The Fiuri Realms (Shioni of Sheba Book 5) Read Free Page A

attractive! Yours look like fresh scroll leaf. I suppose I’ll just have to be pretty enough for the both of us, wouldn’t you agree?”
    Shioni wanted to slap her. “Zi!”
    “Oh, sorry. Your legs are pretty, too.”
    What came out of Shioni’s mouth was a rather unattractive growl. “Why don’t you stop dreaming up ways of complimenting yourself and start thinking about how we can get out of here?”
    Zi pouted. “Mean.”
    “Sorry.” Shioni sighed. “I’ll try the lid.”
    With a few experimental flutters of her wings, Shioni managed to fly up the glass wall. She reached out to stop her head from bumping against the lid.
    Hiss! She snatched her fingers back.
    “Ouch! Oh, scabby hyenas! Double ouch with vulture droppings slathered on top.”
    Now she had burned fingertips and had twisted her sore ankle even more. Shioni sat down cross-legged and held her head in her hands.
    “Ha ha,” chuckled the voice outside the bottle. “No escaping today, my pretties. Kalcha’s going to give me a sack bulging with gold for the Princess of West Sheba and the Fiuri who brought down her enchantment at the Castle.”
    They both cried out as the bottle jolted, before starting to swing back and forth with a pendulum motion. Shioni recognised that the man was hiking along the trail away from Castle Hiwot. Where were the patrols? Surely they should spot him?
    Zi made a face at Shioni. “He thinks you’re–”
    “Yes. Let’s keep it that way.”
    “And just how much trouble will Shioni get into for impersonating the Princess?”
    “Zi!” Shioni stuck out her tongue. It unfurled and slapped her on the nose. “Huh?”
    Azurelle hooted, “Mind your proboscis, silly. It’s different to a Human tongue. It’s hollow and rolls up inside your mouth–no, not up your nostril, silly.”
    The more Shioni scowled at her, the more she laughed, until Shioni settled for unrolling her amazing Fiuri proboscis–useful for sucking nectar out of deep-necked flowers and easily capable of touching the tips of either of her pointy ears–and waggling it at her.
    The Fiuri glared at her. “Shioni, that’s rude.”
    But they were too scared to make many jokes. A night had never passed more slowly for the two friends.
    As the white-hot sun vaulted over the mountains and the day’s heat rose in waves from the dry bush and rocks beside the trail, Shioni and Azurelle slumped down in the stuffy bottle. They were both frightened and exhausted. Neither dared to mention what they knew to be true–this had to be Kalcha’s work. Only the witch-leader of the Wasabi, West Sheba’s deadliest enemy, could have the power to change a person into a Fiuri. She must have made the green stone which had captured Shioni. Not only that, but she must have recovered completely from the defeat that Shioni and Azurelle had handed her when she attacked Castle Hiwot and struck down the Sheban King himself. The King had only just gained consciousness, thanks to the teshal medicine Shioni had secured for him during a perilous journey to the ancient city of Gondar and the Sacred Lake.
    Kalcha was back, and more dangerous than ever before.
    Toward noon, Kalcha’s thief halted in the shade of a patch of giant heather. He set the bottle down on a rock and began to pace about, clearly waiting for someone or something. After a while, he opened the bottle, careful not to let either Fiuri escape. He grasped one butterfly-person in each hand and lifted them to a nearby bush to drink nectar from its sweet pink flowers.
    “Don’t want you dying before Kalcha decides you can,” he joked.
    Zi guzzled away, but it took Shioni several tries to work out how to use her tongue to suck up nectar from a flower. Then, sweetness burst into her mouth. Her eyes popped wide. “Amazing! That’s … wow. Sweeter than honey. Now I know why you like nectar so much, Zi.”
    “Drink up, Princess .” Her friend smirked, before smiling up at their captor. “Say, handsome, you don’t want