Beneath an Opal Moon by Eric van Lustbader

Author:Eric van Lustbader
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780345466860
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1980-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Fugue

THE Plaza de la Pesquisa was deserted.

He stood deep within the shadows of the olive trees, having chosen a spot with excellent visibility to the east and west as well as to the north, where he could observe the Seguillas y Oriwara house undetected. He had been in this spot for some time now. No one had come in or out of the front door during that time. Four people had passed by without stopping.

He checked his other views, drew a blank and returned his attention to the big house. Doors were only one method of entrance.

With extraordinary quickness and silence, he flitted from shadow to shadow, out of the plaza. An old man went slowly past and, some time later, a young couple arm in arm, coming from the opposite direction. No one saw him.

At length, he gained the darkness of the small side street to the right of the house. The second tree in had the right configuration and he climbed it, moving out from the trunk onto a thick limb which arced inward toward the vine-covered side of the building.

He put the toe of one boot into a V notch where one vine became two and, ascertaining that it would indeed support his weight, launched himself upward. Hand over hand, his fingers grasping, tugging experimentally, he ascended.

High above the street, he became aware of the soft cries, as of thin wire whistling through the air, and, once, he felt the tentative brush of a leathery wing tip. He was not fond of bats and these seemed unusually large but, though they continued to dip near him, calling in their high-pitched peculiar speech, they posed little threat to his progress once he had acclimated himself to their swooping presence.

Along the wall he went, clinging like some nocturnal animal on a hunt, and soon he was at the corner of the house. There was some illumination here, mostly from the flickering lights around the plaza he looked skyward: banks of stratus cloud obscured the rising moon but he was reasonably certain he could navigate this last stretch of wall without being observed from below.

The immediate problem now, however, rose from another quarter. For the first hand-and foothold he was totally blind and would have to rely totally on touch.

Cautiously, he reached around the corner, extending his torso as far as he dared to give himself as wide a search area as possible. He felt his fingers close around a thick vine on the front of the house. He tugged. It held. He tightened his grip and let go with his feet.

Afterward, he would remember how absurdly lucky he was to have held on with his right hand, because the new vine ripped under his weight and he slammed against the side of the building, his face scraping against the ivy as he slid downward. He let go with his left hand and swung for a moment, supported by just one handhold. Gravity dragged at him, beckoning him down to the street below.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.