Black Bead by J.D. Lakey on sale at Amazon.com (link new window)
Excerpt:
“Whatcha doing?” Alain asked.
“Waiting,” Cheobawn whispered.
“For what?” Connor whispered back.
“For that,” said Cheobawn, pointing at the moss at her feet with her chin.
The moss was moving.
“By the Goddess!” Alain screeched, dancing off the moss to stand on the tip of a rock poking through the moss covered gravel. Connor joined him. They clung to each other, wide eyed and confused, on top their precarious perch.
“Don’t move,” Cheobawn yelled sternly. “You will crush them. Hold still. They will climb in search of fruit.”
“Wee bit,” Tam said through clenched teeth, trying to sound calm, “what, exactly is under the moss?”
“No idea,” Cheobawn said with a shrug. “Something fun,” she added encouragingly.
Tam closed his eyes and shook his head, looking grim but patient. Megan looked at the heaving moss and then looked back at her small friend, an uncertain frown on her face.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” she asked.
“I don’t know their name. Laid as eggs before the first frost. Slept the winter through. Grow as the heat of the summer grows. Now they are being born. The heat awakens the sleepers and ripens the berries at the same time. They will climb to find food and then fly away.”
Megan looked over at Tam.
“Do you know what kind of bug does that?”
Tam shook his head, distracted by the sight of the moss breaking open at his feet. A pointed head with scissor-like jaws pushed its way clear and looked around with small, crimson eyes. Not an insect. A lizard.
“Oh, my . . .” breathed Megan. As if by unspoken signal, hundreds of heads now emerged.
“Don’t. Move,” hissed Cheobawn. A lizard by Tam’s foot struggled for a moment and then shook its way free of the moss. Its body was as long as her hand and its milky skin almost transparent, its organs visible through its skin.
“Glasslizards,” breathed Megan in wonder.
In a flash, the lizard was up Tam’s leg, pausing to cling to his belt. In the next heartbeat, a thousand more reptiles struggled free and made the mad dash to the nearest thing that resembled a tree. This included five small children who were doing their best to behave tree-like without yelping in delight. Soon they all had at least three perched on the tops of their heads and another dozen jostling for space on each arm. The branches of the trees around them drooped under the weight of lizard flesh.
Cheobawn began to giggle. Tiny lizard toes tickled her skin and the grumpy look they gave her when they found no berries hanging from her nose delighted her. A small brawl was taking place around the berries on the branches in her hands. Megan yipped in pain and dropped one of her branches, shaking her hand. The displaced lizards, robbed of their perch, leapt into the air. The movement startled those around it and as if by consensus, all the lizards in the grove launched themselves into the air and spread their limbs wide.
