Crystal Read Online Free Page B

Grint said. ‘Come back in one hour.’
    ‘Goodbye, Mum,’ Crystal called as she went.
    In fine weather, while Effie was with Grint, Crystal waited on the porch. When it was raining she sat in the waiting room. But tonight she was going to go home: it was a chance for her to find the egg thing from Lop Lake without her mother and the sly-ugg watching.
    She glanced up at the purple sky: just time before dark fell completely and the night curfew began.
    She ran.
    Her block felt very big, very empty without her mum. She even missed the sly-ugg. At least it was another living, breathing creature. Without them, the place was echoing and dismal. Knowing there were hundreds of empty rooms above her made her skin tingle uncomfortably. She sucked a Minty Moment. She had to ration her sweets because she only had a few each week, but she did love them. They seemed to give her courage.
    In the evening quiet she could hear muffled thudding and pounding from the distant mines. Grint used great wild creatures called rockgoyles to dig, as well as every poor Towner who’d ever been banished. How long before being different from everyone else meant she was sent out there too?
    Crystal started her search.
    She looked between the folds of Effie’s few clothes in the dressing table. Nothing. She searched under the bed. She looked in the kitchen drawers and on high ledges. She didn’t even know what she was looking for. It wasn’t big. Not so small. The impression that it had been egg-shaped was strong in her mind. But what could that mean? Where could it be?
    She searched everywhere. Nothing. She had to get back to the House before the hour was up. Abandoning her search, she ran.

5
A Visit to the Swamp
    By the time Crystal was racing back to Grint’s house it was almost nightfall. She slipped into the porch and steadied her breathing. The door opened immediately. Raek’s spotty red face cracked into a grin. ‘Terrible calamity,’ he said. ‘Your mother has been taken ill.’
    ‘Oh, no! Where is she?’ Crystal pushed past him recklessly. I shouldn’t have brought her, she thought. She was ill, not mad. She must have had a fever and I never thought—Oh, I’m so stupid!
    Grint met her in the hall. ‘No need to worry, Effie’s being looked after. She asked you to go and gather some moss for her. Moon moss . She said you’d know it.’
    ‘But can’t I see her?’
    ‘There’s no need.’
    ‘I must!’
    Grint’s tongue darted out like a little snake between his lips. ‘Show a bit of respect, Crystal Waters. Do try.’ He sighed. ‘Very well. This way.’
    The receiving room was crammed with fine wooden furniture, rare in the Town, which was why Grint had it. He himself always sat on one of the wrought-iron chairs or even on the stone bench. She let her fingers drift over the back of a couch as she passed it, imagining she felt it ripple under her fingertips, responding to her touch. When they escaped, when they got home – wherever that was – she would surround herself with carved wooden furniture like this, and wooden floors and wooden walls and …
    The room was empty. Why wasn’t her mother in there?
    Grint led her out into a wide corridor.
    ‘Mum!’
    Effie was lying on a large divan. Her face was white. Her eyes were shut. Crystal ran to her side. ‘What’s she doing out here?’
    Grint shrugged. ‘She felt faint,’ he said. ‘She said you’d help. Asked me to tell you to collect moon moss for her. Fresh moon moss.’
    Crystal held back her tears. This was all because of what happened at the lake. ‘I don’t want to leave her. Can’t we get a doctor?’
    ‘We could, but she said she wanted moon moss. You want to do what she wants, I suppose?’ Grint frowned. ‘She said it grew at the swamp. It isn’t some sort of witchcraft, is it? I won’t allow that.’
    ‘Moon moss? No, it’s just a herb. All right. I’ll go.’ She turned and almost bumped into Raek, who’d quietly crept up behind