Hero by Alethea Kontis Read Free Book Online Page A

Peregrine had kept the witch at arm’s length enough to fall beneath her notice. After a while, those habits had come as naturally as breathing.
    He had considered exposing the ruse to the witch, in those first days. He’d contemplated revealing himself and facing the witch’s wrath simply to end his imprisonment. But Peregrine never quite found himself ready to forfeit both his life and the dream of triumphantly returning to the world of men. Eventually, he’d grown to enjoy the puzzles that these caves provided him. He relished the idea that he would never age or die. He didn’t even mind the witch so much, on the days when her demon blood wasn’t running wild.
    And then that nice young woodcutter had stolen the witch’s eyes and made Peregrine’s life so much easier.
    The cave floor grew drier and more even beneath the soles of his shoes; his breath turned whiter than the walls. Inside the kitchen, Peregrine banked the smokeless fire and swapped out the steaming laundry pot with another he’d readied with that night’s supper. Betwixt—currently a very ugly dog with a rattlesnake’s tail—twitched in his sleep in response to the reduction in heat.
    Peregrine smiled. Betwixt was the main reason he stayed.
    Betwixt was a chimera who’d been captured by the witch long before Peregrine, so long ago that he remembered neither his name nor his original shape. While the witch held him captive he had no control over where and when and how he changed form, but he was always some creature betwixt one animal and another, so the moniker suited him. And as Betwixt had not cared overly much for Leila, Peregrine’s presence suited him as well.
    Peregrine nudged the dogsnake with his foot.
    “If you intend on waking me up before I’m ready, you’d better intend to share some of that stew as well,” Betwixt growled without opening his eyes. “And a bowl of water.”
    “Absolutely!” Peregrine said cheerily. “I was hoping you’d taste the stew for me. The spider meat is fresh, but it’s possible the brownie bits have gone rancid. And some of the mushrooms might have had a touch of color on them . . . it was hard to see. But then, it always is in this place.”
    “Pantry Surprise again already?”
    “Waste not, want not,” Peregrine replied.
    “I’ll choose ‘want not,’ thank you,” said Betwixt.
    Peregrine laughed at the retort. When one was forced to stay in another’s company in a cave beyond time, it was best to keep the atmosphere jovial. Peregrine and Betwixt explored together, hunted together, and avoided the witch together as best they could. In the time of Peregrine’s imprisonment Betwixt had become his best friend and closest confidant. It was a rare bond Peregrine had shared with no one since his father.
    Peregrine took up a dagger and set to chopping shards of icerock out of the wall. He collected them in a bowl fashioned from an old warrior’s helmet and set them nearer to the fire to melt. After the fourth or fifth shard chipped away, the dagger snapped. The blade flew across the room and landed behind a clump of pillarstones.
    “Troll blade,” said Betwixt. “Shoddy workmanship.”
    The dagger might have also been a thousand years old. “I’ll try to select a dwarf blade next time.” Forced to move on to another task, Peregrine lifted the laundry pot and dumped the dirty water into a runnel that led back down to the heart of the mountain. One by one, he began wringing the clothes out for drying. “I had a vision of her again last night.”
    “You had a
dream.
Stop calling them ‘visions’ or I’ll start calling you ‘witch.’”
    “Fine, I had a dream. Of Elodie.”
    And what a lovely dream it was. They’d lived in a rose-covered cottage at the edge of the forest. A low rock wall surrounded a garden and a small barn. The kitchen had two ovens and a pantry and a pump house for well water. The bedroom had been up a long flight of stairs that reminded Peregrine of one of