Legend of the Three Moons Read Online Free PDF Page A

journeys to find a dragon, a merwoman, a poisoned tree and a swinging cage?'
    `I thought dragons were extinct,' said Swift, sitting beside his brother.
    `If the High Enchanter can magic up those smelly, blind creatures then he can magic up extinct dragons.'
    `Or turn a King or Queen into a dragon. A dragon mocked could mean anything,' said Lyla, staring at a broken swan boat embedded in a sand-filled lake.
    They circled a broken fountain and a dead rose garden and arrived at a chipped marble staircase leading to the palace's main entrance. They climbed the stairs and peeked through the splintered wood of a once mighty silver-plated door.
    Beyond it was a dark entrance hall lit only by the golden-rimmed and silver-circled moons shining through an enormous hole in the palace roof.
    Lyla pushed the door open. It grated against the marble doorstep, its rusted hinges squeaking loudly. From inside the palace there came a fluttering of bats and the scurrying of escaping rodents.
    Celeste shuddered and patted her pocket to make sure Splash was safe and Swift gingerly lowered his injured foot to the marble doorstep. `When escaping I'd rather limp fast than hop slowly,' he told Chad.
    They crept across the entrance space to a second larger hall, also lit up by the two moons, shining through another ragged hole in the roof. Decorated with dusty red and gold velvet wall hangings and festooned with cobweb curtains, the hall's vastness was so great that its corners and walls disappeared into deep purple shadows.
    `Those shadows could hide anything,' breathed Chad into Swift's ear.
    `Like those blind creatures,' agreed Swift. `Or a small army.'
    `Or more rats,' whispered Celeste.
    They tiptoed towards a lopsided dais on which stood five thrones covered in spider webs and bat droppings. A sudden slithering and fluttering sound stopped them in their tracks, making the hairs on the backs of their necks stand up. They backed towards each other, searching the darkness as more and more noises echoed eerily around them.
    The creepy fluttering began to sound like whispering.
    `Ghosts,' breathed Swift.
    `Wind,' breathed Chad.
    `Enemies,' shouted Lem.
    Six giant shrieking bat-like figures surged out from behind the sagging dais flapping huge and tattered wings. Behind them floated two decapitated heads with hideous skull-faces.
    Celeste screamed as one of the faces swayed towards her. Lem leapt in front of her swinging his long sword while Lyla protected Chad and Swift, giving them time to fit arrows to their bows.
    `What be you doing here?' demanded a giant bat, dancing out of reach of Lyla's jabbing spear.
    `What be you doing in the royal throne room?' shouted another, swooping around Lem and Chad.
    `Who be you? What do you want here?' screamed a third.
    `There be nothing to steal! It be all stolen long ago by General Tulga's Raiders!'
    Lyla brandished her spear under the closest giant bat's nose. `Are you human or animal? Or are you becamed by the High Enchanter? Tell me before I spear you.'
    `Or I shoot you,' shouted Swift, trying to sound as brave as his wild-haired sister.
    `Or I slice off your head,' threatened Lem.
    The giant bats retreated to whisper in a huddle.
    Then one of the illuminated faces floated towards the children and they saw it was just an old woman with her face painted to resemble a skull. She was holding a lantern beneath her chin to make herself look more ghostly.
    `We be the guardians of the great Royal Palace of M'dgassy. I be Emma Crowsclaw,' she said, then pointed to the other skull. `That be Bethy Bee. The others be men of the royal household. Who be you? Travellers or robbers?'
    Lyla stepped forward. `We are travellers. We've come in search of medicine for my brother's poisoned foot and for somewhere to sleep.'
    `And eat,' added Chad.
    `Be you boys or girls?'
    `Boys,' lied Lyla.
    `Where be you coming from and where be you heading?'
    `We've come along the vast sea in search of an oracle, fairy spinner, sand reader or