Thresholds by Kiriki Hoffman Nina

Author:Kiriki Hoffman, Nina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2010-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

One end of it rose up. It had hundreds of small jointed legs fringing its sides. It was flatter than a snake, and it had many body segments. It looked more like a humongous centipede than anything else.

“Wha—wha—wha—” Travis gasped.

Maya clutched Gwenda’s arm and tried to drag her toward the door.

Gwenda didn’t budge. “Wait,” she said.

The top of the thing’s body waved in the air. It had six longer limbs at that end, each jointed three times, below a bulging, rounded head. The longer legs curled and unfurled as the portal faded behind it.

A moment later, the cavern was just a cavern again. Plus a giant centipede.

The six people who had conjured up the portal lowered their arms.

Nobody was running away.

The centipede’s six long limbs wove gracefully through the air until they all pointed toward Maya. Then they stopped.

“Fetch it,” said the centipede. It sounded female.

“Child,” said Harper. “Come.”

“You’re—what? You’re—” She didn’t even know what to ask. A crazy image of Peter trying to find a jar big enough to hold this creature flashed through her mind.

“Come,” Harper said again, in that creepy voice that made her obey, and she walked unwillingly toward the enormous centipede, fear knotting her stomach. Was it going to eat her? Was that how they solved their problems?

“Just a danged minute,” said Travis. He came up behind Maya, put his arms around her chest, and lifted her off the ground. Her feet kept walking on air, her heels knocking into his shins. “Somebody tell us this thing is safe!”

“I will not harm you,” the centipede said. Its voice sounded warm and comforting, like the best mother in the world. “On the lives of my three hundred children I swear it.”

Gwenda said, “It’s Loostra,” as though that explained everything. “She never hurts people.”

“Take the whammy off Maya anyway, and let her get there by herself,” said Travis.

There was heat at Maya’s left wrist. A shiver ran through her, and her legs stopped kicking. Travis set her down and she stood, uncertain. She twisted toward the door they had come in through, then back toward the center of the cavern, where the giant pale segmented bug from outer space waited, its forelegs curling and uncurling in her direction.

No danger, thought Maya’s egg.

“All right,” Maya said. She walked toward Loostra, and so did everyone else. Travis stayed even with her, and she glanced up at him and mouthed, Thanks.

As they got closer, Maya smelled Loostra: vinegar, damp dirt, a hint of rank, crushed grass.

“This is Loostra,” Harper said. “Loostra, this is Maya.”

Maya tried to slow her heartbeat; it was shuffling in her ears, and it pulsed through the egg.

Everybody else seemed calm, even Travis, as though he ran into giant talking centipedes every day. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Maya,” said Harper, “and a sissimi.”

The centipede had a hard round head with six dark velvety spots on it. “Ah,” she said, but Maya couldn’t tell where she spoke from. “Show me.” She sounded like the best mother in the world again, asking to see a scraped knee so she could put a Band-Aid on it.

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