A Clash of Shadows by Elí Freysson Read Free Book Online Page B

subject of it.
    The rattling faded out and Serdra quietly counted to ten before touching her shoulder.
    Katja headed across the street, pressed her foot into the wall surrounding the lawn and yanked herself up. She grasped the edge and Serdra came and pushed at her soles. Katja ascended the wall noiselessly, peeked down into the botanical garden surrounding the hall itself and then reached down to help Serdra up.
    “All clear,” Katja whispered and Serdra nodded and pointed down into the garden. Katja briefly reassured herself that she was in the right place and then dropped down. She landed softly between two bushes and walked stooped along them into the garden. Serdra would remain behind to distract the guards if something went wrong. If Katja made it silently she would follow.
    One of the benefits of the guards’ discipline was the predictability of their routes night after night. Katja knew that if she hurried she would have plenty of time to get all the way, but then they would probably have to wait for two other guards passing by before Serdra could dare pass.
    Katja entered a clearing designed as a meeting place for good summer days, where people could sit on circled stone benches and argue about politics. The cover wasn’t as good here as she hurried over to the neatly trimmed trees that formed a semicircle fence about the clearing and carefully forced her way between the bottom branches.
    And there was the downspout. It went all the way up to the roof, four floors and twelve metres above. The main problem with it was the bush surrounding it. It would crackle loudly if one fell into it from some height.
    Katja took up position three metres from the bush and nervously bounced her knee up and down. She knew she mustn’t waste too much time gathering courage, but she also had to get this right.
    She took a breath, held it and did the run-up. She leapt over the bush and hit the downspout. She pressed her palms on each side and managed to hold herself up long enough to lock her thighs about it as well. There was virtually no grip on the downspout. She had to use the strength she’d built up with so much effort.
    Katja began to hoist herself up as if climbing a tree trunk. She focused on keeping her breathing steady and in rhythm with the climbing. Her muscles had started complaining by the time she passed a sturdy window latch on the second floor. Keeping her grip and yanking herself upward, step by step, was ever more of a strain.
    Onwards, onwards, onwards.
    The third floor slid lazily by. The next window was two metres away to the left and there were no handholds in between. She could easily have jumped the distance on the ground. Up here it was like a ravine.
    Onwards, onwards, onwards!
    The strain had long since turned into pain and Katja fought through it, got angry at it to harness that energy.
    Finally she arrived at the fourth floor balcony. It was only a metre away, on her right.
    One metre in one direction and twelve in the other , Katja thought, and then squeezed her eyes shut over having done so.
    She clamped her thighs around the downspout with all her strength and forced herself to release her hands. Her legs turned out to still have enough strength to keep her up and she turned her head to the balcony.
    I have to cross. There is nothing for it.
    Katja held her breath, clenched her stomach and leaned for the balcony. Her hands grasped the edge, the thighs detached from the downspout and dangled in the air twelve metres over the ground. Katja grunted and pulled herself up. She let herself drop over the rail and lay there on her back and breathed heavily for a few moments. Then she began rubbing sore muscles until she again heard the rattling of mail on the ground.
    Katja lay still and silent as a mouse and waited for the men to continue their round. Then she crawled to the balcony door and tried the handle. Their suspicion was confirmed. No one bothered locking a fourth floor balcony door.
    Soon she