City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates Read Free Book Online Page B

turns than the street-nick could follow, the big man stopped. Tom had no idea how far they had come, but guessed that it was a considerable distance into the metropolis and away from the wall.
    “Here you are, lad,” Red exclaimed, standing to one side and gesturing.
    They had arrived at a gallery, an open shaft which descended through the heart of the city; though it was impossible to judge how far it went in the gloom. Directly in front of them was the most peculiar looking set of steps Tom had ever seen – they were of dark wood and appeared to be grooved and simply looked wrong. However, they were still stairs and they still led downward. Was the Swarb letting him go? He looked at the big man uncertainly. Encouraged by a broad smile and a further impatient gesture, he stepped forward towards the stairs. As he did so, there came a soft whirring sound and the stairs started to move.
    Tom jumped back in alarm, at which Red roared with laughter. Recovering from his initial shock, Tom peered forward at this latest revelation. The steps seemed to emerge flat from the ground in endless procession, steadily evolving a uniform, step-like configuration as they marched relentlessly towards the drop, before vanishing downwards between matching solid rails whose black cushioned tops were moving in apparent unison with the stairs. There was something bizarre and fascinating about the military precision with which the stairway emerged, evolved and descended. Tom could have watched this process for hours.
    “It’s called an escalator,” Red explained. “Much nearer than any of the clockwork lifts and far more trustworthy, if you ask me. Doesn’t go all the way down to the City Below, mind, but it’ll take you a fair way – through some fifteen Rows. Don’t be tempted to jump off as you pass the different platforms, not unless you fancy a bit of an explore, but be warned if you do: the escalator won’t stop for you to get back on, only stops at all when it’s unused for a while. Then it goes dormant, like it was just now. Stepping back on from one of the side platforms takes some practice. You’re liable to come a cropper first time out and end up travelling the rest of the way down on your arse.
    “Well, good luck, lad. Reckon this is the best I can do for you.”
    Tom gulped, stared at the escalator and wondered whether he could find the courage to trust the thing.
    “Go on, it won’t hurt you.”
    He gave Red a weak smile and thanked him, then stepped boldly onto the moving stairway.
    After a slight wobble, he clutched one of the handrails and managed to keep upright. This was easier than he’d expected.
    From behind, he could hear Red’s laughter. “Well done! That’s the hardest part over with. Now just be ready to step off natural-like at the bottom.”
    The wonders and surprises that awaited him as he descended through the city’s heart were many and varied, far more than he was able to fully take in, but few equalled the thrill of drifting serenely downward on the escalator.
    Aware that the night was growing ever shorter, Tom was anxious to return to the City Below as swiftly as possible. In assisting him, Red had brought him deep within the city and the boy made no effort to reorientate himself, but instead simply sought the swiftest way down in the same arbitrary fashion that had taken him so far up the city’s walls.
    Now, as he stood at the top of the stairway and gazed out at last across the City Below, it was time to get his bearings. He was high above the floor of the vast cavern which housed Thaiburley’s lowest level. The sun globes were beginning to warm up, granting this basement world its semblance of dawn. Far to the left, at the very edge of his view, Tom could just make out the start of the scrapland that was the Stain, where the detritus of generations had been dumped and left to rot.
    In the middle distance he was able to see the black ribbon of the Thair, the deep dark river that provided