Read Online Quest for the Sun by V M Jones - Free Book Online

with a crunch.
    â€˜ No! ’ bellowed Kai, brandishing the whip. ‘Get down! NOW! ’ His voice cracked. The creature was trying to force its head through the bars. Strings of drool stretched like slimy cling-wrap between the metal and its gaping jaws; mottled lips peeled back from fangs the size of butcher’s knives. Bulging eyes the colour of custard stared at us … then the mouth opened and it roared: a bellow that blasted our faces with the stink of rancid drains. It turned its head sideways, clamped its teeth on the bars and shook. The massive metal structure creaked and juddered; again, the whip cracked. The creature’s head twitched as if it had been stung. It released the cage and waddled slowly round … and its eyes locked on Kai.
    His whole being was focused on the Mauler, the force of his will bent on it. Three, maybe four paces separated them …one bound, and it would be over. Kai raised the trident and took one menacing step towards the crouching beast … then another. ‘Down.’ A snarl of a word; the growl of a dominant predator.
    For a second the muscles of the great haunches seemed to bunch and flex … then slowly the great body lowered itself to the floor and squatted, slimy hide glistening, the dangling dewlap pulsating.
    â€˜It’s a toad,’ croaked Richard in disbelief. ‘A mutant toad!’
    Kai eased forward and clipped a thick chain to the metal shackle circling the creature’s front leg. His hand was shaking; it took three tries before the bolt snicked home. Slowly he backed away, the toad dragging itself after him, the chain grating on the floor. Slowly, slowly, without taking his eyes off the Mauler, he groped for a heavy metal retainer in the wall and snapped the other end of the chain home. Then he turned to the king and bowed. His knees were trembling, but his voice was steady.
    â€˜I am at your service, my lord King.’
    Karazeel’s eyes were glazed, his skin like dirty dishwater. ‘The Mauler … has it eaten?’
    â€˜Not these three days, my lord.’
    The grey lips twitched. ‘It will dine well tomorrow. Good night, children — I wish you pleasant dreams.’

Candlewax
    The tower room was still. The flame of a single candle hung suspended in the darkness, a drop of molten gold surrounded by a dusty halo of radiance. The only other light came from the white pinpricks of the stars on the giant computer screen. I’d been gazing at them for what seemed hours, trying to memorise the unfamiliar constellations. Even though I knew it wasn’t the real sky, I found it somehow comforting … yet at the same time it gave me the unsettling feeling of being inside a giant computer, staring outwards, as if the window was a star-spangled screen between two worlds. On one side of the screen, I was Adam Equinox … on the other, Zephyr, Prince of the Wind.
    And Q, who’d invented the Karazan computer games … here, in the world he’d created, what did that make him? Which was reality — Karazan, or what I still thought of as home? Or was reality a time, not a place … wherever I happened to find myself, now ? But even time was flexible, not fixed; Karazan had taught us that. The only certainty was inside myself; the onlyreality was me. And in this moment — now — I was Zephyr. I felt it in every beat of my heart.
    Some time after sunrise, Zeel and Evor would return. There was no doubt what would happen then. The vast shape against the wall snuffled and stirred as if it could smell my thoughts; a slit of pale light blinked open, then vanished. Between now and then, a plan must be made.
    â€˜Told you we shouldn’t trust anyone …’ Rich had muttered bitterly before he fell asleep. ‘We should never have told Blue-bloody-bum anything …’
    It was hard to see how we could be worse off than we already were. And anyhow, I thought with a bleak