Read Online The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown by Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson - Free Book Online

where the Hinterwoods rose up behind the riverbank. Aldwyn watched curiously as the vessel gathered speed. Then he noticed a massive bed of floating seaweed approaching the raft.
    “Now!” hollered the armed soldier to the oarsman of the ferry still waiting at the docks. “Go! Go!”
    Lurching forward, they began their trip across the Ebs. Aldwyn’s eyes returned to the moving algae following the other raft. With sudden and alarming speed, the mass of floating vegetation lifted out of the water, and Aldwyn saw what it was clinging to – the dripping-wet head of a river dragon!
    Nobody needed to tell the oarsman of their own vessel to paddle faster. He was already rowing furiously, as if their lives depended on it. Which, thought Aldwyn, they probably did.
    The purpose of the other, empty, raft was now clear – it was a decoy. As the river dragon rose up in the air, Aldwyn got a good look at the beast’s fish scales and gills, and the barnacles stuck to the underside of its neck. The dragon bared its teeth, but just before its ten rows of sharp incisors bit down on the wooden planks, the helmsman took a flying leap off the empty raft, which splintered instantly and disappeared below the water. The helmsman came up for air thirty feet away and began swimming frantically towards the shoreline. By the time the river dragon realised there was no flesh to pepper the bland taste of varnished pine, the ferry the familiars were atop was already two-thirds of the way across and the helmsman had made it safely to the other side.
    The vessel docked soon after, leaving the river dragon to trawl the deeper waters. Once they were safely on dry land again and Gilbert’s face had more or less returned to its usual colour, Skylar pulled out Scribius’s map and orientated herself.
    “We continue southwest from here, deep into the heart of the Hinterwoods,” she said. “If this dogwood we’re looking for truly reaches to the clouds, it will be impossible to miss.”
    Skylar flapped towards the centre of the forest, with Aldwyn and Gilbert trying to keep up with her. A cool, dry, pine-scented air filled Aldwyn’s nostrils, and in that calming moment he thought back on how quickly and completely his life had changed since that day in the curious pet shop in Bridgetower. As they travelled through the woods, speeding as fast as they could towards their uncertain destination, all the trees started to look the same. It had already been a long day, and legs and wings were growing tired. But the trio was keen to get there before they lost the day’s sunlight.
    Sunset was near when, through the mass of brown and green, Aldwyn could make out a towering trunk of white that stretched vertically into the air. He didn’t need to be told that this was the mighty dogwood tree.
    The three animals came to a stop all at the same time. It was impossible not to be in awe of this massive, thousand-year-old natural wonder, with its pearly base as wide as ten cave trolls standing in a circle. Every other tree in its presence looked like a mere blade of grass in comparison. Its branches were filled with leaves that had seen many seasons and with birds’ nests that were long abandoned but that had withstood the trials of time in the tree’s protective boughs.
    “According to legend, the old tree’s bark turned white a long time ago,” said Skylar. “Just like Kalstaff’s moustache. Nobody knows how long this dogwood has stood here, but it’s said to be older than the queendom itself.”
    The familiars followed the tree’s long, winding roots to its base, careful to avoid a bubbling and smelly sinkhole of mud in their path.
    “So, either of you see the Crown?” asked Gilbert. Both Skylar and Aldwyn gave him a look. “OK, I admit it – that was wishful thinking.” The familiars looked up and around, this way then that, but nothing stood out to them. Skylar took to the air, flying up through the branches, while Aldwyn circled the base, tapping