Chasing the Dragon
Page 40
"And you and I were best friends?"
"Always," Ilya said in a way that Zal thought meant it wasn't true.
"Did we have an affair or something?" He couldn't figure it out.
"Go to sleep, Zal. She'll be here tomorrow, I am sure of it. She will be here very soon." He closed his eyes. "And don't touch the fire."
"But the dragon said ..."
"Zal!"
"All right, all right, keep your hair on." He sat awake in the night, watching Ilya sleeping among his dogs, listening to the sound of the wind restlessly moving the crystals on the surface of the snow and seeing himself slowly alter in the firelight's steady glow, gaining colour, gaining form, absorbing the beauty of the fire's light.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NSTINR ROBSON was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1968. She studied philosophy and linguistics at University. After only seven years of working as a temporary secretary and 2.5 million words of fiction thrown in the bin, she sold her first novel in 1999.
Since then she has won the 2000 amazon.co.uk Writers' Bursary Award. She has also been a student (1992) and a teacher (2002, 2006) at the Arvon Foundation, in the UK. Her books have been variously shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Best Novel Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the John W. Campbell Award.
In 2004 Justina was a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, on behalf of the Science Fiction Foundation.
hrough the agency of arcane powers beyond imagination Zal's band, The No Shows, have been in collaboration with real-world band Cynic Guru, so that together they are able to bring you a free track for your entertainment. Listen live to "Doom,"* at www .thenoshows.com.
This page is dedicated to Cynic Guru as a thank you for allowing themselves to be temporarily possessed by beings from beyond. They are:
Roland Hartwell (vocals, violin, guitar)
Ricky Korn (bass)
Oli Holm (drums)
Einar Johannsson (lead guitar, vocals)
They also write and record many great songs entirely their own that have nothing to do with channelling the mystical aether of imaginary space-time. More information about them, their tour dates, and their music can be found on their Web sites: www.cynicguru.com and www .myspace.com/CynicGuru.