The Robe of Skulls Read Online Free PDF Page A

the cave, and Marlon flipped inside. “See you met ol’ misery guts!”
    “He was being very kind,” Gracie said reproachfully. “You were gone for
ages
!”
    “Sorry ’bout that.” Marlon didn’t sound sorry at all. “Unavoidably delayed. Good news is, the dame’s off track. Totally taken in by the shoe, if you ask my opinion. Heading toward Gorebreath, muttering and cursing all the way.”
    Gracie didn’t ask what Foyce was muttering or whom she was cursing. She knew.
    “So we’ll be off as well,” Marlon told her. “It’ll be a bit of a trot, but you won’t mind that, will you?”
    Gracie shook her head. The very mention of Foyce had made her absolutely certain that she wanted to be anywhere Foyce wasn’t. “Let’s go,” she said.
    Uncle Alvin rustled his wings. “Off to the Ancient Crones, I hear,” he said.
    “Yup. Safest place when there’s a dame on the rampage like the one out there.” Gracie had a suspicion that Marlon was grinning. “Never heard swearing like it!”
    “You be careful, my lad,” Uncle Alvin said. “One of these days you’re going to get yourself into such trouble, you won’t find a way out, fast-talker though you may be. And don’t forget that the Ancients hold the Power . . . far more than you could ever dream of.”
    “Yabber yabber yabber,” Marlon said happily. “See you, Unc. Now, kiddo — off we go!” And he led Gracie out of the cave and into a bright moonlit night.

Gubble stared at the donkeys. He wasn’t sure if he liked donkeys. He wasn’t sure if donkeys liked him. He patted the biggest, and it bit him. Gubble was about to bite it back when Lady Lamorna came sweeping down the steps from the castle front door, a cloak wrapped closely around her. For a moment, Gubble didn’t recognize his mistress. Her cloak was tattered and torn and covered in mud, and her long white hair was hidden under an ancient bonnet that appeared to be made of old cabbage leaves. Her face was covered in lines and wrinkles, and an evil-looking wart had appeared on the end of her nose. A tuft of white whiskers sprouted from her chin.
    “Arf,” Gubble said admiringly. “
Lovely,
Your Evilness. Gubble is most impressified.”
    “Good,” said Lady Lamorna. She would have preferred something more attractive, but Aged Peasant was easy and used very little of her ever-decreasing stock of spell powder. “Now, where are our travel bags?”
    Gubble blinked. “Bags?” he said. “No bags, Evilness. But Gubble has donkeys. Look!”
    There was an unpleasant pause while Lady Lamorna looked at the donkeys. “Gubble,” she said at last, her voice as cold as ice, “
why
have you acquired fifteen donkeys?”
    Gubble shuffled his feet. Explaining that if two were good, then more must be better was quite beyond him. “Gold,” he offered. “Lots of gold.”
    Lady Lamorna grew marginally less chilly. “Indeed, Gubble, it would be good to believe we will earn gold enough for fifteen donkeys. I suspect, however, that so many will slow us down. Besides, they will need feeding. Choose the two strongest while I return to the castle and pack my bag.”
    Gubble, mightily relieved at being let off so lightly, chose the strongest donkeys by the simple method of heaving himself onto their backs. Eight collapsed immediately, and Gubble tidied them away by dropping them over the castle battlements. They fell into the bushes beneath and galloped back to their homes, complaining bitterly. Of the seven that remained standing, five ran off as soon as Gubble had dismounted.
    Gubble looked at the two remaining animals and saw that one was the donkey that had bitten him. “No more bitings,” Gubble growled. “No biting or I bites your tail off. In fact, maybe I bite it now to teach you —”
    “Gubble? My bag is ready!” Lady Lamorna was standing at the door. The donkey, saved for the second time that day, immediately developed a passionate attachment to Gubble’s mistress. It trotted