The Night Raven by Johan Rundberg EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Johan Rundberg
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 3.7 MB
- Price: Free
Stockholm, Sweden, 1880
“No more!”
The cry comes from one of the beds in the back rows. The slurred,
sleepy words are followed by a long wail. Mika opens her eyes. She lies
still for a few moments, watching the vapor from her breath rise to the
ceiling. The aftertaste of a wonderful dream clings to her mind, shards of
a blue summer sky. She tries to gather the fragmented images, but they
trickle from her mind like water from a cracked bucket. From the other
side of the dormitory, she hears the crackling sound of the ceramic stove
cooling down. Mika’s bed is warm, and she hopes she won’t have to get
up. Maybe she could even get back into her dream. But when she hears
that wail again, she reluctantly throws off her blanket and swings her
legs over the side of the bed.
It is Edvin, of course. He is lying with his knees huddled into his
chest, whimpering in his sleep. Before winter he had moved into a foster
home near Marieberg. By the end of January, he was found back on the
orphanage doorstep, bruised and skinny as a street cat. His sleep has
been troubled ever since.
Mika sits on the edge of Edvin’s bed, places her hand on his neck,
and whispers gently.
“You’ll wake the others. Sleep now.”
She strokes his back slowly until his breathing calms down.
Someone else coughs on the other side of the dormitory. Mika looks
at the ceramic stove. In the gap between the doors is a glimpse of a faint
glow. She may as well add a couple of logs now, seeing as she is up. But
it’s Rufus’s job really, that lazy bones. And the thought of walking
across the cold stone floor does not appeal. Then comes another sound.
A dull thud that seems to be coming from the front door. Mika gets up
and tiptoes between the sleeping bodies in the darkness. By the door she
takes the key out of the pocket of her nightdress and sticks it into the
keyhole, holding her palm over the lock to dampen the sound of the
turning key. The dormitory isn’t usually locked. But a few of the
children have been known to sleepwalk, and wandering around in winter
could be fatal. Especially a winter like this one.
Out in the lobby, her breath turns white like ice crystals. Mika
pinches her collar around her neck and walks carefully across the floor.
The closed door latch is fuzzy with frost. She stands and listens for a
moment. Silence. Could it have been just her imagination? Stone and
wood can make strange noises in the cold.
Mika is startled by more
knocking. Now there can be no doubt. Someone is standing outside the
front door and wants to come in. Mika knows she should fetch Amelia.
But if it turns out to be nothing, she’ll get in trouble for waking Amelia
up for no reason. Besides, it was a very gingerly sort of knocking.
Whoever is standing on the other side is unlikely to mean any harm.
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