Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 189
completely. The trail of slime went through the doors
and vanished into the dark.
Claire stood at the hole in the side of the train and
stared out into the tunnel. A lamp many yards along
the tunnel wall shed some light and there was the dim
glimmer from inside the car, but Claire couldn’t see
much outside. There was just enough light to ruin her
night vision, yet not enough to actually see anything.
She leaned against the partition beside the door and
sighed. Failed already. No surprise there then. She
stepped away from the door, intending to walk back
to the ticket hall and sit next to one of the grilles until
someone found her. If only she had a torch or something.
She stopped in her tracks, made an exasperated growling noise, and rummaged in her bag. Digging out her
phone again she tapped and prodded it until it came to
life and started flipping around the menus. When her
dad had given it to her for her birthday she had spent
an entire afternoon searching through all the options
and downloading new utilities and she was sure one
of them… There it was. An app that turned the camera flash into a torch. She rushed back to the door and
flicked the light on.
Outside was a narrow walkway, coated with slime.
The harsh light from the torch cast sharp shadows
and she couldn’t be sure if what she could see was a
handrail, or cables. Whatever it was, there was nothing
between her and the walkway, so nothing to stop her
falling to the tracks if she slipped.
Claire squinted at the gap, trying to figure if she could
simply step across, or if she would have to jump. The
torch would be draining the battery so she switched it
off and pushed the phone into an outside pocket of her
bag. She needed both hands anyway. Giving herself
enough space for a ‘run up’, Claire took two quick
steps and jumped.
“They settled their world centuries ago, turning their
backs on technology and closing the Gate behind
them. When their children began to develop impossible, magical powers theyrejoiced and called them
Golden - until they took over.
Elanor comes to her powers not as a child, but as a
young woman - a Maverick. The Golden are rumoured
to do terrible things to those like her, so Elanor runs.
Anatol has travelled from the Home World, through
decades of deepsleep. The Gate that helped settled this
world is breaking down, and he has been sent to stop it
destroying both worlds.
He and Elanor collide and form an uneasy alliance of
magic and science.”
and I use the endorsement
‘Robert Harkess does it with aplomb; his way with
words, his melding of light and dark, and his highly
inventive worlds’ Katy O’Dowd
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