Read Online The Familiars #4: Palace of Dreams by Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson - Free Book Online Page A

frog stepped up next. The slug was desperately trying to slither out of his grasp.
    “Look on the bright side, little guy,” Gilbert said. “If I wasn’t about to throw you, I’d probably be eating you.”
    Gilbert swung back his arm and flung the sluggot into the air. It went flying. Aldwyn could see that it was veering off course, so he gave it a little nudge with his telekinesis. Maybe it was cheating, but the queen’s life was on the line. And time wasn’t exactly on their side. The slug hit the bull’s-eye. There were gasps from the spectators. Scoot and Brinn couldn’t believe it. Neither could Gilbert or Skylar.
    “Move, sluggot!” Brinn shouted.
    Gilbert’s slug looked like it was ready to make a slow dash for the other end of the target. But Aldwyn wasn’t going to let that happen. He took mental hold of the critter’s rear and held it in place. After a bit of struggle, the sluggot gave up.
    “We have a winner,” the long-armed sloth declared.
    Brinn slapped Scoot across the back of his head.
    “I told you it was too much saliva!”
    “I don’t know what happened,” Scoot replied sheepishly.
    Aldwyn and Skylar came up on either side of Gilbert and gave him pats on the back.
    “Beginner’s luck, I guess,” Gilbert said.
    “Must have been,” Aldwyn said.
    The Three walked over to Brinn to collect on their bet.
    “So what is it that you want to know?” he asked bitterly. “I don’t know nothing about any treasure. And if I did, I can’t promise I’d be honorable.”
    “It has nothing to do with that,” Skylar said. “Spuowbip wjots sby udpjbm uosdwoyt. Does that mean anything to you?”
    “Sounds like gibberish if you ask me,” he replied.
    “That’s not elvish?” Skylar asked.
    “None that I’ve ever heard.”
    “Perhaps I’m not pronouncing it correctly,” Skylar said. “First word is spelled s-p-u-o-w-b-i-p.”
    “Nothing,” Brinn said.
    “And how do we know you’re being honorable?” Aldwyn asked.
    “I have no riches to lose on this one,” he said. “I promise you, it’s nothing I’ve ever heard before. And my mother yelled at me in every elvish dialect there is.”
    Aldwyn, Skylar, and Gilbert began to walk away.
    “I knew it was a long shot,” Skylar said. “But at least we’ve ruled it out.”
    “Hey, frog, what’s your secret?” Brinn called. “I’ve never seen a slug sit so still in the bull’s-eye before.”
    “Concentration,” Aldwyn said.
    “Yours or his?” Brinn asked.
    Aldwyn didn’t answer.
    “We all cheat here,” Brinn said. “It’s good to see you do it with such style, cat.”

6
REVEALING GLASSES
    M uch was different about the New Palace of Bronzhaven. For starters it was hovering inside an enormous glass ball, and snowflakes were falling all around it. Stranger still, desert stretched for miles outside the glass. Aldwyn was at the foot of a long staircase that rose halfway toward the bedroom window of the queen. Loranella herself stood at the balcony, her hair floating above her head as if she were underwater. Aldwyn bounded from step to step, desperately trying to reach her. She called out to him, but no sound left her lips. The words only came out in letters that blew away like torn pages from a book.
    Aldwyn shot awake and discovered that he was lying under the oak tree in the heart of the forest that hid the Smuggler’s Trail. Skylar and Gilbert were sitting beside him.
    “You dozed off,” Skylar said.
    “We should go,” Aldwyn said with extra urgency. The queen’s plight was weighing heavily on him.
    “What about lunch?” Gilbert asked.
    “We don’t have time for any more chores,” Aldwyn replied.
    “I worry that we haven’t waited long enough for our pursuers to pass,” Skylar said.
    “That’s a risk we’ll have to take then,” Aldwyn said.
    The Three collected their scant belongings and returned to the trail.
    “Gilbert, did they say you could take that?” Skylar asked.
    Aldwyn turned to see that she