Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff Page 0,196

laid on the whips. Camels broke into a full gallop, the wagons rushing along behind them, fast as they could go.

Let’s see about that …

Though only Saan hung in the sky, the light was near blinding compared to the Mountain’s belly, and Mia’s power felt thin and feeble. But still, she reached out to the gloom on the wagon’s underside, pulled it about her shoulders again and held it tight. Calling loud as she could to the shadows, and hoping something else might answer.

“… i believe you asked me to remind you never to call the dark in this desert again…”

“I believe it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.”

Mister Kindly tried to purr, voice rippling with amusement.

“… i believe you’re right…”

It was another few minutes before she heard a cry of alarm from the wagon ahead. Shuffling footsteps on the planks above, Luminatii calling.

“Claudius, do you see that?”

“What is it?”

“I see another! Two of them!”

“No, three!”

Beneath the shuddering creak of the timber, the clatter of the wheels, the shouts from above, Mia fancied she heard a distant rumble. A cry from the wagon train in front.

“Sand kraken!”

The scrawny, blood-soaked girl clung to her perch and smiled. She didn’t bother looking—even if she weren’t near-blind beneath her cloak, between the dust from the wheels and the multitude of riders, she wouldn’t have a chance of seeing them yet. But listening close, she could hear them, just as she’d heard them the turn she fought Naev on these same sands. The churn of massive bodies diving through the desert deeps. The faint echoes of distant, thunderous roars.

Big ones.

Coming right at them.

Feeling her way, Mia crawled along the wagon’s belly, up to the Y-shaped timbers that hitched her wagon to the wagon in front. The drivers were swinging the whips hard now, desperate to outrun the behemoths on their tail. Mia knew Ashlinn would be familiar with the horrors of the Whisperwastes and how to keep them at bay, and yes, there it came—the awful rhythm of ironsong. Luminatii began beating on those bloody pipes for all they were worth, Mia wincing at the racket just above her head. She’d no idea if the noise actually had any effect on the bigger kraken, but the offending musician wasn’t taking chances. The cacophony was ear-splitting, and Mia was already in a temper. As if to echo her mood, she heard another awful, rumbling bellow.

Closer now.

“… you are making them very angry…”

Mia spat, so much dust in her mouth she could barely speak.

“I’ll make it up to them.”

“… how, pray tell…?”

A white smile gleamed in a dirty, blood-caked face.

“Fix them dinner.”

Jarred and juddered as the wagons bounced through the sands, she crawled out from the axel and onto the hitch bar. Through the darkness over her eyes, she could make out dim shapes in the swirling dust. Perhaps fifteen Luminatii riding around the trains. Maybe twenty soldiers in each wagon, all standing and staring aft. She could hear rumbling in the earth, drawing ever closer.

“Another one!” came the shout.

“West! West!”

“Aa’s Light, look at the size of it!”

Mia grinned to herself, pawing the grit from her eyes. She’d hoped this deep in the desert, calling the dark might bring a few of the bigger kraken out to play. But from the sound of it, she’d hooked a couple of monsters.

At the sight of their fourth uninvited guest, the Luminatii on ironsong duty began banging on his pipes like a privy door in the wind. Mia cursed again, covered her ears. The racket was worse than annoying, it was bloody painful.

Let’s ring the midmeal bell instead.

She hopped across to the second wagon’s hitch, trying to figure out exactly how the wagons were connected. Leaning close and squinting hard, she made out a metal bar, hooked through a round eyelet, lashed together with thick rope. Quick smart, Mia drew a knife from her boot and began sawing away, occasionally glancing up to the Luminatii in the wagons above.

As one might expect, the men only had eyes for the tentacled monstrosities intent on devouring their favorite faces; not a man noticed the shivering blur perched on the hitch bar below. The ropes were tough, but through feel and elbow grease, Mia sawed them loose, leaving only the hook and eyelet linking the wagons together.

One good jolt …

She slipped under the bar and dragged herself along the middle wagon’s belly. The train struck a rock in the sand, bouncing hard, and she held her breath, waiting for the coupling