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.And from far, far below the rushing of water.“There’s a river down there,” Candy said.“The Almenak doesn’t—”Before Malingo could finish his sentence, a third voice came out of the darkness and echoed around the Vault.“As I live and breathe, will you look at that? Candy Quackenbush!”The shout stirred up a few bats.They swooped from their roosts down into the dark air, and in doing so they disturbed hundreds of their siblings, so that in a matter of a few seconds countless bats were on the move; a churning cloud pierced by shifting constellations.“Was that—? ”“Houlihan? ” Candy said.“I’m afraid it was.”She’d no sooner spoken than there was a footfall at the far end of the bridge, and the Criss-Cross Man stepped into the torchlight.“Finally,” he said.“I have you where you cannot run.”Candy glanced back along the bridge.One of Houlihan’s stitchling companions had appeared from the shadows and was striding toward them.It was a big, ill-shapen thing, with the teeth of a death’s head, and as soon as it set foot on the bridge the frail structure began to sway from side to side.The stitchling clearly liked the sensation, because it proceeded to throw its weight back and forth, making the motion more and more violent.Candy grabbed hold of the railings, and Malingo did the same, but the frayed ropes offered little comfort.They were trapped.Houlihan was now advancing from his end of the bridge.He had taken the flaming torch from the wall and held it ahead of him as he advanced.His face, with its criss-crossed tattoos, was gleaming with sweat and triumph.Overhead, the cloud of bats continued to swell, as events on the bridge disturbed more and more of them.A few of the largest, intending perhaps to drive out these trespassers, swooped down on Candy and Malingo, letting out shrill shrieks.Candy did her best to ignore them: she was much more concerned with the Criss-Cross Man, who was now no more than seven or eight feet away.“You’re coming with me, girl,” he said to her.“Carrion wants to see you in Gorgossium.”He suddenly tossed the torch over the railing, and with both hands free he raced at Candy.She had nowhere left to run.“What now? ” he said.She shrugged.Desperate, she looked around at Malingo.“We may as well see—”“What is there to see? ” he replied.She smiled, the tiniest smile, and then, without even glancing up at their pursuers again, they both threw themselves headfirst over the rope railing.As they plunged into the darkness, Malingo let out a wild whoop of exhilaration, or perhaps fear, perhaps both.Seconds passed, and still they fell and fell and fell.And now everything was dark around them and the shrieking of the bats was gone, erased by the noise of the river below.Candy had time to think: If we hit the water at this speed we’ll break our necks, and then suddenly Malingo had hold of her hand, and using some trick of acrobatics he’d learned hanging upside down from Wolfswinkel’s ceiling, he managed to flip them both over, so that they were now falling feet first.Two, three, four seconds later, they hit the water.It wasn’t cold.At least not icy.Their speed carried them deep, however, and the impact separated them.For Candy there was a panicky moment when she thought she’d used up all her breath.Then—God bless him!—Malingo had hold of her hand again, and gasping for air, they broke surface together.“No bones broken? ” Candy gasped.“No.I’m fine.You? ”“No,” she said, scarcely believing it.“I thought he had us.”“So did I.So did he.“Candy laughed.They looked up, and for a moment she thought she glimpsed the dark ragged line of the bridge high above.Then the river’s current carried them away, and whatever she’d seen was eclipsed by the roof of the cavern through which these waters ran.They had no choice but to go wherever it was going.Darkness was all around them, so the only clues they had to the size of caverns through which the river traveled was the way the water grew more tempestuous when the channel narrowed, and how its rushing din mellowed when the way widened again.Once, for just a few tantalizing seconds, they caught a glimpse of what looked like a bright thread—like the Skein of Lydia Hap’s account—running through the air or the rock above them.“Did you see that? ” Malingo said.“Yes,” said Candy, smiling in the darkness.“I saw it.”“Well, at least we saw what we came to see.”It was impossible to judge the passage of time in such a formless place, but some while after their glimpsing of the Skein they caught sight of another light, a long way ahead: a luminescence which steadily grew brighter as the river carried them toward it.“That’s starlight,” Candy said.“You think so? ”She was right; it was.After a few more minutes, the river finally brought them out of Hulfaker’s caverns and into that quiet time just after nightfall.A fine net of cloud had been cast over the sky, and the stars caught in it were turning the Izabella silver.Their journey by water wasn’t over, however.The river current quickly carried them too far from the dark cliffs of Huffaker to attempt to swim back to it and bore them out into the straits between Nine and Ten O’clock.Now the Izabella took charge, her waters4 holding them up without their needing to exert themselves with swimming.They were carried effortlessly out past Ninnyhammer (where the lights burned bright in the cracked dome of Kaspar Wolfswinkel’s house) and south, into the light, to the bright, tropical waters that surrounded the island of the Nonce.The sleepy smell of an endless afternoon came off the island, which stood at Three O’clock, and the breeze carried dancing seeds from the lush slopes of that Hour.But the Nonce was not to be their destination.The Izabella’s currents carried them on past the Afternoon to the vicinity of the island of Gnomon.Before they could be delivered to the shores of that island, however, Malingo caught sight of their salvation.“I see a sail!” he said, and started yelling to whoever might be up on deck.“Over here! Here!”“They see us!” Candy said.“They see us!”3.ON THE PARROTOTHE LITTLE VESSEL MALINGO’S sharp eyes had spotted wasn’t moving, so they were able to let the gentle current carry them toward it.It was a humble fishing boat no more than fifteen feet in length and in a very dilapidated condition [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]