Free The Mad Giant (Shioni of Sheba Book 3) by Marc Secchia

rising from a still river. Shioni’s screams for help. Dusky running downriver… launching herself from above the waterfall… diving… pulling a flaccid body away from the rocks to the shore. Birds, a dark cloud of birds, swarming over Yeshi, Almaz and Tiny. Diving, screaming, scratching, clawing… what on earth? Crabs hanging off Tiny’s legs and fish trying to bite her flesh?
    S he was so confused! The only thing she could think was how grateful she was to Dusky for pulling her out. A wave of thanks poured out of her. But how had Dusky known, she wondered? The pictures kept whizzing around in her head as though they were a group of hostile wasps protecting their nest. She could not make sense of it all. What in heaven’s name had she managed to set off this time?
    Now –at last, judging by relieved expressions all round–Dusky ambled off with her handler. As she departed, she was rumbling deep down in her chest, telling the other elephants the news.
    Mama was saying, “Fine now? I’s got medicine in my kitchen for you. You swallowed half the river. The dirty half at that. Them girls–”
    “What was the elephant doing, Mama?” asked Shioni, struggling to sit up.
    “You should have seen her!” laughed Annakiya. “We all did!” Then her face fell. “When I found Getu and he said he’d sent no such message, I knew… I just knew something was wrong. I ran back here with all these warriors and Mama on my tail–and next thing–”
    Mama waved her hands, crying, “That elephant she come charging down the river trumpeting like there’s fire in the halls–”
    “And the birds, Mama! Tell her about the birds!”
    “There’s birds, these buzzards, all diving about and screeching and attacking them girls. The she-elephant jumps off the rocks and splashes down in that pool like you dropped a mountain in a puddle, and she just reaches down and pulls you up clean as pie…”
    “You should have seen Mama run, Shioni!”
    “I’s never run so fast in my life, girl!”
    “Dusky didn’t hurt herself?” Shioni started to laugh at the thought of Mama thundering down to the river like a she-elephant amongst all those lean, swift warriors, but succeeded only in coughing more water out of her lungs.
    “A bit,” admitted Mama , patting Shioni’s back again. “She were heaving and wheezing like furnace-bellows for a bit there. But she wouldn’t leave you. She wouldn’t let nobody near you except me.”
    Her foot was ablaze in pain now. A meaty wash-rag of skin was flapping off it. The elephant must have wrenched her from between those rocks. Brave, wonderful Dusky! Jumping off the waterfall! Guilt shot through her heart. Surely an elephant–especially an elderly elephant like Dusky–shouldn’t be jumping into rock pools? Flying elephants… what if she’d broken a leg? Or worse?
    And the birds? The fish and crabs? She must have called them all to her aid! Including the elephant! A violent, malarial shivering accompanied the shock of her new realisation. This would throw dry tinder on the fires of the rumours accusing her of being a witch!
    Gentle hands drew a blanket around her shoulders. “You cold, honey?”
    “ So!” General Getu’s voice rasped forth. “Now that you’re back with the living, Shioni, let’s talk about why these three tried to kill you.”

Chapte r 10: The Price of a Goat
    S hioni weighed up the contestants in Castle Hiwot’s courtyard.
    She was growing heartily tired of kneeling upon the courtyard stones. She could identify her exact position now, and it had grown no softer since three days before, when Annakiya had sat in judgement of Desta. She had been allowed just two days to recover from nearly being drowned.
    Her injured foot ached as though one more violent throb would make it drop off. The pain speared all the way up through her knee into her thigh. Shioni eased her foot and tried to concentrate on goings-on despite feeling woozy from Mama’s medicine. She was afraid