A Hero's Throne (An Ancient Earth) Read Online Free PDF Page B

also smell him. He stank of grease and wind and dead animal. He loomed over her, gazing intently but not moving. She hurried around him to stay with the others.
    “Who are they?”
    “They’re . . . people we’d hoped not to run into,” Alex said. “We should be fine if we hurry. As soon as you go through the portal, then you’ll be safe. Mostly.”
    Freya looked across to Daniel. He was keeping his eyes on themen behind him, a hand under his coat where his sword was, an eager, sneering grin on his face; he was counting under his breath.
    “Forty,” Ecgbryt said.
    “Forty,” Alex said, coming to stand next to the knight.
    “I’ve got forty-one,” Vivienne said.
    “Forty-one also,” Daniel said, joining them.
    There were more of the hairy men now—six in total—striding between the stones.
    “It is one of these, then,” Ecgbryt said, studying the stones behind him. He circled one that stood about five feet high. “Which one? Which one . . .”
    Freya took two steps toward Ecgbryt and then froze in terror as the men—the six of them that they could see plainly—started howling at the top of their lungs. As each one stood, heads thrown back, they began to shudder and shake, their fur coats bristling. By degrees they leaned forward, spasming, arms extended, transforming. Their fur skins drew tighter around them, their arms and legs growing thick and bulky, and their skin darkened as fine fur grew everywhere, even on their faces—faces that lengthened, noses flattening into snouts, jaws widening, opening to show teeth that grew visibly. Their eyes turned black and sank back into deep, dark-furred brows.
    Their arms—now forelegs—touched the ground and the transformations were complete. Where large men once stood, now there were large, black bears with slavering jaws and clawed limbs.
    Freya gaped. “Oh, you’re kidding me.”
    As one, the bears rushed them, tearing across the neatly trimmed lawn at a sprinting pace.
    “Yes, yes. Here. Daniel, Freya—it is time, quick!” Ecgbryt yelled at them, but Freya was rooted to the spot. She felt Daniel tug at her arm and she stumbled forward, trying to pick her feet up far enough so as not to stumble.
    Ecgbryt drew his axe from his rucksack and stepped forward to deal with the bears. He pulled a silver can from his belt and tossed it on the lawn. Freya watched as it rolled to a stop on the grass and then exploded in a flash of light and a head-rattling boom.
    Of all of them, Freya was the only one who hadn’t braced herself for the flashbang grenade. Woozy and blinded, she felt arms join around her waist and she was hoisted off the ground. She rubbed her palms into her eyes to try to clear them. The last she saw in the twilight of the overworld was Ecgbryt wading through white, smoky vapours, swinging his axe swiftly around him. A bear carcass already lay at his feet, but the others were rallying. She heard the sharp, tinny pops of Alex’s firearm, Ecgbryt shouting, and then she was pulled down into darkness, as if into the grave—as if into the Fear.
    She was released and stumbled down a short flight of steps, shouting and grabbing at the stone walls. She stopped her slow fall by pushing her weight against a wet stone wall, its texture and smell all too familiar.
    The sounds dimmed, and the last suffused rays of light disappeared as the darkness around her became complete.

CHAPTER TWO
    Echoes of the Fall
    _____________________ I _____________________
    Hartlepoole
    Sean Pitt walked Anna Powell home along the side path of the motorway that skirted their city. It wasn’t a very scenic route to walk—it was littered, noisy, and polluted—but it was nicer because Sean liked Anna, and he thought that Anna liked him back, even though she ignored him at school. But on Wednesday evenings, when they both had orchestra, he was able to walk her home, just the two of them together, alone.
    The route was well known to him, and he had long-standing fantasies of, at