with her almost constantly from the time she was six years old; he was her best friend. She had been able
to leave him to go off to school, but Northwestern University was only a three-hour drive from Hopewell
and it didn t feel so far away. She supposed her grandfather s death contributed to her discomfort as
well; Pick was the last link to her childhood, and she didn t like leaving him behind. It was also the first
tune she had done anything involving the magic without him. Whatever the reason, not having him there
made her decidedly uneasy.
The taxi driver had taken her to the Alexis Hotel, where she had booked a room the night before by
phone. The Alexis was situated right at the north end of Pioneer Square, not far from the offices of Fresh
Start. It was the best hotel in the area, and Nest had decided from the start that if she was going to travel
to a strange city, she wanted to stay in a good place. She had been able to get a favourable rate on a
standard room for the two-night stopover she had planned. She checked in at the front clerk, took the
elevator to her room, dropped her bag on the bed, and looked around restlessly.
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Despite the fact that she had been travelling all day, she was not tired. .She unpacked her bag, glanced
through a guide to Seattle, and walked to the window and looked out. The street below glistened with
dampness, and the air was hazy with mist. All of the shops and offices she could see were closed. There
were only a few cars passing and fewer people. It was just a little after eleven thirty.
She had decided to go for a walk.
Nest was no fool. She knew about cities at night and the dangers they presented for the unwary. On the
other hand, she had gown up with the feeders in Sinnissippi Park, spending, night after night prowling the
darkness they favoured, avoiding their traps, and surviving confrontations far more dangerous than
anything she was likely to encounter here. Moreover, she had the magic to protect her, and while she
hadn t used it in a while and didn t know what stage of growth it was in at the moment, she had
confidence that it would keep her safe.
So she had slipped on her heavy windbreaker, ridden the elevator back down to the lobby, and gone
out the door.
She was no sooner outside and walking south along First Avenue toward the banks of old-fashioned
street lamps that marked the beginning of Pioneer Square than Ariel had appeared. The tatterdemalion
materialized out of the mist and gloom, filling a space in the darkness beside Nest with her vague,
transparent whiteness. Her sudden appearance startled Nest, but she didn t seem to notice, her dark
eyes cast forward, her silken hair flowing out from her body as if caught in a breeze.
Where are you going? she asked in her thin childlike voice.
Walking. I cant sleep yet. I m too wound up. Nest watched the shadows whirl and spin inside the
tatterdemalion s gauzy body. How did you get here?
Ariel didn t seem to hear the question, her dark eyes shifting anxiously. It isn t safe, she said.
What isn t safe?
The city at night.
They had crossed from the hotel and walked into the next block. Nest looked around cautiously at the
darkened doorways and alcoves of the buildings. There was no one to be seen.
I remember about cities, Arie1 continued, her voice small and distant. She seemed to float across the
pavement, a ghostly hologram. I remember how they feel and what they hide. I remember what they can
do to you. They are filled with people who will hurt you. There are places in which children can
disappear in the blink of an eye. Sometimes they lock you away in dark places and no one comes for
you. Sometimes they wall you up forever.
She was speaking from the memories of the children she had been once, of the only memories she had.,
Nest decided she didn t want to know about those memories, the memories of dead children.
It will be all right, she said. We won t go far.
They walked quite a distance though, all the way down First Avenue under Pioneer Square s
turn-of-the-century street lamps past shuttered shops and galleries to where they could see the
Kingdome rising up against the night sky in a massive hump. The mist thickened and swirled about them,
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clinging to Nest s face and hands in a thin, cold layer of moisture. Nest drew her windbreaker tighter
about her shoulders. When the character of the neighborhood began to change, the shops and galleries
giving way to warehouses and industrial plants, Nest turned around again, with Ariel hovering close, and
started back.
They were approaching a small, concrete. triangular park with benches and shade trees fronting a series
of buildings that included one advertising Seattle s Underground Tour when the screams began.
They were so faint that at first Nest couldn t believe she was hearing them. She slowed and looked
around doubtfully. She was all alone an the streets. There was no one else in sight. But the screams
continued, harsh and terrible in the blackness and mist.
Something hunts, Ariel hissed as she shimmered brightly, darting left and right.
Nest wheeled around, looking everywhere at once. Where are they coming from? she demanded,
frantic now.
Beneath us, Aril said.
Nest looked down at the concrete sidewalk in disbelief. From the sewers?
Ariel moved dose, her childlike face smooth and expressionless, but her eyes filled with terror. There is
an old city beneath the new. The screams are coming from there?
The demon worked its. way ahead slowly through the blackness of the underground city, Following the
scent of the humans and the sound of their voices. It wound through narrow streets and alleyways and in
and out of doors and gaps in crumbling walls. It was filled with hunger and flushed with a need to kill. It
was driven.
Scores of feeders trailed after it, lantern eyes glowing in the musky gloom.
After a time, the demon saw the first flicker of light. The voices of the humans were clear now; it could
hear their words distinctly. There were three of them, not yet grown to adulthood, a girl and two boys.
The demon crept forward, eyes narrowing, pulse racing.
What s that? one of them said suddenly as stone and earth scraped softly under the demon's paw.
The demon could see them now, huddled about a pair of candles set into broken pieces of old china
placed on a wooden crate. They were in a roam in which the doors and windows had long since fallen
away and the wails had begun to collapse. The ceiling was ribbed with pipes and conduits from the
streets and buildings above, and the air was damp and smelled of rotting wood and earth. The boys and
the girl had made a home of sorts in the open space, furnishing it with several wooden crates, a couple of
old mattresses and sleeping bags, several plastic sacks filled with stuff they had scavenged, and a few
books. Where they had came from was anybody s guess. They must have found their way down from
the streets where they spent their days, taking shelter each night as so many did in the abandoned
labyrinth of the older city.
The demon rounded the tattler of a building; across from them and paused. Feeders crowded forward [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]