скачать книгу бесплатно
The Raven’s Knot
Robin Jarvis
Timely reissue of the classic fantasy trilogy by Robin Jarvis, following on from the landmark publication of DANCING JAX, his first novel in a decade.In a grimy alley in the East End of London stands the Wyrd Museum, cared for by the strange Webster sisters – the scene of even stranger events.Brought out of the past, elfin-like Edie Dorkins must now help the Websters to protect their age-old secret. For outside the museum’s enchanted walls, a nightmarish army is gathering in the mystical town of Glastonbury, bent on destroying the sisters and their ancient power once and for all…Revisit the chilling, fantastical world of the Wyrd Museum in this sequel to The Woven Path.
THE RAVEN’S KNOT
Robin Jarvis
Dedication
Tales from the Wyrd Museum Trilogy
The Woven Path The Raven’s Knot The Fatal Strand
For Young Adult readers:
Dancing Jax
Contents
Cover (#u75f343ae-6b07-548b-82c1-fca3362763a4)
Title Page (#u1fbe25ac-ec05-565e-99a0-603f59009b8c)
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Out of the Blackout
Chapter 2 - The Chamber of Nirinel
Chapter 3 - Thought and Memory
Chapter 4 - The Lord of the Dance
Chapter 5 - Jam and Pancakes
Chapter 6 - The Crow Doll
Chapter 7 - In the Shadow of the Enemy
Chapter 8 - Aidan
Chapter 9 - Spectres and Aliens
Chapter 10 - Valediction
Chapter 11 - Deceit and Larceny
Chapter 12 - Riding the Night
Chapter 13 - Memory Forgotten
Chapter 14 - Missing the Dawn
Chapter 15 - Drowning in Legends
Chapter 16 - Two Lost Souls
Chapter 17 - Skögul
Chapter 18 - Charred Embers
Chapter 19 - Verdandi
Chapter 20 - The Crimson Weft
Chapter 21 - Hlökk
Chapter 22 - The Tomb of the Hermit
Chapter 23 - The Gathering
Chapter 24 - Within the Frozen Pool
Chapter 25 - Battle of the Thorn
Chapter 26 - Dejected and Downcast
Chapter 27 - The Property of Longinus
Chapter 28 - Blood on the Tor
Epilogue
Copyright
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
Five miles outside Glastonbury
2.58 am
Brindled with bitter, biting frost, the plough-churned soil of the Somerset levels was bare and black. Hammered upon winter’s icy forge, the earthen furrows were iron hard – unyielding as the great cold which flooded the moonless dark.
Deep and chill were the silent shadows that filled those expansive fields. As sombre lakes of brooding gloom they appeared, pressing and pushing against the bordering hedgerows. Through those twisted, naked branches the unrelenting hoary darkness spilled and the night was drowned in a black, freezing murk that no glimmer of star could penetrate.
Behind the invisible distant hills, shimmering bleakly upon the rim of the choking night, the pale glare of mankind was weak and dim – the countless faint, orange lights trembling in the frozen air.
In that lonely hour, in the remote realm of the wild empty country, safely concealed by the untame dark, a sound – long banished from the world – disturbed the jet-vaulted heavens. Over unlit fields and solitary farm buildings, the noise of great wings travelled across the sky – free at last of the tethers that had kept them bound for so many ages.
All creatures felt the presence of that awful force which coursed through the knifing cold. Upon the shadow-smothered ground, farm animals grew silent and afraid as the terror passed high above.
Horror and dread spread across the dim landscape which separated Wells and Glastonbury. Owls refused to leave their barns and a fox, cantering leisurely homeward, suddenly flattened itself against the freezing ground when rumour of the unseen nightmare reached its sharp ears.
Dragging its stomach over frost-covered furrows, its brush quivering in fright, the fox darted for cover – tearing in blind panic towards a thicket of hawthorn. It lay there panting feverishly – straining to catch the slightest sound upon the winter airs.
But the unnatural clamour that had so alarmed the fox had already faded and a new, yet more familiar, noise was growing.
Through the night a vehicle came, the faint rumble of its engine a welcome distraction from the fear that had so gripped the fox’s heart and yet it remained crouching beneath the hawthorn until daybreak.
Over the icy road the car swept, the broad beams of its headlights scything through the dark veils in front – snatching brief, stark visions of hedge and ditch as they flashed by.
