Free Reckless (Free Preview) by Cornelia Funke

found none.
    "Is that
what's happening?   Tell me the
truth."   Will looked at him.   "I won't just look like
them; I'll be like them.   Won't I?"
    Jacob had the
lies ready on the tip of his tongue, all the ‘Nonsense, Will!   Every will be fine!’ but it wouldn't pass his
lips.   His brother's look did not allow
it.
    "You want
to know what they're like? "   Will plucked a rose leaf from the princess's
strawlike hair.   "They're
angry.   Their rage bursts inside you like
a flame.   But they are also stone.   They can feel it in the ground, breathing
beneath them."
    He examined
the black nails on his hand.
    "They are
darkness," he said quietly.   "And heat.   And the red moon
is their sun."
    Jacob trembled
as he heard the stone in his brother's voice.
    Say something, Jacob.   Anything .   The dark chamber was so silent.
    " you will not become like them," he finally said.   "Because I am going to
stop it."
    "How?"   There it was again, the glance that suddenly was so much older than
he.   "Is it true, what you told
those bandits?   You're taking me to
another Fairy?"
    "Yes."
    "Is she
as dangerous as the one who did this?"   Will touched the brittle skin on the princess's face.   "Look out the window.   There are corpses hanging in the thorns.   You think I want you to end like that for my
sake?"
    But Will's
eyes belied his words.   Help me, Jacob , they said.   Help me .
    Jacob pulled
him away from the corpse.
    "The
Fairy I'm taking you to is different," he
said.   Is she, Jacob?   He heard a
whisper inside him.   But he ignored it.
    He put all the
hope he possessed into his voice.   And
all the confidence his brother wanted to hear:   "She'll help us, Will, I promise!"
    It still
worked.   Hope still spread over Will's
face as easily as rage.   Brothers.   The elder and the younger.   Unchanged.

     

15
    Soft Flesh

     
    Threefingers
with the butcher's face was the first to speak.   Humans so liked to choose the wrong men as their leaders.   Hentzau could see his cowardice as clearly as
the watery blue of his eyes.   But at
least he had told them a few interesting details the moth had not shown
Hentzau.
    The Jade Goyl
was not alone.   He was with a girl.   Also — and this was even more important — he
seemed to have a brother who had gotten it into his head to drive the jade from
his body.   If Threefingers was telling
the truth, then the brother was planning to take the Jade Goyl to the Red
Fairy.   Not such a dumb idea.   She despised her dark sister as much as the
other Fairies did.   Still, Hentzau was
sure she wouldn't be able to break the curse.   The Dark Fairy was so much more powerful than all the others.
    No Goyl had
ever seen the island that was home to the Fairies, let alone set foot on
it.   The Dark Fairy guarded the secrets
of her sisters, even though they had cast her out, and everybody knew you could
only reach their island if they wanted you to.
    "How is
he going to find her?"
    "He
didn't say! " Threefingers stammered.
    Hentzau nodded
to the only She-Goyl in his squad.   He
didn't enjoy striking human flesh.   He
could kill them, yes, but he avoided touching them.   Nesser had no such qualms.
    She kicked
Threefingers in the face, and Hentzau gave her a look of warning.   Her sister had been killed by humans, and so
Nesser tended to overdo it.   For a brief
moment, Nesser held his gaze, full of defiance, but then she lowered her
head.   Hatred had by now engulfed them
all like slime.
    "He
didn't say," Threefingers stammered again.   "I swear."
    His flesh was
as pale and as soft as a snail's.   Hentzau turned away in disgust.   He was certain they had told him all they knew, and it was because of
them that the Jade Goyl had gotten away.
    "Shoot
them!" he ordered, and went outside.
    The shots
sounded strange in the silence, like something that didn't belong in this
world.   Guns, steam
engines, trains ; to Hentzau it still all felt unnatural.   He was