The Prince Who Fell from the Sky by John Claude Bemis

Author:John Claude Bemis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375898044
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-05-21T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Casseomae worried as they journeyed along a rolling stretch of the Forest the next morning. Could the Ogeema himself really be searching for the cub?

Pang gauged their direction with the rising sun. When he stopped abruptly, Casseomae felt her legs tighten, ready for battle. The cub, paying more attention now to the reactions of the other three, knelt and pointed his metal stick out protectively.

“What is it?” Casseomae said. “I don’t smell wolves.”

“Not wolves,” Pang said, looking around. A long line of ruined buildings stretched in either direction along a narrow trail. Several of the buildings had tall colorful treelike billboards and signs of plastic and metal rising from the ground. “I recognize this place.”

“Scratchin’ good for you,” Dumpster said. “Now can we keep moving?”

Pang trotted over to Casseomae. “We’re getting near the Auspectres.”

Casseomae looked around at the ruins. “The witches live here?”

“No,” Pang said. “But we need something first.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“We need to bring them a carcass,” Pang said.

“Oh, I see how this works,” Dumpster said, leaping down from Casseomae. “Very clever. They convince voras to bring them their catch rather than having to search the Forest for it. Got to admire their knack for taking advantage of the gullible.”

“It’s not for food,” Pang said. “They divine the future from the carcass.”

“You’re saying they don’t eat it?” Dumpster asked.

“Of course they do, but if we don’t bring them a carcass, they’ll have nothing to use to answer our question.”

“Well, it won’t be a problem,” Casseomae said. “There are kills all over the Forest. I smell some rotting elk nearby at this very moment.”

“It’s not that simple,” Pang said. “We can’t just bring them the first pile of maggoty hide and bones we find. It’s got to be something good. Something fresh. Otherwise, they might require an offering as well.”

Dumpster rose on his hind legs. “What do you mean, ‘an offering’?”

“They require payment. If the carcass is good enough, they might need nothing extra. But if it’s not, you might have to give something else. It really depends on the question and how difficult it is to divine.”

“Was yours difficult?” Casseomae asked.

“Yes.”

“And what did you bring them?”

“A pair of rabbits. It was a fresh kill. I thought they would like that. But there are so many of them.…” He shivered. “A pair of rabbits was hardly enough to go around. To answer my question, they told me I had to give them something else.”

“Another catch?” Casseomae asked.

“No.”

“What, then?”

Pang dropped his snout, his lone ear twitching. “My ear. They took my ear as a sacrifice for the knowledge that would eventually save my life.”

Casseomae looked at the gaping ear hole on the side of Pang’s head and the scars around it.

“How big a viand can you carry?” Pang asked. “Could you carry a doe?”

“Yes, something bigger even, I’d suppose.”

“Good,” Pang said. “We’re going to try a tactic my pack used. Come on.”

The trail met up with a line of buildings. The ruined dens went on and on, occasionally spreading out to the sides where other trails intersected the main one.

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