Read The Nothing: A Book of the Between for Free Online Page A

equipped with sharp little white teeth. They swam together in a tight school, darting this way, then that. They looked a lot like piranhas, in fact, and Jared took a cautious step away from the steep edge.
    “In with you,” Kraal said. “You asked for the cure of the Giants. I can’t take you to the Queen rotting away like carrion.”
    Jared had been managing to hold his nausea at bay, but the rotting leg and the circling fish were too much for him. Leaning forward, he vomited a thin, bitter stream into the pool. A flash of silver and the fish were on it, cleaning the water so fast, he only had time to blink before they were back to their regular pattern.
    “Get in,” Kraal ordered.
    Jared shook his head, mute, stumbling backward.
    He met resistance. A big hand pressed against the flat of his back, shoving him forward and off balance. Arms windmilling madly, he fought the momentum that drove him toward the pool. And then his feet were no longer on earth, his flapping arms doing nothing to hold him back.
    The icy water immobilized his limbs at first contact and made him gasp. He went under. Water filled his nose and burned in the back of his throat. Panic kicked his body into action and he churned his way back to the surface, gagging and spluttering. He wouldn’t be able to stay afloat long, not with the cold water already leaching the strength from his muscles. Vertical walls rose several feet above his head, smooth and slick with moisture.
    “Get me out!” he shouted up at Kraal, but the Giant stood calmly watching and made no move to intervene. The fish closed in, swimming in tight circles, their slick sides brushing Jared’s skin, tails flicking. A tugging sensation on his leg drew his eyes down to see silver scales and flashes of sharp white teeth as they darted in and away, tearing off loose flesh and then retreating, only to be replaced by their fellows. Blood swirled into the water, red first, then pink.
    “Kraal, please get me out of here. I’ll do anything you want, I swear...”
    Blood increased the frenzy of the fish. Jared splashed and struggled, kicking at them with his good leg, shooing with his hands, but they were quicksilver and he could no more catch and hold them than he could hold the water. His flesh had begun to shiver and jerk with cold and terror, teeth chattering.
    Kraal’s booming laughter came down to him from above. “Relax, little man. They are wound cleaners. They only eat the dead flesh. Your cock and balls are safe enough.”
    It was true that they touched no other part of his flesh with their teeth. And what they did was painless. He felt the pressure, little tugs and pushes, but that was all. As he calmed and was able to pay more attention, he realized they were doing more than eating, circling the leg, over and over again, brushing against it with their bodies, almost like a purring cat looking for attention.
    “You might have told me,” he was able to gasp after a moment. “That they wouldn’t hurt me.”
    “You have so little trust. I told you they were for healing. If I had wanted to kill you, I could have found easier ways than carrying you all the way here. Looks like they’re done—let’s get you out of there before you freeze to death and their efforts are wasted.”
    The Giant knelt at the pool’s edge and reached down a hand. Jared glanced at the fish. They swam around the outer edge of the pool in perfect synchrony, as if he no longer existed. Reaching up both hands, he clung to Kraal’s while the Giant lifted him effortlessly up onto dry land.
    A gigantic towel descended around his shoulders, falling all the way to his feet like a robe.
    “Hand towel for a Giant,” Kraal said with his grating laugh. “How does the leg feel?”
    Jared tested it, surprised to find it felt more or less normal. A little loss of sensation. No pain. He looked down with some trepidation, expecting to find the flesh stripped to the bone. What he saw made him bend down to look