Read Online The Cornerstone by Nick Spalding - Free Book Online Page B

Merelie said, ‘but I had no choice… and it let me do it. I knew someone would find the note sooner or later… and here you are!’
    ‘Yeah, here I am,’ Max said with uncertainty.
    Something else occurred to him. ‘We’ve got The Cornerstone here, right?’ he said, giving it a poke.
    ‘Don’t poke it, Max.’
    ‘Sorry. If it’s here, how can it also be back in the library in Farefield?’
    ‘It’s the same book, Max. Two ends of the pathway between worlds.’
    ‘It’s the same book, but there’s two of it.’
    ‘Exactly!’ Merelie beamed, thinking Max understood.
    He didn’t, of course.
    ‘Forget it!’ he said, before Merelie could launch into another explanation. ‘I’ll just pretend I understand and we’ll call it quits for now.’
    ‘If you say so.’
    ‘How did you know the other book - that’s actually also this book, but isn’t – was in Farefield?’
    ‘I’ve always known The Cornerstone was there, along with someone from my world.’
    ‘You mean Imelda the librarian?’
    ‘Yes… she protects the book and uses it to communicate.’
    ‘…through the doorway it creates.’
    ‘That’s right! No-one can open it by themselves. You need The Cornerstone to do it. That’s why it was created - as a means for people to travel between worlds.’
    ‘Which brings us back to my main point,’ Max remembered. ‘Why did you bring me here? Why do you think I can help you?
    ‘Because only someone from your world can stop them Max, that’s why.’ Merelie looked frightened for the first time.
    ‘Stop who ?’

    Dramatic timing can be a blessing or a curse.
    It usually crops up in TV shows and films, but it also happens in real life – a lot more than you’d imagine.
    For example, helpful dramatic timing is when the baby is trapped in a burning building and about to be crushed by a falling roof beam. Suddenly, a big fireman bursts into the room and plucks it from danger.
    Or when the girl is boarding the plane to leave the country and the boy who’s loved her for years - but has never been able to admit it - catches her and declares his true feelings.
    Examples of un helpful dramatic timing are when the soldiers think they’ve killed the enemy and have started celebrating, only for a Panzer to roll into view from behind a convenient hedgerow.
    Or when the girl thinks she’s slain the masked killer once and for all - and the sneaky bugger wakes up and grabs her ankle.
    Or when Max Bloom is finally about to be told what the hell’s going on - and somebody comes barging into the room, ruining the moment.

    Max jumped two feet in the air and Merelie let out a yelp of surprise as the marble doors slammed open and a wall with arms ran in.
    Actually, it wasn’t a wall with arms - but a tall, broad shouldered man, of a size that’d make Arnold Schwarzenegger think twice about starting something.
    ‘Borne!’ Merelie exclaimed.
    Borne was the kind of square-jawed, muscle-bound idiot Max could really learn to despise.
    He had short cropped brown hair, arms like a sack of walnuts and a definite military air about him. He wore a dark green leather tunic, black combat trousers and polished black boots.
    ‘Merelie! Your father is on his way up!’ Borne thundered. He stabbed a finger at Max. ‘He should not be here, girl!’
    ‘We need him!’
    ‘Your father doesn’t agree.’
    ‘My father has his head in the sand, Borne. You know that!’
    ‘I’m your Arma Merelie, not one of your little friends. I keep my opinions to myself.’
    Max guessed an Arma was a bodyguard of some kind. This Borne looked liked he could guard several bodies at once.
    Merelie looked at Max in panic. ‘He mustn’t find you here! I used The Cornerstone without authorisation,’ she said, sounding almost hysterical.       
    ‘We’d better leave then, yeah?’ Max said.
    Borne gave him a look that made his eyes water.
    ‘Come on Merelie,’ the big man said. ‘We’ll head out of the Chapter House and into