Black Eagle Rising by Kate Jacoby

Author:Kate Jacoby [Jacoby, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780575065260
Amazon: 0575065265
Goodreads: 1961427
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2000-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

16

‘Jenn? Can you hear me? Try to wake up. Just breathe deeply. You’re in no danger. I’m right here.’

She felt something stroking the side of her face and she latched onto the touch, holding it in her mind as something real. She did as she was told and breathed deeply, the air dry and hot.

Her eyes blinked open. Robert was kneeling beside her, his hand brushing her cheek; his expression shifted from worried to relieved in a moment.

‘Thank the gods!’ He moved a little, then brought a cup to her lips. ‘Here, you need to drink something.’

The water was cool as it slipped down her throat. She swallowed a little more, then tried to sit up.

‘Just stay there for a minute. How do you feel?’

Jenn looked around, belatedly realising it was light now. ‘I feel fine. What happened?’

‘You blacked out. I couldn’t wake you. All night. Are you sure you feel fine?’

‘Yes. Help me up.’

She sat up, resting her back against a rough sandstone wall. Robert sat in front of her, watching her carefully. Still, it was the room that demanded her attention. It looked so different in daylight, open and airy. The domed ceiling rose high above, the walls to either side of them splintered with tall windows, only wide enough to step through sideways. The stone was a warm ochre, the floor, dark grey, each block fitted to the next with tight precision. No decoration of any kind adorned any surface, as though the building itself were sufficient in its simplicity. This was a hard room, without compromise, its sharp edges lasting so much longer than the people who had built it.

The room from the dream.

‘This is it, isn’t it?’ Robert asked, keeping his voice low as if not to disturb her. ‘The room where the Key was created?’

‘Yes.’

‘So … what happened last night?’

She looked down at her hands. It wasn’t easy putting such a vague feeling into words, but she tried. ‘I had this … feeling that I didn’t want to come in here … and then, the moment I set foot inside this room, I heard the chanting. It was the same as the chanting in the dream about the Key – but it was just so loud. I don’t remember much after that.’

‘Chanting? From the dream? Was it a memory, or something else?’

‘I don’t know. It didn’t feel like a memory.’

Robert frowned and got to his feet. He took a few steps away, his head tilting back to look up at the ceiling. The tension in his shoulders was not echoed in the tone of his voice. ‘Could you understand anything that was being said?’

‘No.’ If only she had. If only this made some sense. Perhaps it had been just a memory, coming upon her suddenly because she was finally here, in the place where the Key had been created.

She stood and stretched, feeling blood return to her body. She felt good, as though she had a good night’s sleep last night and nothing more.

‘You seem to have this … affinity with the Key.

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.