Keys and Curses (Shadow Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

in wrought silver brackets did nothing to beat back the cold. Whenever he was close enough to see the back of Strike Pin’s head, he stared, fascinated, at the snake-like silver wire wound around his dreadlocks.
    Strike Pin talked the whole way. “We can’t bring gas lamps down here,” he said. “There’s always a risk the fumes from the quicksilver will rise up and react with the vapour. The quicksilver’s highly explosive, you see, but you can’t use flames to set it off, only other gases, because it’s about three quarters liquid gas and one quarter silver. Makes a killer fuel for those cars they like to use in Shadow City. The Guild’s always at us for more. They just don’t get we can only bring up so much at a time, and first we’ve got to have enough for our own needs.”
    “What needs?” Nikifor ducked when the roof sloped down. When it levelled out, it was just high enough for Strike Pin to walk upright. Nikifor had to stoop the rest of the way.
    “To make shiny things, of course.” Strike Pin sounded as though he thought Nikifor might be a simpleton. “What else would we use it for?”
    At the base of the stairs, Strike Pin took a torch from a bracket and waved it three times over his head. An answering light came from somewhere in the darkness. “That’s the signal,” he explained, continuing down what turned out to be a narrower passage still. “Always make the signal when you come down to work, or the girls at the other end will shoot you down before you’re halfway along the passage. Here they are. Hi girls!”
    The end of the passage was barred by a bolted double doorway and guarded by two women who wore identical intricate silver dots on their faces and were armed with crossbows at least half their size.
    “Who’s this?” One of the girls looked Nikifor up and down.
    “This is Nikifor. Nikifor, meet Tick Tick. And this is her twin sister, Tock Tock. They guard the mine in case any intruders try to come down here.”
    “Intruders?” Nikifor positioned himself behind Strike Pin, because he didn’t like the way Tick Tick and Tock Tock looked at him.
    “People who are not Freakin Fairies,” Tick Tick said, her eyes narrowing.
    “Oh, don’t worry about him.” Strike Pin gave the girls a cheerful grin. “We’re curing him of vibe addiction. Coalfire said he’s to come down and work until he’s better.”
    Tock Tock looked him up and down. “He’s not dressed right.”
    “He will be tomorrow. Promise.”
    “Alright.” Tick Tick and Tock Tock unbolted the doors and swung them open.
    Tick Tick leaned up toward Nikifor when he passed. “I’ll be watching you,” she hissed.
    Then they were past and in a cavern so huge Nikifor could not see the roof or the other end. He stared around, eyes wide. In the centre of the floor a ghostly glow rippled above a vast lake of liquid silver.
    A massive waterwheel weighed down with eight huge silver barrels spanned the lake from edge to edge. Each barrel dipped into the quicksilver, travelled underneath and emerged full to the brim before spilling into a waiting chute, then continuing on to submerge again. The chute networks wound intricate patterns across both sides of the lake, criss-crossing and overlapping until they spilled their quicksilver into wagons lined up underneath. Teams of Freakin Fairies, eight to a wagon, dragged them away when they were full.
    “That’s the silver wheel,” Strike Pin said. “Isn’t she a beauty? Of course our reservoir’s not nearly as big as the one our cousins the Silvers run in the next village, but everyone knows our operation is more efficient. Come on, you can start over here with the silver draggers, since you’ve got no other skills. Don’t worry, everyone starts as a dragger, and I’m sure they’ll be glad to have a big strapping thing like you help out.”
    By the time Strike Pin had finished talking, they’d walked around the reservoir. The chute network hummed and groaned over their