Legacy of Shadows

LEGACY OF SHADOWS Cambridge Gothic Book Three by Mark Wells CONTENTS Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-One Chapter Forty-Two Chapter Forty-Three Chapter Forty-Four Chapter Forty-Five Chapter Forty-Six Epilogue DID YOU ENJOY THIS BOOK? GET YOUR FREE COPY OF CAMBRIDGE SHADOWS CAMBRIDGE GOTHIC SHORT STORY COLLECTION COLLEGE OF SHADOWS - CAMBRIDGE GOTHIC BOOK ONE GATE OF SHADOWS - CAMBRIDGE GOTHIC BOOK TWO COLLEGE MAP COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prologue Some journeys stay with you forever. At least that’s what Alfonso thought, clinging to Katya’s feathers as the harpy bore him over Gemini’s alien landscape. Her mighty wings beat a steady rhythm, keeping pace with those of her older sister, Olga, flying ahead of them. The two creatures, part harpy and part human, had the azure sky to themselves, their mother’s DNA making them immune to the calcifying effect of the twin suns. They soared over the valley far below, free from threat or interference, as they carried him and their mother to the distant uplands. Alfonso glanced over at Mary, riding proud and erect on Olga’s back. The woman was unrecognisable from the gnarled old crone who had captured him emerging from the portal all those months ago. Gone were the wrinkled features and white hair, replaced by the glowing skin and flowing locks of someone half her age. Restored to health by a Matriarch’s egg, her hunched posture was also a thing of the past. The broken staff Mary had once used as a crutch had been replaced with one wielded as a weapon. And there was no mistaking the intensity in those piercing blue eyes as she glared back at him from her daughter’s back. “Alfonso!” Katya hissed. “Answer her!” “What?” “Mother was calling you!” “I didn’t hear her.” “For goodness’ sake,” she muttered, beating her wings faster to draw level with her sister. “Are you deaf?” Mary bellowed. “I’m sorry.” She pointed with her staff at the ragged line of stone pillars rising high above the valley floor. “Tell me what you see.” Columns stood in the middle of the river, water flowing around their base and leaving a foaming trail in their wake. The red rock surfaces were scarred and pitted with fissures, and though some pillars had borne the ravages of time better than others, there was little difference between these and the others they had flown over that day. Keeping his voice low, he whispered to Katya, “What am I looking for?” “The last one,” she replied. The flat-topped peak was high above the valley and exposed to the unrelenting glare of the twin suns. Alfonso expected to see nothing but dust on the summit. Instead, there was a pale circle of what might have been dried vegetation. As they drew closer, this morphed into a tangle of bleached ribcages and bones. He remembered standing in a similar structure within a vast colony of harpies, a shaft of moonlight illuminating an egg in its centre. The egg he and Katya had stolen to restore her mother to life. “A nest,” he murmured. “What was that?” Mary’s voice was becoming harder to hear over the growing rumble of the river, but her eyes were eager. “A nest,” he shouted. “An abandoned nest!” She laughed, and something in that sound made even Katya flinch. “Alone, even the strongest harpy is vulnerable. Now, let me show you where true strength lies.” She leaned forwards and issued a command to her mount. Olga dipped her head and accelerated, her mother’s hair streaming back. Before Alfonso could ask Katya what Mary meant, his stomach lurched as she set off after her sister. They swept into the valley, the harpies following the course of the river as it ran between the terracotta cliffs. As each mile passed, the walls drew closer together, funnelling the meandering stream into a fast-flowing torrent. Trees began to appear, the green borders becoming denser the further they flew. Alfonso wondered what other life could be eking out an existence beneath the protective shade of the leafy canopy. Not that Mary and her daughters showed any interest, racing onwards with barely a downward glance. “Hold tight,” Katya called over the sound of the wind. Alfonso clung on as the walls rushed past on either side, the siblings twisting and turning around the buttresses of rock in a dizzying display of skill. Below him, the thunder of the river grew in intensity, the air damp with spray thrown up by the crash of waves against rocks. With a final, gut-wrenching swerve, Katya swept around a wall, and Alfonso saw the source of the roar. A towering waterfall rose above them, cascading white water throwing up a cloud of mist that filled the cauldron of encircling cliffs. The water’s percussive force battered his eardrums and pummelled his senses, leaving him dazed and dull-witted. Ahead of him, he was vaguely aware of a dark object swooping up before the vertical wall of water. Wings swept back, Olga rode the rising column of air that propelled her dart-like form skywards. Alfonso just had time to grip Katya’s feathers before she angled her wings and did the same. Flattened against her back, his breath was squeezed from him as they soared upwards. Spray stung his face, and he closed his eyes, hoping Katya hadn’t misjudged her angle of climb. A split second later, they shot clear of the cliffs, Alfonso coughing and spluttering as they left the sound of the waterfall below them. “Stop whining. It was just a little water!” Katya said. “You could