Once, long ago, an African king’s caravan stopped at a village for water. As its chief bowed before him, the bored king inquired what was notable about the place.
“Sire, here dwells Olayinka, the finest potter in the land.” The king yawned.
The chief gritted his teeth. He added, “She can make a jar…
Ammon blinked, the flicking torchlight illuminating the stone walls covered in hieroglyphs. Pressure throbbed in his head, and he felt wrapped tighter than a cocoon. He groaned and pressed a hand to his head. Turning about, he surveyed every corner of the chamber filled with jars, gold, and jewels. This isn’t my room.
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“A blue scarab!”
I glanced over at the spectacled woman currently interested in my daughter’s new… pet. While I wasn’t a big fan of bugs in general, our metro had been delayed twice already, and the beetle had kept Zahra occupied. Since an insect crawling across Zahra’s arm was more preferable than…
“I still don’t understand why you had to drag me out here to the literal middle of nowhere,” I muttered, staring out the window at the expense of the Namibian desert.
There was nothing to see for miles but sand, a few trees and bushes, and an occasional animal that might have been…
The bodies appeared slowly at first.
The Elders remind us to take care, for this one and that were foolish, leaving the city’s safety only to be ravaged by hungry beasts. People often go missing in our harsh land— it is nothing new. But when the body of the High Elder’s granddaughter is discovered…
Huey pulled at his shirt collar as sweat ran into his golden-brown eyes. He didn’t know how much of this stifling darkness he could take.
Zip.
Huey, god of mischief, inhaled fresh air as Tema opened her suitcase. “Hiya, best friend,” he greeted her. Tema shrieked.
“Huey!” She slapped his arm repeatedly.
I linger in the shadows of the antechamber door. Of all the places a lady should never be, a dank, dark, and—I wrinkle my nose—malodorous cave tops the list.
You’ll chicken out. The mysterious peddler’s voice haunts me. Turn and run like the spoiled princess you are.
I clench my fist…
Excitement skitters across my limbs as I peer over the tops of all the other trees. I can see six-year-old Ruby Sue get off the school bus in front of her house and run straight into the woods. Toward me. Her friend.
Here in the easternmost part of the Berkshire Mountains…
They say the word Kentucky means “dark and bloody ground.” And I believe it—after all, that’s where my blood has been for years.
I floated among the branches of towering trees. Dew clung to the bluegrass below, which made it seem even more vivacious and alive.
Funny how grass had more life than me.
“We hit this gas station”—I point at a crease in the map spread out over the RV’s dining table—“grab food, toilet paper, gas—”
“And slushies,” Martin chimes in.
“—and slushies. Then we hightail it to the monument, here.”
I survey my crew. Martin, my younger brother, looks like a…
She swept into town like the swirls of dust that haunted the desert plains, a lonely traveler like a bounding weed, and struck out to seek what was lost.
The town, its decrepit buildings leaning into the incessant south winds, swiftly spread the name of Mellie Rembrandt. Nobody forgot a name like Rembrandt…
The world swayed around me like the ocean waves, but I couldn’t feel the water’s calming caress. Pain pounded in my left temple. My eyes refused to focus. I tried to swim, yet I couldn’t lower my arms from over my head. And my tail… where was my tail?
I wiggled my toes…
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