Free The Disappearance of Ember Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina Page A

working down here, in the quiet embrace of the earth. Only she wasn’t here any more. And so far as I could tell, there was nothing to indicate where she’d gone.
    “Everything looks the same.” I felt a bit crushed. I didn’t know what I’d expected to find – no, I did. A note. A clue. Anything that would help me find her.
    Nicky ran over to one of the cupboards. He turned in a circle and sat, wagging his tail.
Is he trying to tell me something?
Hurrying over, I yanked open the doors.
    The only thing inside was herbs.
    I looked at Nicky. He had his head held up and his chest puffed out, like he’d done something incredibly clever.
    “You know,” Connor said, “it’s possible that’s not the smartest dog in the world.”
    “He
is
smart!” I protested. “Maybe he got the wrong cupboard.”
    I went to the other one.
More herbs
. Plus a pile of rhondarite collars that we’d taken off the detainees rescued from the centre. Rhondarite blocked an ability for as long as it touched someone’s skin, and I hated the stuff. I’d wanted to destroy those collars, but Em had thought they might come in useful one day.
    With a sigh, I closed the cupboard doors. “If there’s some clue, it must be buried among all her stuff.”
    Connor cast an appraising glance at our crowded surroundings. “We’d better start searching.”
    He strode over to a set of shelves, and began to sort through the contents. I glanced about helplessly, unsure of where to start. Then my gaze fell on the bench where Ember had been sitting the last time I’d seen her here. I wandered across to it, trying to imagine what she’d been thinking and feeling as she worked on her projects. There were two things on the bench – a black box, and a streaker. I’d brought both back from Detention Centre 3. I picked up the streaker, holding the cold, smooth weight of it my hand.
No, not a streaker, anymore. A stunner
. Ember had altered the weapon so that it would knock someone out without permanently harming them. She’d wanted me to be able to defend myself, and she’d known how I felt about killing. She’d finished the stunner two months ago now.
Not that long before she left
. I wondered if she’d known then that she was going. Had the weapon been her idea of a parting gift?
    It was a horrible present, and no substitute for her being here. I tossed it back onto the bench, turning my attention to the box instead. This was the machine that Miriam Grey had used to pull memories from my mind when I was trapped in Detention Centre 3. Except it wasn’t only a machine. When it had been inside my head, I’d seen it as a dog, a huge, half-metallic hound that was as much a prisoner as I was. I’d brought the box with me when I fled the centre, and asked Ember to build it a mechanical dog body. She hadn’t been able to do it yet.
    Nicky padded over, and pushed his head against my leg.
Maybe he and the box-dog could play together, once I get Ember back …
I patted the top of the box, and whispered, “I won’t leave you like this, boy. I’ll find her. Promise.”
    From across the room, Connor spoke. “Ashala. What exactly did Ember say, about angels?”
    “What?” I turned to face him, bewildered by the unexpected question.
    He was standing by the shelves, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “You were asking me about angels before, remember? Because Ember told you something. What was it?”
    “Nothing important.” I walked over, eyeing the paper hopefully. “Is that a note? From Em?”
    “No.” He pressed it flat against his chest. “What did she say, Ashala?”
    Whatever was on that paper, he obviously wasn’t going to show it to me until I answered.
Time to confess
. “It wasn’t Em. It was grandfather, and he said, ‘beware the angels’.”
    “Why didn’t you tell–” He stopped, and shook his head. “Because Georgie says I look like an angel. You thought he was talking about me.”
    “I didn’t think he meant I should be