Maxie’s Demon Read Online Free PDF Page B

actual sill itself, and that was narrow. I’d knowncat burglars who’d taught me a thing or two and said I should try it; but like the old man always said, never buy into a falling market.
    Still, I wasonly going to look, wasn’t I? And it wasn’t that far up, and there were bushes to land in. Gingerly I plastered myself to the grimy wall and stretched out a toe. Just as well I didn’t have big feet. No sweat; the wood was firm as a doorstep. I tookthe weight, reached out to snatch the side of the aperture and pulled myself across on shaky fingers. I stood a minute, breathing fast, then very slowly peered around the edge. I could have saved the caution; the mildewed casement wasn’t glazed. Its panes were small patches of some thin, streaky plastic, brownish, whitish – mostly opaque. I touched it, and realised it was horn, ground very thin– transparent in places. There was one I could get my eye to, so I leaned that bit further, trying not to breathe too hard.
    I sighedgratefully. The light in there was peculiar, but I could see through, in a misty sort of way. Just people. I don’t know what else I’d been expecting, but that cry gave you all sorts of ideas. They might even be sane, who knows?
    Mind you, I wouldn’t have given youodds. The older of the two citizens, the one I could see quite clearly, looked like something you trip over at Grateful Dead disinterments – sorry, revivals. All hair and beard and kaftan, very white, tall and thin – clearly a casualty of Woodstock, or walking wounded, anyhow. The other one had his back to me, but you could tell he was younger, rough-haired, shortish and muscular, with tensionin his stance. His hand crooked like a knob-legged spider on the pages of a large book, poised on some kind of lectern. They were both bent over, peering at the floor as if somebody’d dropped a contact lens. The old hippie was prodding at the floor with a long, thin stick.
    After a moment I realised they were bobbing, in time to something, a chant maybe. I felt a terrible urge to start cluckingand scattering grain. Their shadows against the walls exaggerated the movement grotesquely; shadows that showed the light was coming from between them, from the floor. It was green, all right – very green, to show through the dense panes like that, and very bright. If I stretched up to that other transparent bit—
    The wood cracked with an explosive pop. My foot skidded. My balance went, and emptinessyawned at my back. I scrabbled at the side, at the pane. Mildew and slime threw off my clutching fingers. Logically I should have just turned a fall into a jump, aiming for the bushes, but at that kind of moment logic is generally in the corridor smoking a cigarette. Fighting for balance I lurched forward, then lost it again and toppled headfirst against the casement.
    It gave andexploded inward.I went straight through it with a howl of raw panic and claws of horn and wood scraping at my face and hands, clipped a stack of books and landed in a sort of obscene crouch slap in the middle of the floor. The books toppled, and the table beneath them collapsed in a flurrying snowstorm of paper scraps. I hit something hot; it fell with a clang, green fire streaked along the floor and the mostgodawful stench hit me. The green light went out, and the room was suddenly black, except for fire-dancing shadows. The old fellow reared up and let out the most amazing screech.
    ‘The daemon! The daemon!’
    I heard a door flung back and feet go rattling down a stair, punctuated by screeches. I tried to stand up and instead found myself nose to nose with the other man, gibbering and scrabblingon the floor.
    ‘What the hell—’ I snarled, and he let out an even worse scream, with a burst of bad breath to boot.
    ‘
Hell?
Oh no, no, most merciful daemon, I do avouch thee no, I am not worthy the taking, I’m but a miserable, misled sinner led astray by men of more schooling and wisdom to speed the satisfaction of their