Chaos by Lanie Bross

Author:Lanie Bross [Bross, Lanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-97736-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2015-01-29T05:00:00+00:00

They went in silence through the world of glass.

Each step was agonizingly slow; each time Luc stepped down, he feared that all the glass would shatter and he would plummet into nothingness. Miranda didn’t speak. When he had tried to question her further, she had merely placed a finger to her lips.

The terrain changed gradually. They moved into a vast network of glass stalagmites that reached for the sky. The glass spires were dazzling in the setting sun: red and gold fires seemed to smolder in their surfaces, and Luc had to shield his eyes to keep from being blinded. It was like being inside a many-faceted crystal, or at the bottom of a cavernous maze built entirely of ice.

Luc was aching for sound, for motion, for anything alive. This place was even worse than the world of snow—even quieter, the air vibrating with things unsaid and sounds begging for release.

They broke free, at last, of the maze, only to find themselves at the base of a towering mountain of glass. Writhing wisps of what looked like steam curled upward from the top and stretched to the sky. Overhead, colors twisted into each other, creating the most amazing blown-glass effect.

It reminded Luc of watching a glass blower at the art center last year. How the glass had turned molten, pliable enough for puffs of air to be blown into the center. The man had dipped and blown and shaped the glass until it became a multicolored orb that looked almost otherworldly.

Molten glass was rolling down from the top of the mountain, giant tear-shaped beads that then hardened and formed ridges that made the side of the slope look like the back of an enormous glass reptile. The ground beneath them vibrated with a low and constant hum, and another sound, fainter but still discernible. A steady beating rhythm.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Then came a crackling noise, like massive bones being roused from a deep sleep. The entire mountain seemed to move, and Luc took a step back.

“You see, Luc, how the guardian of fire hungers.” Miranda whispered so quietly, he was forced to lean in to hear her, even though being close to her made his skin crawl. “He needs souls to feed the flame.”

“What are you talk …”

The question died in his throat. Because as he spoke, as he watched, the mountain moved. It was slight, but Luc was sure of it.

And Luc saw it wasn’t a mountain at all, but an enormous monster—with teeth as sharp and glittering as icicles, and a dark cave of a mouth, and a tail spiked with glass as sharp as a razor.

Each of its legs was as wide as a house. As it rose, a huge shadow fell over Luc, a darkness that blotted out the sun smoldering on the horizon. It had no eyes that Luc could see, but that didn’t matter. The monster knew where he was. It swung its vast head, that enormous surface of planes and angles and pitted shadows, toward him.

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