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

A real one, and alive. They never came to the sanctuary towns or the citadels. They weren’t allowed. He had never seen one before.

Her hair was half black and half white, split down the middle. She glanced around at the survivors who were gathered around several fires that dotted the clearing. She said something quietly to the man in all white and, climbing off her bug-horse, began to lead it to the outskirts of the clearing. Somewhere far away from everyone else.

The man in white sighed, shook his head, and dismounting his own horse, said something back to the graedari with a gentle smile. He gestured his hand and seemed to be insisting that she follow him. She shook her head.

Jakob watched, fascinated, as the graedari took the bit and bridle off the insect horse and petted the creature. In return, the horse-thing nudged her with its nose and began chewing on her coat. The woman smiled and laughed quietly, patting its head.

The man in white approached them. He looked to Dtu and Ini and bowed his head. “Well met, King of Moons. I’m quite glad we’ve happened across you.”

“And you, King of Blood.” Dtu picked his head back up and glanced over to the graedari where she stood with her horse at the outskirts of the clearing. “Why is your charge not joining us?”

“She insists she is not meant to join the others.”

Jakob stood from the log and picked up a few of the roasting pieces of meat he had set over the fire. Everyone was staring at the young woman, who was hiding by a tree, trying her best to stay in the shadows. She would have been less conspicuous without the purple bug-horse standing next to her, trying its darndest to chew on her coat.

He walked up to her. And now everyone was staring at him, too. Let them stare. He held out one of the sticks of roasted meat to her. “Hello.”

The young woman froze, watching him with wide, dark eyes. She looked at him, then the meat, then back to him.

“Go on.” He smiled.

“I—”

She never got the chance to take it. Her horse didn’t seem to be nearly as shy as she was. It yanked the stick of meat straight out of his hands, and began eating it, stick and all.

“Hey!” He laughed. “That wasn’t for you, you know.”

The woman laughed as well. “Why am I not surprised the horses here eat meat?”

“Seems like everything around here does.” He offered her the second stick. “Quick. Before he’s done with the first.”

She took it from him that time. “Thank you.”

“My name is Jakob. I’m traveling with Dtu—the giant Varúlfur over there.” He motioned to the pack by the fire. “You should come sit with us.”

“But…”

“We’re not in a citadel or a sanctuary city. Just what’s left of one.” Jakob shrugged. “Our world is gone. Come sit by the fire. They outnumber us, anyway. I’d like to feel a little bit less like a fly among bears.”

“You’d rather there be two flies? What does that accomplish?”

“I like thinking I won’t die alone.” He grinned lopsidedly at her.

The woman laughed and held out her hand to him. “Ember.”

He took it. “Jakob.”

Ember wasn’t sure what surprised her more.

Maverick was alive. She had resisted hugging him but shook his hand instead. She was so relieved to see he was okay! She told him as much as she sat next to the Elder of Words. The man seemed fine, if exceedingly grumpy and a little sore from having marched for hours in the wrong footwear.

Ini was also alive, sitting between Jakob and Dtu.

Then, there was Dtu. An enormous, undead Varúlfur. There were shapeshifting werewolves in Under! That was another thing added to the list of incredible, impossible, beautiful, terrifying things she had seen in the past few days. The giant wolf seemed rather evenly tempered, if a bit gruff. He watched the conversation more than he added to it.

Cricket certainly enjoyed eating meat, and he was hungry. She kept trying to push the horse away from her food and was steadily losing the fight before Kamira brought the animal a corpse of his own to devour raw.

Gross.

She tried to ignore the sound of crunching as the horse ate its dinner. Kamira was now sitting next to Lyon, her hand wound through his. A man who fed on blood and a woman who could change into bizarre and deadly animals.

And then, there was Jakob. The least remarkable, yet most surprising of the bunch. He was from Gioll, and one of the eastern tribes, as far as she could tell from his beaded necklace and the charms he had woven into a few strands of his long blond hair. He was handsome, and he had an easy and charming smile. He was a trader, he explained.

What an odd man. Nice, but odd. He quickly flouted all tradition by inviting her to sit at the fire with him. Others were staring. She wanted to hide in the tree line and pretend she wasn’t there, but she knew she wouldn’t get away with it.

“What did Rxa want with you?” Dtu asked her.

She jolted at the sudden attention. “To ask me questions. He seemed confused as to what he was and why he had been brought back. I think he knows as little as we do.” She left out the detail that Rxa had tried to bite her twice. She didn’t know why that felt personal, but it did.

“Fantastic.” Kamira sighed. “Well, what do we do?”

“We were on our way to speak to Aon,” Lyon explained, “as he is the only one of us who has successfully restrained a royal for any period of time. We need to find a way to contain Rxa before he causes more damage.”

Dtu growled low. “No.”

“Old dog, we have few choices right now,” Kamira insisted. “I don’t like it either. But if Rxa is bent on killing us all, we have to stop him.”

“We shall not ask the