by Darren Shan
She nods at me and ducks.
“Is that it?” I squeak. “You’re just going to leave me?”
“Yes,” she says.
“What if I want to see you again?”
Inez frowns. “You know where this entrance is, so you have access to the Merge whenever you feel like it. And you can visit Winston any time too.”
“Will he be able to help me find you?” I ask.
“Probably,” she says, then pokes me in the ribs. “Climb up. I want to press on.”
I crawl onto the bridge and kneel over the hole, staring down sadly at Inez, who’s pulling faces designed to shut the borehole.
“Wait,” I stop her.
“What now?” she scowls.
“You can’t just dump me like this. We never discussed how I was going to explain my absence.”
She shrugs. “Tell people you bumped your head and can’t remember anything.”
“They won’t buy that,” I cry. “I’ll have to explain where these clothes came from, what happened to my school uniform, how I’ve fed myself, where I’ve slept. It’s not just my foster parents — I’ll have to come up with a story for the police too. What sort of a tale can I cook up that will explain all this?”
I stare at her helplessly, waiting for words of wisdom and sage advice.
Inez thinks about it. She tugs an ear and growls thoughtfully. Then, with a nod, she pulls a few faces, jolting the tumblers of the lock so that it snaps shut and closes the borehole. Just before that happens, she shoots a quick comment my way, the sum fruit of all her brain-crunching, and her parting gift to me.
41
“YOU’LL THINK OF SOMETHING,” she says.
THIS IS THE END OF Book Three, Volume One of Archibald Lox, but Archie will be back. Subscribe to the Shanville Monthly newsletter to ensure you are among the first to find out about his return — click here to subscribe
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 Vote of Alignment
by Darren Shan
Copyright © 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.
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