Read Online Chronicles of the Invaders 1: Conquest by John Connolly, Jennifer Ridyard - Free Book Online Page A

derived mainly from methane. The boys gave the vehicle a quick glance, but nothing more. Taking too much interest in an Illyri patrol might lead the patrol to take an interest in turn, but ignoring it entirely was almost as bad because it suggested that you were trying too hard to remain unnoticed. It was a delicate balance to strike.
    “Are you nervous?” said Paul.
    “No,” said Steven, then corrected himself: “Maybe a bit.”
    “Don’t be. We’ve a right to walk the streets. They haven’t taken that away from us yet.”
    Ahead of them lay the Royal Mile, the castle towering over it. Before the occupation, the castle had been the city’s main tourist attraction. Now few humans went there voluntarily, and the ones who entered it to work were usually either traitors or spies. Paul had never set foot inside it, and even though he was committed to the Resistance, he sometimes wondered if there would ever come a time when sightseers might innocently wander its battlements again, remembering the great occupation that had once based itself here and had finally been defeated. In his darker moments, he found it hard to imagine.
    “Walk faster,” he said to Steven. The rain had stopped for a time, but it would return. It always did in this city.
    •••
    Syl stepped out of the vintage clothing store, her purchases in a plastic bag. The man behind the counter had looked at her oddly as she browsed, but said nothing. Even if he suspected that she might not be human, he probably needed the business. The proximity of the castle and the presence of stop-and-search Illyri patrols meant that many citizens tended to avoid the area around the Royal Mile. Still, Syl bought a lovely old purse decorated with mother-of-pearl, and a white wool coat with a fur collar that would keep her warm in winter.
    The streets were dry again, and the sun was coming out. Perhaps the day would be good after all, a possibility worth celebrating. Syl glanced to her left. There was a little coffee shop nearby, and it sold very good pastries. Maybe she could stick a candle in one and sing herself a song. She smiled at the thought, and started walking. Canongate Kirk, a seventeenth-century church, was ahead of her, and beside it the coffee shop.
    Suddenly there was a massive bang , as though a huge hand had slammed itself down on the Royal Mile, and the coffee shop simply wasn’t there anymore. It had disintegrated into a cloud of dirt and brick and glass. Syl was knocked to the ground, and instinctively put her arms up, shielding her face and head. Her ears were ringing, and she couldn’t hear properly. Then the dust found her, and she started to choke. She tried not to breathe but she was frightened, and so she began to hyperventilate, and the choking became worse.
    Frantic hands were on her now, trying to pull her to her feet.
    “Are you all right?” said a voice. It sounded like it was speaking from underwater, but it was still familiar to her. “Syl, are you hurt?”
    Syl shook her head. She coughed and spat dust. She felt water splashing on to her face, and then the bottle was in her hands and she drank from it.
    “I don’t think so,” she said at last, once she had stopped choking. She squinted up at the figure before her until she could see more clearly through the fine dust. It was hazy in the smoke-blotted sunlight, but she still recognized the feminine figure with her head cocked like a bird’s, small for her age but fast and agile, and currently badly disguised in mismatched human clothing and sunglasses that were a match for Syl’s own shades back at the castle. After all, they had bought them together, because that’s what best friends tend to do.
    “Ani!” she said. “What are you doing here?”
    “Following you,” said Ani, and her words came to Syl as a distorted whisper, even though Ani was speaking normally. “I thought it would be funny, but it isn’t now. Quickly, patrols will be coming. We have to get away from