The Secret of Ashona Read Online Free PDF

to be with her? “No. I also need someone to hold in front of me in case the Furies attack.”
    She laughed, and then blushed a little. “I thought so. Yeah, I’d love to go with you.” She crossed her arms and shivered. “I know you’re upset, but don’t worry. I’m sure this will all work out okay—it has to.” She laughed. “And I miss hanging out with you, too.”
    Erec felt his own face turn red. He was glad that she couldn’t see him right then.
    Jam Crinklecut, King Piter’s butler, followed Bethany through the Port-O-Door into Erec’s apartment. He bowed low when he saw Erec.
    Bethany ran up and gave Erec a hug. “Jam said he’d come with us! This will be like old times, the three of us exploring the world together. . . .”
    Jam blushed with pleasure, but June cleared her throat. “Not just the three of you. I’m here too, and the kids are out of school. So we’ll all be together this time.” She smiled at Jam. “It’s good to see you, Jam. Thanks for coming with us.”
    Zoey ran up and hugged June’s leg. “Where do we get to go, Mommy?”
    Erec frowned. “You’re bringing Zoey to find the Furies?”
    June put her hands on her hips. “Of course not. For now we’re just going to talk to the Fates and find out what to do next, right? We’ll see what they say, and then I can decide what to do. King Piter didn’t have any idea where that cave might be.” She thought a moment. “Erec, do you think you can look through your Seeing Eyeglasses and talk to Trevor?”
    “Great idea, Mom.” He sat on the couch and put the glasses on, concentrating on his brother. When he opened his eyes, he found the cave walls surrounding him. Before him, Tarvos sat on his giantthrone. Trevor squatted in a corner, pale arms tight around his knees. In between the bull and the boy, a young blond woman looked around herself in wonder. She squirmed, trying to pull her feet from the ground where they were stuck.
    When she realized that she was trapped, she bared her teeth, hissing in anger at Tarvos. “What’s going on? Where am I? And where’s that little . . . bullfighter I followed down here?”
    Tarvos laughed and leaned forward hungrily. The cranes preened on his back. “You belong to me now. And you will make a fine fighter when I am ready for you.”
    Tarvos pointed a hoof at the woman’s face. She raised her hands to her head with a look of shock, then screamed as hundreds of cracks split deep through her skin. She looked like she was breaking into tiny pieces. At the same time she grew taller and heavier, her screech lowering into a deep, heavy moan, lower than a grown man’s voice. She kept expanding until her clothing shredded, revealing a chunky gray bricklike body. Clumps slid off her, hitting the floor and bursting into sprays of sand. Blond hair streamed onto the floor like hay, and her features flattened until only slits remained for her eyes and mouth in her blocklike face.
    What had once been a woman looked down at her arms and body, unable to speak. A door slid open in the cave wall, and Tarvos motioned for her to go through. She mutely lumbered past the doorway, leaving behind a trail of sand.

CHAPTER THREE
Terrible Visions

    S WEAT DRIPPED DOWN Erec’s face when he pulled off the glasses. That . . . thing was the Golem that Tarvos had tried to turn him into? A giant warrior made of sand?
    “Is Trevor okay?” June was poised above him, a terrified look on her face.
    “No . . . I mean . . . yes.” Erec tried to calm down, knowing he was frightening her. “He’s fine. I—I don’t think he’ll be hurt there.”
    June didn’t look too sure. In a second she was already in thePort-O-Door, pulling Zoey in behind her. “Let’s go, quick. I want him out of there now.”
    “Modom, would you like me to wait here with Zoey? Or would you like to stay here with her? I will watch over these two.”
    June looked back and forth between her daughter and Jam.
    “What if Nell comes back here