Read Online Unlucky Charms (The Cold Cereal Saga) by Adam Rex - Free Book Online Page B

like the belly of a whale, with stone ribs buttressing the margins, each curving to the floor and pointing toward a golden monument in the center. The monument was almost ten pixies high, broader than it was wide, taller than it was broad. It was inlaid with silver, symbols, jewels, and it looked like a flaming sword against the ruby sky, framed in that vast and faceted window.
    “The air in here was teeming with motes of dust.
    “An animal voice screeched in the darkness, high above. I crept around the edge of the chamber. I had no wish to see the golden monument any closer—there was something distinctly Fay about it—and my duty was to my brothers. And to Morenwyn, I thought, if she would have me.
    “But then the dust in the air shone like fire, the room lit with ten thousand tiny lights.
    “‘Aha,’ said a voice like a growling house cat. ‘Fi, is it? You princes are positively interchangeable.’
    “A pixie woman stood far off, on the dais near the base of the monument. I don’t like to say that she looked like her daughter, but of course she did. She resembled her daughter like the charcoal resembles the tree. She was dressed in the rags and ribbons of a hermit.
    “‘Well met, Lady Fray,’ I said, and touched at the pommel of my sword. ‘You keep a lovely home. Airy.’
    “‘Yes, I do think the airiness is its best feature.’
    “‘Anyone else would have cluttered up the place with furniture, things. But you know all a person really needs is one good gold monolith.’
    “‘That,’ Fray agreed, ‘and I find nothing really complements a monolith like a stupendously large tapestry.’ Fray gestured to the wall opposite the giant window, and now I saw something that before had been shrouded in darkness: a woven tapestry depicting two overlapping spheres, stabbed through their hearts by some sharp stake, and all the heavens torn asunder by fierce light. And beneath that: a multitude of people great and small, all weeping. ‘I wove it in a day and a night,’ Fray added, though this could only be a lie. ‘I don’t remember a moment of it. But I emerged from my trance with cracked and bleeding hands and looked at what I’d created—a vision of the end of all things.’

    “I didn’t know what to say. It was a bit modern for my tastes.
    “‘So,’ said Fray, stepping forward. ‘Here for Morenwyn, I suppose?’
    “‘That is her decision to make. I’m here for my brothers.’
    “Fray lifted her brow and nodded, as if in approval. ‘At last, a worshipful son of Denzil. What a shame. Be a sport, will you? Make a pretty speech about freeing my poor daughter and leading the armies of pixiedom to my doorstep. It makes this next bit so much easier.’
    “Fray whistled, and the floor grate lifted. Five giants, the same five I’d seen underground, climbed up into the chamber and formed a half circle around the monolith. The one called Rudesby was still being manhandled by the others. Fray gestured and muttered, and hurled a dart of light from her fingertips that struck the stone floor where I’d been standing only a moment before. I didn’t think my pixie shield would protect me from this witchcraft. But I maneuvered to keep the golden tower between us, thankful at last for its Fay magic. Fray cast another spell, but the monument blew it like a wind, swept it off course.
    “‘Nim?’ said Fray.
    “‘Rudesby!’ barked Nim. ‘You first! New ones always first!’
    “He prodded Rudesby in the back, and the half-naked giant stumbled forward. ‘Aye’m saahry!’ he told me, advancing. ‘Pleez dohn’t hurt mee! Aye haffa wyfe in Sanfransisgoh!’
    “He lurched at me, bent at the waist, fumbling with outstretched arm. I ran up the length of that arm, stabbed him in the ear, then leaped off his shoulders. Grabbing hold of his underpants, I arrested my fall, then dropped again to the floor behind his left heel and sliced his tendon. He dropped, clutching his head.
    “‘Tapping owt!’ Rudesby