Legend of the Three Moons by Patricia Bernard Read Free Book Online

Chad shouted, chopping at a snake that was winding itself around his legs. `So we can't talk to them either!'
    Whack ! Celeste's sword sliced at a branch twice the width of her arm. It turned on her in a flash and its hissing tongue struck her bag. She jumped aside, stabbed one of its glittering black eyes, and then the other as it half-blindly turned to attack Swift.
    `Run,' yelled Lyla, `The bigger ones are falling now and we can't fight them.'
    But running was impossible. They had to dodge or leap over the snakes that used their tails to trip or ensnare them, while slashing at the heads to avoid being stung or bitten. And all the while, more trees fell to the ground writhing to life as hissing, spitting snakes always slithering towards them.
    They were soon totally surrounded and escape looked impossible until the blast of a hunting horn and the distant sound of galloping hooves created a stillness around them. Then all the snakes that weren't wounded morphed back into trees, leaving the rest to writhe.
    `Hide,' yelled Lem.
    With nowhere to hide but amongst the trees they'd just been fighting, the children bobbed down behind three of the largest trunks and peered carefully out.
    Galloping towards them was a party of tall, red-haired Huntsmen, each one holding aloft a lantern that made their hair, moustaches and beards glow like flames. Each also carried a metal-tipped spear, aimed and ready to let loose.
    The lantern light revealed that many of them wore eye-patches, and all had tattooed arms and large brass discs fitted into their earlobes.
    Their chestnut horses looked equally as fierce and equally bizarre, with strings of knucklebones draped across their foreheads, rings piercing their nostrils, and their manes and tails dyed red. Neighing loudly the great animals showed no fear as they stomped on the writhing snakes.
    `There is someone hunting for us,' shouted a giant of a man with frizzy red hair and bulging muscles. `Keep your eyes open. They may be worth more than the snakes.'
    The children watched the Huntsmen kill the snakes that they had wounded, and tie the dismembered bodies across the rumps of their packhorses. Then they set to cutting more snake trees down. As their axes bit into the diamond-patterned bark the trees screamed in pain and fell to the ground where they were beheaded before they could wriggle away. When the packhorses were fully loaded, the lead Huntsman blew his horn and the rest flung their legs over their horses backs and rode off.
    The children jogged after them, at a safe distance, while behind them the snake trees that had been spared by the Huntsmen began to fall onto the track and try to wriggle after them.
    After running further than they'd ever run before, the children arrived panting and limping - especially Swift with his sore foot - at a crossing where three roads and a cliff track were marked by four signposts.
    The sign to the right said, To Mizzen Bee ; the one to the left said, To Mussel Cove ; the cliff track sign said, To Wartstoe Village . And the one pointing where they'd come from said, To Royal Woods . High up on the Wartstoe Village track they could see a string of lanterns bobbing along.
    `We'll let them get to the top of the cliff before we follow,' whispered Lyla.
    `What if the snakes attack?' argued Lem.
    Looking back to where Snake Tree Woods ended and seeing no snakes in sight, Lyla raised her eyebrows at her brother. `I don't think they can leave the woods.'
    By the time they reached the top of the cliff the Huntsmen's lanterns were gone and all they could see was a pitch-black plateau dotted with red campfires.
    They circled the first campfire and discovered why it was built so close to the Wartstoe Village track. The plateau was covered in prickly grass that crackled loudly underfoot, letting everyone within hearing distance know that someone was coming.
    There were also sharp stones that cut through their boots; waist-high walls of snake bones, that fell with a