Read Online Kendra Kandlestar and the Shard From Greeve by Lee Edward Födi - Free Book Online Page A

Greeve’s cauldron,” Kendra said.
    “He’s a clever old fellow, that uncle of yours,” Effryn told her. “Must be all them whiskers. He’s right, sure as your shorn. Rumor is, they’re trying to rebuild the cauldron so that they can resurrect Greeve’s curse.”
    “Could that really happen?” Kendra asked.
    “Well, crop my crown, I don’t know,” Effryn said, with a worried twitch of his nose. “But that hasn’t stopped them from trying. But see, the problem is that there seems to be at least one fragment of the cauldron missing: a tiny shard. So all the beasties are fighting each other, trying to find the pieces. Whoever ends up with the whole cauldron will have all the power . . . or so they say.”
    Kendra tugged on her braids, deep in thought. “So where’s the shard?”
    “Well, er . . . that’s the thing, see,” Effryn bleated, somewhat nervously.
    “Oh no,” the Een girl groaned. “You have it, don’t you?”
    “No, not exactly,” Effryn said. “I did take the shard, that’s true—just as the maze was collapsing I saw that broken cauldron, you see, and I says to myself, I says ‘Effryn, you ought to take a piece of that cauldron, sure as you’re shorn, for it must be worth something.’ And so I sneakily snatched it.”

     

    “But you don’t have it anymore?”
    “Er . . . no.”
    “Then who does?”
    “Well, actually . . . you see, it’s like this, you see . . .” Effryn mumbled.
    “Just tell me!” Kendra demanded.
    Effryn let out a long exhale. “You do,” he said finally.
    Kendra gasped and her eyes darted from the mirror over to the dusty bookshelf, where a knot of paper lay. Inside that bit of paper was the broken piece of stone that only a few weeks ago had seemed so uninteresting to her.
    “You still have it, I hope?” Effryn asked fretfully.
    Kendra nodded, turning to look back at the Faun’s image. “But why did you give the shard to me ?”
    “After I took it, I became real nervous,” Effryn explained. “It gave me a funny feeling, a dark feeling. So I thought, I don’t want to just throw it away, but I don’t want to be carrying it around either. So I gave it to you to keep it safe. No monsters can get through the magic curtain of Een, right? So with you, it’s safe.”
    “Effryn, you had no right to lie to me,” Kendra said.
    “I know it,” he said sheepishly. “But listen . . . there’s one more thing I have to tell you . . . I’ve seen your brother.”
    It took a moment for Kendra to find her voice. “Kiro? He’s all right then? Is he . . .” She paused, trying to find the courage to ask the question she so desperately wanted answered: was her brother Een or Unger?
    “Kendra,” Effryn said softly, “he’s Trooogul.”
    Kendra felt her eyes swell with tears. “Is he all right?”
    “I wish I could say so,” the Faun replied. “The last place I saw him was in the queen’s dungeons. And I’ll bet every hair in my beard that she’ll make him fight in that Rumble Pit.”
    “And you just left him behind?” Kendra exclaimed. “How come you didn’t help him escape?”
    “Well, lop my locks!” Effryn brayed. “Do you know how difficult it was for me to bust out of there?”
    Kendra just stared at him, trying to stifle a sob.
    “Listen, Kendra,” Effryn said. “Trooogul doesn’t want my help. He’s gone crazy, sure as your shorn! He’s like all the rest of them beasties—obsessed with finding the shard from Greeve.”
    Kendra looked at the Faun in surprise. “What? Why would Kiro want to rebuild the cauldron?”
    “He’s . . . he’s an Unger, after all,” Effryn stammered uncomfortably. “I guess his allegiance is with them beasties.”
    “That’s impossible!” Kendra uttered.
    “I wish I knew what to tell you,” Effryn said. “Trooogul tracked me down. I guess he saw me when I snatched that shard, so he was convinced I still had it. But I think the Krakes were following him , and so we both ended up getting