A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

Author:Frances Hardinge
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

CHAPTER 23

There was a terrible rushing cacophony inside Makepeace’s head, like clouds at war.

Something banged sharply against the back of her head. Makepace was staring up at the rafters, where spider-webs hung thick with dust. She had fallen backwards, she realized. There was a tightness across her chest that left her gasping for air.

God! she could hear the doctor yelling, his voice impossibly distant and yet tingling with closeness. God in Heaven! What Hell is this?

At the same time there came the bass rumble of Bear’s growl, confused and menacing.

‘Both of you!’ Makepeace whispered, struggling for breath. ‘Calm down! There is room for everyone!’ She sincerely hoped that this was true.

There is a Thing in here! screamed the doctor. It is not even human! A wild animal!

‘I told you as much!’

When you said ‘brute’, I thought you meant a brutish man! declared Quick. An uncouth oaf!

‘No – an animal! A bear!’

I can see that now!

Makepeace struggled to sit up. She did not look towards the doctor’s corpse. Things were quite confusing enough already with his thin voice echoing in her head. Her head reeled, and it was all she could do not to throw up.

She clutched at her head. At the same time she reached for

Bear in her mind, and imagined running her fingers through thick, dark fur. He quietened a bit, but there was still a lurching, dangerous storminess to him. Bear did not trust the doctor, she could tell. Bear did not like his soul’s smell.

Makepeace was startled back into her senses by creaking footsteps down below.

‘Young woman, what are you yelling about?’ It was the old woman down in the chandler’s shop. ‘What is happening up there?’

Not a word about my death! hissed the doctor urgently. Or that old cat will kick you out and steal everything down to my shirt. She’d have done so already if she wasn’t afraid I’d cough on her. The doctor sounded a lot more coherent, now that he was free of his fever-ridden body.

‘Sorry!’ Makepeace called down. ‘I was upset . . . the doctor was talking about hellfire . . .’

Oh, thank you so much. That will do wonders for my enduring reputation. You could not come up with another story?

Well, never mind. You must go through my pockets, and take everything you find. My books too – and my tools and purse are hidden under the mattress.

‘If I walk out with my arms full, I’ll be hanged for theft!’ hissed

Ah, the cranial elevator. It is in a thin black pouch inside my box of surgical tools. I shall need my books, too, if I am to be of use to your brother. And there are some things that I would not wish to leave behind – my good gloves, my boots, my pipe . . .

‘I’ll take the tools, your purse and a few of the books,’ Makepeace said quickly, ‘but none of your clothes. If I die of your sickness, then both our ghosts will be left without a house.

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