Grave Danger by Mike Johnston

Author:Mike Johnston [Johnston, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

I leapt past the rows of stone teeth, and Storey followed, the two of us tumbling down the rocky throat, while the Wormsmaw clamped shut behind us. We were inside, and there was no going back. We’d entered the undead realm.

SULLENDAY NIGHT

Everyone needs a place to call their own, and the undead are no exception. Before the founding of the realm, the zombies and their graveyard-dwelling cousins haunted the night and hid during the day, which isn’t a great way to live. So Talon Night made a place where it was always nighttime, a land for the formerly living. Nowadays, if you’ve been bitten by a vampire, chomped by a zombie, or resurrected as a ghost, UNDEADHOLM is the place you call home.

Darkness blanketed the earth. Flies buzzed. Mice squeaked and skittered across my toes. A howl echoed in the gloom. I tripped over something, and I hoped it was a rock or the root of some tree. But for all I knew, it was an undead hand, reaching up from the grave. So we kept moving and climbed a steep incline.

At its peak, the gloom gave way to the green and glowing light, and I got my first real look at the undead realm. It was a cave, but I couldn’t see the rocky ceiling. It hid behind a green mist, but here and there a root poked through. I knew we weren’t very far underground. The land of the living was right above us, but it felt like it was a hundred miles away. We were in a place where tombstones covered the earth and the only sun was that green and distant glow.

“Looks like a graveyard,” I said.

“No, it’s too big to be just a graveyard,” said Storey. “It’s more like a graveWORLD.”

She was right. I’d never seen so many headstones.

“We’re not alone,” said Storey. A distant crowd of cemetery dwellers shambled among the tombstones. “Wizards and warlocks, elves and ogres. Looks like everyone’s down here, but they’re all DEAD.”

“No, they’re UNDEAD,” I said as I watched the herd of zombies. For the most part, it seemed as if they’d just climbed out of their graves. Mud caked their skin and clothes. “Where are they going?”

“No idea,” said Storey. “But if we want to fit in with everyone else, I suggest we follow.”

“Good point,” I said, and we hurried after them.

The cavern led to a grotto, and I saw what seemed like a world made for bats. Chairs and tables hung from the ceiling, and a great chandelier rose, upside down, from the floor. The place was turned on its head.

“Vampires,” said Storey as she pointed to a rafter where orc, ogre, and elf undead swung from the ceiling. “I’d heard they could change into bat-like creatures, but I never thought I’d see it.” The undead hung from taloned feet. One by one, they woke, spreading their arms to reveal leathery wings before peeling off from their perches to fly toward some unknown destination.

We hoped the vampires wouldn’t notice us.

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