Sleepless Knights Read Online Free PDF Page B

namesake; I caught the chair by the leg and threw it to Sir Gawain, who made good use of it to brain a man about to strangle him from behind.
    From the farthest corners of the nightclub, a battalion of Barry clones flocked to his flag. The mere existence of the fight was enough to secure their allegiance to his cause; no sooner was one man dispatched to the heap of casualties on the dance floor, than another sprang up to take his place. Thus assailed from all directions, Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain found themselves marooned in the centre of an ever-growing Barry island. Retreating to a vantage point outside the sphere of conflict, I could see that chaos reigned within. Flying bottles filled the air, smashing against mirrored walls. Bystanders took advantage of the
mêlée
to settle old scores and create new ones especially for the occasion. Staff ran pell-mell in all directions, shouting for the authorities who would not be long in arriving.
    And when they did, what then?
    A pint glass hit the clock behind the bar. The clock face read a quarter to eleven. Panic seized my heart. But not, as you might think, at the realisation that we were running outof time. It was more that, unless I was very much mistaken,
time itself
had suddenly ground to a standstill. The shards of the pint glass, far from exploding in every direction as one would expect, had frozen at the moment of impact. To my left, a man’s fist rested in front of his victim’s face, from which a line of blood hung suspended, as if he were pulling a red ribbon out of his nose. A chair sat serenely in the air to my right. A beer bottle hovered above my head, its contents arrested mid-spill in a long, globular arc. I flexed my fingers, and was highly relieved to find them functioning at normal speed. Whatever the explanation for this bizarre and alarming occurrence, I alone remained unaffected. I swallowed my fear as best I could, and did the only thing I could think of, under the circumstances.
    I set to work.
    I vaulted over the bar and took two carbon dioxide fire extinguishers from the wall. Jumping up onto the bar, I ran down its length, ducking a drinks tray and hopping over the sprawling body of a bouncer. At the end of the bar I leaped into the air and, using floating chairs as stepping stones, landed on the heads and shoulders of the men surrounding Sirs Lancelot and Gawain. By running the circumference of this circle, I came level with a fire alarm panel fixed at the top of a pillar, and broke the emergency glass with my elbow. I landed alongside my comrades and gave them an extinguisher each, removing the safety hooks and squeezing their hands around the trigger so that the first puff of gas oozed from the nozzle. Finally, I rearranged the poses of their immediate attackers, directing their blows away from the intended targets and back towards themselves.
    I dusted my hands, just as time resumed its normal flow. The alarm rang out and engaged the sprinkler system. Our immediate vicinity was filled with smoke, water, and the violent cries of men startled to discover they were punchingthemselves in the face. I grabbed the flummoxed knights and ran with them through the nearest fire exit, out into an alleyway, and back to the Jaguar, sirens wailing ominously through the sultry night air.
    Â 
VII
    An uneasy silence characterised our return journey to the Once & Future Inn. Sir Lancelot glowered in the passenger seat. Sir Gawain sulked in the back, taking frequent gulps from a hip flask. I was grateful for the time to gather my wits and soothe my senses, as my curious experience had left me feeling drained and confused. I gripped the steering wheel tightly to stop my hands from shaking, and by forcing myself to concentrate on the road ahead, returned to a satisfactory state of self-control. Nothing mattered now, save finding the Master and returning to the Inn before midnight.
    â€œDo you intend to continue looking for him?” said Sir Lancelot,