Goddess from the Lost Planet by Neal Roberts

Author:Neal Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Thriller
ISBN: 9780997880397
Publisher: Neal Roberts
Published: 2023-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Miriam stirred from her restful slumber only to find she’d never left her chair. She opened her eyes and found it was full dark. If it weren’t for the glow from the remaining embers of her little campfire, she would have been unable to see that Daniel had drifted off in his chair right next to her.

Wait. Wasn’t the wood still aflame when she drifted off? How much time had passed? She looked up at the sky. The constellations had shifted considerably since she fell asleep, and some had dropped below the horizon.

Remembering her revolver, she felt for it in her lap. It was gone. In a panic, she reached down next to her chair and realized it had fallen to the ground. How careless, she thought, though she was relieved to find the safety still engaged.

She could make out the bare outline of the absinthe bottle, too, which had evidently been knocked over by the tumbling handgun. Once again she was relieved; the bottle remained securely corked and nothing had spilled.

So, no harm done.

Except we’re sitting in chairs in the dark on the Zimbabwean plain without even the shelter of a tent. And our fire’s about done. She was about to rise, awaken Daniel, and prepare to retire for the night. But she had an eerie feeling of being watched.

She gripped the revolver, flipped off the safety, and listened for any threatening sounds, such as movement in the brush. There was a brief rustling to her right. It sounded perhaps thirty feet away, but distance is hard to judge with no visual cues. She waited.

And there it was again. A momentary rustling. But now it was a bit closer. Or did it just seem closer, since she’d focused on it now?

Pssst!

It was a sound of very obviously human origin, but that didn’t mean it was friendly. She obstinately refused to answer.

There came a whisper from the brush only a few feet away. “Madam Azeri. It’s me, Taurayi.”

This was irritating. “What are you doing out and about in the middle of the night?” she said.

“I saw the light in the sky,” whispered Taurayi. “I went to see. But I fell asleep. Just like you and the good doctor.”

Oh, that’s right! We saw a light in the sky, and that was the last thing I knew before I woke up just now.

“Taurayi, why are you whispering?” she asked.

There was a brief hiatus in the conversation, during which Miriam had the feeling that a quiet conference was going on about how to reply to her.

“Because I do not wish to wake the good doctor,” said the boy.

She shook her head at the boy’s uncharacteristic reticence and tossed a few sticks of wood on the fire, raising both the light and heat at the campsite.

“Oh, hokum! Show yourself,” she quietly demanded.

There was another gap in the conversation.

“Who is there with you, Taurayi?” she said. “I sense that there’s someone with you.”

“He is … my new friend,” said the boy hesitantly.

“Then introduce him to me,” she said wearily.

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.