Scrivener's Moon by Philip Reeve

Author:Philip Reeve
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: London (England)
ISBN: 9781407121574
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2011-04-03T23:00:00+00:00

21

THE LONG SHORE AND THE

LONELY HILLS

n silence they crossed the dew-wet grass between the sleeping vehicles of the Kometsvansen. The Morvish fort reared up black behind them on its big clawed wheels. The waning Foxglove Moon had set, but there were so many stars that their light was bright enough to see by; sometimes, as she went after Cluny and Marten, Fever thought that she glimpsed their star-cast shadows on the ground.

They had come for her after midnight; Marten relieving the guard at her door, Cluny waiting hidden below until he reckoned it safe to bring Fever down to her. The fort was asleep; the guards on the hatch they left by were Carn Morvish’s chosen men who would say nothing of what they’d seen. Among the patchy birchwoods west of the Kometsvansen mammoths were waiting, two huge shaggy shapes that steamed in the starlight, like haystacks on a summer’s morning, except that Fever had never met a haystack that breathed, or snorted, or snuffled at her clothes and face with a wet, inquisitive trunk.

“Don’t be afraid,” whispered Cluny. “That smaller one is Marten’s mammoth, Lump. This one is Carpet, who has carried me on ever so many journeys.” She stroked the beast’s long, hairy nose. A small eye glittered, half veiled in hair. “We call her Carpet because she’s a pet, and she looks like a carpet.”

Fever thought any carpet that looked and smelled like that ought to have been burned long ago. She did not approve of carpets: irrational, insanitary objects which were home to mites and moths. She did not trust animals at all, and could never understand why people grew sentimental over dogs and horses and pretended that they could be the friends of humans. She stood beside Cluny and watched while Marten, with various clicking and cooing noises, persuaded the larger mammoth to kneel. She had to admit that the creature seemed well-trained, and that in the chill of the northern night there was much to be said for riding on something so big and so warm. Even so, she felt scared as Cluny helped her up between the bags and bundles on Carpet’s back, and more scared when the mammoth rose ponderously to its feet, a shuddering, uncertain rise that made her grab handfuls of its coarse coat to save herself from tumbling straight off the other side.

Away in the night somewhere another mammoth bellowed. Carpet’s trunk went up swaying like a snake and she let off an answering hoot, a plume of vapour under the stars. Marten, scrambling nimbly up on to his own mount’s neck, said, “Hush, girl, hush!” It must have been strange for the mammoths, Fever thought, being singled out from their herd and led away like this with only people for company. Cluny slid herself into the coll between Carpet’s shoulders and the tall, domed head, dug in her heels behind the big, flapping ears, and did something which made Carpet turn and start to move, swinging her head from time to time, those long tusks swishing through the bracken.

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.