The Island of Whispers (20 page)

Back in the
sanctum of the Inner Circle, with the other Rulers looking on
anxiously, Long Snout remained in his nest and licked the wounds
that the yapping Four-Legs had inflicted on him. They’ll be here
soon, he told himself. With the cripple. Then we’ll begin the
Assembly. Our new society will be born. And I’ll become their new
King-rat. Long Snout, the King-rat, after all these Cycles. Soon.
Very soon. He didn’t notice the fumes or the others dying around
him. He felt drowsy. He yawned and settled down to sleep.

If you ever
take the train across the Forth Bridge, look down as you pass the
rocky, whale-shaped islet in the bridge’s shadow. You’ll see a
crumbling monastery on one side and a Second World War gun
emplacement on the other. You’ll also see a big notice board
sticking up from the crest of the island. If you peer at the
notice, you’ll probably see the bright red sign of the skull and
crossbones, and you might just make out the letters underneath,
which are also bright red and which declare: ‘BEWARE POISON’. The
notice was erected by the authorities in October 1990, a few days
after the centenary of the old bridge, when they fumigated the
island to rid it of a reported colony of rats. It seemed that the
rats were in danger of wiping out the island’s bird population – or
at least that’s what the authorities were told by the local
rat-catcher.

The island’s
proper name is Inchgarvie. Nowadays, though, it’s known to people
on both sides of the Forth as Rat Island: a place to be avoided, a
place of ghosts and demons and eerie, whispering winds.

–
o –