The Lightning Key Read Online Free PDF Page A

him?”
    The Storm Angel folded his arms. His mouth became a thin slit.
    â€œSilverpoint?” said Little.
    â€œIt’s not my place to interfere,” said Silverpoint haughtily. “The tiger would not be here at all if the Code had not been flouted.”
    â€œI thought interfering was your specialty,” said Miles angrily. He threw the rake aside and marched through the door as a soft thump from the hallway signaled the tiger’s arrival at the bottom of the stairs.
    â€œTake a sword, Master Miles,” Baltinglass called after him. “I once bit into a club sandwich with the cocktail stick still in it, and I can tell you I spat it out fast enough!”
    The tiger waited in the gloom of the hallway,crouched low and ready to spring, his tail lashing the dusty air. Behind him the hall door swung slowly open in the morning breeze, letting in a strip of cold sunlight, and with it the sound of van doors slamming.
    Miles faced the tiger, trying not to think of the outcome of their last meeting. “It’s me,” he said. His voice sounded thin.
    â€œIt’s meat,” rumbled the tiger mockingly.
    â€œYou know me,” said Miles. “I’m Miles—Barty Fumble’s son.”
    â€œYou’re a persistent irritation,” snarled the tiger. His eyes burned with amber fire, and there was a blackness at their center that Miles had never seen before, a nothingness that reminded him uncomfortably of the eyes of The Null. The tiger inched forward, and his great paws shuffled for position. His fur looked bedraggled and dirty.
    â€œI won’t ask you for anything again,” said Miles. “Just let me past. I need to go after those two men.”
    â€œThe novelty has worn off your wild-goose chases, boy,” snarled the tiger, his tail flicking in anger.
    Miles tested his own purchase on the floor. His only chance would be to leap aside if the tiger sprang. There was a rug under his feet, and it shifted slightly on the tiles. An idea began to take shape inthe back of his mind. “This wild goose chase concerns you,” he said boldly. “Doctor Tau-Tau is the one who’s jerking your strings at the moment, and he’s doing it on the orders of the Great Cortado. Why else would you find yourself in an old man’s bedroom? Were you trying out his false teeth?”
    With a roar the tiger leaped. Time slowed to a crawl. Miles saw his mighty claws outstretched and his eyes burning with rage. He saw the massive jaws open and felt in his chest the thunderous roar that swept like a wave toward him. He almost forgot to move, stepping aside only at the last moment. The tiger’s forepaws landed where the boy had stood an instant before, and the rug slipped beneath his weight. He slid along the hallway, scrabbling for purchase, and crashed headfirst into the stone wall, knocking himself out cold. Miles held his breath as a shower of old whitewash descended slowly and dusted the stunned tiger like a tiramisu.
    â€œWhat the blazes is happening?” yelled Baltinglass, sticking his woolly-hatted head out of the living room door. “Are you still in one piece, Master Miles?”
    â€œI’m fine,” said Miles, letting his breath out with a whoosh, “but I’m not sure about the tiger. I hope he’s not badly hurt.”
    â€œHa!” barked Baltinglass. “Just be thankful you’re not lunch. You’ve got nerves of tungsten, boy, to take on a tiger without a good rifle, and the wit of a magpie to survive it.”
    Little stepped into the hall, a look of relief on her face, and bent over the tiger’s massive head. “He’ll be all right,” she said after a moment.
    â€œOf course he will,” muttered Silverpoint. “You can’t kill a tiger when his soul is trapped in the pocket of some buffoon.”

CHAPTER FOUR
A TIGER-SHAPED HOLE
    B altinglass of Araby, ungagged and unshaven, cocked an ear and