Alex Verus 5: Hidden by Benedict Jacka

Author:Benedict Jacka [Jacka, Benedict]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Paranormal & Urban
ISBN: 9780425264942
Amazon: 0425264947
Barnesnoble: 0425264947
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2014-09-01T17:00:00+00:00

chapter 7

I came down into a sea breeze and dazzling sunlight. The gate closed behind me and I was alone.

I was standing on a stone platform on the edge of a massive cliff. The cliff stretched away to my left and right; as my eyes adjusted I saw that it went on as far as I could see. Behind was forest and greenery and the sun was shining down out of a cloudy sky, filling the air with haze. At the foot of the cliff and stretching away into the distance was an endless ocean, and the rush of waves on rock was a steady sound in the background.

Directly ahead was an enormous castle. It was built upon a rocky island offshore, several hundred feet from the cliff, and a long narrow bridge stretched from my feet to some sort of courtyard directly ahead. The castle was made out of yellow-grey stone, and it was huge. Square towers and buttresses reached up into the clouded sky, arched windows peeking down from layered walls, with a darker, towerlike building beyond the first few layers of ramparts.

I was still holding my phone in one hand; the signal indicator was spinning uselessly and I switched it off. As I did I searched ahead, looking for danger, and came up blank. As far as I could tell I was alone out here. Of course, given how big it was, it was going to be pretty hard to tell the difference between alone and nobody in range . . .

I shook my head and focused. Back in London, Darren would be waking up right now. He’d notice I’d stolen his gate stone, and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out what I’d done with it. There wouldn’t be any easy way for him to report to Sagash (and given the typical attitude Dark masters have towards failure, he probably wouldn’t want to), so his most likely next move would be to contact one of the other apprentices. I’d taken his phone specifically to slow that down, but he’d manage it sooner or later and once he did I could expect him to show up here with reinforcements. I needed to find Anne before then.

I started walking forward across the bridge. It was a full fifteen feet wide, which was good because there was no railing, just a sheer drop. The cliff face was vertical, and I glanced down after a few steps to confirm that there was absolutely nothing below me except a long, long fall of hundreds of feet to the water. Sea breezes tugged at me, whipping my hair and pushing me from side to side. I had a macabre impulse to look into the future in which I jumped off the edge, down and down to those little wavelets below, but shook it off.

I couldn’t help feeling relieved when I made it across. The courtyard beyond was vast, more than a hundred feet deep with ledged walls reaching a good forty feet above my head.

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