Curse of the Spider King Read Online Free PDF

student returned to his desk and Mr. Wallace declared that the test was over.
    â€œYou have two minutes to chat before next period,” he announced. “And Miss Simonson?”
    Kat looked up.
    â€œCan I see you for a moment?”
    The whole class whoa-oh ed her, guessing that Kat was in big trouble. Kat blushed and went forward. Mr. Wallace silenced the class with his famous “move and I’ll vaporize you” look while Kat waited nervously at the side of his desk.
    He turned sideways and said, “It seems you were accurate in your self-appraisal. You did quite well, Kat.”
    â€œReally?” Kat asked, perhaps a bit too surprised. “I mean, I thought I’d gotten most of it right, but that one on continentalism—whew! I’m sure I messed something up on—”
    â€œNo, Miss Simonson,” he interrupted. “As far as I can tell, you didn’t miss a point. Granted, I’ll take a closer look later tonight when I grade the rest, but it sure looks good.”
    All Kat could say inside was And?
    â€œAnyways, I just wanted to let you know I am very impressed, Miss Simonson. This is a welcome change for you. I hope it continues.”
    â€œThanks,” Kat said. “It’s coming more natural to me,” was all she could think to say.
    â€œWell, hard work does pay off.”
    â€œYeah, it sure does,” Kat said, now feeling incredibly guilty for passively lying. But they were her answers. Right?
    Mr. Wallace was a sharp guy. He might suspect something. If he did, what would he do about it? Kat hardly slept that night, and dreaded the ride into the school the following morning.

5
    Red Dusk
    TOMMY SAT on the edge of his bed in a narrow cone of golden lamplight, the book Mrs. Galdarro had given him early in the evening on his lap. The rest of his bedroom lay cloaked in shadow. He could hear his mom downstairs, talking to his dad. “I think it’s wonderful that Tommy’s taken such an interest in reading,” she said.
    â€œThat librarian is something else,” Mr. Bowman replied.
    Tommy glanced at the clock—9:30. On most nights, he’d be in snoozeville by now. But tonight he just couldn’t fall asleep. He wanted to read. He slid his hand across the smooth surface of the book’s cover, letting his fingers ride up on its gilded trim and down around the binding. Wait . Before he opened it, he stood up and parted the curtains of his window. The streetlight was bright and yellow behind the now bare crab apple tree in his front yard. Tommy half expected to see a black sports car parked there, but there wasn’t one.
    Tommy dropped back to his bed and opened the book. A detailed sketch emblazoned the first page. Cool artwork , he thought. Tommy studied the sketch of a partially collapsed stone wall, and beyond it a white pedestal upon which a cobweb-shrouded book lay. There were shelves behind it, shelves full of other books and artifacts that Tommy did not recognize. And perched on the arm of a statue was a huge bird of prey, like a falcon but much, much larger.
    Tommy carefully turned past the art and came to a kind of table of contents. There were page numbers, but rather than chapter titles, this book seemed to be divided in sections and subsections by some kind of date. And the dates descended on the page from top to bottom.
    9680 Founding of Allyra
8015 Golden Age of Elves
7252 Construction of Berinfell
5807 The Nemic Wars
4297 Alliance with the Saer
4021 The Bloodless War
3927 Invasion of the Taladrim
3811 The Gwar Revolution
3108 Age of Peace
2222 The Fall of Berinfell
2220 The Age of Hiding
    Beneath each of these main headings, in smaller script, was at least one subheading. There, Tommy found what he was looking for: Red Dusk . Given Mrs. Galdarro’s warnings, Tommy reasoned that it had to be the most exciting chapter. Of course, she’d said not to read it at night. But come on . . . how bad could it be?