Read Land of the Silver Dragon for Free Online Page B

but I ignored its chilly embrace. Better to be wet than visible to that monster of a man ...
    After a moment, I made myself look up.
    He had gone. He was nowhere to be seen.
    I shook my head, puzzled, for surely my eyes were playing me false. In the short time that I hadn’t been watching him, it was inconceivable that he’d managed to get out of sight; there was simply no place of concealment he could have reached so quickly.
    Had I imagined him, then? Was he a vestige of that strange vision I’d had out on the secret island?
    I did not know.
    I was shivering, my teeth chattering. I was so cold that I couldn’t feel my feet, and my hands were blue-white and clumsy. If I didn’t get into the warmth soon, I’d make myself ill.
    I checked once more, very carefully, to see if the giant had reappeared. There was no sign of him. Then I got to my feet and, stumbling, tripping over my own feet, I hurried home to Edild.
    She was alone, sitting cross-legged by the hearth, hands folded in her lap. I wasn’t taken in for a moment by her air of serenity. I could feel her ire crackling and fizzing just beneath the surface.
    She looked up at me, raising one eyebrow.
    I flopped down beside her, drips from my hair and garments hissing into the fire. ‘I’ve been out to the island to check on Granny,’ I said. There was no point in dissimulating.
    She did not speak. Shooting a quick glance at her, I noticed that she had gone very white, and her instant concern for the danger I’d just put myself in touched me. It also made me feel very guilty.
    â€˜I worked out that the giant who’s been searching for whatever he’s after in all our dwellings has turned his attention to trying to find Granny’s grave,’ I hurried on. ‘He seems to know a lot about us, such as where all of us live, and apparently he’s also aware that Granny died only a couple of years ago, since it was only the most recent graves that he disturbed. We know she’s not there, of course, and I suddenly had the most awful fear that maybe he had found that out too.’ I hesitated. ‘I’m sorry I worried you. I just had to go and make sure.’
    â€˜And?’ The single syllable was barely even a whisper.
    â€˜It’s quite clear that nobody’s been on the island for ages,’ I replied. ‘All the graves, Granny’s included, are just as they ought to be.’
    I felt my aunt’s relief coming off her in waves.
    After a short silence, she said, ‘How can you be sure your rash action didn’t lead this giant straight to the one place we don’t want him to find?’ She quickly corrected herself. ‘I mean, one of the places. We don’t really want him near any of us!’
    I wondered at her suddenly light tone. It was unconvincing, and I thought perhaps she was trying to take my mind off the dark threat that seemed to swirl around us.
    â€˜Don’t worry, I was very careful,’ I assured her. I told her briefly how I’d checked for any malicious presence, and detected nothing. ‘But I ...’ I was on the point of telling her how I’d thought I’d seen the figure of a huge, bearded man just as I returned to the village, but I decided to keep it to myself. Now that I was back in the warmth and safety of Edild’s house, I was even more convinced that it had been merely some sort of after-image from my strange vision.
    My aunt was looking at me oddly. It felt almost as if she was trying to see inside my head. Deliberately I put up a barrier, and after a moment she turned away.
    Presently she said, ‘Your father will be here to collect you soon.’
    I had quite forgotten my promise to my father that I would sleep under his roof again that night. Getting up and going out into the rain again was the last thing I wanted to do, but a promise is a promise. I stretched out my hands to the flames and waited for his knock on the