Guardian Hound Read Online Free PDF Page A

Then it came to him. It had been a wet smell, like ashes grown moldy.
    After taking a deep breath, Lukas shook his head, relaxing a little. “No, ma’am.”
    â€œTrust your nose. That’s the one true test. Your eyes can be fooled.”
    Lukas blinked, surprised at that. Da was a sight hound. Surely he wouldn’t be fooled?
    Abruptly, Oma stood and turned to go.
    â€œWait!” Lukas called, his panic rising. “Don’t leave.”
    Oma stopped and turned back. “I’m sorry,” she said, sounding sad. She came back and sat down on the chair, taking his hand and holding it in her warm, soft ones. “I’ve lived with the shadows for so long, I forget what they’re truly like, how frightening they can be.”
    â€œWhat are they?” Lukas asked, wishing Oma would sit beside him on the bed and hold him, but not sure if he could ask or if he needed to be a big boy.
    â€œThey’re the dark part of hound magic,” she replied. “Forever tied to us through our magical gifts.”
    â€œI don’t understand,” Lukas complained. How could those, those things , be part of him? Then he yawned. Despite the terror and the blackness of the shadows, he still felt tired.
    â€œNo one understands,” Oma said. “That’s why you can’t say anything about your dreams. It would just upset your da. All right?”
    â€œOkay,” Lukas said, though he didn’t really understand.
    â€œThis is our secret,” Oma said seriously. “And you’re a big enough boy that you can keep such an important secret, right? Just like you keep the secret of being a member of the hound clan. If you can’t keep the secret of the shadows, though, that’s okay. That just means you aren’t old enough yet.”
    â€œI’m big enough,” Lukas complained. “I won’t tell anyone,” he promised. And he wouldn’t. Then he couldn’t help himself: He yawned again.
    Oma reached up with her other hand to smooth back his black curls. “Why don’t you lie back down and I’ll sing you a lullaby?”
    Lukas snuggled under the covers again but he never let go of his grandmother’s hand.
    Oma sang softly, almost a whisper, about a faithful hound guarding his knight long into the evening after a battle. The guardian hound stayed true to his duty, and in the morning, light came back to the world and hound’s knight was able to go to heaven.
    Lukas dreamed of being the hound to the mysterious knight, walking in the sunlight through tall, golden grass, bounding at his side. They were celebrating, he knew, the slaying of the shadows. The knight’s armor was bashed in, tarnished, but strong; the chest plate solid, the chainmail on his arms moving smoothly.
    Though Lukas couldn’t see the knight’s face behind his great helmet that had only a slit for eyes, he knew his knight’s scent. Oma whispered again that it was the one true thing, so he concentrated on that complicated odor, made up of warm bird feathers, the cool scale of armor, a wild-yet-steadfast heart, and other things Lukas could only guess at.
    When the morning came, Lukas barely remembered the shadows, until they came the next night to haunt him.
    But the knight—Lukas would never forget that scent, and would forever be seeking it.
    # # #
    â€œI dreamed of the shadows again last night,” Lukas told everyone at breakfast a week later. He knew he was supposed to keep it a secret, but it was growing too big inside. He had to tell someone. Because they were all from the hound clan, they all shared that secret. This one was just his alone.
    All of them—Mama, Da, Greta, and Oma—were gathered around one end of the long dining table that was usually reserved for formal dinners, sitting on heavy oak furniture and using the thin white plates circled in gold that Lukas was so afraid he’d break. The breakfast nook was being