Strange Gods by Alison Kimble

Author:Alison Kimble [Kimble, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Immortal Works
Published: 2021-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

With his favorite subject matter off-limits, Jagbi mostly stayed out of sight. It was easy to forget he was even still with them, except for the few times when he inserted his face a little too far into the conversation. Occasionally, Spooky glimpsed him in the distance, eyeing a pebble.

The straight path and repeating trees went on for what felt like forever. The only change in the scenery was the sky, which had begun to turn darker shades of gray and orange. Sweat and dirt caked her from head to toe. Spooky asked the finger for water. She handed a glass to Bree, then made one for Elliot.

“Thanks.” He downed half of it between breaths.

“How much farther?” Bree asked.

“I don’t know.” Spooky stared into the distance. “How long have we been walking?”

“Like ten hours,” Bree said.

“We should be close.” She really hoped they were close.

They ran out of light before they reached any kind of destination. With no moon or stars, Spooky couldn’t see the path in front of her. Even if they reached the winter home, they might pass it.

“Carcass, I need to talk to you,” Spooky said.

After a pause, he responded, “Yesss?”

“It’s too dark to see where we’re going. Can you make the sky light again?”

“I will not impact the internal causality of my world! I would have to give up my place in the Middle Order.” He sniffed. “Even for this crucial quest, you ask too much.”

“Okay, fine, then we need to stop. And we need sleep, anyway.”

“Mm, I had hoped you would be there before dark. But there will be no opportunity to rest once you reach Geyegorg, so better to address this physical limitation now. Sleep until the beast with the glowing tongue opens its mouth again.”

“Um, okay. How long is that?”

“It usually takes about four hours for its tongue to remoisten to its satisfaction.”

“Where should we sleep?”

“Where you are. I have an agent obtaining some options to offer Geyegorg in trade. He will meet you at my winter home tomorrow. Sleep now.”

Spooky turned in the direction of the dark shapes she hoped were Bree and Elliot. “Sounds like we’ll be spending the night here.”

“In the middle of the woods?” Bree whimpered. “In the dirt?”

“What other choice do we have?”

“But we’re out in the open.”

It wasn’t cold, but Spooky didn’t want to stay out in the open either. She didn’t think she could sleep in the middle of the wilderness, unguarded on all sides.

“There is a place that isn’t open,” a voice behind them said.

Spooky tensed, before realizing it was just Jagbi. “Really? Where?”

“It is a place that is not made of dirt, but rather, made of…oh.” Jagbi stopped. “I’m not allowed to talk about that anymore.”

“Is it made of rocks?”

“That’s right!” Jagbi said. “All around you!”

“Like a cave?” Elliot asked.

“Yes, a cave.”

“How far away is it?” Now that she had stopped walking, Spooky’s legs trembled.

“You could throw a you-know-what at it,” he said. Apparently, he had taken Bree’s no rock-talk ruling to heart. “I can take you there.

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.