The Blood Line by Ben Yallop Page A

complaining, into the grass and fell to the floor, hoping for cover. Then another sound came, one that chilled Sam to the bone. An ear-splitting roar which made Sam clamp his hands over his ears in fright. As the sound faded away he peered carefully, shakily, though the grass towards the massive rocks ahead of him. Then a wave of fear washed over him again, freezing the blood that pumped through his heart and loudly in his ears. One of the rocks up ahead was not a rock at all and it moved. Uncurling itself it stood, slowly climbing to massive feet. It was a sitecah.
    Sam had not encountered these man-eating giants before although Kya had told him about them. Covered in shaggy hair the giant stretched, pushing massive arms towards the sky as it yawned. Sam did not dare to breathe. The thing was the size of a house. Easily double the height of the giant Sitecah which Kya had told him about. This must be the alpha male. Its massive frame, roughly the dimensions of a man, was covered in long hair which Sam knew would be auburn in the sunlight. Its face, high above him, had a sloping forehead and small piggy eyes. It turned on the spot briefly sniffing the air. It bent and grabbed something from the floor lifting it high to peer at it. Sam saw with a shudder that it was a rib cage. The giant peered at the bones carefully before tossing them away. Then it began to walk, its huge feet making the earth shudder despite a surprisingly quiet tread. It moved down the widely trampled path, towards Sam’s hiding place. He was terrified. The long grass was good at hiding him from creatures close to the ground. But this giant was so large that he would surely see Sam just by looking down. Sam closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer.
    The footsteps stopped. The sitecah was almost level with Sam. It snuffed at the air. Sam saw a look of puzzlement come over its stupid face. It had smelt him. It took another giant step forward, still sniffing at the air. It was so close to Sam now that he couldn’t comfortably crane his neck to see its face, but he could hear the loud sounds of it sucking air in through its nose. From the corner of his eye Sam saw it begin to cast about, staring down at the ground.
    Then, suddenly, with terrifying swiftness it lunged. Sam closed his eyes and waited for the impact. But nothing came. Two quick heartbeats later Sam had his eyes open again. The giant was facing away from him. A massive rumble began as it started to run, blissfully, beautifully away from Sam. He let his head fall back onto his arms and dared to let out a sigh of relief as the sitecah pounded away into the night chasing something else which had been foolish enough to come close. When Sam was sure it had gone far enough he rose and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could on his sore ankle. After what seemed like hours, when he couldn’t run or even jog any more he walked, not daring to stop. The unseen sun began to brighten the sky but still Sam walked putting another sleepless night behind him.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    Pennsylvania, USA
    Sometime in the early 21 st Century
     
    M ore power. It dripped into Allende like a leaky tap might fill a swimming pool, one maddening drop at a time. What could he do to get more power and get it faster? He felt permanently conflicted. He wanted to sit in the throne to collect every drip of presence but he also wanted to travel, to learn still more and to begin to put his plans into effect. He had begun to rely increasingly on others, bad men whose minds could be controlled, to do his bidding whilst he waited. He didn’t like having to use others, although he had become adept at using his presence to make his followers act as he wanted. But, it was something he would have to get used to, after all Kings got their servants to do the work didn’t they? They didn’t do it themselves.
    He had secretly travelled a little himself, using the lines he had found. Far in the future