The Shadow Master by Craig Cormick - sample chapters

Then he lifted the magnifier to his eye. It took him a moment to get the focus right, then he scanned across the blurred and magnified towers of the city until he found the one he was after. That is where the old man would be. He felt his heart beating rapidly with excitement. Patience, he told himself. There was a flash of light upon glass and he aligned his magnifier with the one on shore that was pointing at him.

And then distance was changed. Everything was changed.

His vessel was halfway across the maelstrom before he even called out the order to row. The men in the belly of the ship had no way of knowing what was happening and the men on deck had no way of understanding it. Galileo’s machines controlled time and distance, and he controlled the machines.

He felt a tingling in his fingers as they shook a little and he grasped the instruments tighter to hold them steady.

The waters of the maelstrom now presented little difficulty to the rowers, sucking at the ship with no more force than that of an outgoing tide. Capitano Manzoni waited until they had reached the far side of the whirlpool before stopping the chronometer, as per his strict orders. He heard the roar of the waters fill his ears and the cry of the first mate, “Safely through!� The slaves at the oars let out a loud cheer and kissed their talismans.

The Capitano disassembled the chronometer, unrolled the magnifier and locked all the instruments in the case. He felt his fingers cramp a little and opened and closed them slowly, turning them over and looking for any signs of the change in them he had been warned of. The magic of science did not come without a price. There were no signs of the grey blotching on his skin and his fingers were just a little stiff. Surely that was nothing. He shook them a little and stepped out of the