Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel

Author:Kenneth Oppel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2016-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

14.

WORDPLAY

HE CAME TO US, TOO,” I SAID, WHEN SHE started telling me about her visit from Ethan Withrow.

“He said he would. Are you going to work with him?”

I shook my head and wondered if she looked relieved. “My father got all pigheaded about it.”

“Did he tell you the legend of the Black Beauty?”

“Incredible, isn’t it? Did you tell him you have the tooth?”

“Of course not!”

I grinned. “Have you noticed yourself having any strange powers yet?”

“I do feel invincible,” she admitted with a smile.

“You always were,” I said, and meant it. To me there was something indestructible about her, like deep down there was this core of confidence and conviction that nothing could harm. “I like the idea of the tooth shooting like an arrow.”

“I’ll have to try it,” she said. “Maybe on one of the singing Yalies.”

As usual I’d found her out prospecting with her little team, and she’d broken away to join me in a large rectangular opening at the base of the butte. The sides and ceiling were so square it looked like it had been chiseled out on purpose, a small stage for the dinosaurs to put on plays for one another. We had to keep our voices low because it was quite echoey inside.

“The Plains Indians,” she said, “they must have come across so many fossils, weathered out, over the centuries. I wonder if that’s what gave them the idea for their giants and monsters. They had proof right at their feet.”

“That’s what Withrow thinks. I didn’t think it was a bad idea, working with him. We could’ve used the help, and the money. He even offered to advance us some to keep us in the field longer. That guide of his, Thomas, he might’ve been able to talk to the local Sioux. To get some information about where the tooth came from.”

“That might not have gone well.”

“Maybe not. I had a run in with a Sioux boy.” I’d been waiting to tell her about it for days.

“Were you frightened?” she said, putting her hand on my arm.

I gave a manly shrug. “No. Well, a bit. He had a bow and a knife.”

“I would’ve been petrified,” she said, then added, almost disappointed, “We haven’t seen anyone yet. Our scouts say they’ve seen campfire smoke from the prairie, which means a village. Although . . .” She looked off, remembering. “I was almost certain I saw a rider on horseback when we were at those funeral platforms.”

“I don’t think they’d come anywhere near you, with half the army in tow.”

Her gaze was still thoughtful. “I feel even guiltier about taking the tooth, now I know how important it was to the man.”

“Sounds like they thought it was a mixed blessing by the end.”

“But they still buried it with him.”

“Maybe to get rid of it. Maybe they thought it was cursed.”

All that was a myth, but I envied her having held it. “Now there’s someone else looking.”

“Could you really have given it away, your rex?” she asked me.

I breathed out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.