Keeper of the Phoenix by Aleesah Darlison Read Free Book Online Page A

safe, Ash couldn’t help wondering what it might be like to be the one who found Lord Belgrave and the others. Maybe this mission was the chance he’d been waiting for to prove his courage?
    Imagine his mother’s joy if he found his pa and Duncan. She would be so proud of him!
    What if I return a hero? he wondered. No one would ever bully me again. Especially not Morgan.
    “What do you think?” Ash studied Gwaam. “Can you help us?”
    “Feed me!” Gwaam said. “Feed me!”
    Ash shot Lady Belgrave an embarrassed look. “That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. I’m sorry, my lady. He’s a little unpredictable.”
    “But only a moment ago he seemed so lucid, so intelligent …”
    “He does that, Lady Belgrave,” Ash said. “One minute he’s absolutely fine and seems to know what’s going on. The next he’s like a baby. He’s barely hatched, after all. And he has this incredible urge to eat everything in sight. He’s hungry all the time. May I feed him? Perhaps in a few days we could try again.”
    “Master Rover,” Lady Belgrave said, “if you help me, Gwaam may have access to my kitchen whenever he desires. Take him now if you like, and your friends, the boy you left outside included. I don’t care how much you eat, only please agree to help.”
    Renshaw Gilking spoke for the first time. “You would do well to heed my lady’s request. Imagine for a moment what this opportunity could bring your family.”
    Ash chewed his lip thoughtfully. “If we were to go in search of Lord Belgrave, who would come with us? The squire?”
    “Unfortunately, I can’t spare him,” Lady Belgrave said. “He is one of the few able men left in the village.”
    “I’m too old to take on a journey like this,” Renshaw added. “And even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t leave my lady.”
    “Is there not anyone else, Renshaw?” Lady Belgrave said.
    Before Renshaw Gilking could reply, Rhyll said, “It doesn’t matter, Lady Belgrave. There are three of us. My brother Taine, Ash and myself. We are strong and quick on our feet. We’re used to fending for ourselves. We don’t need any help.”
    Ash stood taller and puffed his chest out to support Rhyll’s claims.
    Lady Belgrave looked unsure. “But you are still young, child, and innocent in the ways of the world. Not all of Krell is like our wonderful, safe Icamore. You must be certain you’re up to this adventure.”
    Rhyll’s chin lifted ever so slightly. “Like I said, we’re used to looking after ourselves. Taine and I have done fine without our mother these last few years. And Ash has been the man of his house ever since his pa and older brother left.”
    “Yes, of course.” Lady Belgrave looked embarrassed at the mention of Rhyll’s mother. Her husband was, after all, the one responsible for exiling her. She turned towards Ash. “So it seems you must venture out with only your companions and the phoenix, Master Rover. You shall, however, be provided with mules and ample supplies for the journey. Think about it, will you?”
    “Yes, my lady.”
    Renshaw escorted Ash, Gwaam, Taine and Rhyll down into the kitchen where he left them to eat and discuss Lady Belgrave’s proposal.
    Taine, his appetite fully recovered, gobbled down a good portion of the boiled eggs, ham and cheese offered to them by the cook while the others told him what had happened.
    “It’s a dangerous mission Lady Belgrave is sending us on,” he said. “What if we don’t make it back alive? I know the food is good, well, it’s delicious really, but we won’t be here to enjoy it if we’re dead. Can’t she get someone else to find Lord Belgrave?”
    “There is no one else,” Ash said. “All fit men of fighting age left with Lord Belgrave. The rest are too old, or too young.”
    “Like us.”
    Rhyll shook her head. “I don’t understand why anyone would ever want to go to war.”
    “It would be for the honour of our country,” Taine replied automatically.
    “Face it,