When Adi foils a plot to start a war, she makes a dangerous enemy and finds herself in the middle of a deadly game. Read an excerpt from Silent by David Mellon.

About ‘Silent’

As the daughter of a British father and an Indian mother, Adi has had her share of troubles, facing the rejection of both her cultures over her 16 years. Then, in a French restaurant in 1914, she unknowingly encountered Coal, an shadowy figure with a zest for starting wars — which he was about to do when Adi foiled his plans and made a dangerous enemy.

When Adi is entrusted with taking her pampered younger twin brothers to safety from India to Europe, she’s at first resentful that her family is treating her as no more than an inexpensive nanny. Then Coal moves in, kidnaps the twins, and forces Adi into a terrible bargain of silence and a deadly game. Adi now knows what real trouble is. Her only clue is the watch full of riddles she has been given. Cutting her hair and dressing in the uniform of a dead solider, she makes her way across a continent darkened by war, encountering allies and enemies from a handsome drunkard to a murderous priest. In a story that reads like an epic legend, Adi must find in herself more courage than any boy, in a desperate bid to save her brothers’ lives and her own.

Excerpt from ‘Silent’ by David Mellon

Adi’s in big trouble. Her brothers have been kidnapped by a dreadful stranger who’s forcing her to play a dangerous game of riddles. She’s been momentarily rescued by George (who turns out to be a lot more than a guy who woke up that morning hungover in a field.) Unfortunately, it’s June 1914 – the events leading to World War One are in motion. There is time, however, for a late dinner…

They took their late supper at a long, well-worn table off the kitchen, joining several of the scullery crew. One of them offered to get George a glass of whatever dark ale they were having. George leaned his face against his hand and smiled. “Another time, lads.”

He took a bite of his eggs and looked at Uncle Henri. “So, what is going to happen?”

Uncle Henri shrugged. “I’d like to say everyone is going to sit down and work out their differences like adults, but you may have noticed there are precious few of them about. However, I’m betting you and I and a few others are going to need to be off to Paris—tomorrow, next day at the latest.”

Adi was sleepy but not so much that she missed this. She looked to George. He was studying his plate.

“We have one too, don’t we, Henri? A treaty, I mean.”

“That’s right, Georgie,” he said with little enthusiasm. “Made by your father, with France, when he wasn’t all that much older than you are now.” Henri nodded to Adi, not noticing the look of alarm in her eyes.

“Not that anyone much cares what we do, we are but a flyspeck on the map. Unfortunately, we’re a flyspeck just south of Alsace and Lorraine—two territories the French lost to Germany in 1871. The French want them back very badly.”

George looked over to Adi. She was trying to be brave, trying not to look as if she thought her problems were comparable to a European war.

But they were—to her.

Somewhere out there, who knows where, the boys were counting on her.

She clutched her watch tightly to her mouth. It was all she could do not to scream and yell. She should be doing something!

Anything!

Pushing away from the table, wiping tears from her face, she ran through the kitchen and up the stairs. These ridiculous shoes!

She kicked them off. Down the corridor she went, until she found a door leading out into a garden and an orchard beside the house.

She ran through the trees. The moon had long set; the only light was from the fireflies that had come out in force. The leaves and branches whipped past her, until the cool grass and the night air began to calm her.

Coming to the high wall at the edge of the trees, she put out her hands to touch the moss-covered stone. Leaning her forehead against the wall, she heard steps through the grass behind her, slowing to a walk.

George stood for a moment and then came over and leaned a shoulder against the wall next to her.

Adi studied him in the faint light. He lifted his glasses up and brushed the hair out of his eyes. They stood quiet, listening to a cricket fiddle its tune. George reached out his hand and pulled at a loose curl along the side of Adi’s neck.

“Bad timing,” he said.

She wasn’t sure what timing he was talking about. Meeting each other when she couldn’t speak? A war starting when she was trying to find her brothers? It didn’t really matter. It was all pretty terrible.

She was about to start crying again, though she really didn’t want to. George leaned in — Adi saw fireflies reflected in his glasses.

He kissed her lightly on the lips, once, and again.

For just a second it all stopped, there was peace and silence, there was nowhere to go, nothing to do, no riddle, no war, no tomorrow.

They looked at each other a few inches apart, sharing the same atoms of air. He was about to kiss her again when they heard Thomas calling through the trees. She put her hand against his chest. George took her by the hand. They walked back through the apple trees to the house.

Excerpted from Silent Copyright © 2017 by David Mellon and published by Merit Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

About the author

David Mellon grew up in Denham Springs, a tiny town on a river in south east Louisiana. After attending San Francisco Art Institute and California Institute for the Arts he graduated from Art Center College of Design with a degree in Illustration. After many years of painting pictures and drawing storyboards for film and TV commercials he discovered UCLA Extension Writers’ Program where he was nominated for the 2016 Allegra Johnson Prize. Silent (Merit Press, March 2017) is his first novel. He’s been a member of SCBWI since 2011. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Judith.

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