Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan

by Darren Shan

I’m surprised when the second avalanche comes, because this time it’s a single boulder, and it flies out quite a distance from the cliff before striking the wall, then ricocheting off another area further down, dropping in a carefully calculated arc as it swiftly sails towards the point where Inez and I are standing, like a guided missile that will destroy all around it when it hits.

  21

  The boulder hurtles towards me. Inez is yelling something, trying to pull me clear, but my head is filled with white noise and I can’t move. I’m sure this is the end and the incoming missile both fascinates and paralyses me.

  Then Cal roars, “On your knees! Now!”

  I drop automatically, Inez beside me, and Cal jumps onto our backs. The weight of the giant drives the wind out of me, and my face is squashed into the dirt, but he’s only up there a second, using us as springboards to leap even higher.

  I turn my head to see what’s happening, although it’s so surreal that part of me is convinced I’m hallucinating.

  Cal leapt with his back to the cliff, and has used his thighs to wedge himself inside the crevice. He’s suspended above us, leaning back, gaze fixed on the boulder, hands spread wide as if to catch it. But that’s madness. As big as he is, there’s no way he can grab and hold a large rock like that, not when it’s plummeted from such a distance. Has he lost his marbles — or, alternatively, has he just found the biggest marble of them all to play with?

  As the boulder falls level with him, Cal thrusts his hands at it and manages to knock it ever so slightly off course, so that instead of hitting Inez and me and wiping us away, the boulder angles outwards as it continues on its way to the ground, not only missing its original target, but picking up a new one in the process.

  As I half-rise to look down, I see a petrified Urszula backing away from the cliff, waving at the rock. The empress can’t control the boulder at this stage of the game, but she has enough time to scuttle clear of its path. Except…

  She forgets about the unicycle, which is behind her, where she let it fall.

  The empress’ heels catch on the unicycle and she topples backwards with a yelp. A moment later, as the boulder soars towards her, she screams.

  Then there’s a loud thud and a shower of dirt shoots up into the air.

  Then — nothing.

  I rise shakily and stare at the boulder, which is becoming visible again as the motes of dirt drift back to the ground. I can’t see anything of Urszula, not even a stray arm or leg.

  “Well,” Cal says, dropping back to the path beside us and rubbing his huge hands together, “that was a touch of luck, wasn’t it?”

  “No bloody way!” Baba Jen shouts, rushing towards us. “Did you plan that?”

  “I didn’t think I’d hit her,” Cal says modestly, “but I hoped to scare her off.”

  “Outstanding,” Baba Jen sighs, eyes sparkling with hero worship.

  “I wish it hadn’t come to this,” Cal says, stroking his moustache, looking forlorn. “I don’t like taking another person’s life, even someone as nasty as her.”

  I know what he means. As horrible as she was, as hell-bent as she was on killing us, I feel sorry for Urszula. Life’s over for her now, at least in this sphere. Any chance she had to change and become a better person… gone. Any good she might have done for her city, her people or anyone else… vanished.

  Part of me wants to murmur, “Ding-dong, the witch is dead,” but I press my lips shut, not wanting to gloat over something as final and funereal as this.

  Everyone above us has stopped. They’re staring at the boulder and Cal, wordless, astonished.

  Then Inez makes a growling noise and taps Cal’s arm. “Let’s get out of here. Her guards won’t be far behind, and they won’t like it when they see what we’ve done. We’d best not be here when they catch up.”

  That snaps us back into the moment. The empress is dead, but she had lots of loyal supporters, and they’ll want to avenge her. So, turning my back on the boulder-slash-headstone, I hurry after Inez and Cal – Baba Jen is already back on the big man’s shoulders, making herself comfy – along the path and up the cliff, where the boreholes and escape await.

  ***

  Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan is book 2 of 3 of the first volume of the Archibald Lox series…

  Archie’s story continues in book 3 of the first volume, Archibald Lox and the Vote of Alignment…

  also by Darren Shan

  The Saga Of Darren Shan (series) aka Cirque Du Freak series

  The Saga Of Larten Crepsley (series)

  The Demonata (series)

  Zom-B (series)

  The Thin Executioner (novel)

  Koyasan (novella)

  Hagurosan (novella)

  Procession of the Dead (book 1 of The City trilogy)

  Hell’s Horizon (book 2 of The City trilogy)

  City of the Snakes (book 3 of The City trilogy)

  Lady of the Shades (novel)

  For more information on these books and Darren Shan, visit www.darrenshan.com

  copyright page

  Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan

  by Darren Shan

  © 2020 by Darren Shan

  Cover design by Liam Fitzgerald www.frequency.ie

  Edited by Zoe Markham http://markhamcorrect.com

  First electronic edition published by Home Of The Damned Ltd March 2020

  The right of Darren Shan to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  www.darrenshan.com