him with anything concrete. He doubted Aglaia had any real idea, either.
    â€œWhy don’t you just go, then?” he asked her.
    She shook her head. “It’s not so easy to leave this place. I couldn’t do it on my own. And I don’t know where it is or how to get there. Blackburn’s been there, though. I think he comes from there.”
    â€œHow often does he come through here?”
    â€œTwice a year.”
    â€œHave you thought about asking him to take you with him?” Thinking of Blackburn’s offer three weeks earlier.
    She made a sound that might have been a laugh, but there was something disconcerting about it. “I’d be afraid,” she said. “Not to ask him. I’d be afraid he’d say yes and take me.”
    They stopped, and when he looked back he could not see any part of the village, not even Crazy Mary’s light. The trees grew close to the water here, and he looked at the dark forms rising above them, listened to the hushed sounds of tiny animals within those shadowed woods. Did she want him to help her get away? Did she want him to leave and take her with him?
    â€œWhy would you be afraid of Blackburn?” he asked.
    â€œDo you know what he brings?”
    He shook his head. “No. Do you?”
    â€œNo. But it makes some people scary for a while. Afterthey see him, you have to stay away from them or they’ll do things to you.”
    â€œWhat things?”
    Aglaia shuddered and shook her head.
    â€œWhat about one of the other traders that come through? Like that family that came through a few weeks ago with the knives and coffee and tobacco?”
    â€œMost of them are scarier than Blackburn,” she said. “And that family, did you see the two girls? They were sick and they had all those open sores and scars and I don’t want to know what else was wrong with them.” She sighed and gazed out over the water, and her face was half hidden in shadow. “Cale,” she said.
    â€œYes?”
    She turned back to him. “Kiss me.”
    Cale could not move, he could not speak. He felt his heart race, felt the thumping at his ribs and the throb of the pulse up his neck, rushing in his ears. She touched his hand with her cold fingers and leaned toward him. Her eyes remained open, watching him. Finally he moved forward and brought his lips softly against hers.
    Lost and uncertain but strangely unafraid, he put his arms around her and pulled her to him, reveling in her warmth and smell and the moist heat of her mouth. He felt dizzy and short of breath and weak. They separated, cold air flowing between them, and she led him into the darkness of the trees.
    Cale could see nothing but shadows and darkness, misting slices of moonlight, but Aglaia seemed to know where she was going, so he