Bec by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online Page A

standing but we can’t see any people. They might be hiding or they might all be murdered, demons sheltering from the sun inside the huts.
    “Come on,” Goll says, setting me down and taking the lead. “The sun’s setting. Let’s get across and find a hole for the night that we can defend.”
    There are dugouts tethered to the banks of the river, bobbing up and down. Each holds four people at most. We head for the nearest pair. Ronan and Lorcan team up with Run Fast and me. Goll, Orna, Fiachna, and Connla take the other. Lorcan grabs the rope of our dugout and hauls it in. He’s almost pulled the boat up on dry land when I get a warning flash.
    “Lorcan! No!” I scream.
    He reacts instantly, drops the rope, and leaps backward just in time. A huge demonic eel unleashes itself at him, rising out of the boat like an arrow shot from a bow. Its jaws are impossibly wide, filled with teeth that would be more suited to a bear.
    The demon snaps for Lorcan’s head and only misses by a finger’s breadth. It lands hard on the earth and writhes angrily, going for Lorcan’s legs. Ronan steps up beside his brother and stabs at the place where the demon’s eyes should be. But it doesn’t have any. It’s blind, operating by some other form of sense.
    Orna jumps onto the demon’s back and hacks at it with her three-bladed knives, one in either hand. The demon bucks and twists desperately, trying to dislodge her, but she rides it like a pony, digging her heels in, face twisted as she screams hatefully, tattoos rippling with fury.
    Connla takes aim and hurls a spear at the beast, down its maw of a mouth. The spear sticks deep in its throat. The demon chokes and slams its head downward, trying to spit out the spear.
    Goll darts forward, grabs the shaft of the spear, and drives it further into the Fomorii’s throat, twisting savagely. The demon spasms, then weakens. Suddenly the warriors are all over it, hacking away like ants trying to bring down a badger. Fiachna, Run Fast, and I watch from nearby.
    “Do you think I should help?” Fiachna asks, fingers tapping the head of an axe that hangs from his belt.
    “They’re in control,” I tell him.
    Moments later, the battle’s over and the eel demon lies at their feet, covered in the gray blood that previously pumped through its veins, torn to pieces, jaws stretched wide in a final death snarl.
    Goll grasps the handle of the spear, yanks it out, and hands it to Connla. He laughs and claps the younger warrior on the back. “A master throw!”
    Connla smiles sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to hurl it down the beast’s throat,” he says with untypical modesty. “I aimed for the top of its head. But it moved. I got lucky.”
    “I’ll always take luck over skill,” Goll says, clapping Connla’s back again. The pair grin at each other like lifelong friends.
    “I’ve never fought a water demon before,” Orna grunts, wiping her knives clean on the grass. She dabs at the final few drops of gray blood with her middle finger, then rubs it into the center spots of her spiral tattoos, one after the other.
    “They’re rare,” Ronan says, studying the demon, turning it over onto its back with his foot. “We’re lucky it’s not night or it would have been stronger.”
    “Come on,” I mutter, glancing around uneasily. “It’ll be sunset soon. More will be coming.”
    That silences everyone. After a quick check to make sure the second dugout is free of demons, we’re in the boats and crossing the river as swiftly as possible, everybody keeping one eye on the water, wary of attack from beneath.

The Stones
    N OBODY emerges from the huts as we dock. When we’re on dry land, we stare at the huts suspiciously. You’re not supposed to enter a tuath without announcing yourself and being guided by one of your own rank. But times have changed. Many of the old laws no longer apply.
    “You in the huts!” Goll bellows, in case anyone’s alive inside.
    Silence.
    “Should we go see