Peter and the Sword of Mercy by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson Read Free Book Online Page B

over, gripped Molly’s arms, looked into her eyes, his face somber. “Listen to me, Mary,” he said. “If it becomes known that you’re making these allegations about the king, it could do far more than ruin my career. It could get you charged with treason. Do you understand that? Treason.”
    “Let go of me,” Molly said softly.
    George released his grip. “All right,” he said. “But there shall be no more talk of this. Any of this. I forbid it. I have worked too hard. I won’t have you jeopardizing our family name, everything I’ve achieved, all because of James’s deluded ravings about evil forces taking over England.”
    Molly stared at him for a few seconds, then said, “You once fought against those same forces, George. James fought at your side. Peter…Can you forget so easily?”
    George shook his head. “It was long ago,” he said. “And far away.”
    Without another word, he turned and walked from the room.
    Molly watched him go, feeling more alone than she could remember ever having felt.

     
    It took her a day to decide what to do.
    First, she would go see her father, Leonard Aster, the head of the Starcatchers. Given his poor health, Molly hated to involve him, but she felt she had no choice.
    Her second decision was more difficult. She wanted somebody to know what she was planning to do and, in case something happened to her, why she felt it so important that something be done. It was now obvious that she couldn’t tell George. He’d only try to stop her.
    That left but one person. …

     
    “Wendy,” she said, entering her daughter’s room.
    “Yes, Mother?” said Wendy, looking up from the book she was reading in bed.
    Molly closed the door. She took a deep breath. “Do you remember the other day,” she said, “when you asked me who the Starcatchers were?”
    “Yes,” said Wendy, putting down the book, her attention now fully focused on her mother.
    Molly sat on the bed and said, “I felt I couldn’t tell you then.” She stroked her daughter’s cheek. “But how quickly things can change. Besides, you’re about the same age as I was at the time. You’re a thoughtful, intelligent girl. You’re more ready than I was.”
    “Ready for what?” Wendy sat up, eager to hear more. “What is it, Mother?”
    Molly took a deep breath. “I’ve so much to tell you,” she said.
    She spoke for more than an hour. Wendy occasionally asked questions, but mostly listened, fascinated, sometimes barely able to believe what she was hearing.
    Molly began by telling Wendy about starstuff, the mysterious substance that, for eons, fell to earth at unpredictable times and places, bringing with it fantastic power; about the Starcatchers, a secret group to which Wendy’s ancestors belonged, formed to find the starstuff and return it to the heavens before it could fall into the hands of the evil Others; and about the mighty, but hidden, struggle between these two groups that had gone on for centuries.
    Wendy’s fascination turned to astonishment when Molly got to her own part in the story—how, when she was about Wendy’s age, she found herself aboard a ship carrying a trunk full of starstuff; how she fought to defend it from the Others and a band of pirates, her only allies being some orphan boys and some porpoises.
    “Porpoises?” interrupted Wendy.
    “Yes,” said Molly. “Their leader is named Ammm.”
    “So,” Wendy said slowly, “when I was a girl, and you taught me to speak Porpoise, and I thought it was just a game …”
    “It was no game,” said Molly. “That’s how they speak.”
    “So I can speak to a porpoise?”
    Molly smiled. “You can.”
    “Excellent!” said Wendy. “Do go on.”
    Molly told how she and the orphans had been shipwrecked on an isolated island, where they had defeated their foes with the help of the native Mollusk tribe, and where the orphans had decided to stay. She told how the Starcatchers had brought the starstuff back to England, only to find