Читать книгу The Gold Thief - Justin Fisher, Justin Fisher - Страница 9

ater that night, when the Johnstons had gone and the last of his mum’s burnt offerings had been cleared away, Ned went to bed. It was his least favourite part to any day. Not because he wanted to stay up, but because of what happened when he didn’t.

Sleep.

For weeks now he had been plagued by the same horrifying nightmare. The hot metal walls. The sense of being trapped, and then the walls blowing open and …

Just thinking about it made him shudder.

But it was not the nightmare itself or the part Ned’s ring always played in it that he could not tell his parents about. It was the voice that lay waiting whenever it began. A voice both familiar and ancient – like a call of trumpets over the grinding of rock.

“TheeRe yoU arRe,” said the voice, when Ned finally succumbed to his exhaustion.

Deeply asleep and trapped in his dream, Ned shuddered.

Downstairs, the TV blew its fuse. A light bulb in the kitchen popped. And all down the street, car alarms began to wail.