The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams

Author:Jen Williams [Williams, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HeadlinePublisher
Published: 2018-02-09T05:00:00+00:00

30

When the giant stone fell, it cracked with a sound like an avalanche. Beneath Aldasair, Jessen flinched, and he twined his fingers through her fur as much to reassure himself as her. Next to him, riding easily on Sharrik’s harness, Bern muttered under his breath.

‘Stones be damned, that’s hardly good.’

‘What is it?’

Bern nodded to where the huge stone had landed. The thing had toppled off the row of logs they had been using to transport it away from the Broken Field, and although it hadn’t fallen on any of the Finneral men and women there – who had been very sensibly keeping far back – it had shattered into three large pieces. ‘It’s bad luck for the sacred stones to shatter like that, and three is an unlucky number too. They’ll all be shaking their heads over this around the campfires tonight, that’s for sure. Another bad omen in a place riddled with them.’

‘It’s going well, though.’ And that was true. Over the last few days they had, very gradually, been moving the giant rocks and the great flat pieces of stone away from the field, exposing the broken Behemoth beneath. It was an extremely tense process; with each piece moved, they waited for the Jure’lia creature beneath to surge into life, or for the black fluid that shifted underneath it to take some terrible form. Aldasair was sure that they were all waiting for a swarm of burrowers to begin leaking through the gaps to eat them from the inside out, but even so the Finneral men and women worked steadily, bringing their horses and their equipment to get the job done. Aldasair thought they were very brave. And every time a stone was lifted, he and Bern were there, with the war-beasts, ready to take down anything that looked too lively. So far, there had been nothing; every time they got close, the black fluid would rapidly drain away from them, leaving the dented and strangely soft-looking pieces of the Jure’lia ship, oily and unsettling to look at. They had found no bodies. Aldasair wasn’t certain if this was good or bad news.

‘Hoy, boys. How about some lunch?’ Rainya was approaching them, riding her enormous bear. Her golden hair was tied into a tail at the back of her head, and she was carrying a sack, which she threw to Aldasair. To his own surprise, he caught it.

‘What’s next, Ma?’

‘You see that long flat rock in the middle there? Reckon you and Sharrik could manage by yourselves? Our poor animals are knackered.’

‘We are very strong!’ declared Sharrik, puffing out the thick blue and grey fur on his chest. ‘We can move it easily. We do not even need lunch.’

‘Well I need lunch,’ said Bern. Aldasair opened the bag, and threw the bigger man a bread roll from it. Inside Bern’s big fist the thing looked tiny, so Aldasair threw him another one, before tearing into one himself.

‘The Stone Talker sends her thanks,’ said Lady Rainya quietly. ‘She’s been

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.