Read Online The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro - Free Book Online Page A

sentries. It was all she could do to keep from running and start her
wretched clothes jangling.
     
    After an eon, she
reached the place where she had opened the secret door. The sentries were
closer. A man swore and another laughed. She slipped past the door, then
grabbed its edges and pulled hard. It swung closed with a screech of stone on
stone. She barely managed to snatch away her hands before it crashed into
place.
     
    A shout came from the
other side, muffled by the stone. Then a heavy object slammed the door.
     
    Janelle stumbled
forward, raising her hands in the dark. If she retraced her steps, she would
end up trapped at the fissure. Kadar had said another path led off from this
junction; a true dead end would make the secret entrance too obvious. And
indeed, she found a passage that slanted sharply to the right. She followed it,
wanting to run but afraid to take the risk. Darkness weighed on her, smothering
and dank. She imagined specters at every step, terrors crouched low or clinging
to the walls, waiting for her to dislodge them.
     
    Wings brushed her
face, and furry bodies. Janelle pressed her fist against her mouth to stop her
scream. Then she sagged against the wall and folded her arms across her body
while she shook.
     
    Bats. It’s only
bats. She stretched out her arms and
forced herself to go on. Distant crashes rumbled as the sentries beat at the
door. No way back existed, only forward into the dark.
     
    Suddenly her palms
hit wood: another dead end. She searched the wall, sliding her hands
frantically over the rough, splintered surface. Nothing. Nothing.
     
    Then she found it, a
latch up high. She had to stand on her toes to reach it. As her fingertips
scraped several gears, a tiny window creaked open. She peered out—and gratitude
flooded over her. The Fourier Hall lay beyond the door.
     
    With light filtering
in the window, she managed a better search and found the aged gears that locked
the door. They crumbled under her touch, as did the lock. She inched the door
open and slipped out into the hall of arches. Walking softly through the forest
of pillars, she headed for the palace entry. The great double doors were open,
revealing an overcast day outside. Freedom.
     
    Hooves clattered
behind her.
     
    Janelle whirled
around—and barely ducked in time to evade a bareheaded rider leaning down in
his saddle to grab her. His biaquine pounded past her under the tall arches.
     
    Janelle sprinted for
the entrance, and the rider came around in front of her. As he reined in his
mount, it sidestepped toward her. She fled the other way, back through the
arches, and tiles shattered behind her as the man pursued. When she swerved
into another row of arches, a splintering crack sounded, followed by an oath.
Glancing back, she saw an arch collapsing around the rider as his biaquine
tried to turn in too confined an area. She kept running.
     
    More shouts rang
through the air, and hooves pounded the floor. Riders were pouring into the
hall from deeper within the palace and thundering down the columned aisles.
     
    “No!” Janelle skidded
to a stop as they came toward her. She reversed direction, but the outlaw
chasing her blocked her escape. Desperate, she swung around—to face a second
biaquine. It snorted in the confined area, looming above her, its breath hot
against her face. Stumbling back, she looked up—and up. She couldn’t see the
eyes and nose of the man who sat astride the animal; a cougar helmet hid his
upper face. But she saw his mouth. The bastard was laughing. He urged
his mount closer, backing Janelle up against the biaquine of the bareheaded
raider behind her.
     
    Chaos filled the
hall. Someone screamed, a cry of terror that abruptly broke off. An outlaw
goaded his biaquine to rear and its forelegs pawed the air, smashing a pillar
and raining broken tiles over the floor. Farther down the hall, another pillar
fell in a cloud of dust, and the battle boiled over its remains. The