Jane and the Raven King Read Online Free PDF Page A

Painted in khaki-brown desert camouflage, the mobile home looked as though it had dropped from the sky or been hauled out with the driveway garbage cans.
    The blind man opened the RV door and said, “Watch your step.”
    “Are you nuts?” Michael said. “We’re not going with you.”
    “It’s pouring rain,” Jane said, but she didn’t follow the blind man. Sure, our clothes are already soaked through, she thought, wiping strands of hair from her eyes, but who is this blind man?
    “We don’t know him!” Michael shouted to her over the thunder.
    The rain hammered them, and Jane hugged her dripping shirt. “What’s your name?” she asked the blind man.
    He cupped a hand to his ear. “Eh?” The dog, Finn, hopped into the camper to wait, his tail wagging.
    “Your name?”
    “My name is Gaius,” he said.
    “ Gaius ?” Michael said. “What kind of name is that? Jane, what are we doing out here? We should go back.”
    “Let me think,” Jane said, pacing in the rain. “I’m sorry, Mr. Gaius, but my brother is right. We don’t know you…”
    “You can’t go home,” Gaius said, as if that were obvious. “It’s too dangerous now. We have to leave before they follow you.”
    “And go where?” Michael said.
    “Where do you think?” Gaius said. “To Hotland.”
    Jane shook her head. “‘Hotland?’ Where—?”
    “Where else? At the center of the Earth. Now watch your step. The stairs are wet.”
    “He’s crazy,” Michael said. “We’re not going with him.”
    Jane turned to her brother. “You let that boy, Nolan , in through my window, didn’t you?”
    “What?”
    “You did, didn’t you?”
    “No, why would I do that?”
    But the way he looked away and crossed his arms meant he was lying. “Grandma Diana is dead because of you!” Jane said. “And why—for a computer game?”
    “Grandma Diana isn’t dead,” Michael said, and he sneezed in the rain. “Come on, let’s go home.”
    “I can’t believe you did that.”
    “Did what?”
    “Wake up, Michael! We are standing in a thunderstorm because your friend let a bunch of shadow people into our home—”
    “ Sansi ,” Gaius said. “They’re properly called sansi—stickmen.”
    Jane jerked her fist down. She wanted to slap Michael the way she’d rattled that monster-boy, Nolan. “You’re not stupid,” Jane said. “You knew , but you wanted a new game.”
    “Shut up,” Michael said. “I don’t believe you. Grandma Diana isn’t dead, and there’s no such thing as stickmen.”
    Jane said, “You saw them!”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    Gaius said, “ Nolan is an old joke. It’s a trickster name.”
    Michael said, “I don’t care.”
    “What does it mean?” Jane asked.
    Gaius said, “What does it sound like?”
    Jane said it: “Nolan, Nolan, No-lan.” She shivered in the rain. “It sounds like no one .”
    “Exactly.”
    “That’s dumb,” Michael said. “It’s just a name.”
    “But it isn’t his name,” Gaius said. “He hasn’t had a real name in a long time. The Raven King is a broken god, not a boy or even a bird. He is something else entirely. He is the old wickedness at the heart of the world.”
    “I don’t care,” Michael said again. “I’m going home.”
    “You cannot,” Gaius said.
    Jane said, “Michael…”
    “No, I don’t believe any of this. I was dreaming or something.”
    Jane grabbed his shoulder, but Michael shook her away. “Please,” she said.
    “Go with your new friend,” Michael said.
    “Don’t be stupid. Those things are probably still there.”
    “What things?”
    “The stickmen.”
    Michael walked away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Let him go,” Gaius said. “Jane, please let him go. I need your help.” He paused. “I know why the animals are leaving.”
    Jane hesitated, but Michael was walking faster. She smiled at Gaius and his dog. “Thank you, but I’m sorry. I have to go with him—I can’t let him go back alone.” As she