Gateway by Sharon Shinn Read Free Book Online Page B

almost a room, with a half wall, a roof, and a narrow catwalk circling the interior to serveasafloor. It was barely wide enough to stand on, with no interior barrier to keep any careless visitor from tumbling down the center of the tower to the ground below. Daiyu stood on the top step and refused to release her hold on the railing.
    Kalen passed her and moved with care around the catwalk, but Gabe skipped across the boards with the agility of the fearless. He pointed to a thick woven rope that stretched from the monster bell to an iron tether embedded in the far wall.
    “That’s the rope that starts the bronze bell clanging,” he said. “It’s heavy, so you need a few good pulls before the clapper hits, and you’d be surprised how much strength it takes to keep it moving. Once it pulled me off my feet and I was swinging back and forth over the open ground, trying to land on one side or the other.”
    Daiyu figured this story had an equal chance of being true or false, but she didn’t really care. She didn’t like heights, and she was pretty sure the whole tower had trembled again. “What about the little bells?” she asked.
    Gabe danced even farther away, hopping over what appeared to be a small break in the continuity of the catwalk, to point at a much thinner rope tied to a second hook. The other end was attached to a circle of small bells that looked as if they were made of chrome swirled with crystal. “They don’t weigh hardly anything at all,” he said. “A little kid could pull them. A girl. You could.”
    She smiled faintly. “Why didn’t somebody design the tower so you could reach these ropes from the ground ?”
    “Then anybody could come along and pull them just for a prank. You’d have people rushing out of the river when they had half a day of work left.”
    “Well, they could do that now if they felt like climbing a hundred stories and maybe breaking their necks,” Daiyu said.
    Gabe shook his head and grinned. “The gate at the bottom of the stairs is supposed to be locked. Everyone thinks it is, but I know the lock is broken.”
    She didn’t answer. She was starting to get nauseated, and she really wished she was back on level ground.
    “Are you feeling all right?” Kalen asked, and Daiyu shook her head.
    “No. I think—This is kind of making me sick.”
    Abruptly, she sat down on the top step, quickly transferring her hold to one of the metal posts that supported the railing. She heard Gabe exclaim, “What’s wrong with her?” but Kalen didn’t bother asking questions. He just crossed to where she was sitting and crouched beside her, putting a hand on her wrist.
    Just as he had the night before. Taking hold of her so she wouldn’t be afraid.
    “Maybe breakfast upset your stomach,” he said. “All that food you’re not used to.”
    She tried to smile at him. “I think it was the climb. And maybe the travel yesterday.”
    “Can you get back down?” Gabe wanted to know.
    “Well, I hope so,” she said. “Maybe I’ll just go down on my butt, one step at a time.”
    Still holding her hand, Kalen slipped past her and carefully stood up. “I’ll go down first,” he said. “You can hold on to me.”
    A little uncertainly, she came to her feet, clutching the railing with one hand and resting her other on Kalen. His bony shoulder seemed so much more solid and reliable than the thin railing. She quickly figured out how to synchronize her steps to his, and they eased through the descent. Daiyu was shaky but grateful when she was finally back on solid ground.
    Gabe bounded down the last three steps without touching his feet to one of them. Daiyu attempted to smile at him. “Thanks for showing me the bells, even though I got sick,” she said. “I hope I hear you ring them sometime.”
    “You will, tonight or tomorrow,” Gabe said. He looked at Kalen. “Are you going to work the next time? Or will your friend still be here?”
    Kalen gave a convincing shrug. “She’ll