A Larger Universe Read Online Free Page A

head from side to side, trying to take
in everything around him.  He had been to a football game at the Georgia Dome
Stadium, and he was sure at least twenty Georgia Domes would fit between the
thick central column and where the roof dimly met the ground in the distance. 
    He was looking over his shoulder, trying to understand how a
waterfall could come from a hole in the roof, when he bumped into Jack, who had
stopped in front of a long, low building next to the trail.
    "Watch where you're going, feral.  The lords'
protection only goes so far."
    Feral?  What did he mean by that .
    "We’ll stop here and see if my boys are doing their
jobs," Jack said, then hesitated, “and I need to take a pee after all this
walking.”  He stuck his head inside the unlit doorway and bellowed, “The second
Jack, come here!”
    A man stepped from the building.  He was a duplicate of the
first Jack, except for smoother skin and a full head of red hair instead of
Jack’s sparse brown.  "No need to yael, Jack.  I’m rit heer."  As he
had with the first Jack, Tommy heard this as “No need to yell, Jack.  I’m right
here.” 
    "It’s good you are.  Show this boy the stable while I
take care of necessities." 
    "The new one, huh?  You’re worth a lot of questions,
you are.  Well, come with me."
    As they stepped into the darkened barn, Tommy blurted, “What
do you mean, I’m worth a lot of questions?  I've got questions, but why should
you?  Don’t you know why I'm here?”
    “None of us knows why the lords wanted you.  They must have
a reason, but we're the last to find out, if we ever do.”
    Something that sounded large and menacing made a snorting noise
behind a door to Tommy’s left.  From behind an identical door on his right came
a heavy thumping.  As they walked toward the end of the building, they passed
more doors on the left and right, and the pounding increased until the barn
rumbled. 
    "Awake and hungry are you?  We’ll get you fed." 
Jack looked at Tommy over his shoulder.  "You might as well help.  If the
lords gave you to the first Jack, you’ll be working here."
    Jack stopped at a large bin filled with grain.  A skittering
sound came from the straw under their feet.  “Damn mice,” the second Jack said,
“and worse things.  Put your cat down.  See what he can do.” 
    Before Tommy could respond, Potter leaped to the floor and
darted into the darkness behind a bale of hay.
    Jack handed Tommy a bucket.  "Fill that with grain and
follow me.”
    Jack stopped at the first door.  "That bucket holds
three pounds of grain.  I’ll let you know which get more.  You unfasten the
gate by removing this pin and pushing down on the handle.  Be sure to put the
pin back in when you’re done.  Some of them are tall enough to reach over the
top and open the gate.”
    A chuffing came from the other side of the gate.  Tommy
edged away.  Whatever was behind the door sounded big and dangerous.  A bull
maybe.
    Jack laughed.  "You'll have to get over that.  They can
tell you're afraid."  He pulled on the gate, revealing a medium-sized,
brown horse.  "She won’t hurt you.  Give her the grain."
    He remembered now.  This explained the first Jack's odor. 
Tommy had never been this close to a horse before, but when he visited his
grandmother in the country, he used to stand for hours near her fence and look
at her neighbor’s horses.  When the horses had come back from being ridden,
they always reeked like the first Jack, until they were rubbed down.  When they
grazed in the neighbor's field, the horses had tried to reach him through the
fence, but he had always been too afraid to feed them grass as his grandmother
had encouraged him to do.
    The horse bumped the bucket with her nose until Tommy edged
forward and poured the grain into a container in front of the stall.
    “Jack,” the first Jack’s voice echoed down the barn. 
"Bring the boy here.  We have some more places to go.”
    "What