Shadowcry Read Online Free PDF Page B

sudden burst of flame. Kate and Edgar didn’t wait to see what would happen next. They were already past him, hurtling as fast as they could along the right-hand tunnel, hoping to find a way out—but instead of heading upward, the tunnel dipped steeply down. Edgar grabbed a flaming torch from the wall and tried to keep up.
    The tunnel walls whipped past them in a flicker of stones and damp slime, widening slightly the deeper they went. It was like running through a dirty alleyway closed off from the sky. Rotten food spilled out of paper bags stacked against the walls, old blankets were piled up high, wrapped around pieces of rusted metal left leaning against each other, and there were rats: dozens of brown, furry bodies scuttling through it all, carrying off whatever they could salvage from the mess.
    At last the tunnel sloped upward and Kate checked the ceiling as they ran, hunting for another trapdoor, a ladder, anything that would take them back up into the world outside before the old man caught up. She could hear him in the tunnel behind them, shuffling along like a vicious crab, gaining on them all the time.
    â€œWhat’s this?” said Edgar, stopping suddenly. “Look! A door!”
    Kate doubled back and found him tugging frantically at a curled handle jutting out of the wall.
    â€œIt won’t open,” he said, trying to push it instead. “It won’t . . . Got it!” With one good shove the door scraped open through a mess of food spilled over a hard stone floor. They squeezed in as soon as there was room, bolted the door, and backed away from it, listening for any sign of their pursuer on the other side. He was definitely faster than he looked. He reached the door less than a minute after they did. They could hear him moving in the tunnel, talking to himself.
    A sharp scratching noise traced the door’s frame, the handle rattled suddenly, and Kate stepped farther back. The bolt was small. One good kick and it would snap from its screws in a second. “We have to get out,” she whispered. “Where do you think we are?”
    The torch shone around a large underground room lined with shelves, each one holding rows of different colored bottles and rough sacks, but for every bottle and sack lined up along the walls, at least two lay smashed or torn open on the floor. Dark brown liquid seeped through islands of bread rolls, fresh meat, and squashed vegetables, and the warm tang of alcohol thickened the air.
    â€œSmells like ale,” said Edgar, crunching through a scattering of broken glass. “I think we’re under an inn.”
    â€œIt looks like the wardens have already been here,” said Kate. “We should be all right, so long as they’ve gone.”
    Kate made her way over to a wooden staircase at the back of the cellar and listened for any sound coming from above.
    â€œHear anything?” asked Edgar.
    â€œNo. I think we can risk it.”
    The tunnel door rattled hard with a loud bang, sending one of the bolt’s screws bouncing across the floor.
    â€œYou first,” said Edgar. “Better he gets me than you.”
    Kate didn’t have time to argue. She grabbed the handrail and threw herself up the staircase, heading for the sunlight that was seeping in under a door. She flung it open and burst through, emerging in the main room of the inn behind a long thin bar. Sunlight streamed in through a row of small arched windows decorated with stained-glass shooting stars.
    â€œWe’re in the Falling Star,” said Edgar, panting up behind her. “We’re on the other side of the market square.”
    â€œSo where is everyone?”
    The inn was deserted. Most of the tables were crushed or upturned and some of the spindles were snapped on the banister of the staircase leading to the rented rooms above. They could still hear the thump-thump of the old man smashing something against the cellar door, but other than that,