A picture in fragments

After re-reading Shadows and Pagodas I thought I’d start sharing some of my favourite scenes and dialogue from the novel. Roughly in chronological order – always better to start at the beginning as Abbot Od says – these brief extracts will include the comic, the dark and the dramatic. The idea is to paint a tantalising ‘picture in fragments’ of the Baron and Peter’s first adventure together. I hope you enjoy them as much as me.

My very first extract is taken from the beginning of Chapter 1, Disturbing Encounters:

“You idiot, Fielding!” Something odd back there and he’d nearly overlooked it! Peter trotted back to Myrmidon and there it was, sitting on the bank, unattended: an enormous and very peculiar sedan chair. It was made of a wood that seemed to suck in the moonlight and decorated with a Fantastical Creature that reared up from the roof.

     But most remarkable of all was the apparent lack of any windows or doors. 
     Peter bit his lip, moved closer but was careful not to touch. He tried to find some way of getting in and then, on the far side, discovered the outline of a door or panel and then a small grille, oblong in shape, and a row of thin bars.
     “Good grief...”