The Mad Giant (Shioni of Sheba Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

terrible bore,” he said. “If you ever have trouble sleeping, just ask him to tell you a story.”
    Shioni giggled. “He does like his stories, doesn’t he?”
    “Ferengi! Ferengi!”
    “Shall I bite that little brat,” said Thunder, curling his lip at a wide-eyed little boy running alongside the trail, “or do you want first pickings?”
    “Oh, leave him be, Thunder. It doesn’t bother me.”
    He flicked his ears. “I’ll believe that the day Captain Dabir dresses in a monkey suit and parades around the castle scratching the fleas in his armpits.”
    Shioni smacked his withers with her hand–which didn’t hurt him a bit–as she burst into laughter. “He isn’t my favourite Captain, Thunder, but that’s too much!”
    But as they clattered up the short strip of cobblestones into the castle keep itself, Shioni rubbed the back of her head where Captain Dabir had once smeared his dung-encrusted boots all over her hair. Oh, the slave’s life! Maybe Thunder was right. Some things could be perfectly beastly. And Captain Dabir was nothing if not a beast.
    “If I can’t bite any more, can I at least kick that bully Yeshi? Please?” asked the horse, spying the sly older girl carrying several gourds into the kitchens. “She reminds me of a walking hyena.”
    Shioni swung down from the saddle and handed the rope to a fearful stable boy. “Now just you behave yourself.”
    “Killjoy. Can’t a horse have any fun…?”
    “No! No biting, kicking, stamping, prancing, squashing, nipping–”
    “–or any other kind of equine misbehaviour. I know the lecture by heart, thank you very much.” But as the stable boy led him away, as docile as a sleepy donkey, Thunder surprised her by nickering over his shoulder, “And thank you , Shioni… for all this. I appreciate my new life more than you might realise.”
    Well! Shioni stared after the King’s horse. Just when she thought he was in a frisky, feisty temper, he had reached out with a few sincere words and turned her heart into mush. Rascally horse. What a change from the walking rack of ribs he had been when she first met him! Now there was a job worth doing and well done, she told herself, thinking back to how she had travelled deep into the Simien Mountains to rescue Thunder. But without her friend Tensi, the daughter of one of the warriors, and her healing touch… she clenched her jaw. Thunder might have been reduced to a bag of bones. Just like poor Star.
    Shaking off her pensive thoughts, Shioni quickly asked after General Getu and learned he was in his room. She knocked politely on the doorpost, slipped within, and dropped easily into the customary kneeling position just inside the door to await his attention. The General was sharing a large, round plate of injera bread topped with several fiery sauces, including Mama’s signature spicy chicken sauce–judging by the rich, aromatic smell of berbere that made her stomach announce itself grandly to every person present–with Mama Nomuula, Princess Annakiya, and several of the Captains.
    Cheeks burning, she dropped her gaze.
    Shioni hoped she would not have to wipe drool off her lips–that would be almost as embarrassing as the ridiculous antics of her stomach. Mama’s berbere spice blend was widely praised as the best in Sheba, and the reasons for that praise kept tantalising her nostrils. But a slave’s lot was to be hungry, wasn’t it? Constantly. She pressed the hollow of her stomach discreetly with her hands to still the pangs, and had to fight off a fierce urge to behave like a lion licking his chops over a juicy haunch of bushbuck. ‘Oh, Mama!’ she groaned inwardly. ‘A smell so sweet it’s sheer torture…’
    After a few moments, Getu rested his elbow on his knee, carefully keeping the red, sauce-smeared fingers of his right hand away from his uniform. He raised an eyebrow in her direction. “I trust this is important? Make your report.”
    She swallowed. Now to beard the grizzled old