Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

She frowned. “I can’t help but feel bad for him. He’s clearly in so much pain.”

Lyon placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You are a kind soul, Miss Ember. I cannot imagine what you have endured in your life, coming from a world overrun with mindless death.”

“I suppose.” She smiled faintly. “My world was unkind, but it was simple. The rules were clear.”

“What were they?”

“Trust nothing. Trust no one. Expect death at all times. Live for every second.”

“Live for every second?”

“Do whatever it takes to survive to the next tick of the clock. Do that every time, and you survive. The moment you stop…is the moment you die.” She pulled her hair out of her ponytail and ran her fingers through the strands, combing out some of the snags.

“And yet, you sympathize with Rxa. Why?”

“I empathize with his pain. I don’t sympathize with his motives. Anyone who slaughters a city like that…I’ve never seen that kind of wrath.” She frowned. “Our drengil have no minds. They’re innocent in their crimes. They can’t help what they do. That’s what makes them so terrifying, but also makes them more of a force of nature than an enemy. Why bother hating the weather? But the creature I met has a mind. A broken one, maybe. But he knows what he’s doing. And I saw in him the reason why it’s better that you can’t reason with a drengil. Why it’s better that they have no thoughts. Because I’ve never seen that kind of wrath—but I’ve also never seen that kind of pain, either.”

Lyon didn’t answer, his brow furrowed as he seemed to lose himself in thought. She wasn’t used to having company, so she didn’t mind. They walked along the dirt road in companionable silence for what must have been half an hour before they rounded a bend.

Ember gasped through her nose and reached for her knife, only to find empty air.

Lyon chuckled. “Ah, Ini. Ever thoughtful.”

“What the fuck are those?” She gaped. She didn’t understand what she was looking at.

There were two enormous creatures in front of her that looked as though someone had taken an insect and modeled it after a horse or a deer. Its back legs folded the wrong way and extended up behind its back like the legs of a grasshopper. Eyes on the head of a horse were faceted and bulbous like a fly, sticking out proud of the creature’s skull. A pair of large horns arched back away from its head in elegant curls. It was covered in armored plates.

The two creatures were tied off to trees. One was deep crimson in color, and the other was a purplish blue. The purple one stomped its front hoof into the ground irritably.

Lyon patted the plated neck of the animal, who shook its head and sniffed the blood on his coat. He smiled at her and motioned her to come closer. “These are horses, Miss Ember.”

“Those are not horses.”

“In Under, they are.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she fought the urge to yell at the man. Horses had fur. They weren’t covered in armored panels. They certainly didn’t have horns. She threw her hands up and walked toward him and the two animals. “Screw it. Why not? Sure. Horses are insects now.”

Lyon had a tender smile on his face as he watched her. As if he were enjoying her reaction to his world, and as if he had seen this kind of thing many times before.

She laughed. “By the old gods. Where have I found myself? A world of immortal madmen and insect horses.”

The “horse” snorted.

“No offense, cricket.” She patted its neck. Lyon put his foot on the plate of the creature’s leg and used that as the means to climb up. It didn’t seem to hurt the “horse” at all, so she did the same. The layers of the creature’s exoskeleton on its back made for a natural saddle, and she found sitting on the monster wasn’t uncomfortable at all. She reached down and took the reins. “I think that’s a good name for you, huh? Cricket?”

The horse puffed air out of its nose and reached back with its head to nibble on her shoe.

“Hey!” She poked it in the neck, but she didn’t even know if it could feel her.

“I think he likes you.” Lyon kicked the sides of his own animal and started down the street, abandoning her.

“Wait—hold on—” She kicked the sides of Cricket, but he didn’t listen. He seemed intent on trying to eat her shoe. With a growl, she jumped back off the horse-insect and walked around to face him. “All right. Listen to me.”

Cricket tried to walk away, but she grabbed hold of his bridle close to the bit and held him still.

She pointed a finger at him. “No, listen. Look. I’m new here. I’m a mortal. I don’t have any of those…” She gestured at her own face, then gestured to the marks that ran down the plates of the horse’s face. “Writing, soulmark, whatever, things. I’m having a rough couple of days. And that’s saying something, trust me.”

The horse puffed air loudly out of its nose again.

“Please don’t give me a hard time. We can be friends. I won’t ask you for much, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you get fed tasty…whatever it is you eat. Okay, Cricket? Deal?”

He nodded, bobbing his horns back and forth.

She blinked. The horse monster actually nodded.

“Can you understand me…?”

He nodded again.

She shut her eyes. Immortal creatures. Being turned into bats. A lunatic king who could command the dead. A floating blue woman. Cities of strange people and stranger monsters…and now insect horses that could understand speech. “Great. That’s just fucking great.”

Cricket whinnied.

“Oh, don’t laugh at me.” But she couldn’t help but laugh at herself and at the ludicrous turn of events in her life. She climbed onto Cricket’s back again. She went to take the reins, but then realized it was foolish. He