Ok, lo ammetto: mi sono fatta un po’ prendere la mano. Tiger Lily è un libro difficile da posare sul comodino, anche quando si è a meno di ventiquattro ore da un esame o si hanno altri libri da leggere. Quindi è di nuovo dalle pagine di Jodi Lynn Anderson che è tratto il teaser di oggi, e sempre sia resa giusta lode al GDL della Let’s read in English Challenge – ideata da Veronica, di She was in wonderland.
The leaves cut at her face. Her breath came in gasps. Even in her mad rush, she leaped the rocks without missing a step. She was at the bottom of the rise when she saw the smoke. I didn’t fly ahead of her. I stuck to her shoulder, and in her state she never knew I was there.
The trunks were in the front yard, burning. The house had been torn apart, even the walls knocked down. The Englander was gone. Tiger Lily searched the ground for the path they’d taken, and her eyes followed footprints to the cliff’s edge, and a shudder ran through her.
She knew what lay below. Pirates.
Tiger Lily sank onto the rocky ledge. The ocean was at high tide and crashed right against the rocks. It had washed away whatever the pirates had thrown onto the shore. She stood. She followed their tracks. A cooler head would have remembered the truce.
Pirates were fierce adversaries, but they weren’t stealthy ones. With little effort, and within half a mile, we were close enough that I could hear them up ahead. One man, balding and slow, straggled behind the others. He was muttering to himself compulsively.
Tiger Lily had her arm around his neck before he knew she was behind him, and had him against a tree. Her knife was at his throat, and she moved to slice, but first she looked in his eyes, to let him know of his death. And she paused. He was crying. By the redness of his eyes and face, she could tell he’d been crying for some time. She watched the tears in wonder. He didn’t say a word. No one turned to come back for him—or even paused on their way, not noticing he was gone. Hovering behind her, I could see where Tiger Lily’s pulse throbbed. The tears ran over the knuckles of the hand that held his neck.
And she couldn’t make her hand move to kill him. She let go. He fell back against the tree, and down onto his hands and knees, then recovered himself and looked up at her. He turned and lunged into the woods, and she let him go. She staggered the other way, back toward the stone house.
She wasn’t herself. She left such easy footprints in the mud. She didn’t look behind her, keep her mind on her peripheral vision like all Sky Eaters were taught to do. She stumbled through the woods, and she didn’t hear him behind her until he had his arm around her waist. She bucked. They slammed against a tree. She kicked and kicked. But it was too late.
Peter Pan dragged her into the bushes.
Calendario
Tappa #1 ▸ LUN 12 a GIO 15 ›› Prologo – Cap 9
Tappa #2 ▸ VEN 16 a LUN 19 ›› Cap 10 – Cap 21
Tappa #3 ▸ MAR 20 a GIO 22 ›› Cap 22 – Cap 33
Tappa #4 ▸ VEN 23 a LUN 26 ›› Cap 34 – Fine
Chiaraleggetroppo 