The Chamber in the Sky by M. T. Anderson Read Free Book Online

oddly jointed fingers slip out of his hair. He backed away as Brundish skittered a couple hops to the side.
    The boy breathed deeply and held himself up against a counter. His ear still hurt from where the gun had been jammed into it. He blinked tears of pain out of his eyes. He thought frantically about what they could do.
    Gregory would know. Gregory always had a plan. Brian looked up carefully at his friend.
    Gregory just looked horrified. Astonished.
    â€œPrintouts,” Darlmore was saying. “Up in my study.”
    â€œI did already have a little look-round of your study. When you were out fishing. I saw nothing there. Not related to the capsule.”
    Darlmore held out a hand to be hoisted. He said, “Hand up?”
    â€œNot a chance, Archbishop.”
    â€œThe printouts I’m talking about are hidden.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œBehind a bookcase. In a safe.”
    If this was true, Brian thought, this was a disaster. Brundish had no reason to keep any of them alive once he found the location of the Umpire.
    â€œShow me,” said Brundish.
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œCrawl.” The doctor said to Brian, “Step aside, young man. You’re in the archbishop’s way. Slump over in that corner. You might as well accustom yourself to being a corpse. In my professional experience, the patient becomes quite relaxed. At first.”
    When Brian had stepped aside so the way was clear, Brundish bobbled over and nodded his head at Darlmore. The ex-archbishop began a slow and awful crawl across the floor. The man winced with each move. He left a streak of his elfin blood behind him.
    With horror, Brian watched the hermit pull himself over to the staircase that led up to the study. He couldn’t believe Brundish’s cruelty. But he couldn’t believe Thomas Darlmore would betray them, either. He kept waiting for something to happen, for someone to save them.
    Convulsively, Darlmore began to tug himself up, step by step. His dead leg thumped against the stairs. He grunted in pain.
    Brundish leered at the children, then followed the hermit, hopping oddly, as if he, on the other hand, had one leg too many.
    They heard him growling at Darlmore on the landing. He clearly enjoyed the pain.
    The second Brundish had gone, Gregory started waving Brian wildly toward the back door.
    Brian gave a questioning glance.
    Gwynyfer, without speaking a word, pointed at the flour on the counter.
    In the moments before Brundish had come down the stairs, Darlmore had scribbled three Norumbegan runes in the powder. They read: BOATHOUSE .
    Brian didn’t quite understand, but Gregory swiped the flour off the counter, grabbed his arm, and pulled him toward the back door.
    The three of them galloped across the bridge toward the boathouse.
    They heard a cry of anger from inside the house. They heard the gun fire upstairs.
    â€œWhat’ll we do when we get there?” Brian asked, falling behind the others.
    â€œI don’t know,” said Gregory. “Take the boat? Leave?”
    â€œWe can’t leave Mr. Darlmore!” Brian protested. “Dr. Brundish is going to kill him!”
    The others didn’t answer.
    He knew what they were thinking: that they didn’t know what else to do. That Darlmore had given them a chance to escape. That they had to take it.
    They slammed the boathouse door open. They ran for the dinghy. Gregory grabbed some of the gear from the wall and handed it to Brian.
    â€œWe can’t just leave him!” Brian protested.
    Gregory threw things they might need through the hatch. “You can’t help him,” he said. “He doesn’t want tobe helped.” He looked straight at Brian. “Bri, Mr. Darlmore didn’t have anything to show Brundish upstairs. He just said that to get the guy away for a second so we could escape. Mr. Darlmore knew that if someone had found the house, there was trouble. He wrote in the flour so we