Read Online Catskinner's Book (The Book Of Lost Doors) by Misha Burnett - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Misha Burnett
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reflecting my face back at me. “What am I?”
a mistake.
Catskinner's tone was amused. Aloud I said, “You're the princess.”
She smiled at that, and her tongue flickered over her lips. “And you're the knight who rescued me.” She leaned up against me. Catskinner didn't react at all.
“No, I'm the dragon,” I corrected her.
She chuckled. “Silly. The dragon doesn't rescue the princess.”
“I never was any good at playing by the rules.”
She moved in her seat and we were no longer in contact, but I was intensely aware of her closeness.
“We should get cell phones,” she said suddenly. “So I can call you if I have to move the van or anything. So we won't get separated.”
I nodded, just to be agreeable. I'd never had a cell phone. I'd never had anyone I wanted to keep in contact with before Victor, and he never left his office. Thinking about cell phones made me think about the future. I'd never been good at that. Life had always been to simple for plans—I was the monster and the world was filled with villagers with pitchforks and torches, and all I had to do was stay away from them. Victor had shown me that I wasn't the only monster in the world, but working with Victor had been close enough to working alone that I scarcely noticed any difference.
Godiva felt different. I didn't know why. I had known her less than two hours. I didn't really know anything about her except that we were both caught up in something that neither of us understood. I didn't even know if we were on the same side, or how many sides there were, or what any of them were trying to accomplish.
Screw that. Life was simple. Catskinner and me, we were one side. Everybody else, the other side. And as far as I was concerned, they were outnumbered.
The Good Earth was a freestanding building that looked like it used to be a fast food restaurant. Half the lot—the half that included the drive-thru window—was fenced off. Inside the fenced area was a collection of lawn decorations—concrete fountains, statues of nymphs and gnomes, trees in pots. The other half of the lot had only one vehicle, a battered white pickup with a camper shell. If that was Keith Morgan's truck then there shouldn't be any customers. Good, we could get right down to business.
I parked the van and Godiva next door, at a convenience store.
“What are you going to do?” she asked me.
“Ask him some questions. After that . . . I dunno. Play it by ear.”
“Be careful.” She looked serious.
Catskinner smiled back at her. “i won't let anything bad happen to james. keeping him safe is my job.”
And then we were across the empty parking lot and at the door. Catskinner put my hand on the door, but I opened it.
Chapter Seven
“there is always more that isn't than that which is.”
The space was big and cluttered. The internal walls and partitions had been torn out and shelves put in, big industrial shelving units, some metal, some plastic, none of them matching. On the shelves merchandise was strewn, in no evident pattern.
Directly in front of me was a display of aquarium supplies, chemicals, fish food, bags of that weird colored gravel. A plastic mermaid sat at eye-level, faced turned towards a ceramic figure of a diver in an old fashioned brass helmet.
To my left was a dead end, a pallet stacked with bags of fertilizer. So I turned right. There were shelves of vitamins and supplements and such, in bright colors with words like organic and healthy all over them. Then the aisle turned right again. The store wasn't laid out like a regular store, the shelves were butted together, making a single path that wound along side the front windows—charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid to my left—then turned again, to the right again.
I still hadn't seen anyone, but my eye caught movement in the center of the store, behind the shelves.
“Hello?” I ventured.
“Good afternoon,” a voice called back. Cheerful and male.
I went around
a mistake.
Catskinner's tone was amused. Aloud I said, “You're the princess.”
She smiled at that, and her tongue flickered over her lips. “And you're the knight who rescued me.” She leaned up against me. Catskinner didn't react at all.
“No, I'm the dragon,” I corrected her.
She chuckled. “Silly. The dragon doesn't rescue the princess.”
“I never was any good at playing by the rules.”
She moved in her seat and we were no longer in contact, but I was intensely aware of her closeness.
“We should get cell phones,” she said suddenly. “So I can call you if I have to move the van or anything. So we won't get separated.”
I nodded, just to be agreeable. I'd never had a cell phone. I'd never had anyone I wanted to keep in contact with before Victor, and he never left his office. Thinking about cell phones made me think about the future. I'd never been good at that. Life had always been to simple for plans—I was the monster and the world was filled with villagers with pitchforks and torches, and all I had to do was stay away from them. Victor had shown me that I wasn't the only monster in the world, but working with Victor had been close enough to working alone that I scarcely noticed any difference.
Godiva felt different. I didn't know why. I had known her less than two hours. I didn't really know anything about her except that we were both caught up in something that neither of us understood. I didn't even know if we were on the same side, or how many sides there were, or what any of them were trying to accomplish.
Screw that. Life was simple. Catskinner and me, we were one side. Everybody else, the other side. And as far as I was concerned, they were outnumbered.
The Good Earth was a freestanding building that looked like it used to be a fast food restaurant. Half the lot—the half that included the drive-thru window—was fenced off. Inside the fenced area was a collection of lawn decorations—concrete fountains, statues of nymphs and gnomes, trees in pots. The other half of the lot had only one vehicle, a battered white pickup with a camper shell. If that was Keith Morgan's truck then there shouldn't be any customers. Good, we could get right down to business.
I parked the van and Godiva next door, at a convenience store.
“What are you going to do?” she asked me.
“Ask him some questions. After that . . . I dunno. Play it by ear.”
“Be careful.” She looked serious.
Catskinner smiled back at her. “i won't let anything bad happen to james. keeping him safe is my job.”
And then we were across the empty parking lot and at the door. Catskinner put my hand on the door, but I opened it.
Chapter Seven
“there is always more that isn't than that which is.”
The space was big and cluttered. The internal walls and partitions had been torn out and shelves put in, big industrial shelving units, some metal, some plastic, none of them matching. On the shelves merchandise was strewn, in no evident pattern.
Directly in front of me was a display of aquarium supplies, chemicals, fish food, bags of that weird colored gravel. A plastic mermaid sat at eye-level, faced turned towards a ceramic figure of a diver in an old fashioned brass helmet.
To my left was a dead end, a pallet stacked with bags of fertilizer. So I turned right. There were shelves of vitamins and supplements and such, in bright colors with words like organic and healthy all over them. Then the aisle turned right again. The store wasn't laid out like a regular store, the shelves were butted together, making a single path that wound along side the front windows—charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid to my left—then turned again, to the right again.
I still hadn't seen anyone, but my eye caught movement in the center of the store, behind the shelves.
“Hello?” I ventured.
“Good afternoon,” a voice called back. Cheerful and male.
I went around
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