Lee Raven, Boy Thief by Zizou Corder

Author:Zizou Corder
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141913612
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2008-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Story Continues to Continue

According to Lee

My heart was full of the book when I fell asleep — full of the long long time he had existed. I was dreaming of peacocks in marble courtyards, the cries of rioters in the purple night, flames licking in the distance, coming closer, ships burning at sea, salt and smoke smell drifting across the water, and the threat of blood and the clash of swords…

I was deep in my dreams.

I tossed and fretted, and I didn’t sleep long.

Something woke me. Someone – landing on me, squealing, and then swiftly scrabbling away. It was dark. I flailed about, reaching – something was missing.

The book.

Not in my arms.

Not within reach.

I found the torch and flicked it on. The book was gone.

I howled and jumped up.

The manhole lid was still clanging. I grabbed for my skello – gone too. But someone was still there.

‘Where’s my book?’ I yelled. ‘Give it me.’

It was a girl. She was cowering in a corner, her knees pulled up, her eyes glowing like an animal. ‘I don’t have it,’ she gasped. ‘He’s got it.’

‘Who?’ I was still half asleep, but that didn’t stop me from racing up the ladder and banging and banging at the manhole cover till my fists hurt.

‘How on earth would I know?’ she said.

I climbed down again. Whoever had done it wasn’t going to come back out of kindness and mercy, were they? And if somebody else heard, what good would that do? Less than none. I’d be saved, yeah, and handed over to the police.

I turned the torch on her. She was staring at me. ‘You’re in such trouble,’ she said. ‘I know who you are. I know what you did. He’s going to get the police now and –’

She was about my age, wrapped in a scarf, Asian-looking, nicely spoken.

Who the crike was she?

‘Police?’ I said.

‘Of course,’ she replied.

‘Yeah, great,’ I said. ‘Thanks. You put the kettle on for them then, eh?’ I grabbed my stuff, pulling on my waders and my mask, and slid the lid off the route back into the Tyburn. The smell nearly knocked me backwards. I aimed my torch and I skedaddled.

It’s one thing going down the shores at leisure. Bad enough, you’d think. Going down with some damn fool unprotected girl following you is another.

Yeah, she came after me.

What could I do? I yelled at her to go back. I could hear her, retching and stumbling, and I raced ahead so she’d be scared and turn back of her own accord. She could bang at the manhole cover, couldn’t she, until someone came? Why the crike was she following me?

My head was in a muddle. One: deal with being below. Two: who was it who’d nicked the book? Three: what the heck was I going to do now?

I followed the way I had come, easier now going downhill, till I came to the Air Street turn-off. No point coming out back at Piccadilly. And how was I going

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.