Mind the Gap - By Christopher Golden Page 0,122
bones healing. Jazz had sensed that, just
as she had sensed that Leela and Marco were dead and that Bill had left the Palace, returning topside as
Jazz had done.
"I'm sorry about the others, about Marco and Leela," she said.
Hattie's eyes glistened with tears, but she took a deep breath and nodded. "Me too. We gave 'em to
the river, just like we did with Cadge. The coppers kept Stevie's body, though. Never could find out what
happened to it."
Jazz knew. Stevie still had family, and they'd claimed his remains. Where he'd been buried, she
couldn't have said, for they lived beyond the outskirts of London and she did not feel anything out that far.
Terence had gotten what he'd wished for; the city's ghosts had been laid to rest. London could put the past
behind it now and move into the future. Instead of crumbling into diminishing echoes of an ancient empire, it
could embrace the new millennium and seek glo-ries yet to come. But there had been a side effect that
Terence had not foreseen. Perhaps even his father, who'd designed the apparatus, hadn't fully understood
his inven-tion.
All the lingering bits of London's magic were inside Jazz now; all its secrets had been fused with her.
She knew the city in ways that nobody else ever could, every person, event, street, and shady corner. Every
brick and garden. Jazz and London were irrevocably linked. With all of the wisdom of the city inside her,
she would never be alone again, as long as she lived. And though it had occurred to her to wonder what
would happen when she died, she'd decided that was beyond her control. Perhaps the city's secrets would
pass to someone else, and perhaps not. Somehow, she felt sure the wisdom and magic that the city had
shed in order to sur-vive —and which she had taken into herself—would endure long after she was gone.
"It's all past now, Hattie," Jazz said, smiling at her.
"I miss it, a little," Hattie said.
The half dozen or so people who had gathered by the wall to see Jazz kept a respectful distance,
though they watched her and Hattie with fascination. The girl fidgeted a bit, not liking the attention.
"You ever comin' back down to see us?" Hattie asked.
Jazz tightened her grip on the girl's hands. "I don't think so. I'm glad Harry's alive, but I don't really
want to see him, Hattie. Neither him nor Terence. I've changed —"
"I'll say you have," Hattie said, nodding toward the gathering.
Jazz laughed softly, a bit self-conscious.
"But I can still come to see you?" Hattie asked. "We can still be friends?"
Jazz smiled. "You can always come to see me. I can show you all my favorite parts of London. If
you'd like that."
"I'd like it very much," Hattie said.
Together they walked back toward the wall, past the people who had come to the oracle to find the
things they had lost or simply to find answers in a city full of questions.
In that, Jazz thought, they were really no different from anyone else.
about the authors
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN'S novels include The Lost Ones, The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road,
The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, Of Saints and Shadows, and The
Borderkind. Golden co-wrote the lavishly illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and
the Vampire with Mike Mignola, and they are currently scripting it as a fea-ture film for New Regency. He
has also written books for teens and young adults, including the thriller series Body of Evidence, honored
by the New York Public Library and cho-sen as one of YALSA's Best Books for Young Readers.
Upcoming teen novels include Poison Ink for Delacorte, Soulless for MTV Books, and The Secret
Journeys of Jack London, a collaboration with Tim Lebbon.
With Thomas E. Sniegoski, he is the co-author of the dark fantasy series The Menagerie as well as
the young readers fantasy series OutCast and the comic book miniseries Talent, both of which were
recently acquired by Universal Pictures. Golden and Sniegoski also wrote the upcoming comic book
miniseries The Sisterhood, currently in development as a fea-ture film. Golden was born and raised in
Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. At present he is collaborating with Tim Lebbon on The
Map of Moments, the second novel of The Hidden Cities. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com
.
TIM LEBBON lives in South Wales with his wife and two children. His books include the British
Fantasy Award-winning Dusk and its sequel Dawn, Fallen, Berserk, The Everlasting, Hellboy:
Unnatural Selection, and the New York Times bestseller SO Days of Night. Forthcoming books include
the new fantasy novel The Island, The Map of Moments (with Christopher Golden), two YA novels
making up The Secret Journeys of Jack London (in collaboration with Christopher Golden), the collection
Last Exit for the Lost from Cemetery Dance Publications, and further books with Night Shade Books,
Necessary Evil Press, and Humdrumming, among others. He has won three British Fantasy Awards, a
Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, and a Tombstone Award, and has been a finalist for International Horror
Guild and World Fantasy awards. His novella White is soon to be a major Hollywood movie, and several
other novels and novellas are currently in development in the USA and the UK. Find out more about Tim at
his websites: www.timlebbon.net and www.noreela.com .
Table of Contents
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