Clockwork Angel - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 1

For Jim and Kate

Thames River Song

A note of saltslips in and the river rises,darkening to the color of tea,swelling to meet the green.Above its banks the cogs and wheelsof monstrous machinesclank and spin, the ghost withinvanishes into its coils,whispering mysteries.Each tiny golden cog has teeth,each great wheel movesa pair of hands which takethe water from the river,devour it, convert it into steam,coerce the great machine to runon the force of its dissolution.Gently, the tide is rising,corrupting the mechanism.Salt, rust and siltslowing the gears.Down at the banksthe iron tankssway into their mooringswith the hollow boomof a gigantic bell,of drum and cannonwhich cry out in a tongue of thunderand the river rolls under.

—Elka Cloke