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The New Dark

E-BookEPUB0 - No protectionE-Book
289 Seiten
Englisch
Bastei Entertainmenterschienen am01.11.20171. Aufl. 2017
She thought she knew who she was and where she came from. Then her home was destroyed. Her little brother gone. Her boyfriend taken. She owed her own survival to a mutant - the very forces behind the destruction that has ripped her life apart. Now Sorrel will never be the same again.

There is no 'Before', there is only 'Now'. Because now there's no internet, no TV, no power grid. Food is scarce, and the world's a hostile place. But Sorrel lives a quiet life in the tiny settlement of Amat. It's all she's ever known ...

Until a gang of marauding mutants destroys the village, snatching her brother Eli, and David, the boy she loves. Sorrel sets out after them, embarking on a journey fraught with danger, spurred on by the thought of Eli and David out there somewhere, desperate for her help ...

THE NEW DARK is the first book in a scintillating new YA trilogy.

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Produkt

KlappentextShe thought she knew who she was and where she came from. Then her home was destroyed. Her little brother gone. Her boyfriend taken. She owed her own survival to a mutant - the very forces behind the destruction that has ripped her life apart. Now Sorrel will never be the same again.

There is no 'Before', there is only 'Now'. Because now there's no internet, no TV, no power grid. Food is scarce, and the world's a hostile place. But Sorrel lives a quiet life in the tiny settlement of Amat. It's all she's ever known ...

Until a gang of marauding mutants destroys the village, snatching her brother Eli, and David, the boy she loves. Sorrel sets out after them, embarking on a journey fraught with danger, spurred on by the thought of Eli and David out there somewhere, desperate for her help ...

THE NEW DARK is the first book in a scintillating new YA trilogy.

Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9783732534159
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format Hinweis0 - No protection
FormatFormat mit automatischem Seitenumbruch (reflowable)
Erscheinungsjahr2017
Erscheinungsdatum01.11.2017
Auflage1. Aufl. 2017
ReiheThe Dark Times Trilogy
Reihen-Nr.1
Seiten289 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Artikel-Nr.2451690
Rubriken
Genre9200

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe
1.
Dead Meat

Sorrel watched as David skinned the bats, enjoying the way the muscles in his arms flexed as he worked. She resisted the urge to lean over and run her fingers over his skin. It seemed like these days she was always trying not to touch him.

David had dark hair and was lean and sinewy, but he was broad across the shoulders and did not look as though he had any sickness lurking inside him. She wondered what it would be like to be held in his arms, to rest her head against his chest. To be kissed by him. Perhaps she would soon find out.

He worked steadily, dropping the bodies into a large pot and discarding the pelts in a pile at his feet. His discovery of the roosting colony had been a welcome find. The carcases would be gutted and washed before being cooked in a stew, the fur and wings cured for clothing.

He peeled off a particularly large skin with the wings still attached and looked up, catching her staring at him. He smiled. Sorrel looked down at her boots, embarrassed at being caught, humiliated by the blush scalding her face. She had known David all her life, had run the hills and explored the Rotten Woods with him, but lately her feelings had changed. Her insides trembled when he looked at her, the quiver rippling outwards, infusing her body with heat.

Sorrel turned her attention back to sharpening her knife. Metal was hard to come by in Amat, knives from the Before times rarer still. Sorrel had inherited this one from her grandmother. The blade had worn thin and she was careful not to over-sharpen it lest it chipped.

She willed the scarlet in her face to fade as she tried to concentrate on the knife and took her time folding it into its handle before stowing it in the pocket of her bat skin jacket. Only then did she risk another glance at him.

He looked up once again from his work. This time she held his gaze and allowed her lips to smile in return.

Sweet Sorrel. David reached out and stroked her face.

Her cheeks flamed at his touch.

I´m sorry, my hands are dirty. You´ll have to wash your face now.

She touched his hand. I don´t mind.

We can go to the stream in the Rotten Woods when I´m done... that´s if you want to?

Want to? Sorrel wanted to shout with joy. He did like her. The truth of it was evident in his clear blue eyes. It was in the way he smiled at her. It was in his touch.

The sensation of his skin on hers made her feel as though she had the embers of a fire glowing in her body.

Sorrel? Sorrel!

She rolled her eyes at the sound of the familiar narking voice.

Sorrel´s mother strode towards them, baby slung on her hip, toddler trailing behind. Her clothes, a mix of cured hides and woven fabric, had been expertly stitched to follow the form of her body, but lately her leggings seemed to hang loosely on her frame. David flashed his eyes at Sorrel, before diverting his attention back to the diminishing mound of bats.

Sorrel stood up.

You´re supposed to be helping me with your brother and sister, Sorrel.

I´m busy.

I can see that.

Her mother glanced at David. Though he must have been able to feel her hard gaze drilling through the top of his skull, David kept his eyes on his work. Sorrel couldn´t blame him. She´d have done the same if she had a choice.

