Death & Honey by Kevin Hearne

Author:Kevin Hearne [Hearne, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Published: 2019-02-27T18:30:00+00:00

THE MOUNTAIN was sort of like somebody staring at you from across the room while you were drunk. You thought you saw it all right, and then you got closer, and it was different and maybe a little less what you’d hoped it would be. Most of the mountains in these parts were stark, orange things cut through with black shadows and the barest fuzz of green, but this little group of mountains was almost purple, always hazy, with little cloud hats that never seemed to float away. They looked like maybe they’d been snatched up in some other part of the world and slapped down in the desert and reckoned it was everybody else that was peculiar. So, as Rhett got closer and closer and they didn’t get any clearer, he understood well and good that magic was afoot. Nothing in these parts, other than a healing bruise, had any right to be that lavender and green and blobby.

With the harpies gone, the bee bustled back into view and kept on, and the river they’d been following didn’t change much, at least. The water stayed cold and sweet, and neither he nor his horse complained. The land changed gradually and reminded him all too much of Buck’s grove: the red flowers petered out and gave way to neat orchards, gardens busting with leafy greens, and pastures of sleek white goats and glossy black cows, mooing their welcomes. A few farmhouses sprang up, not quite a city, their boards still yellow with sap. The trees grew gradually bigger, their canopies spreading out in great dappled shade, and here and there a vibrant lea busting with lacy flowers sheltered a few golden bee skeps, although no bees personally approached Rhett with any sort of business—not like his bee. A great rushing sound built as he got closer to the towering stone itself, and he found a waterfall gushing down the side of the mountain and surrounded by lush, twisted fruit trees, candy-colored flowers, and strange little clay statues of ladies stuck toe-down in the black dirt. Some were round as balls and some were skinny and holding snakes, and the lot of them were eyeless…and yet Rhett felt watched.

He’d expected a cave, or a passel of fighting men, or something dark and threatening, but all he found was a twisty little dirt trail up the side of the mountain. Although he’d seen people tending their farms, he hadn’t yet been approached, and even if there’d been signs, it’s not like he could’ve read the dang things. Shielding his eye, he looked up the mountain and saw a building high up top, all boxy lines like a child’s building blocks with triangles on top. The afternoon sun gave it a sort of halo thing like he’d seen around various saints in paintings in Ines’s old chapel, and he reckoned that meant whatever was up there thought it was right holy.

“We’ll see about that,” he muttered, dismounting with a creak in his back.

Feeling

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.