The Descenders by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell

Author:Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell [Stewart, Paul & Riddell, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 9781448157761
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2019-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

‘Of course, that was all before the blockade,’ Nate was saying, echoing Cade’s own thoughts. ‘Now Eudoxia is urging me to pull the last of the denizens back from the Keep and assign all the Descenders to the defence of the East and West Landings. It would put at risk all the progress they made in my absence.’ He shook his head. ‘But Eudoxia fears that an all-out attack is coming.’

‘Where is Aunt Eudoxia?’ Cade asked. ‘I haven’t seen her around lately.

Nate laughed. ‘Your aunt is a remarkable person, Cade,’ he said. ‘Without her, the city would never have survived for as long as it has. Right now, she’s off on one of those missions of hers, trying to get more help for New Sanctaphrax.’

‘Who from?’ Cade asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied with a shrug. ‘She doesn’t like to bother me with such things. “You concentrate on the future,” she told me before she left, “and I’ll worry about the present.”’ Nate tapped the sheaf of papers he was holding. ‘Which is how you come to find me concentrating on the next great descent.’

‘To find your friend – Professor Hentadile?’ Cade asked, recalling the afternoons he’d spent on the gantry in the Great Library, listening to his uncle reliving every detail of his last descent.

‘The Professor? I’ve almost given up hope of ever finding him,’ said Nate bitterly. ‘It’s anyone’s guess how far we fell. It might take years of painstaking descending from Denizens Keep before we find those scree fields again. And even that might only be the start …’

Cade frowned. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘If you don’t think you’ll be able to find the Professor, then why descend at all? Especially with New Sanctaphrax under attack from Great Glade.’

‘You’re right, Cade,’ said Nate, nodding thoughtfully, ‘it does seem strange – self-indulgent, even. Yet, if New Sanctaphrax has any purpose at all, it is the pursuit of knowledge. Once we abandon the attempt to deepen our understanding of the way the Edge works, then we may as well all pack up and move to Hive.’ He laughed. ‘Apart from anything else, it’s my own small act of resistance against that monster Quove Lentis.’

Cade thrilled at the words. The more he discovered about his uncle, the more Nate Quarter did remind him of his father.

‘What if … if you could fall the way you did,’ Cade suggested, ‘but … but control that fall? Charting a freefalling descent,’ he said, weighing up each thought. ‘If you did that, you could find your way back again, couldn’t you?’ He looked at his uncle askance. ‘Or if you had a ship that—’

‘Don’t think I haven’t thought about it, Cade,’ said his uncle, laying a hand on his shoulder, ‘but no phraxcraft has ever survived below the High Cliff. The air currents there are just too strong. The vessels end up being smashed against the cliff face.’

‘But—’ Cade began, only for Nate to interrupt him a second time.

‘Seftis got all excited about your father’s working drawings when you first arrived, but …’ He shook his head ruefully.

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.