The Inferior by Peadar O. Guilin

Author:Peadar O. Guilin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375849527
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2008-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

Indrani’s jaw had dropped when Stopmouth first told her that the Flims had been replaced by the Longtongues.

They’d been sitting in the shade of some old Flim hide and Stopmouth had made a casual remark about the species that had provided it. He made a lot of casual remarks these days, something he hadn’t done before he found the Talker. Speech was turning from a source of terror into the sweetest of pleasures. He tried to stay near the Talker whenever possible, filling silences with useless chatter as if the magic sphere might be snatched away again at any moment. And so one day he’d wondered aloud whether the Longtongues might provide skins anywhere near as useful as those of the extinct Flims.

Indrani was still too weak to jump to her feet, but she made a brave effort. ‘The Flims have been replaced?’

Her voice rose to a screech that had Stopmouth praying no creature had heard her.

‘Why haven’t my people come for me then?’ she asked.

He didn’t know what she meant. Extinct beasts were supposed to be replaced. Only the Hairbeast streets hadn’t been filled after the demise of its owners. That extinction had happened around the time of Indrani’s arrival. Stopmouth looked at her now and wondered for the first time what connections might exist between this most beautiful of women and all the strange things that had occurred over the last two hundred days. He asked her if the arrival of the Longtongues meant things were finally returning to normal, but she wouldn’t answer.

She spent most of that day with her arms clasped about her knees, staring accusingly at the nearest Globe. When he suggested she do some work, she uttered an obscenity which the Talker translated for him in full sexual detail.

Many days had passed since then. Now the spirits had decided that Indrani should see the Longtongues for herself.

When they came to the end of the trees, Flim-Ways seemed totally empty. No guards waited in the towers. It looked as if the two humans could just stroll down the main street, and perhaps, by day, they could.

‘Do we cross, or do we go round?’ asked Indrani.

Stopmouth wanted to go round. He felt fear knotting his muscles at the thought of the beasts that waited behind those quiet walls. But already they could hear the shouts of a large party of human hunters in the distance. The sled hadn’t covered their tracks as effectively as he’d hoped.

‘They’ll catch us in no time if we take the long way. Unless we abandon the supplies.’

‘If we do that, we’re dead anyway,’ said Indrani.

He nodded and took a deep breath. ‘Then we go through. I think I understand the dangers of the Longtongues better than the hunters do.’ At least he hoped so.

They set off across the cleared area between the trees and the wall. The footing here was treacherous–small pointed rocks hid under beds of moss, while old branches awoke from their graves to pull at the sled. Indrani

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