Inside the vehicle the heater was finally blowing hot air through the vents and the toes of the driver and his passenger were thawing at last. Mellow music issued from the radio, colouring the dark journey home with a languid harmony, reflecting the relaxed and sleepy mood of the car’s occupants.
Resting her head upon her husband’s shoulder, a pretty young woman murmured the few lyrics she remembered of the romantic song and sank a little lower in her seat.
Her voice stopped as she felt him tense and she lifted her head in surprise.
‘Tom,’ she began. ‘What is it?’
A frown had creased the man’s forehead and he hastily switched off the radio.
‘Ssshh!’ he said. ‘Hazel, did you hear that?’
Disconcerted, the woman listened for a moment.
‘Sounds all right to me,’ she answered. ‘Probably something rattling around in the boot.’
‘I’m not talking about the car,’ he said sharply.
‘What then?’
‘Outside.’
Hazel brushed the hair from her eyes and stared at him in astonishment. Her husband was doubled over the steering-wheel, gazing up through the windscreen at the pitch black sky, scanning it fearfully.
‘Tom,’ she ventured.
‘There isn’t anything.’
‘There is!’ he said emphatically. ‘Hazel, it was weird – sort of screaming.’
She shifted on the seat and folded her arms as she began to look out of her window at the dark countryside passing by.
‘What...?’ she began nervously. ‘Like a person? That kind of screaming?’
‘There was more than one,’ came his muddling answer. ‘But it wasn’t quite human – it… it was weird.’
‘Oh, well,’ she breathed with relief, ‘if it wasn’t human...’
The golden glow of Glastonbury’s street-lamps was now clear in the distance, with the majestic outline of the Tor rearing behind them – another ten minutes and she could be in bed.
The car had been steadily picking up speed and now the woman noticed for the first time the beads of perspiration glistening upon her partner’s face.
‘Tom,’ she said. ‘Slow down. There’s black ice all over these roads.’
‘We’ve got to get home, Hazel!’ he told her and the urgency in his voice was startling. ‘We’ve got to get home, and fast! It’s too open here. I don’t like it.’
Before she could respond, something tapped lightly upon the windscreen. It was only a twig but Tom’s reaction to it was surprising.
‘Where’d that come from?’ he demanded, his voice rising with mounting panic.
The woman gaped at him in disbelief. ‘Where d’you think it came from?’ she laughed. ‘It’s a twig! Please, Tom, slow down.’
‘There are no trees on this stretch of road,’ he replied gravely.
Bewildered, Hazel threw her head back. ‘The wind blew it, a bird dropped it – I don’t know! I don’t care – but you’re driving too fast. Listen to me!’
But Tom hardly heard her. All his senses were focused upon the road ahead, yet not one of them prepared him for what happened next.
From the night it tumbled, out of the blind heavens it dropped – hurtling down with ferocious force and by the time he saw it, it was too late.
Into the bright light of the headlamps it fell – a monstrous, massive bough. Raining insanely out of the sky, the mighty limb of ancient oak came plummeting towards them.
With a tremendous, violent crunch of metal, the huge branch slammed into the bonnet of the car and the windscreen shattered into a million tiny cubes.
Screaming, Hazel threw her arms before her face as the vehicle bucked and shuddered beneath the vicious impact, and she braced herself as the tyres skidded upon the icy road.
His face scored by the twigs which had come whipping and flailing in through the splintered window, Tom gripped the wheel tightly and struggled for control as the vehicle shot into a wild, careering spin. But the windscreen was utterly blocked and all he could do was shout to Hazel to hold on.
‘NO!’ the woman yelled, clinging to him frantically as the car flew across the road and burst through the hedgerow. Into a field it thundered, with the branch still wedged upon the bonnet, and over the frozen furrows it charged.
Then, with a lurch, the spin ended and after one final jolt, the terrifying madness was over.
Gingerly, Hazel unfastened her seat belt and reached across to Tom. His hands were still clenched about the wheel and, when she held him, she discovered that he was shaking as much as herself.
Neither one of them spoke, both pairs of eyes were fixed upon the enormous branch that had dropped so unexpectedly and so illogically from above.
‘It might have killed us,’ she whispered, apprehensively reaching out to touch the rough, glassstrewn wood. ‘But where...? Where did it come from?’
Tom made no reply, his heart was pounding in his chest and his eyes widened as he stared upwards.
‘My God...’ he whimpered.
This time Hazel heard it too and her hands clasped tightly about his.
