BooksBarbecue
Back Goblin Secrets Save as PDF
Chapters (39)
  1. Dedication
  2. Act I
  3. Act I, Scene I
  4. Act I, Scene II
  5. Act I, Scene III
  6. Act I, Scene IV
  7. Act I, Scene V
  8. Act I, Scene VI
  9. Act I, Scene VII
  10. Act I, Scene VIII
  11. Act II
  12. Act II, Scene I
  13. Act II, Scene II
  14. Act II, Scene III
  15. Act II, Scene IV
  16. Act II, Scene V
  17. Act II, Scene VI
  18. Act II, Scene VII
  19. Act II, Scene VIII
  20. Act II, Scene IX
  21. Act III
  22. Act III, Scene I
  23. Act III, Scene II
  24. Act III, Scene III
  25. Act III, Scene IV
  26. Act III, Scene V
  27. Act III, Scene VI
  28. Act III, Scene VII
  29. Act III, Scene VIII
  30. Act III, Scene IX
  31. Act III, Scene X
  32. Acknowledgments
  33. ‘Ghoulish Song‘ Excerpt
  34. First Verse
  35. Second Verse
  36. ‘Ambassador‘ Excerpt
  37. Chapter 1
  38. Chapter 2
  39. Copyright

Rownie knew that Vass had a little talent for curses and charms—or at least he knew that she bragged about it—but he had never seen her do anything so grand before. He had also never seen a sibling look at him with Graba’s look, or speak with the rhythms of Graba’s voice, before Vass did so in the Market Square. She can wear us like masks, Rownie thought, and he wondered if it was something Graba might do to him. He started to panic at the thought. The weight of everything he didn’t know about his own home pressed down on him and squeezed like Graba’s talon-toes. He did not feel like a giant. He felt like the furthest thing from a giant. A bug, maybe. A burnbug or a beetle.

Graba can’t wear me, he decided. She can’t. She won’t. She wouldn’t have to send everyone else to look for me, if she could.

He moved carefully down the railcar’s center aisle. He felt trapped inside the car, and he knew that he shouldn’t stay. The others were already searching railcars, one by one. They would find him if he stayed. Rownie didn’t know what would happen then. He didn’t want to know.

He glanced up at the far entrance. Vass stood there, watching him.

Act I, Scene VII

images

ROWNIE TOOK IN A LONG BREATH, and let it out. He stood up. He did not run. She would catch him if he ran. He showed her that he would not run by the way that he stood there, and he waited to see what would happen next.

Vass continued to watch him. She smiled her cruel smile, and otherwise she did not move.

“Do you see him, now?” asked Stubble from outside the car. “Have you found him?”

Vass looked directly at Rownie. “No, Graba,” she said. “He isn’t here.”

“Be sure about it,” said Stubble. “And bring me back a mirror if you can find an unbroken one, and also a new cushion for my chair.”

“Yes, Graba,” said Vass. “I think the runt might have ducked into the tunnel. It’s not as flooded down there as it should be.”

“Seven curses on the several chins of the Lord Mayor,” said Stubble. “He’s pumping the water out of it again. I can hear the breathing and the clanking of his siphons, making it dry. I will go looking there.”

“Yes, Graba,” said Vass.

She went to sit at one of the copper tables, crossed her legs, and folded her hands in front of her. She wasn’t so much taller than Rownie while sitting.