The Black Room Read Online Free Page B

any of them. The burning logs would fall straight into the blankets and the new white floss. Don’t let it hit the brazier —
    It didn’t. It swept across once more, only a hand’s breadth away from the brazier’s metal side—and then it stopped. All of a sudden, the force went out of it, and it fell to the ground, rolling sideways and coming to rest against the wall of the cavern.
    For a split second, there was a complete, shocked silence.
    Then, echoing down the tunnel from outside, came a deep, deafening roar, louder and closer than thunder. A great gust of cold air eddied into the cavern, and a huge thud jolted the ground under their feet.
    â€œIt’s an earthquake!” Bando shouted. He clenched his fist around Lorn’s fingers until she thought they would break. She could feel his whole body trembling. “I’ll look after you, Lorn. Don’t worry. It’s a tornado! An explosion ! ”
    Lorn patted his hand without thinking, concentrating on the noises. Trying to make sense of them. There were more thuds, not quite as violent as the first one, and fierce, deep bellows, like the howls of some vast animal.
    Bando’s words rattled inside her head, without meaning. What’s a tornado? But she didn’t ask. Questions like that made the others stare.
    The thuds stopped suddenly, and the roaring softened to a deep, intermittent rumbling. Shang swallowed hard, staring out at the great, heavy beam.
    â€œWe could have been killed,” he said shakily.
    â€œThat’s right.” Perdew’s face was grim. “Imagine what would have happened if we’d been asleep. The cavern’s not safe anymore. We’ve got to get out of here and find somewhere better.”
    Lorn stared at him. “Move ? ”
    What was he talking about? She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
    â€œWe have to move,” Perdew said, determined and tight-lipped. “And we’ve got to find somewhere now—before it gets too cold to go out searching. There’s no time to waste.”
    For a moment there was a shocked silence.
    Then Bando said, “We can’t move! We can’t leave here!” He was almost shouting.
    â€œI’m sorry, Bando,” Tina said reluctantly. “But I think Perdew’s right—”
    Some of the others nodded—and Bando went red in the face. “WE CAN’T GO!” he yelled. “What’s the matter with you all? Have you forgotten Cam? And Zak and Nate and Robert?”
    Pushing Tina out of his way, he charged through the cavern, making for the long side wall where the great wooden beam was lying. When he reached the beam, he bent over and hauled it out of the way, grunting with the effort it took. Then he crouched beside the line that ran down that side of the cavern.
    Lorn had marked the line in the earth weeks and weeks ago, when Cam and Zak set off with Robert and Nate on their long, strange journey. I’m going home, Robert had said. I’m going to find my family. No one knew what would happen if he succeeded, but the four of them had set off together—and there had been no news since then.
    The line was for the people left behind, to help them imagine the journey there and back. Bando had laid small stones on it, to represent the travelers, and every day he’d moved the stones a little farther along the line while the others watched him. Two of the stones were lost, but the two that remained were nearly at the end of the line. A red stone for Cam and a gray stone for Zak.
    â€œLook!” Bando said fiercely, bending over them. “They’re almost here. If we move, they’ll never find us when they come back.”
    If they come back, Lorn thought. But she didn’t say it.
    The others were coming out from behind the brazier now, moving slowly toward the line.
    â€œBando’s right,” Annet said uncertainly. “We can’t abandon