In the Shadow of the Dragon King Read Online Free Page B

go!”
    They took off together, rounding the mansion. The mini Flash Gordon disappeared into the forest.
    “Oh, no, you don’t!”
    David broke into a full run, his track training kicking in. He dashed past the greenhouse and the overseer’s cottage, leaping over fallen trees. Twigs and leaves crunched beneath his feet. Branches snapped. Birds took flight. Charlotte yelled for him to stop, but he kept running, the cold air burning his nose and throat.
    To the north, he made out the Antylles River rushing toward Lake Sturtle. A flash of red zoomed off to his right. David turned, zigzagging past trees, leaping over boulders. Sweat beaded on his brow despite the cold stinging his skin. He shed his coat, leaving it on the ground behind him. The trickle of a creek grew closer. He ran, faster, faster, until he reached the embankment of Wilder Creek. Out of breath, he pressed his palms to his knees and scanned the forest. On the opposite embankment stood a young doe, alert and unsure, her ears twitching. A rabbit darted off to his right. A squirrel scampered up a tree. Charlotte rushed up behind him and hunched over, out of breath and holding her side.
    “Did—you—not—hear—me?” She staggered forward. “I—called to you—”
    Behind David came a sound akin to hundreds of spiders crashing through the underbrush. David turned as a reddish-brown blur no more than three feet high barreled toward him at lightning speed.
    “David! Move!”
    Charlotte shoved David, knocking him several feet back. He tumbled to the ground with an oomph.
    And then she was gone.
    “Noooo!” Charlotte screamed in one long, sustained note as the creature carried her off. Her voice grew further away. “Daaa-viiid!”
    David scrambled to his feet and half-ran, half-slid down the slippery slope and across the rope bridge toward her voice, his heart racing, and his throat burning. “I’m coming, Char!”
    She screamed from the darkness of the old gristmill ruins. David vaulted over fallen trees and slipped as he swerved around a corner. Down he went, careening to the bottom of the creek. Covered in muck, he darted around the dilapidated water wheel, feeling along the vine-covered walls of the mill until his fingers found an opening. Charlotte sat inside in a heap against the wall.
    “Char!” David skidded to a stop beside her, panting. “Char, are you okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m fine.” She grimaced as she pulled her left leg to her chest.
    “Which way did he go?”
    Charlotte pointed to her right. “The doorway. I’m sure he’s gone by now.” Her hand clasped around his wrist as he jerked to leave. “He’s gone. Don’t bother going after him.”
    David collapsed beside her, counting backward from ten in his head to calm his pulse. “Did you get a good look at him?”
    Charlotte shook her head. “No. He moved so fast. Everything was all a blur. He had a very distinct voice, though. Scottish or Irish, I think.”
    David leaned forward, his arms perched on his drawn-up knees. “He spoke to you?”
    “Not me, I don’t think.” Charlotte lifted her hip to one side and withdrew a broken brick from beneath her, then tossed it across the room blanketed in dead vegetation. “It was more like he was angry at himself for failing to get you. He said the strangest word that sounded like ‘Figbiggin,’ followed by a very angry, ‘Missed!’ Then he dumped me here and took off.”
    David laid his forehead on his arms folded across his knees. “Who is he? What does he want with me? I don’t understand.”
    “Me, either.”
    The Star Wars Imperial March blasted from Charlotte’s coat pocket. “Oh, geez! Not now.” She answered, her tone a bit terse. “Hi, Daddy—at David’s—but I’m not hungry—but— okay, fine. I’ll be there in a minute.”
    She hung up and turned to David. “Sorry. I have to go. We have to do the ritualistic Saturday morning breakfast thing with my aunt and uncle. Are you going to be okay? You want me to