"Patricia A. McKillip - The House on Parchment Street" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

last for centuries. They do quiet things."
The drilling, quiet while he spoke, started up again with a spurt of noise.
"I wonder where Alexander is."
"Mm. CarolтАФ"
"What?"
"Let's go in the tunnel now. Then, when she comes, if she speaks to us while we're there, we'll know that
she's talking to us and not Edward."
"All right. You first."
He grinned, and disappeared halfway into the hole. The other half of him followed with a little

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...ip%20-%20The%20House%20on%20Parchment%20Street.txt (47 of 69)3/12/2004 11:53:56 PM
 file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/New%20Folder/Patricia%20McKillip%20-%20The%20House%20on%20Parchment%20Street.txt

maneuvering, and he vanished a moment. Then he rose and looked back at her, framed by stones. She
giggled.
"You look like you're being walled in."
"Come on. Don't forget the light."
She wiggled in. The earth was hard and damp under her feet. The stones were damp. They curved in a
flawless, unbroken arch above her head. She looked back and saw the cellar room, bright against the
dark stones, oddly unfamiliar, as though she were seeing it for the first time.
"What time is it?"
He flashed the light at his watch. "Three-forty. You don't have to whisper."
"Neither do you."
The minutes dragged by in their silence. She stuck her fingers under her arms to warm them. Bruce's
eyes glinted in the light as he looked around. Far, far away, somewhere beyond the jagged hole, the
drilling sounded, stopped, sounded again.
"I wonder," Carol whispered, "if that's the way she sees the cellar. Or does she see it with somebody
else's things in it, or just empty. тАж" A great black shape entered the hole as she looked, and the breath
wailed from her. "BruceтАФ" The light danced as she caught his arm.
"Let goтАФ" He steadied the light. A pair of golden
eyes flashed at him and he laughed. "That catтАФThrow it back outтАФ"
She reached for it, but it flattened itself beneath her hands and vanished into the shadows.
"Oh, well. Was it Emily's cat?"
"No. It was that black catтАж ." Her mouth felt dry. "I thinkтАж . Bruce, turn around."
He turned. The man walked toward them down the tunnel, his footsteps soft, steady on the earth. The
light winked off his sword. Bruce swallowed. He shifted aside; the man passed between them without a
glance. They saw as he passed through the stones, the sunlight on the back of his black cape, on the
broad brim of his hat. He stood just beyond the stones, listening, his head turning faintly in the direction
of some sound.
He turned finally and came back through the stones, and as he passed them his stride quickened. Bruce
held the light on him until he reached the edges of it and the shadows enveloped him. Even then they
could hear the soft beat of his steps. Bruce turned back. The girl came toward them through the sunlight.
They saw her face through the hole in the stones. She turned briefly before she entered, and they heard
her voice.
"Edward. Come."
And suddenly they were no longer looking through a jagged hole, but through an arch of stone. A man,
his head turned away from them as he looked back through the cellar, smiled briefly at her smile, and
wax rolled down his fingers from the candle in his hand.
He was hidden in a dark cloak. It opened briefly as
he stepped through the arch, and they caught a glimpse of something silver that gleamed from a chain.