North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson Read Free Book Online Page B

your swords, and do it slowly.”
    Janner rose with care, tugging Tink up by the strap of his pack.
    “Ewww,” Tink moaned at the
splootch
that sounded when he put his weight on the wet foot.
    Is he really more worried about his wet foot than the situation we’re in?
Janner thought with a flash of anger.
    When Janner drew his sword, Tink overcame his disgust and drew his own. The two boys stood side by side, just behind Podo. The horned hound shook its head, and its eyes regained some energy. It seemed to be willing itself to attack, tocome awake long enough to wreak some violence before the rockroach ended its life. The toothy cows mooed and shook their mighty flanks to wake from their stupor.
    The horned hound growled. Its lips curled back in a snarl, and a tendril of drool dangled from one of its longer teeth. It took a wobbly step forward and happened to put its leg in the path of the drunken quill diggle. The diggle hissed and arched its back. Three quills the length of a forearm sprang from the diggle’s back and lodged in the horned hound’s neck. 1
    The hound pounced on the quill diggle. The cave blats squealed and hopped about, the cows mooed, and finally, Nugget came back to himself. He yawned and scratched behind his ear with one of his giant rear legs.
    “Nugget, wake up!” Leeli cried, and wake up he did—but only enough to stand, yawn, and stretch. The cows and the cave blats circled one another. They crashed into the walls and loosed a shower of leaves and twigs.
    “We can’t climb out without leavin’ Nugget here to die,” Podo said. “He’d never be able to climb through the hole we made in the ceiling. See that?” Podo pointed his sword at a patch of light on the far side of the gully, beyond the animals. “Where the floor slopes up? When I tell ye to, head that way and hack a hole in the ceiling big enough for Nugget to follow!”
    Janner spotted a speckle of sunlight breaking through the branched roof. The animals blocked the way. Before Janner could wonder about Podo’s plan, his grandfather cried out and leapt into the fray, sword whirling.
    “Now!” Podo screamed.
    The old pirate swung his sword, pushing the cows, the hound, the diggles, and the blats aside. The animals turned on Podo as one, jaws clacking and eyes oozing.
    “Tink,” Janner screamed, “get Leeli onto Nugget,
now
!”
    “What?”
    “ NOW !”
    Tink winced but obeyed and flung his sister atop Nugget. Janner tugged the dog forward, into the chaos where Podo fought the beasts.
    “Tink, don’t just stand there!” Janner shouted. “You heard what Grandpa said! Cut a hole in the ceiling! If you’re a king, then
act
like one!”

    From Pembrick’s
Creaturepedia
    Tink froze. He looked at Janner as if he had just been slapped, then sprinted through the fray as fast as only Tink could sprint. He crawled up the far slope of the gully and hacked at the branches of the ceiling.
    Tink’s hesitation didn’t last long—half a heartbeat—but in that tiny space of time, a multitude of bitter thoughts roared inside of Janner, all of them aimed at his brother like arrows.
Behold
, he thought again, this time without a trace of humor,
the High King of Anniera
.
    Just as Janner hurried Nugget and Leeli past Podo and the toothy cows, light poured in through the hole in the ceiling. Tink had made it through. He sheathed his sword and tore the branches away.
    Janner scrambled to the dog’s rear and pushed, trying not to think about the sound of Podo’s struggle just behind him. Leeli leaned forward and closed her eyes as Nugget burst through the hole and bounded up the far side of the gully.
    Janner clapped Tink on the back. “Go!” Tink climbed through the hole.
No hesitation this time
, Janner thought. He turned and shouted, “Grandpa, come on! We’re out!”
    It was at this moment that Peet the Sock Man leapt from the rim of the gully at top speed, his arms spread wide like wings. Janner watched his uncle with awe.
    His