Beyond the Crimson (The Crimson Cycle) Read Online Free PDF Page A

as my brain came to terms with my near road-kill experience. I scolded myself for letting this odd obsession hinder my awareness; it was getting out of hand. I sighed, slowly calming down and carefully looked both ways this time before I jogged across the street and up the large concrete steps that led to the large glass door entrance. 
    I approached the counter where a bleach blonde-haired girl with an orange-like tan sat behind the lobby desk, snapping her bubble gum.
    “Hey…Melissa, ” I said as I read her name tag. “I’m here to see Mr. Riley.”
    “One moment,” she said dully. She picked up the phone and dialed a number using her long bright pink acrylic nails.
    “Someone is here for you.” She tilted her head to me with a bored expression. “Katarina Cole?” she asked.
    I nodded.
    “Yes,” she said flatly into the phone before dropping it into its cradle. “He said he’ll meet you in the storage room.”
    I scurried across the shiny gray linoleum floor and opened the heavy backdoor to an already lit up unit.
    “Mr. Riley?” I called out.
    “Over here, Katarina!”
    I followed his voice to the familiar aisle that held the ancient medieval artifacts. He was leafing through the old book again. Now might be a good time to ask him about Brendelon.
    I shifted my weight. “S o … what was that story you were going to tell me about Brendelon the knight?”
    He closed the book, looking over his spectacles at me with one eyebrow raised. “What do you know about Brendelon?” 
    What do I know? He was the expert not me.
    “Only that he was a knight.”
    He laughed. “Yes, of course. It’s just interesting because your grandfather knew quite a bit on Brendelon. I wasn’t sure if he told you anything.”
    I stared at him stunned, so Grandpa had been holding out on me, too.
    Mr. Riley laughed at my expression, his rosy cheeks becoming redder. “Well, to answer your question, Brendelon was a cousin of King Arthur.” My heart fell slightly that he really was only a fictional character. I couldn’t hide the letdown, but Mr. Riley’s focus was somewhere else. “He fought alongside Arthur’s famous knights. He was swifter than Sir Lancelot, more loyal than Sir Kay, and braver than Sir Gawain,” he explained admirably before pausing to finally look at me. “He could have very likely been one of Arthur’s greatest knights when it came to skills in battle, but he isn’t talked about in the mythological legends that people write now-a-days.” He stuck his hands in the pockets of his gray trousers.
    “How come?” I asked, still ridiculously intrigued despite the disappointment. 
    “Well, he disappeared. He vanished before Camelot was the romanticized version that you read of today. In fact, it use to be named Caerleon; it was before Arthur married or even met Guinevere, before the Round Table was established, and even before Arthur was made High King.”
    I shook my head, scrunching my eyebrows together. “You mean before be pulled the sword?’
    He shook his head, looking at me w ith a playful smile on his lips and eyes twinkling. “What many people don’t know is that even though Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, he wasn’t made High King right away. The other kings would not hear of a boy in his adolescence becoming king of them all. To appease the small kings, Merlin agreed to make Arthur the Battle Duke of Britain. Younger knights and friends from his childhood, like Brendelon, Gawain, Lancelot, Kay, Bedivere, Bors the younger, and so on all agreed to follow him. The young knights fought with such valor and soon they were winning victory after victory, making peace in the land. The kings could not turn a blind eye from the success of this young Battle Duke, who made peace with Saxons of all people.” He smiled as he crossed his arms over his red knitted vest, remembering the stories. “Brendelon helped him fight in these early battles and would have gone on to the very end,