The Kingdom of Kevin Malone by Suzy McKee Charnas Read Free Book Online Page B

prophecy, anyway?”
    He kicked a pebble off the stair he stood on. “Only a little while. I had to find out there was a prophecy, from this dragon I fought. And then Sebbian—” He turned so I couldn’t see his face. “We had a singing contest. I won him away from the White One’s service, and he went off to get me the prophecy to show his, you know, his loyalty. You’re not exactly coming in at the beginning of the story, you know.”
    â€œWell, let’s go get the stupid prophecy ourselves, then,” I said. I was not happy to be reminded about poor Sebbian, and it annoyed me to have missed the dragon. “If there’s stuff I’m supposed to be able to do around here, I’d like some information about it. I don’t know how it is for Prince Kavian in the Fayre Farre, but I’ve got school next week, and I’m supposed to be moving to California any day now. So where do we start?”
    Around us were gray sky, jumbled rocks, the little arch below, and beyond it long meadows down to water and what looked like another castle, far and lone looking. I pointed. “Down there?”
    Kevin laughed. “No, not down there. That’s the castle of a duke who’d like to nail my head to his gate and send his own son on the quest in my place. So we’ll just move along before he finds out I’m hanging around, okay? No, not up the Giants’ Stair either. I know the way to where we have to go, don’t worry. For starters, we follow the steps across the face of the hill.”
    We made our way along, Kevin showing off by walking on the edges of the tip-tilted stones, holding his arms out to keep his balance. The stones led to the edge of where the forest had been sliced through from top to bottom by the Giants’ Stair, a name which seemed to answer my previous question about giants.
    â€œWhat’s that?” I whispered, as we stepped off the stones onto leaf-covered ground. “I hear something.” My adrenaline zoomed. I imagined being caught and hustled off to the castle of the ambitious duke.
    â€œCalm down,” Kevin said. “It’s just our rides.”
    I decided to die rather than ask any more dumb questions. If Kevin was going to be coy about what he wanted from me until we got his darn prophecy, so be it.
    I was just glad to be away, moving, doing stuff, in a place where if you died untimely, as they say in Shakespeare, it’s not because you are walking down the street and trip on a chunk of uneven paving and break your hip, and then a blood clot gets loose from your shattered bones and stops your heart. It’s because you’re the minstrel and special friend of a hero-prince, on your way to do him a great and faithful service, but the Bone Men get you first.

 
    Five
    A Seelim Ride
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    I N A LITTLE CLEARING near the edge of the woods two animals browsed on twig ends. They were big, they were saddled and bridled and shaped something like horses, but they had oval-shaped scales all over, like lizards. One of the animals opened its mouth and a thin forked tongue, black as licorice, flickered out.
    I stopped short. “Oh no,” I moaned. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
    â€œThey’re tame and they’re strong,” Kevin said, “and we have a ways to go.”
    The red one sort of lifted its scales and settled them again with a faint rattle, like a parrot fluffing its feathers. The blue-green one reached forward with a hind foot and delicately scratched itself behind one ear, where its blue crest started. It rolled a flat gold eye at me.
    The things were beautiful. They absolutely terrified me. I said, “I am not a rider.”
    â€œThey move real smooth,” Kevin said.
    The creatures—seelims, Kevin called them—went into a crouch at his command. Handing the sandwiches to Kevin, I boarded the blue-green seelim. When the seelim straightened up, the