Read Online A Mosaic of Stars: Short Stories From Other Worlds by Andrew Knighton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Andrew Knighton
Ads: Link
shutter falling free with a crack of flying nails.
‘You were right, Stiviss,’ she said. ‘We must go into town.’
She began to hurry round the house, realised that he was not following. She turned and saw him standing, gaze shifting between her and the jungle, face full of doubt.
‘Come on,’ she said, grabbing his hand. ‘If I’m losing this place then I can’t lose you too.’
His hand tightened round hers and they ran for the barn.
The buggy was out and they leapt aboard as the bulk of the swarm reached the fields. Jasmine, the old brown mare, snorted in panic as the buzzing grew.
Stiviss helped Elena up, those ridiculous skirts getting in her way. She cracked the reins and they jolted off down the dirt track, stray razor locusts slashing at them with sharp, narrow legs.
Jasmine raced with all the fuel of fear, but the swarm was faster. Elena felt them slashing at her arms, saw blood run pale down Stiviss’s face. The creatures seemed to have more taste for him, and for Jasmine, whose flanks were soon raw and seeping. The horse stumbled and fell, the buggy grinding to a halt as she panted out her last.
‘Quickly!’ Elena leapt in terror from the carriage, began running up the road. Behind her, Stiviss slid to the ground with a thump and lay groaning in the dirt.
She ran back, winged bodies battering her face, and put an arm around him.
‘Stay with me,’ she said. ‘We have to get to town.’
‘This is just a warning.’ He shook his head. ‘Just the beginning. Too many snappers, eating all the frogs. Nothing left to eat locust eggs. The balance has tipped. The jungle will devour your fine colony.’
‘And you?’ she asked with growing horror.
‘My people will be safe,’ he said. ‘We are part of the jungle.’
‘But you… this…’ She gestured at his wounds, then at the buzzing swarm.
His wheezing laugh turned into a wince.
She stared in horror at the ruin of the buggy, at the red mess that had been her fine horse, at the pain across Stiviss’s face. And then she looked at the jungle, the swarm thinner near its foliage. A place full of beauty and terror, full of the unknown. Could it be safe? Could she ever become one with that?
She should run for town, flee all of this with Harald. But what if she took a risk, for all that beauty?
And for Stiviss.
She lifted him in her arms, struggling under the weight and her own pain. She had never had to carry a person before, but between his kindly face and the locusts’ assault she somehow found the strength.
‘Stay with me,’ she said as she ran from the road, locusts slashing her all the way.
‘Stay with me,’ she groaned as she stumbled into the trees, the creatures still buzzing around her head.
‘Stay with me,’ she murmured as she collapsed into the undergrowth.
Now the swarm no longer reached her, held off by the thick greenery and the easier prey that small birds made.
She turned her head, saw Stiviss smiling back at her. The jungle was lush around them, frogs croaking, birds singing, the scent of sweet, strange flowers on every breath. And through the pain, through the buzz of the swarm vanishing into the distance, she felt freedom.
A Matter of Skin
The pain from the flayer’s knife is like a flower of razor blade petals unfurling in my mind. A searing agony whose beautiful results will make me weep with joy as well as pain. At last he sets the blade aside and hangs the skin ever so carefully across a willow rack.
“Another insightful chapter.” He wraps soothing bandages around my arm. “But you are running out of skin.”
I look at the rack, at the words I so carefully tattooed on the skin, accompanied by precise diagrams of the peonies I have made the subject of my studies. Blood seeps into the bandages and my body shivers with shock.
It will be worth it.
“How many are left?” I whisper, looking at the work of other scholars hanging on the flayer’s racks.
“Two.” With
‘You were right, Stiviss,’ she said. ‘We must go into town.’
She began to hurry round the house, realised that he was not following. She turned and saw him standing, gaze shifting between her and the jungle, face full of doubt.
‘Come on,’ she said, grabbing his hand. ‘If I’m losing this place then I can’t lose you too.’
His hand tightened round hers and they ran for the barn.
The buggy was out and they leapt aboard as the bulk of the swarm reached the fields. Jasmine, the old brown mare, snorted in panic as the buzzing grew.
Stiviss helped Elena up, those ridiculous skirts getting in her way. She cracked the reins and they jolted off down the dirt track, stray razor locusts slashing at them with sharp, narrow legs.
Jasmine raced with all the fuel of fear, but the swarm was faster. Elena felt them slashing at her arms, saw blood run pale down Stiviss’s face. The creatures seemed to have more taste for him, and for Jasmine, whose flanks were soon raw and seeping. The horse stumbled and fell, the buggy grinding to a halt as she panted out her last.
‘Quickly!’ Elena leapt in terror from the carriage, began running up the road. Behind her, Stiviss slid to the ground with a thump and lay groaning in the dirt.
She ran back, winged bodies battering her face, and put an arm around him.
‘Stay with me,’ she said. ‘We have to get to town.’
‘This is just a warning.’ He shook his head. ‘Just the beginning. Too many snappers, eating all the frogs. Nothing left to eat locust eggs. The balance has tipped. The jungle will devour your fine colony.’
‘And you?’ she asked with growing horror.
‘My people will be safe,’ he said. ‘We are part of the jungle.’
‘But you… this…’ She gestured at his wounds, then at the buzzing swarm.
His wheezing laugh turned into a wince.
She stared in horror at the ruin of the buggy, at the red mess that had been her fine horse, at the pain across Stiviss’s face. And then she looked at the jungle, the swarm thinner near its foliage. A place full of beauty and terror, full of the unknown. Could it be safe? Could she ever become one with that?
She should run for town, flee all of this with Harald. But what if she took a risk, for all that beauty?
And for Stiviss.
She lifted him in her arms, struggling under the weight and her own pain. She had never had to carry a person before, but between his kindly face and the locusts’ assault she somehow found the strength.
‘Stay with me,’ she said as she ran from the road, locusts slashing her all the way.
‘Stay with me,’ she groaned as she stumbled into the trees, the creatures still buzzing around her head.
‘Stay with me,’ she murmured as she collapsed into the undergrowth.
Now the swarm no longer reached her, held off by the thick greenery and the easier prey that small birds made.
She turned her head, saw Stiviss smiling back at her. The jungle was lush around them, frogs croaking, birds singing, the scent of sweet, strange flowers on every breath. And through the pain, through the buzz of the swarm vanishing into the distance, she felt freedom.
A Matter of Skin
The pain from the flayer’s knife is like a flower of razor blade petals unfurling in my mind. A searing agony whose beautiful results will make me weep with joy as well as pain. At last he sets the blade aside and hangs the skin ever so carefully across a willow rack.
“Another insightful chapter.” He wraps soothing bandages around my arm. “But you are running out of skin.”
I look at the rack, at the words I so carefully tattooed on the skin, accompanied by precise diagrams of the peonies I have made the subject of my studies. Blood seeps into the bandages and my body shivers with shock.
It will be worth it.
“How many are left?” I whisper, looking at the work of other scholars hanging on the flayer’s racks.
“Two.” With
Similar Books
