Joshua and the Arrow Realm by Donna Galanti Read Free Book Online

out.”
    â€œObviously. They betrayed us,” Charlie said.
    â€œOnly Lore. Ash is a friend, and why wouldn’t she trust my hound? She trusts me.”
    â€œFunny,” I said. “Like I thought you betrayed me once.”
    â€œYes, well, we are alike, you and I, young Joshua,” Leandro said. “We must pass over what is evident and search deeper—trust our instincts to know the truth.”
    He held my gaze. Old feelings for him as a leader and a hero surged through me.
    â€œDo you have faith in me?” Leandro asked as if reading my thoughts.
    With all my feelings bubbling inside me, I could only nod.
    Then a silky voice murmured from the stone walls. “Faith is alive.”
    We all looked around. “Wha—”
    Leandro held up a hand to silence us. “Who said that?”
    â€œA mastermind. And a master of minds,” the voice said with a giggle. I pointed to where the voice came from in the wall. Leandro nodded and we sneaked over there.
    â€œIt’s a crazy prisoner Artemis locked up,” Apollo said.
    â€œPerhaps he has information to help,” Leandro said.
    I nodded and pushed on a two-foot block of stone where the voice came from. Nothing. I tried another stone. Put all my weight behind it. Charlie and Leandro helped. The voice giggled again. We braced our feet and shoved our shoulders into the wall. Charlie grunted, his face straining red. The rock moved an inch. We both gasped in excitement. It must’ve been used to get through before. We pushed harder. The jagged rock slid forward and fell on the other side.
    A man’s face bulged through the opening. I jumped back and fell on my butt. His eyes widened, and his giggle spilled into a musical laugh bouncing around our cell.
    Leandro reached through the hole and caught the neck of the giggler. “What’s so funny?”
    The man’s eyes bulged bigger. “Nothing, m’lord,” his voice croaked. “You need faith to get out of this dread. Faith is alive. Not dead!”
    Leandro let go and the man’s face popped into our cell. His pale, smooth face beamed with large, bright blue eyes, red cheeks, and a chunky nose. Tufts of white hair stuck out from his head. He looked like an old man trapped in a kid’s face.
    Charlie jerked back.
“Mon Dieu!
Santa’s crazy cousin.”
    â€œFaith renders us invincible,” Crazy chanted. “No matter the enemies yet to be faced. If doubt enters, our faithful hearts will be erased.”
    â€œYou’re talking nonsense, whoever you are,” Leandro said, flinging his cloak behind him.
    â€œNo, no. A silly sot they put here to rot … but the truth will be got. Found in the lyric cast to spin my trick.” The old man’s words and eyes mesmerized me, chaining me in place. His face became a head and an arm with a hand stretched toward us as this strange person squeezed farther through the opening. We all leaned back. The tip of the man’s blackened fingernail curled up and pointed at me.
    â€œAre you ready to lead?” His puffy white eyebrows rumpled up but his lips didn’t move. His voice echoed inside me.
    Maybe
, I wanted to say, but my words escaped me. The walls pressed closer and the voices of my friends tumbled together and grew faint.
    â€œYou will be tested, faithful one.” His voice pierced my head. I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes to push the dizziness away. “Take the knife of Leandro. ‘Tis hidden in his boot. Plunge it through his heart like a poisonous root. What he seeks stands before him, but he cannot see through the gloom. Die he will soon. End his suffering under tonight’s moon.”
    â€œNo! He’s my friend.” Waves of tiredness beat against me.
    â€œWhat’s he doing to you, Joshua?” Charlie said, pulling me closer. “You leave him alone, you crazy old man.”
    He didn’t. His voice crooned on in my head,