Masters of the Veil by Daniel A. Cohen Read Free Book Online Page B

delight. “You’ll like these!”
    She pointed at the thin, zebra-striped trees beside them. “They’re called zigzag trees. They don’t like to be touched; go ahead and try.”
    “Why? What will they do?”
    “Just trust me. Go on.”
    He slowly reached out for the tree. Just as his fingers were about to make contact, it bent backwards out of the way.
    Sam startled. He tried again to touch the zigzag tree, but this time at a lower spot. The tree curled into a C-shape and again avoided his touch. Sam turned his back nonchalantly, and then suddenly rocketed at the tree as if he were going to tackle it. The zigzag split apart and Sam fell right through.
    May laughed as Sam pushed himself off the ground and the tree sucked itself back together.
    “They really don’t like being touched.” May winked.
    Sam snorted. “Apparently not.”
    May tilted her head to the side, the tip of her nose giving the smallest of twitches. “Are you hungry?”
    “Starved.” He laid a hand on his stomach. “Do you have any food on you?”
    “No.” She spun Sam around. “But they do.”
    A pack of animals came into view. They were small and looked like black sheep. They travelled in a tight pack, reminding Sam of a small thundercloud. Each animal had three horns and a snakelike tail that twirled as they marched.
    “Drecklers.” May ambled over to the flock so as not to startle them, and pulled out a few tuffs of the wool-like material from the stragglers of the group. The black substance came out very easily and they didn’t seem to mind.
    She came back and held out her hand. “Here, eat.”
    Sam accepted the handful of black material and took a test bite. It was surprisingly chewy, with a consistency like licorice, but it was sweet, like chocolate. After the first delicious swallow he took a much heartier portion and the pains in his stomach quickly subsided.
    “This is fantastic.” His words came out sloppily in between chews.
    “Dreckler cotton. It is a great sweet. Very common after-meal top-off.”
    Sam shoved another large chunk of cotton into his mouth. “And the drecklers don’t mind you taking it?”
    “They actually prefer it. Too much cotton and they get itchy.”
    Sam dashed toward the pack of drecklers—earning him a couple of nasty bleats—and took a few more handfuls of their cotton, which he stored in the thigh pad pockets on his pants. The cotton came out easily, without any effort at all.
    After re-joining May, he gave a shrug.
    She smiled. “Don’t worry. You’ll find plenty of it in town.”
    Continuing along the trail, May pointed out bushes that changed color depending on the mood of whoever passed, and gnarled vines covered in green flames, each twisting their way up various tree trunks—which May explained didn’t actually hurt the tree, because the flame only gave off light, not heat.
    “What are those?” Sam pointed over May’s shoulder.
    She turned around and then stepped back in line with Sam.
    Not far off, the air was cloudy with a swarm of insects. Sam thought they might be bees, but they looked smaller, more the size of fireflies. Hundreds of them flew in their direction.
    “Don’t move,” May whispered through still lips, having already taken her own advice.
    Sam froze as the buzzing grew louder.
    “Why not?” he asked softly out of the corner of his mouth.
    “Echo flies. Just stay calm, do as I say, and watch.”
    The swarm moved closer, traveling together in tight-knit swirls. They stopped just inches shy of his face. Sam tried his best to stand completely still. Individual echo flies were uniform in color—either black, white, or grey—including their eyes. The echo flies twirled around his face, re-grouped about a yard in front of him, and started pulsating inward. Each pulse caused the group to get into a smaller and tighter formation. Certain flies came together to create distinct shapes and shadows. He first saw a nose and then eyes and then hair. After a few more