Read Online Chasing Evil by Adam Blade - Free Book Online

were cast by the mountain rocks and jagged peaks. Boulders and crumbling drifts of black-slate rock wound like dry rivers up the mountains. Castor whistled, and Nera raced up a riverbed, only to loop back — all in the time it had taken Gulkien and Firepos to fly the same distance. Castor called up: “I bet your Beasts can’t fly that fast!”
    â€œOf course they can,” Tanner said, not wanting to admit the truth. Nera was faster.
    Nera shot back and forth in maddening bursts. Firepos’s feathers shook in the air with her steady wing beats, and Gulkien’s wings creaked and stretched on the wind gusts. Nera was toying with them.
    â€œProve it,” Castor yelled. “Let’s see if you can keep up!”
    â€œYou’re on!” Tanner called down. “Oh, and Castor? If I beat you to the next mountain, you have to be quiet for the rest of the trip.”
    Castor smiled and sat back, his hands behind his head, so he was holding on to Nera with only his thighs. “And if I beat you,” Castor said, “you have to give me your sword.”
    â€œI’m not going to give you my sword, Castor.”
    â€œJust until we get there,” Castor shouted. “Besides, I thought you said your bird was fast.”
    Tanner glanced at Gwen. “All right, Castor. Ready …”
    Castor said, “Set …”
    They hunched forward.
    â€œGo!” Gwen yelled.
    Tanner and Castor stared in astonishment as Gulkien streaked ahead of them, his paws tucked up underneath him, his leathery wings flapping hard.
    â€œNow, Firepos!” Tanner shouted.
    Castor yelled, “Go, Nera!”
    The boys and their Beasts raced after her. Tanner held tightly to Firepos’s neck, his eyes streaming in the rushing air. She shot like an arrow after Gulkien, her wings close to her back. Below Firepos, Nera ran in a rapid, frantic rhythm. Her huge paws thudded against the rocks and her coat rippled as she darted from boulder to mountain ledge. Gulkien’s movements in the air were more measured and even, while Firepos used her wings only occasionally, zooming as straight as a dagger through the sky. Tanner could hear Castor shouting encouragement to Nera below them.
    As they burst over the pass at the end of the valley, Gulkien suddenly pulled back, directly into the path of Firepos’s flight. Nera jerked to a stop below them, and Firepos beat her wings to stay in the same spot of mountain air.
    Castor shouted, “What’s the matter with you two? We’re still racing!”
    â€œNo, we’re not,” Gwen said.
    â€œWhy?” Castor demanded.
    â€œLook.”
    A black mountain range of three peaks loomed ahead of them. Plumes of gray-white smoke rose amid the summits. The mountains tapered into ugly spikes that seemed to stab at the sky, and as they flew closer, Tanner realized the smoke was coming from long slits in the high rock. Vents, he thought. The kind an armory would need.
    They flew between the peaks. Just as Castor had said, the inner slopes fell into a deep cavity, the bottom of which was filled with gray water. About halfway up the nearest black mountain, Tanner spotted a square entrance, braced with wooden supports, like a mine shaft.
    â€œWhy aren’t there guards outside?” Gwen called over the wind.
    â€œMaybe Derthsin doesn’t think he needs them,” Tanner said. “Remember how his soldiers were attacking ordinary farmers, just because they could? Derthsin is overconfident.”
    Castor urged Nera on. “Beat you there!”
    â€œCastor, wait!” Tanner shouted. The time for games was over. Firepos dove after them in a steep drop that made Tanner’s stomach jump. He gripped Firepos’s feathers — the ground was rushing up too fast. Firepos pulled out of her dive and glided to land at the cave entrance. Nera arrived beside her, and a moment later, Gulkien brought Gwen down. After they all dismounted