Read The Skin Map for Free Online Page B

him. As it happens, he’s a colleague and a scientist, and he may be able to help.”
    They emerged from the alley and walked along the quayside. The seafront was quieter, almost deserted now. The large schooner was still there, but the stevedores and fishermen were gone, their boats secured for the night. A sprinkling of early stars was beginning to appear in the eastern sky, and the sun was going down like a molten globe behind the blue-shadowed headland. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight . . . ,” mused Kit. The sea was calm and taking on a silvery glow.
    They soon came to a deeply rutted road and turned onto it. With the bay at their backs, the two proceeded up a steep slope, climbing through a clutch of low houses to the top of the sheltering hill. Kit was puffing and sweating as they gained the rim, and he was allowed to pause and catch his breath. The bay spread out below them in a gleaming arc, bronzed by the light of a setting sun.
    “Where are we going?” Kit asked, feeling the air cool the sweat on his skin.
    “See that stone?” Cosimo pointed to a finger-thin standing stone beside the road a couple hundred yards away. “That marks a ley I have found particularly useful.” He cast a hasty glance at the darkening sky. “We’d best be getting along.”
    They continued on the road at a sprightly pace. The old man seemed to gain vigour with every step, and Kit found himself having to scurry time and again to keep up. Upon reaching the standing stone, Kit called, “Hey! Can we stop a second?”
    Cosimo stopped. “Young people have no endurance.”
    “We have other qualities.” Kit stooped, hands on knees, and gulped air.
    “Sorry, old chap, but we must push on,” his grandsire said. “We really cannot dillydally any longer.”
    He beetled off again, leaving the road and forging out cross-country, striding through long grass toward a broad rise, the first of a bank of hills glowing deep emerald in the dusky twilight. Kit followed, jogging to keep up.
    “The leys are mostly time sensitive, you see,” Cosimo informed him. These words were still being spoken when out of nowhere sounded a horrendous, blood-stopping snarl. The sound echoed across the quickly darkening landscape, driving out all lesser sounds.
    “What was that?”
    “We’ve been careless,” said Cosimo. “Now they’ve found us.”
    “Who?” Kit demanded, looking around frantically for the source of the unnerving growl. “What was that?”
    “Listen to me,” said Cosimo, desperation edging into his tone. “Do exactly as I say without hesitation or deviation.”
    The snarl erupted again—a vicious, guttural rumble that reverberated in the pit of his stomach.
    “Sure,” said Kit, trying to look everywhere at once. “What do we do?”
    Three dark shapes appeared at the spot where they had left the road. They hesitated for a moment, then picked up the trail and came upon two vaguely human shapes either side of a low-slung mass too small for a horse but too big for a dog.
    “Pay attention,” snapped Cosimo. “That notch—” He pointed to a V-shaped cleft in the crest of the hill directly above them. “See it?”
    Kit nodded.
    “Run for it and don’t look back.” He gave the young man a slap on the back. “Go!”
    Kit scrambled for the notch, climbing, leaping, flying over the uneven ground. Shouts rang out in the valley below; he ignored them. Upon reaching the curious gap cut in the rim of the hill, he paused and risked a fleeting backward glance. In the fading light he imagined he saw an enormous cat roughly the size of a small pony, tawny brown with a spray of dark spots across its muscular shoulders and back. The creature was straining at a leash made from an iron chain in the grip of a very large man. A second man of similar size carried a torch. Both wore wide-brimmed green hats and long green coats.
    Cosimo pounded up behind him. “Kit! Don’t stop. This way.” His grandfather motioned for him to follow.