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raw spaces in Mari s mind.
 Hurry! her teacher s voice whispered urgently.  Come
on, Mari. You re stronger than this. Try.
 I passed my finals, Mari gasped aloud.  If I did that, I
can do anything. Hanson, where are you? I m frightened,
and I m a coward.
 No coward could have done the things you ve done, Mari.
Now Suzanne s tone was kind. The air was loose and breathless,
hushed over the dark city. Mari s boots rang on steel just as the
thing below her leapt for the ladder.
Rusted metal gave with a squealing snap. Mari, glancing
back over her shoulder, heard the thing thud back onto the
ground. Another chilling howl rose from it, scraping Mari s
nerve endings with broken glass. She fell hard, her head striking
the edge of a metal step.
 Get up, Suzanne said kindly but pitilessly.  That won t
hold it for long. Get up, Mari!
 Hanson, Mari said.  I need you. She managed to climb
to her feet. A thin, glassy growling came from underneath her,
then deathly silence.
Wet salt warmth dripped down from her temple. Her head
throbbed. She climbed another three flights and finally fell
headlong onto the roof s rough pebbled surface. Raising her
head, her hair coming free and tumbling down, she felt horrible
recognition slam through her.
It was the same roof.
 Find a place to sit, Suzanne said.  You ll have to trust
me, Mari. Please. The entire city will be destroyed if the binding
breaks. All those innocent people.
 Gretchen, Mari whispered.  Amy.
 Sit down, her teacher replied.
The strength ran out of Mari s arms and legs. She collapsed
headlong on the roof.
 Good enough, Suzanne whispered.  Now, follow me.
 Mari? A harsh, choked whisper.
Fresh pain grated in Mari s head. Thunder rumbled, and a
few stinging drops of rain pattered against the roof. What the& ?
It wasn t natural. Something had thrown the weather
166 Lilith Saintcrow
systems off, some imbalance of Power. Mari felt it like altitude
pressure inside her ears. More blood trickled down her cheek.
 Mari, the voice crooned again. She recognized it just as
blackness rose to swallow her.
What s Brandon doing here?
Mari lost consciousness.
***
She came back to herself with a jolt a half-minute later,
lying full-length on the roof. Thunder crackled again. As if that
had broken some sort of stasis, the rain started in earnest, dime-
sized drops splattering on the already fog-damp roof.
 Mari, a thick, chuckling voice said again.
Brandon? Mari shook her head, pushing herself up on hands
and knees. What s he doing here?
 There you are. The voice chuckled, and Mari raised her
head, water running into her eyes.  This will only take a minute.
Her dark-adapted eyes made out a low, hulking figure, and
Mari had to gulp back another scream. It looked like Brandon,
or what Brandon would look like with three-inch claws and
glowing sulphurous eyes. But something was wrong. He was
hunched over, his shoulders massively corded with muscle, as
if the steroids had twisted him into something bestial. And the
voice was similar to Brandon s, but it sounded as if something
thick and inhuman was working his tongue.
As she watched, stunned, the outlines of Brandon s body
began to blur like hot wax.  Brandon? Mari whispered.
Then she felt it again. The tearing, ripping, gnawing, trying
to worm its way into her brain. There was a pale glitter wrapped
around one clawed hand. Mari blinked water out of her eyes.
It was& pearls.
Her pearls.
That s how it tracked me, she realized, her throat gone dry
with terror. Whatever that thing is, it s not Brandon anymore.
It may try to glamour itself like him, and maybe it would work,
if it hadn t tried to eat me. I m kind of seeing what it really
looks like.
 Run! Suzanne s voice cracked in Mari s ear, underscored
with a roll of thunder. Mari found herself scrambling to her
feet, her shocked and abused body screaming an orchestra
arrangement of pain. It leapt for her just as her legs gave out
again.
It was that accidental fall that saved her life. She fell, just
 Storm Watcher 167
missing the swipe of claws, but the thing smashed into her
anyway. Mari flew, feeling oddly weightless for a moment, and
there was a huge, almost painless impact along the right side of
her body. A small cry jerked out of her lips.
 Mari, no! Suzanne sounded horrified.
An air-conditioning vent had broken her fall.
Broken my fall, or broken me? The rain smashed long,
silver needles into the rooftop. A distant rumbling started.
 The binding, Suzanne s voice said.  Mari, please. You
must try.
Mari coughed. A sharp pain lanced into her side. If I m
going to die, she thought through the haze of agony, I m going
to do it right. I wish I would have found out if I passed my
exams. She closed her eyes.
 Repeat after me, Suzanne said patiently.  Aeturnus
boundis terrae, pactus Grimaen. Mari began to stutter along.
Each word tore a fresh hole in her ribs. I think I broke something.
She pushed herself up slowly. It took an eternity, but she finally
ended up sitting against the air-conditioning vent. Rain jetted
down; an amazing diamond spike of lightning split the night.
Thunder smashed the sky.
 Terabus lux boundis Janus terrae. She heard Suzanne s
voice reciting, and her own thin, choked whisper following.
The language was unlike anything she d ever heard before,
ancient words humming with Power. Something stalked in the
rain, something that was going to come back and kill her. Had
it killed Brandon, too? And Amy? Was it just wearing Brandon s
shape? Mari coughed again. A bubble of something warm burst
on her lips.
 Almost done, Suzanne said.  Repeat, Aeternum
Imperatrim terrae cogniri saldrine.
Mari s vision began to blur, but not before she saw a low,
hunched shape in the rain.
The final sentence of the spell dropped from her numb lips,
and the thunder seemed to pause midway through the sky. Power
rose, a spinning oval of it. Silver light poured starkly over the
rooftop and underlined each object with a knife-edged shadow. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]