Ask the Bones Read Online Free Page B

bird away.
    His legs were shaking, but he walked to the edge of the mountain and looked down.
    â€œHurry,” the man shouted from below. “Throw me the gems that are around your feet.”
    The boy was amazed. Diamonds, rubies, and emeralds covered the ground. He threw them down by the handful.
    The man grabbed some empty sacks from behind his saddle, filled them with gems, and laid them across one camel’s back. Then he mounted the other camel and began to ride away.
    â€œWait!” cried Yosef. “How do I get down?”
    â€œThat’s for you to figure out,” shouted the man. “Don’t ask me. Ask the bones.” And off he went.
    What bones?
    The boy lay down, with his head over the edge of the mountain so he could peer at its sheer walls. He felt something hard beneath his chest. He dragged it out and stared at it with horror. It was a skull. A skull about the size of his own. He looked around and saw bones all over the mountaintop. There were leg bones and arm bones and finger bones and toe bones. And skulls everywhere. A few tears streamed down Yusef’s cheeks. How many boys had the cruel man abandoned there? And how long would it be before his own bones were picked clean by the giant bird?
    He turned the skull over in his hands and looked into its empty sockets. Suddenly he was furious. He would not let the cruel man destroy him.
    He explored every inch of that mountaintop. And when he found the bird’s nest, he knew there was hope. He hid under the nest’s rim and waited until the giant bird landed. Then he jumped up and grabbed its legs.
    The bird let out an ear-splitting squawk. Then it soared into the sky, with Yusef hanging on beneath. It spiraled upward, gliding on the currents of hot air that rose from the sun-baked earth. Yusef’s arms began to ache. His fingers cramped, but he held tight, waiting for the bird to dive low. And when it finally did, he closed his eyes and dropped to the ground.
    He landed hard, tumbling over rough sand and stones, but he was safe. So he picked himself up and began walking back to the man’s house.
    His plan was dangerous, but he was too angry to care. When he finally reached the man’s door, he knocked and asked for work.
    â€œOf course,” said the man. “I can always use another boy. ”
    Just as Yusef had hoped, the man didn’t recognize him. The boy’s face was bruised and swollen from the fall. Besides, the man would never imagine anyone returning from the mountaintop.
    Soon after, the man sent Yusef to kill a bull and skin it, and it wasn’t long before they traveled back to the base of the mountain. Again the man ordered the boy to lie down on the hide.
    â€œShow me how,” said Yusef.
    â€œWhat? You want me to ruin my cloak on that bloody hide?” roared the man. He lunged forward, but the boy slipped aside, tripping the man with his foot.

    And while the man lay stunned, Yusef whipped the hide around him and tied it tight. Then he hid behind a rock.
    Again the giant bird swooped down and grasped the hide, this time with the man inside it. Again it flew to the top of the mountain, and again it was frightened away.
    When the man struggled free, he raced to the edge.
    â€œHurry,” Yusef shouted from below, “throw me the gems that are around your feet.”
    The man recognized his own words. But they were coming from the lips of the boy—the very boy, he now realized, he had left on the mountaintop a few days earlier.
    The man bellowed with rage. He kicked the hide over the edge in a shower of gems and tore the bird’s nest to shreds. And while Yusef picked up diamonds and rubies, the man heaved bones at the bird circling overhead. It flew away, never to return.
    The man ran back to the edge of the mountain and saw the boy riding away with bags full of gems. “Wait!” howled the man. “How did you get down?”
    â€œI