Secrets of Valhalla Read Online Free PDF Page A

spore of fungi. No wonder Theo Eddows liked calling him Freaky Buzzard—his family was pretty odd. How many mothers dried poisonous plants in the airing cupboard instead of towels? How many fathers wrote books on the importance of caves, root systems, and forgotten gods?
    He could almost hear his mother’s voice in his ear. “Stuff Theo Eddows and stuff being normal. We are who we are and we live where we live.” He could feel her hands on his shoulders now. “Do you feel how old this place is, Buzz? These trees were here long before Theo Eddows, and they will be here long after him.” Buzz’s chest suddenly felt very tight, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe as sadness pushed all the air from his body. She’d left home six months ago now. Deep in the Amazon cloud forest, she’d been looking for a rare plant that would change the face of medicine forever. And then she was gone. Now no one could tell them where Natasha Buzzard and her team of botanists were. And as much as Buzz tried to tell himself that Mum would be home soon, it was getting harder.
    â€œHey, Buzz, you okay?” Mary asked. “You don’t look too great.”
    Buzz took a gulping breath. “I’m fine—rea—”
    â€œHelp!” The hoarse cry shattered the quiet of the woods. “Is someone there? Help me, for the love of the gods, help me!”

CHAPTER FOUR
An Unexpected Discovery
    M ary gripped Buzz’s arm, cold fingers sinking into his skin. “Did you hear that?” Her hazel eyes were wide behind her glasses in the gloom of the forest.
    Buzz put a finger to his lips and nodded.
    â€œHELP ME!”
    The words ripped at the silence again and he listened hard, trying to figure out which direction the cry had come from. It wasn’t easy. The words seemed to bounce off the trees like pebbles from a slingshot, and his own heartbeat whooshed and ebbed in his ears. He concentrated on the voice, using the map in his head to try to locate its origin.
    â€œI think she might be near the lake.” He turned to Mary. “You’d better stay here. It’ll be safer for you.” He was proud that he sounded braver than he felt.
    â€œThis is not a nineteenth-century novel,” Mary shot back. “And I’m not some helpless heroine who is going to stand around wringing her hands. I’m coming with you.”
    Buzz hadn’t read many nineteenth-century novels (none, in fact), but he got the message.
    Mary cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hold on, we’re coming,” she yelled. “Keep talking and we’ll find you.”
    â€œQuick! You must be quick.” The terrified voice replied. “Before he comes back.”
    Buzz pointed deep into the woods and tried not to notice that his hand was shaking. “This way.”
    They tore through the trees, the woman’s voice punctuating their journey through the quiet of the forest.
    Buzz was the fastest player on his soccer team and ran for the track team as well, so he expected that Mary might struggle to keep up. She didn’t.
    They came to a clearing just left of Mornings Lake, where a tree with deeply ridged bark stood in regal isolation. It looked a bit like an ash tree, but Buzz had never seen an ash with bark this color before—charcoal gray with slivers of silver crisscrossing the entire surface.
    It’s tall, he thought. Really tall. Even tipping his head way back, Buzz couldn’t see the top of it. The ground surrounding the base of the tree pulsed with energy, and stones danced on top of the soil like popping corn in a hot pan. The tree’s trunk was the thickest Buzz had ever seen and it would easily need twenty people holding hands to get around its circumference.
    â€œWho’s there?” The broken voice seemed to come from the tree itself, but then Buzz saw her—a woman strapped to the massive trunk by a thick rope that looped around her