Black Knight by Christopher Pike Read Free Book Online Page A

he was about to fall forward. But for some reason he never hit the ground.
    That was the last thing he remembered.

CHAPTER TWO
    I SEE THEM, THE TWO of them. The most powerful man in the world and the most dangerous woman. I know their names, their faces. I know their history. One I loved, one I feared—as recently as a month ago, just before I watched them die. Yet here they sit, at an outdoor table in the food court of the Century City Mall, eating bowls of ice cream.
    Kendor and Syn.
    Once upon a time they were the oldest couple on earth, perhaps the happiest—their love born of the Iron Age, more sturdy than that period, surely strong enough to withstand the challenge of centuries.
    Yet slowly, over the years, grief had eaten away at Syn. The death of a son in battle; then, six hundred years later, the loss of a daughter to the plague, along with her daughter’s offspring, a boy and a girl, Syn’s grandchildren. Finally, the disappearance of Syn’s last child—an idealistic young man who fled from England to the New World to escape the horror his mother was becoming.
    I suspect the sight of them feels even more bizarre because of the mundane nature of the setting. I mean, they’re just sitting there eating ice cream in a food court.
    I’m alone in the busy mall. I almost always shop alone, and I’ve just exited Bloomingdale’s, where I purchased a gray pantsuit from the Anne Klein section. The suit is folded in a red box and tied with a white ribbon, and when I put it on for this evening’s meeting and it makes me look older and more sophisticated than my eighteen years of age, then it will have served its purpose.
    The outfit cost more than I used to spend on clothes in a year. The meeting I’ve been called to tonight is important. It’s with the Council, the Tar, the elder witches that help guide the world, the real world and witch world, from behind the scenes. My own father has “ordered” me to attend the meeting, and Cleo herself, the leader of the Council, has called and requested my presence.
    The thought of going makes me nervous. It’s been a month since I stood before the group of ancient witches, and I’ve only a short time before my plane leaves for San Francisco, where the gathering is to take place.
    Yet here, suddenly, out of nowhere, I see these two titans I watched die in witch world—an important point. Although had they perished in the real world—like my boyfriend, Jimmy, did—they still could exist in witch world. But death in witch world itself is the final death, or so I’ve been told, the one no one returns from.
    Yet I’m in witch world now.
    It makes no sense that they are still alive.
    The sight of them paralyzes me. I fear they will see me; I literally can’t move. Yet when they do happen to look in my direction—hell, I could swear they look right at me—I see no sign of recognition. I could be just another spoiled rich girl with a new outfit tucked under her arm. They simply keep on eating their ice cream. It’s like they’ve never tasted anything so delicious.
    Maybe they didn’t see me, I think.
    My legs are shaking, I have to sit down. I choose a table in the outdoor portion of the food court, where I can keep an eye on them, sitting behind a wooden post wrapped in thick green vines. I can see them but I don’t think they can see me.
    Of course, the way they’re acting, it’s like they couldn’t care less that I exist. I idly wonder what kind of ice cream they’re eating. Kendor keeps digging into his large plastic pink bowl. It looks like he’s working on some kind of chocolate dish. Syn’s eating something lighter, with strawberries and kiwis sprinkled over it; and the two are so totally absorbed in their dessert, they can’t be bothered to exchange a single word.
    Weird. The whole scene is just plain weird.
    An old man suddenly approaches them. His clothes are fairly ordinary. He wears a pair of black slacks and a loose-fitting white shirt. His dark