A Stitch in Time: An excerpt

Satin: A Stitch in Time is now officially in existence. Though it will doubtless be a while before it hits the bookshops, you can preorder it in a few places, including here.

A Stitch in Time is Book 1 of the Satin series. To whet your appetite, here’s a little excerpt, taken from Chapter 8: Breaking and Entering:

They waited for the camera at the corner of the quarters to turn away from them, and then, bending low, Yavi ran swiftly across the open lawn. It was uneven and the grass badly cut. He nearly tripped, but made it to the other side long before the camera had started its circuit back. Grey joined him soon after, with Scrap on her shoulder, and they slowly and carefully crept along the side of the building.

Like the previous night, it was partially cloudy, dark and moonless. Yavi still had trouble believing that there were people around them, till they passed under an open window and the sound of soft snores reached them. Someone coughed, and Grey and Yavi froze. But nothing moved and they made their slow and steady way across to the other side of the guards’ quarters.

They reached the other side of the building, and Grey stopped and pulled her goggles off. She got her computer out.

‘Now for the tricky part,’ she said. ‘We need to go across the empty space between this building and the Archives, and there are too many cameras. So I’ll disable them. The Archives are also surrounded by motion sensors. But Scrap here will go along and set them off for us. Once they see it’s a cat, they’ll need to reset the system, and it usually takes a couple of minutes for them to come back online. That’s our window.’ As she spoke, she tapped away on her computer.

‘It seems almost too easy,’ said Yavi.

‘Be thankful, they have old systems here. There. Done.’

She put the computer away quickly, lifted the cat from her shoulder and peeked around the side of the building. ‘Go, Scrappy. Shoo!’

Scrap streaked across the lawn, and suddenly a bright light came on. A man’s voice called out and then laughed. In the stillness of the night, they heard the crunching of heavy boots on the ground, and in under half a minute, the light went off.

‘Now!’ said Grey, clasping a hand around Yavi’s wrist.

As quietly and as fast as they could, they ran diagonally across the lawn, in the opposite direction from which Scrap had gone. They rounded a corner and were in front of a stout wooden door. As Grey got out her lock-picks, Yavi took a quick look at the building. It reminded him of his grandfather’s house, the huge windows, with bars and shutters, the heavy doors…

All of a sudden, a loud, clanging noise ripped through the silent night. For the second time that night, Yavi thought he was having a heart attack.

Grey said a very bad word—something that was illegal in every province of the Nizrah Union as far as Yavi knew.

She turned to him. ‘Run!’ she said. ‘Go around the building and use the cover of the bushes along the wall. Just run! Go now!’

‘But…’

Shouts were heard now, and footsteps. ‘Halt! We see you!’ a female voice called out. Something streaked in their direction, and Yavi and Grey dived to the ground.

‘RUN! NOW!’ Grey yelled.

Yavi didn’t think twice. He picked himself up and tore along the side of the building, diving into the bushes near the perimeter wall. Keeping low, he crawled along it till he was behind a cluster of trees. He sat still, panting. His clothes were ripped and he hurt all over. Lights blazed on all around the area now, and black-clad Monks had surrounded the Archive building.

Yavi knew that they would be searching the grounds—if not now, then soon. He shook himself. He couldn’t help Grey by getting caught himself, he thought, and resumed his way along the wall, behind the cover of the shrubbery. Miraculously, he made it without being discovered, and it was only when he was safely on the other side did he stop to wonder if he should have stayed to help Grey.

But then, he couldn’t imagine what would have happened if he had been caught. A Marik captured trying to break into a restricted building. He could just see the look on Mother’s face.

What happens next? Does Grey get out alive? Does Yavi get caught? Oh yes, this is the ultimate cheap trick — you’ll have to read to find out!

~PD