Red Moon Rising Read Online Free PDF

were making this trip today. I doubt she’d give permission. But then, it doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t ask her first. No one is as straight up and rule-following as Papa. Sheriff Reverend Darling of Origin Township would never in a million years hide anything or lie to anyone. Of course she must know.
    Heetle snorts against the stink of the one-man and I steer to the side a bit, hoping to miss the biggest of the belching white clouds coming from the pipe in the back. Boone trots Raj over to the other side and I see that the armor is already turning a very light blue. I feel bad that I was angry about sharing it. Papa was right. Today, Raj obviously needs the armor more than Heetle does. It’s good to see it working, cooling him off. A true test for the summer. A true test for Heetle’s summer. I don’t know how Raj will survive.
    Papa slows the one-man as we ride over a small rise that then dips into a valley.
    And there it is. Old Settlement. It’s laid out just as Papa has always described, just as I’ve seen it when I close my eyes. Homesteads taller than three of our cabins stacked on top of one another—made from something Papa calls “brick.” It’s an ancient building device we’ve not had the luxury to use. Papa says it takes too much water and we cannot spare it. The buildings look like they’ve been madefrom dust and dirt, as if magically conjured. It’s hard to believe it takes water to do this.
    There are shorter buildings. And a long one. There are not just whole buildings, but what I think must be ruins, too, and a tall structure that is beyond anything I could have imagined, with stairs and pillars and a frozen clockface set in a triangle holding up what’s left of the roof. It’s all so fascinating . . . and beautiful. I know Rory would laugh if she could see me, openmouthed, staring at broken-down buildings like they were flowers or sweet cakes, but I can’t help it.
    â€œI think your brain is smiling,” she’d say, punching my arm. And I’d grab her hand and hold it behind her back while I tickled her neck until she screamed for mercy.
    Oh, Rory.
    Don’t think about Rory.
    The buildings are on the right and left of us, but none are in the center. This, I know, was called a road.
    In the middle of the road stands a Cheese.
    His hands are on his head, his scaled face is painted in the silver and gold swirls I’ve come to fear. The fat ropes of his hair are tied up on the top of his head to look like a horse’s tail. A similar fat rope lies coiled in a box on the mantel above the cooling grate back at the homestead, taken from a Cheese that Papa killed many, many summers ago. It’s a talisman now, proof that humans can best even the strongest warriors. Temple and I are not allowed to touch it.
    A dactyl flaps its large and scaly wings, but stands other­wise still next to him, two heads taller at least. It snaps its jaws into the wind and looks like it’s smiling greedily at us.
    Papa slows down the one-man so we can catch up.
    â€œDo not move from this spot,” he says in a low voice. “I will come back to fetch you.” Then he speeds up the one-man and heads straight for that gum Cheese. Temple turns to look at me with wide eyes, and Boone walks Raj over. Where is the acquaintance Papa wants us to meet? Has the Cheese done something with him? Papa should not approach the enemy on his own—that violates several of the rules he repeats to us every day.
    Without a word, Boone and I slip on our handbows and follow slowly behind Papa. Temple squeezes her arms around my waist. We are his deputies today, whether Papa likes it or not.

5
    I CANNOT HEAR ONE GUM word they’re saying. The wind whips around us, directionless, blowing grit and dust into my face. I pull on my gogs and tap the right side once to zoom. It looks like they’re . . . talking. But I know