Read Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis) for Free Online

could still get away.
    I stumbled toward him as people ran past us, shouting. Flames licked the sky. Smoke filled the air, choking me. I grabbed his hand.
    “Come with me. We have to run.”
    “What—?”
    “No questions,” I gasped. “Run for the sea.”
    We ran.
    The cliffs loomed ahead, the edge of the Training Rock, the stone white in the moonlight. I squeezed Kit’s fingers tighter. My legs burned from exhaustion. Sweat dripped down my back despite the cool wind. We were almost to the edge.
    “We have to jump, Kit.”
    He turned terrified eyes to mine. “Jump?”
    The bright lights swept over us, catching us.
    “Don’t stop running!” I shouted.
    Then the men were upon us. Hands grabbed my shoulders, wrenching me back from the edge of the cliff. They dragged us apart, shoving Kit back. He stumbled, and his grip on my hand slipped.
    “Kit!” I screamed. “Jump, Kit! They’re taking me!”
    He reached the edge and whirled, his eyes searching mine.
    “Find Perilous and I’ll find you,” I shouted.
    He nodded once and then dove into the water. One of the men lifted his arm and the weapon he held fired a spear after my friend. I heard him shout in pain.
    “Kit!” My throat was raw from shouting. I sobbed the word.
    Something pinched my arm, feeling like an insect bite. My skin stung, my breathing slowed, and I remembered nothing more.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    When I woke, the sky was gray with morning and covered in clouds. I realized dimly that they were smoke. The Village of the Rocks was a charred ruin, the rocks stained with black smoke and the interiors filled with ashes. The people were gone. Fled? Slain? I didn’t know.
    I didn’t see Kit, and my only hope was that he had gotten away.
    I lay on the beach, tied hand and foot, staring at that gray sky. Far away, men in strange gray clothing that clung to their bodies prodded prisoners onto a boat. In the sea was a shape. A ship?
    Were these the Sea People? Had the Old One been right?
    I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. Everything inside me felt razed to the ground, trampled, burned.
    Where was Kit? Where was Nealla? Where was the Old One?
    I lay there until someone crouched over me and pricked my skin again, and the world went black once more.
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    I WOKE ON a cold floor. More brilliant white light poured over me. My hands were tied. I could taste blood on my tongue.
    Everything hurt.
    I looked up. Smooth gray walls that looked more slippery than stone arched above me, forming a shallow dome. The ceiling was like silver, perfectly melted and smoothed into place.
    Still forms lay all around me, people from my village, all young boys and men whose names I didn’t know. They were alive but listless, their arms and legs bound like mine. None of the other captives would meet my eyes.
    I was the only female in the group.
    I remembered Myo’s words. Bring this one .
    What had they done to the rest of the village? Were they even alive? I turned my face away, searching for Kit among the prisoners. I couldn’t find him.
    The memory of him leaping into the ocean and one of our attackers firing a weapon after him filled my mind.
    The figure beside me stirred and whispered for water. He was young. Kit?
    I realized with a shock that it was Nol, and I closed my eyes and wept.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    Our captors appeared after an immeasurable while, bringing us food and cutting our bonds so we could eat. I spotted Myo, standing with some of the others. He wore a dark-colored garment made of just one piece of cloth, and it fit over his body snugly, almost as if it were another skin.
    He didn’t look at me.
    I sat up and rubbed my wrists after my bonds were severed. The food was strange. It tasted like fish, but it came in tough brown squares that had to be gnawed, and it was wrapped in strange paper that was shiny like silver, but thin and flexible as a leaf or a bit of fabric. The water came in tall pitcher-like bowls with lids. We hunched