The Downside Ghosts Series Books 1-3: Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts. Stacia Kane
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Название: The Downside Ghosts Series Books 1-3: Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts
Автор: Stacia Kane
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Ужасы и Мистика
isbn: 9780007493036
isbn:
“This long enough?”
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Grateful that she’d worn long sleeves, she wrapped the rope under her armpits just above her breasts and tied it in a secure knot. The rope was flecked with brownish stains in spots. She didn’t want to think about what it had been used for last, or, for that matter, why Terrible carried rope around in his trunk. His work was his business.
Finally she had the knot adjusted. From her bag she pulled her flashlight, and switched it on while Terrible wrapped the free end of the rope around his hands. The leads of her electric meter dangled from her pocket.
“Okay. If I get too heavy, pull me up—”
“You don’t weigh nothing,” he scoffed.
“Okay, I don’t weigh nothing, but nothing can get a lot heavier when it’s dangling at the end of a thin rope. Please, Terrible. I really don’t want to fall, so if you think I’m getting too heavy, let me know and bring me back up, okay?”
He nodded.
“And please watch the rope, in case it starts to fray or something.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Just … please?” The mouth of the well gaped in the ground beside her like an entryway to Hell. Hell didn’t technically exist, but the City did, and Chess did not want to be underground again. Not after what happened the day before, not ever. Panic rose in her chest and she focused her gaze on Terrible, taking what comfort she could from his steady gaze and bulging muscles, from the way the rope tangled around his big hard hands.
He nodded. “No worryin.”
She sighed. “Okay, then. Thanks. Let’s see what I find.”
She crouched down at the lip of the well and let her legs slip down inside it. If praying were permitted, she’d certainly be doing it now.
“That of all magics which can be done, the use of the human soul in magic is the most serious, and is thus forbidden save to those of the Church.”
—The Book of Truth, Laws, Article 79
The ground swallowed her, leaving her dangling in the coppery-scented dimness until she grabbed her flashlight and tilted it so it illuminated the stones. The meter in her pocket remained still, no vibrations. No obvious holes jumped out at her, no hiding places seemed immediately apparent. She hadn’t really expected there would be, but she had to look. Even if she would pretend she didn’t see any equipment she found—at least, any equipment that wouldn’t be easily visible. For all she knew, Bump had someone else checking her work. Not a pleasant thought.
“Lower,” she said, and Terrible obliged, letting out more rope.
The well smelled of water, but when she turned the light down nothing reflected back up at her. It was dry … but very, very deep. There was no way she’d be able to investigate all the way down.
Her right hand slid over the stones, looking for loose ones, while her left aimed the light. The rope hurt and made it hard to breathe, adding to her growing sense of discomfort.
She stayed down for about twenty minutes, dropping as far as the rope allowed, before asking Terrible to bring her back up.
“Nothing,” she said, untying the rope and resisting the urge to massage her aching chest. “Is that the only well here?”
“Naw, got another over there.” He pointed to the far corner. Shit. She should have left the rope on.
They trudged across the empty brownish expanse of weeds and pavement, two figures in black like smears on a painting. Chess started to feel sticky and damp from the unseasonable heat, and vulnerable in the middle of the field.
“You do this many?”
“What?” She almost stumbled on a loose chunk of cement.
“This things. Down the wells, up in the attics …?”
“Sometimes. Not usually underground, no.”
“Right. Churchwitches ain’t like the downs.”
“Right.”
“So best place for hiding, aye? Where nobody wanna go.”
“Most people are nervous about going underground. Nobody likes to be too close to the City.”
His head tilted. “They scared. Not you, though.”
Nobody had ever called her brave before. Her face grew warmer than it was already. “I don’t like doing it. It’s disrespectful.”
“Why do it?”
“I have to search everywhere.”
“Naw, I mean, why do the job? You dig the ghosts?”
She shrugged. “Pays the bills.”
“Lots of things pays the bills.”
“So why do you work for Bump?”
She’d expected a flip answer like the one she’d given him. Instead he said, “Only thing I’m ever good at.”
“What, beating people up?”
He nodded. “I got no school, you know. No family. Bump took me in, I just a kid. Getting in street fights for food, sleeping any flat wheres I could find. Now I don’t have to fight. Nobody wanna dance with me.” Faint pride colored his voice as he spoke the last sentence.
Most of this she knew, or at least suspected. It certainly wasn’t an unusual story in Downside, where as many stray children roamed the streets as dogs and cats. There but for the grace of a god who never existed and a talent she never asked for …
“What happened to your family?”
“Don’t know. Never knew them.”
She nodded. She’d never known hers either.
“But why you do what you do? Work for the Church? Creepy in there, all them blue pilgrims with black eyes and buckle shoes.”
“Same as you. I’m good at it.”
“Sure hope so.”
“Hey!”
They’d almost reached the far end by now. Terrible stopped. “Naw, don’t mean no insult.” His head moved back and forth as he scanned the field. “Hopin this gets solved, we fly them planes in. Make use out this place, aye? Watch em take off, come in low to land. Be cool.”
“You СКАЧАТЬ