StoneDragon by Adrian Cross

Author:Adrian Cross [Cross, Adrian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775090700
Publisher: Adrian Croft
Published: 2017-10-14T06:00:00+00:00

31

The Club District

Candiman’s territory was the Club District. To get there quickly, Clay and JP had to pass the Broken Tower. Clay always found it an unnerving experience.

The houses grew dark and neglected, with rubble and tangled weeds carpeting the road. Few people willingly lived close to the Tower. Stone gargoyles leered down at them from above. Clay tried not to look up. Artists of incredible talent and questionable sanity had chipped away those shapes, paying careful attention to such details as the shreds of flesh hanging from teeth and the bubbles of saliva foaming across stretched lips. The snakes were particularly disturbing: their scaled bodies lashed out, jaws spread to offer a gruesome death.

JP stumbled.

Clay steadied JP. It was his first time seeing the Tower up close, Clay realized.

The teenager’s eyes were fixed on the building overhead. Horror swirled in his eyes, to a degree that surprised Clay. The Tower wasn’t pretty, but JP had survived the Last Great War.

“You okay?”

“Sure.” JP’s gaze slid away. “Have you been inside?”

“The Tower? No. Everything I’ve heard says that’s a bad idea. Most people who try climbing it come back down the hard way—outside the window. Or they don’t come back at all. I’ve never heard anything that made me want to risk it.”

“Okay.” JP nodded jerkily. “Let’s go.”

Clay frowned but let the subject drop. The stairs up to the base of the Tower were steep, and he soon had to focus his attention on each new step. By the time they reached the upper section of the stairs, his breath rasped in and out and his thighs trembled. He put a hand on the low stone wall and straightened, drawing in deep breaths.

The Tower had been built for defense, each section of stairs growing progressively narrower, with walls on either side and rough, steep and uneven footing away from the stairs. The slope was defined to funnel attackers into a kill zone, where archers could ravage them. Clay admired the grim beauty of the design.

A hot wind swept over him, gusting his coat away from his body. JP staggered up the last few steps. They looked out over the city. It was pierced with flame, like someone had swept a boot through a campfire, scattering embers. The largest fire rose up where Rhino’s castle had once stood. Clay stared at it numbly.

“I’m sorry, Clay.”

He swallowed. A hard knot grew in his stomach. He remembered Rose’s flashing eyes, Rhino’s indomitable presence. He recoiled from imagining either of them dead. “Just because the castle is burning, doesn’t mean they are.”

“Of course.”

Clay pushed away from the wall. “Let’s go.”

JP followed silently as they skirted the great Tower and headed down the western stairs.

It was easier going down than up, but not so easy Clay’s legs didn’t ache in a different way by the bottom. But he welcomed the pain, using it to push out unwelcome thoughts. At this point, he didn’t want to think at all. He simply walked, until they reached the border of what once had been the Club District.

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.