"David Freer - The Forlorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Freer Dave)

Riverdale, NY 10471


ISBN: 0-671-57831-6


Cover art by Larry Gilmore


First printing, September 1999




Distributed by Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020



Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH

Printed in the United States of America




CHAPTER 1
Port Tinarana was like an old, decaying tart, her face lined with a myriad of streets and alleys, inexpertly
caked with a crude makeup of overhanging buildings. The alleyways seemed to grow narrower and more
choked in filth with the passing of each year. Judging by the ankle-deep slush, this dead end hadn't had
the garbage cleared in the last three hundred of those years. And in a few minutes his body would
become yet another once-human part of it. He shrank back against the cold, oozing stones of the
overhanging wall. The night haze of fog and coal smoke streamered in twisted eddies about the ragged
boys. They were vague, almost ethereal, except for the silver-pale lines of low held knives, moving in
slow arcs as they closed in.

"Gonna cut you, dink."

"Yeah! Gonna spill your guts, cull. You bin workin' our turf."

Keilin knew there was no use in pleading. They weren't going to listen. They were all bigger than he was,
used to using those knives. He touched the stone of his pendant, pressing it into his thin chest. It was
always cool, but now it seemed almost burning cold against his skin. His pale eyes darted, trying to
assess his best chance. Oh God, for some kind of break . . . They came closer. . . .