Codex Read Online Free PDF

and bosses, and complicated illustrations had been forcibly stamped into the horny leather: abstract ornaments and motifs, panels with human figures standing in different poses. In the center was an oddly proportioned tree, squat and massive, with a spray of tiny branches at the top. Edward felt the ancient surface with his fingertips. There was a deep scar in the leather, and the wood underneath it had splintered and been worn smooth again. Something had struck it very hard, a very long time ago. In places the ornamentation was so thick and dark the pattern was impossible to follow. It looked more like a door than the cover of a book.
    It exerted an odd power over him, freezing him to the spot as if it were charged with electricity. He stood there for a minute in the silence, his hands resting on the worked surface, feeling the indentations with his fingertips like a blind man reading Braille. There was no indication of what its contents might be. What could a book like this possibly be about? Tentatively he tried to open it, but it resisted, and when he felt around the edges he discovered a lock that kept it closed, bolted onto the wooden covers. The metal was crudely worked, and time had rusted it into a single solid mass. He wondered how old it was. He tested it gently, but it wouldn’t move, and he didn’t want to force it.
    He blinked. The spell lapsed as suddenly as it had come over him. Why the hell was he still here? He closed the case, snapped off the light and walked to the door. After the cold of the library, the metal railing of the spiral staircase was warm under his hand as he felt his way down the stairs in the darkness. Back out in the hallway, the daylight seemed offensively bright.
    But he felt oddly purged by his industrious afternoon. It hadn’t been worth doing, but it could have been much worse. It could have blown up in his face. He headed back down the hall in the direction of the stairs. He glanced into the room where he’d talked to Laura Crowlyk, but it was empty now. The window he’d opened before was closed again. The sunlight slanted in at a shallower angle, and with a golden-orange tint. He smelled dinner cooking somewhere. Did Laura Crowlyk actually live here?
    The cleaning woman he’d met before was sitting on the edge of a chair in the entrance hall reading
Allure.
She started up guiltily when he appeared and bustled out through another exit. Edward opened the glass doors by the elevator and pressed the button to call it. He straightened his tie in the clouded old mirror.
    â€œAre you going?”
    He turned around, smiling. He’d kind of hoped he could slip out without running into Laura Crowlyk.
    â€œSorry, I couldn’t find you. I lost track of time.”
    She nodded gravely, looking up at him.
    â€œWhen will you be coming back?”
    Why even bother explaining? Let Dan do the apologizing. It was his fuckup.
    â€œI’m not sure. I’ll check my schedule and give you a call in the morning.”
    â€œFine. Call us tomorrow.” She glanced back behind her at someone in the other room—she might have exchanged a whispered word or two with whoever it was. “Hold on a moment. I’ll get you a key to the apartment.”
    She disappeared abruptly and was gone for another minute. The elevator came; Edward watched impatiently as the doors rumbled open and then closed again. He didn’t want the key, all he wanted was to get out of there. Laura returned, crossing the enormous oriental carpet toward him, and gave him a dark metal tube key. Well, he’d just have to take it for now.
    â€œIt works in the elevator,” she said. “There’s a special keyhole for it. The doorman will let you in the front.”
    â€œThanks.”
    The elevator gave a muffled ping and opened again. Edward stepped inside and put his hand on the rubber-flanged edge to keep it from closing.
    â€œSo I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said.