Read City of Time for Free Online

looked. The sign did indeed seem to be a fleur-de-lis if she closed her eyes and squinted. “Come on, Owen,” she said. “That's just a bit of old advertising. For a shop or something.”
    “There is no shop around here. Nothing else either,” Owen said quietly. “Look more closely.”
    “I can't see anything.”
    “Concentrate.”
    Cati stared until her eyes hurt, but still could see nothing besides the glowing neon tubes of an advertising sign. Then suddenly she saw it. “The sign is made from magno,” she breathed.
    “Yes,” Owen said, “and look at the wall. The stonework is newer than the rest. It has to be the entrance to Hadima.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I'm going to try to blast it open.”
    Cati gulped. “Are you sure that's a good idea?”
    “No,” Owen said cheerfully, “I'm not sure at all. Take cover!”
    Cati barely had time to dive behind a rock as Owen raised the gun and fired. A glass bulb filled with magno shot from the end of the gun and arced toward the wall just below the sign, where it burst with a crash and a gout of blue flame. Cati peeped out. The wall was blackened but otherwise there seemed to be little damage. Owen pulled another glass bulb from his belt.
    “How many of those do you have?” Cati asked.
    “Three more.” He fired again. This time the mortar binding the wall cracked a little. He fired the third projectile and the cracks deepened.
    “One left,” he said. Now he moved much closer before firing. He recoiled from the heat of the blue flame that flicked back and almost enveloped him. As it died down, he ran forward. The wall was severely cracked and stones had fallen out in places, but there was no sign of it having been breached.
    Owen sighed with disappointment. “We'll never get through it. Even with a hundred shots.”
    He turned away, and as he did so there was a low rumble and the ground below his feet moved.
    “Earthquake!” Cati shouted.
    Before Owen had a chance to move, the whole world shook. He grabbed at the wall, then looked up in horror. Great pieces of masonry were falling all around him. He tried to move, but the ground was shaking too violently. Another earth tremor, much stronger this time. In the nearby town he could hear the sound of car alarms going off. He glanced up again. The whole wall was about to fall on him!
    He felt a strange sensation around his feet. The path he stood on was covered with water up to knee height. Water was pouring up the river, topped with dirty yellow foam. A geography lesson about underwater earthquakes causing tsunamis came into his head.
    “Owen!” Cati shouted above the roar of the water. Then a wall of water hit him. In seconds he was tumbling, being driven upstream, bouncing along the riverbed. Once again he heard Cati call his name and thought he felt her hand grip his, but he could not hold on. Her fingertips glanced against his and then she was gone. With one great shuddering breath he filled his lungs and the water claimed him.
    He couldn't say how long he was underwater. His lungs burned and his body ached from being hit by stones and boulders. He knew that he could no longer hold his breath, that he had to exhale. He felt consciousness starting to slip away, and as it did so a distant memory formed in his mind. How as a baby he hadbeen with his father when their car crashed into the harbor. How his father had rescued him. He could almost feel two strong hands closing around his waist. …
    Then he felt the terrifying wave that had carried him upriver start to ebb, receding with startling speed. A great eddy bore him to the surface. He opened his eyes and realized that he was being carried along, high above the riverbed where they had walked moments before, being swept now toward the sea. With a bone-shuddering impact, the water threw him against the stone sides of the river, pushing him higher and higher. Weakly he reached out, seeking any purchase. Just as his strength was fading, he found