Her mother hissed her words through tight lips. Thin, deep lines radiated from her eyes and mouth, a process which had begun when Sorrel´s father failed to return from a solitary hunting trip. The harsh lines had continued their unforgiving journey ever since.

I was sharpening my knife.

It´s your wits that need sharpening.

Sorrel scowled. She did not need her mother venting like this in front of David. It was almost as though she was doing it deliberately.

The baby cooed at Sorrel. Sorrel stroked her sister´s head. The baby was blonde like her mother and brother, her hair as fine and soft as a dandelion clock. Around her neck, a small sparkling star hung from a delicate silver chain.

The necklace had been one of the gifts left to Sorrel by her grandmother. One of a few rare items she owned from the Before times, it had been handed down through the generations until it reached Sorrel. Her grandmother had weaved stories around it, telling Sorrel that the five points of the star represented the traits she would need to survive: strength, vitality, courage, wisdom and perseverance.

On holding her tiny baby sister for the first time, and seeing how small and defenceless she seemed, Sorrel had gifted her the necklace, hoping it would bestow on her all the traits their grandmother had spoken of.

Bella. Sorrel whispered the name she had given her sister.

No, Sorrel - you mustn´t. Her mother, always with rules, always ready to say no, don´t, you can´t.

Up, up. Sorrel´s brother tugged at her jacket. She glanced down at the toddler. Encouraged by the attention, Eli raised his arms and jumped. Up.

Sorrel dandled his fingers but ignored his pleas.

Why not? It´s her name.

Her mother´s brow furled into a frown. Eli jumped for attention as she spoke.

You know why. It´s too soon - we don´t know yet if she´s viable.

Sorrel shook her head. Of course she´s viable - look at her! Besides, it´s not as if names can be worn out or used up. Why can´t she have one? I´m sick of this stupid place and its stupid laws. And I´m sick of you. No wonder Dad didn´t come back.

The words were out before she could stop them. Even before the hurt registered on her mother´s face, Sorrel knew she had gone too far.

Ashamed of her outburst, still angry at her mother and utterly humiliated that the entire scene had played out in front of David, she turned and ran.

She´d barely taken a couple of strides before catching sight of a figure lurking by the nearest hut. By the smirk on Mara´s face, it was clear she had witnessed the exchange. Mara, of all people, with her red curls, knowing green eyes, and sharp little smile.

Tears stung Sorrel´s eyes as she darted between the wooden dwellings until she came to the back gate in the boundary fence. She could visualise Mara sidling up to David, laughing with him about Sorrel as she tossed her hair and simpered at him.

Outside the fence, Sorrel continued running. She skirted the Rotten Woods, striding out over the moor by the peat banks and scrambled up the hill. Her reckless speed was exhilarating and she paid no heed to the threat of a turned ankle or twisted knee as she ran out her anger. The higher she climbed, the freer she felt of Amat and its stupid rules and dull chores. Her tears dried as she cast off her mother´s hurt and anger, and Mara´s mocking looks. She kept going until, breathless, she reached a flat rock.

She stripped off her jacket and lay on the stone, heart slowing, breathing steadying as she gazed at the hazy sky.

Sorrel´s legs were tired, her belly empty, but there was warmth in the filtered sun, comfort to be found in her surroundings and her memories.

This was her special place. It was where she had come with her grandmother. The two of them would sit up here, looking over Amat, over their small patch of the world, her grandmother talking, Sorrel listening as she was told the tales her grandmother had heard of what life was like Before. Even though she did not believe all, or even most of them, Sorrel had enjoyed hearing Grandmother Bella´s stories.

Her grandmother had told her about places called Bigshops. Inside these vast shops were rows upon rows of food, stacked from floor to ceiling. She had heard about the shops in the city of Dinawl, but they were as nothing when compared to the Before time, when people lived without hunting or foraging. Back then, they simply went into Bigshops and filled barrows with all they wanted and took it home to eat. Fruits from all over the world were brought to the Bigshops in metal machines which flew in the sky like bats, and on vast ships which sailed the oceans. The Before world had been joined up like a spider´s web, but the web had been broken, the strands snapped. Now they lived in isolation, only rarely connecting with other settlements.

Sorrel wished she could ask her grandmother more about Before, but the chance was long gone. She sat up and ran her fingers over the birthmark on her wrist, tracing the three interconnecting circles. Her grandmother had told her the mark was special, that she, Sorrel, was special, but she didn´t feel special; she felt ordinary.

She put her jacket on, pulling the sleeve down so that the mark was covered. It was good to think about Grandmother Bella, but not too often and not for too long. Not when there was, as she had often said, plenty of living to be done.

Grandmother Bella was dead, but Sorrel was alive. She had her mother, she had Eli, and she had her baby sister, whisper her name, Bella. And she had David. Where there was life, there was hope; sometimes there was nothing else. Often there was nothing else, particularly during the long dark months of winter. But today there was hope and more besides.

She stood up on the rock and looked down on Amat. Smoke from peat fires rose from the...
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