Read Online Legend of the Three Moons by Patricia Bernard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Patricia Bernard
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the casket. Here they waited while she wriggled over to dig it up and wriggled back. `I heard voices in the barn,' she told them.
It was still night when they reached Mussel Cove Road. As there was no one in sight and they couldn't hear any wagons they walked along it until Nutty warned them that a vehicle was coming from the direction of Wartstoe Village. With only empty fields to their right and a bare hill to their left they were searching for somewhere to hide when Nutty found them a newly-vacated groundhog burrow. Hidden in the smelly hole they listened as the sounds of a horse and voices came towards them.
They hid twice more before dawn. Once when a caped and hooded horseman galloped by and once when a gang of tatty-looking bandits, bent on mischief, crossed the road. When morning came they slept in another burrow.
`It doesn't smell so bad if it's been empty for awhile,' said Lyla, laying her head on the food sack. She wasn't feeling well and wished she hadn't eaten the greasy meat. During the day she left the burrow three times to be sick. That evening, when the others awoke, they found her yellow-skinned, bilious and thirsty. She handed the food sack to Celeste. `Here. I can't eat anything.'
Nutty gobbled up the meat but the others only ate the potatoes.
By the time it was dark enough to travel Celeste and Swift were also complaining of churning stomachs. They walked slowly and rested often so it was morning before they reached the outskirts of Mussel Cove.
They lay in the long grass on one of the five hills that overlooked the fishing town and surveyed its rows of white windmills, the large market place already set up for the day, the curved sea wall and its five wharves crowded with fishing boats. Anchored out in the bay were two merchant banquettes and four trading junks, each one surrounded by a bevy of rowboats all vying to take crews ashore to visit the market or the drinking inns that ringed the harbour.
`What do you think of that?' Swift pointed to the hill opposite.
The hill, which was higher than their own, was crowded with round white tents. At its top stood 10 large cage-like enclosures each containing five or more long-necked Goch.
`I think Edith forgot to mention that Mussel Cove is a Raiders' garrison town,' said Chad. Then he turned to Lyla. `So what's our plan?'
Lyla closed her eyes against the bright sunlight reflecting off the town's brass roofs. Her stomach felt better but she was tired and had a bad headache. The last thing she wanted to do was make a plan, but she had to. `Two of us will go into the town and buy or rent a boat. But it can't be Lem, because he was seen in Wartstoe Inn, and it can't be Celeste or Swift because they're sick, so it has to be Chad and me. The rest of you can find somewhere to hide.'
Lem argued that he could disguise himself but Lyla argued back that she was the oldest and that was that. So with her hair tied back to look like a boy and with a jewel and two cheeses to barter for a boat, she and Chad set off. Both had a dagger hidden in their waistbands and both went barefooted because of Nutty's warning that the fishermen might steal their boots.
Lem waited until they were half way down the hill then he sent Nutty after them.
8
Clarissa the Girl on Stilts
The seaside town was so crowded with tartan-clad locals, foreign sailors with strange faces and six-fingered Belemites, that Lyla and Chad's leather capes and britches went unnoticed.
As they headed for the wharves they passed the row of inns already full of sailors, travellers and gambling Mussel Cove fishermen. Opposite the noisy inns was a string of stalls tended by loud-voiced fishwives selling crab soup and steaming shellfish. Chad's stomach rumbled as he sniffed their delicious aroma but Lyla's stomach did a sickening flip and she made a face at the thought of eating.
They walked along the first wharf they came to and discovered that all the boats, dinghies and skiffs were chained to bollards and
It was still night when they reached Mussel Cove Road. As there was no one in sight and they couldn't hear any wagons they walked along it until Nutty warned them that a vehicle was coming from the direction of Wartstoe Village. With only empty fields to their right and a bare hill to their left they were searching for somewhere to hide when Nutty found them a newly-vacated groundhog burrow. Hidden in the smelly hole they listened as the sounds of a horse and voices came towards them.
They hid twice more before dawn. Once when a caped and hooded horseman galloped by and once when a gang of tatty-looking bandits, bent on mischief, crossed the road. When morning came they slept in another burrow.
`It doesn't smell so bad if it's been empty for awhile,' said Lyla, laying her head on the food sack. She wasn't feeling well and wished she hadn't eaten the greasy meat. During the day she left the burrow three times to be sick. That evening, when the others awoke, they found her yellow-skinned, bilious and thirsty. She handed the food sack to Celeste. `Here. I can't eat anything.'
Nutty gobbled up the meat but the others only ate the potatoes.
By the time it was dark enough to travel Celeste and Swift were also complaining of churning stomachs. They walked slowly and rested often so it was morning before they reached the outskirts of Mussel Cove.
They lay in the long grass on one of the five hills that overlooked the fishing town and surveyed its rows of white windmills, the large market place already set up for the day, the curved sea wall and its five wharves crowded with fishing boats. Anchored out in the bay were two merchant banquettes and four trading junks, each one surrounded by a bevy of rowboats all vying to take crews ashore to visit the market or the drinking inns that ringed the harbour.
`What do you think of that?' Swift pointed to the hill opposite.
The hill, which was higher than their own, was crowded with round white tents. At its top stood 10 large cage-like enclosures each containing five or more long-necked Goch.
`I think Edith forgot to mention that Mussel Cove is a Raiders' garrison town,' said Chad. Then he turned to Lyla. `So what's our plan?'
Lyla closed her eyes against the bright sunlight reflecting off the town's brass roofs. Her stomach felt better but she was tired and had a bad headache. The last thing she wanted to do was make a plan, but she had to. `Two of us will go into the town and buy or rent a boat. But it can't be Lem, because he was seen in Wartstoe Inn, and it can't be Celeste or Swift because they're sick, so it has to be Chad and me. The rest of you can find somewhere to hide.'
Lem argued that he could disguise himself but Lyla argued back that she was the oldest and that was that. So with her hair tied back to look like a boy and with a jewel and two cheeses to barter for a boat, she and Chad set off. Both had a dagger hidden in their waistbands and both went barefooted because of Nutty's warning that the fishermen might steal their boots.
Lem waited until they were half way down the hill then he sent Nutty after them.
8
Clarissa the Girl on Stilts
The seaside town was so crowded with tartan-clad locals, foreign sailors with strange faces and six-fingered Belemites, that Lyla and Chad's leather capes and britches went unnoticed.
As they headed for the wharves they passed the row of inns already full of sailors, travellers and gambling Mussel Cove fishermen. Opposite the noisy inns was a string of stalls tended by loud-voiced fishwives selling crab soup and steaming shellfish. Chad's stomach rumbled as he sniffed their delicious aroma but Lyla's stomach did a sickening flip and she made a face at the thought of eating.
They walked along the first wharf they came to and discovered that all the boats, dinghies and skiffs were chained to bollards and
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