Joshua and the Arrow Realm Read Online Free Page A

black sheen.
    â€œWith words,” Lore said in a low rumble. “The cells are locked with enchanted spells by guards.”
    â€œThe queen’s slaves?”
    â€œWe are all her slaves.”
    â€œNo way,” I said. “Not a slave. Not ever again.”
    â€œ
Oui
!” Charlie chimed in.
    Lore chuffed. “There is always a way.”
    â€œLeandro and Apollo were supposed to stop kid slavery after we left last time,” I said.
    â€œWe need a revolution—or the Oracle—for that to happen.” The big dog sniffed me, his ears twitched. “Are you he?”
    â€œAm I who?”
    â€œThe Oracle.”
    I shook my head, sharing our conversation with Charlie.
    â€œIf he is the Oracle, you better be on our side,” Charlie said to Lore.
    Lore snapped his jaws, and Charlie and I both jumped back. “I don’t need a hero, you Reekers. I’ve got my own.”
    Before I could wonder what Lore meant, Charlie cleared his throat. “We can’t swim in that muck. There’s got to be another way.”
    â€œNo other way,” Lore growled.
    A cloud of bugs flew low across the moat as if they agreed, their wings chopping through gas bubbles sprouting from the silent sludge. Moonlight shone across the water, revealing chunks of algae floating in the scum. A whiff of decaying vegetation attacked my nose. I tried not to gag with the thought of diving into the slime. A frog
barrumphed
a lone croak and the trees bent over the moat, their branches ensnared in the watery grave.
    Neither Charlie nor I moved.
    â€œSuit yourself.” Lore’s hair bristled across his broad body, and his tail thrashed us as he turned toward thewater. “The guards change in a moment. Must go while they’re distracted.”
    â€œIf we get in and out and back to the Lightning Gate, we could send Apollo back to the Lost Realm and be home before lunch,” I said to Charlie, wishing so bad those words were true.
    He looked at me doubtfully. “Or we may never get home.”
    His words echoed what he’d told me in the auction pit of the Lost Realm when I’d first met him.
I’m not saying you won’t find your friend. You might. But we’ll never get home again
.
    Was that our fate now?
    The guards called out the changing of their posts. Lore plunged into the rank water. He swam away fast, his brutish head cruising across the moat’s slime. I stared at the sky one last time, our purple portal to freedom, and slid into the briny black, shivering from its cold embrace. A foul stench filled my nose as I pushed slimy algae away. Charlie sighed, and his splash told me he followed close behind.
    Something skated across the water toward me, its beady eyes glittering as it grew closer. I swam faster toward Lore to escape the snake, my heart thudding harder with each stroke. It passed behind me and continued on its quest. I tried not to think about what lay below the water and kicked my legs furiously, promising any creature that dared drag me under a good smack in the head. The moat wasn’t wide, but crossing it seemed to take an eternity.
    Lore threw his snout up in the air. We’d reached the middle of the moat. The queen’s flag snapped in the breeze from a tower above, a white pendant ablaze with a fiery black arrow. Our guide disappeared.
    The trench swallowed him up. One ripple rose as evidence he’d been there. I took a deep breath of the rotting ooze and sank into the creepy waters. Doom and dark engulfed me as I swam the dank depths lurking with danger—and death.

Chapter Five
    I forced myself to open my eyes in the murky realm we pushed through. Lore’s body swum ahead, and I focused on his tail and not the gunk flowing around me. The moon tainted everything under the water a sickly color. I pretended we were swimming in sticky soda fizz rather than stinky ick.
    Tails flipped past as fish wriggled around me. My lungs burned. I