Hollow Moon Read Online Free

slipping into the darkness of the curving
tunnel. It fitted its burrow so neatly she realised the vehicle must have cut
the shaft itself earlier to get into the palace grounds in the first place. Now
very scared, she backed away from the edge. The machine had made so much noise
she was sure the Maharani’s guards should have been alerted by now, but there
was still no one else in sight. Although apprehensive about approaching the
palace, she knew it was the right thing to do.
    Ravana took a few steps towards the house and paused. The
hush that had descended upon the scene felt unnatural, making her more nervous
than ever. As if to reassure herself she had not imagined it, she glanced back
towards the shattered courtyard, then shivered as a sudden chill wind swept
through the grounds. The climate within the hollow moon was carefully
controlled and it was rare to feel anything much more than a gentle breeze.
    The wind quickly gathered strength. Startled, she saw
that a flurry of leaves, twigs and other garden detritus were all being drawn
towards the hole in the centre of the courtyard. In a panic, she scrambled back
to her refuge behind the wagon and watched wide-eyed as the debris swirled ever
faster around the ragged pit like water down a drain. The wind grew more
ferocious still until the branches of the nearby trees too were bending towards
the hole, creaking with an agonising sense of foreboding.
    Ravana stared at the pit. It seemed incredible, yet she
knew what was happening. Somehow, the hollow moon had been breached and its air
was being sucked out into space before her very eyes.
    The canvas fastened across the back of the cart rose like
a sail in the wind, jolting the wagon forward against the wooden chock holding
its wheel. As the canvas rose, she spied a coil of rope lying in the back, then
screamed as a disturbed huntsman spider dropped from the canvas onto her arm,
scuttled down her sleeve and ran for cover. Ravana cursed and made a grab for
the rope before her plan had fully formed in her head.
    Rope in hand, she quickly secured one end to a sturdy
part of the cart, then scrambled across to loop the other around the neck of
the nearest stone elephant, tying it tight. By now it was becoming difficult to
stand upright in the blasting wind. Crawling back to the wagon, she kicked away
the wheel chock, reached for the lever next to the driver’s seat and released
the brake.
    The cart leapt across the courtyard with its canvas
flapping like a kite before a storm. The rope tightened and the wagon shuddered
to a halt on the edge of the pit. Buffeted by the wind, Ravana tried to crawl
to the edge of the courtyard and safety, but she could not get a grip upon the
paving slabs and slowly but surely found herself being dragged across the
ground towards the gaping hole behind her.
    The rushing air was filled with grit that seared
painfully against her skin. Ravana closed her eyes and waited for the final
blast that would send her flying down the shaft to her doom. The wailing of the
wind was deafening, yet through her mounting terror she still found time to
curse her electric cat for landing her in this mess in the first place.
    Just when she thought her plan had failed, she heard the
sound of grating stone as the nearby elephant began to topple from its plinth.
On the other end of the rope, the cart leapt forward once more and was
instantly sucked into the pit, dragging the huge statue behind it. Ravana, her
eyes tightly closed, sadly missed the awesome spectacle of several tonnes of
stone elephant flying across the courtyard as if it weighed no more than a
feather. The statue flew towards the pit and then, with an almighty crunch,
jammed neatly into the hole.
    Suddenly, the wind was no more, leaving nothing but the
distant wail of a siren to break the silence. Ravana cautiously opened her
eyes. Standing before where she lay was her cat, looking suspiciously clean and
holding the remains of the sentry gull in its