Read Online Crap Kingdom by D. C. Pierson - Free Book Online Page B

that blew out of the void. The voice grew louder.
    “TOM!”
    It was Gark.
    Tom remembered where he actually was just in time for something to hit him in his side, sending him rolling out of the creature’s grasp. Gark had tackled him, and they’d both fallen into a human heap. There was a roar that sounded like it came from six huge metal lungs, and Gark was knocked off of Tom by the beast. It stood over Tom on all fours, claiming him, and its internal lightning ricocheted up to its once-peaceful green eyes and set them on fire. The eyes met Tom’s and he was immediately in the fire and then breaking through it, and then he was back above the kingdom.
    The cloud cover was draining away in every direction, and for the first time Tom could see that the mountainside kingdom of diamonds was surrounded by vast plains of permanent war, and he was everywhere at once, watching slave armies being driven against one another like opposing tides by diamond-armored men dictating their movements from the orb hovering over the battlefields. He saw the valley parade ground converted into an arena for gladiatorial combat, the stands full of bloodthirsty fans, and one combatant was a centaur-like thing driven mad by starvation, and the other combatant was Tom.
    Then he was back in the nameless kingdom and it was on fire and all the citizens were being driven out, single file. Among them were the king and Pira and Gark. And then Tom saw Gark in real life, and he was relieved to see he had not been captured. Partially he was relieved because he sort of liked Gark, but also he was relieved because Gark had snatched him out from under the dragon-dog and was pulling him back toward the kingdom, which was not actually on fire.
    The creature unleashed another metallic six-lunged roar.
    Gark yelled, “
Slowwave truepants!
” Tom thought:
That’s a weird response.
    They ran a few more steps, then Gark yelled, “
Close!
” He stopped running and let Tom go. Why was he stopping? He was just standing there, and the creature was running straight at them. Gark was definitely a goner. The dragon-dog leapt, but then crumpled in midair just inches from Gark’s face. It fell to the ground, like it had collided with a window. The mixture of gases beneath its skin roiled as the thing stared Gark down with pure hatred, and its internal lightning began to congeal in little pools of energy on its skin, gathering and meeting and growing until the thing barked and sent the concentrated electricity at Gark like a dragon’s fire-breath, but made of blue light. It was impressive, but it danced away harmlessly over the surface of the invisible barrier that had protected them. The monster turned and slunk away over the featureless surface of the land beyond the nameless kingdom. Gark turned to Tom.
    “Whoa! Sorry about that.”
    Tom just stared at him. Gark offered him a hand, and dusted him off once he was standing upright.
    “So, now you’ve met an Elgg.”
    “That’s an Elgg?” Tom was still trying to catch his breath.
    “Yup. It’s an emissary of the Ghelm. They’re the people we share this world with. Or . . . I dunno if ‘share’ is the best way to say it. They’d enslave us and burn our whole village if it weren’t for the Wall. We can cross it going out, but nothing can come in. And if we cross it going out like you just did and we want to get back in we have to bring it down for a second and put it back up.”
    “I thought you guys said you didn’t have magic.”
    “We do! It’s just that our native magic’s something different entirely. You want to see an example?”
    “Sure.” He waited for Gark to give an example. Gark just stood there.
    “Ew, who farted?” Gark said.
    Tom smelled it too. “Not me!” he said, which was the truth.
    “Neither did I,” Gark said. “In fact, no one farted. But the spell makes you think someone did. That’s
our
magic.”
    “Oh. Great.”
    “The Ghelm send those things over here, hoping to