Return of the Dragon Slayers by Brandon Mull;

Author:Brandon Mull;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2021-08-31T22:08:56+00:00

They found the East Portal of the Route of the Hiawatha at the end of a winding road just over the Montana state line. Bernice parked her truck partway down the long parking lot. Virgil hopped out and began to unload the bicycles from the bed. Noble and Glory circled in the sky high above. Shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun, Kendra squinted up at the winged steeds.

Bernice followed her gaze. “Look at that. A pair of bald eagles.”

Kendra felt glad to know how the flying horses appeared to mortal eyes. “Do you see many eagles around here?”

“Occasionally,” Bernice said. Straddling his bike, Virgil walked it forward to get some momentum, then hopped onto the seat and started pedaling. He wobbled at first, then evened out as he picked up speed. “Looks like Virgil could use some practice.”

“He never owned a bike,” Kendra said. In fact, the satyr had secretly learned to ride a bike in the dark on Bernice’s street the night before. She had a modest home in a town called Kellogg. Kendra had slept in the spare room and Virgil had crashed on the couch.

Bernice handed Kendra a bicycle helmet. “There’s a headlamp on your handlebars and a spare on your helmet.”

“Will I need the light?” Kendra asked.

“The Hiawatha Trail used to be a railroad,” Bernice said. “This first tunnel is more than a mile long. You’ll be grateful for the light—and for the jacket I loaned you. Might as well put it on now.”

The afternoon was so warm that Kendra had a hard time imagining she could feel cold, but she followed the instructions. And though she could see in the dark, she knew it made sense to pretend to need the light as well.

Bernice strapped on her helmet and mounted her bike, and they were off. Kendra played with the gears until she liked the resistance. They caught up to Virgil and found the yawning mouth of a tunnel waiting to greet them. Bernice switched on her headlamp and Kendra did likewise.

Kendra led the way into the echoey darkness. The temperature plunged rapidly as the entrance shrank into a window of light behind them. Water dripped from the high ceiling and gurgled in the deep gutters cut along the sides of the trail. She biked carefully, trying to avoid puddles without slipping on the mud.

Before long, Kendra could see neither the entrance nor the exit. The long, dark tunnel seemed to stretch on forever. She wondered where all the water came from as it continued to weep down the walls and trickle from the roof. How much mountain was on top of her at this point? Her jacket could not repel the frigid air. As her hands began to grow numb, Kendra pedaled harder to generate heat.

Eventually the far end of the tunnel came into view, sides straight, top arched. They rode out into the blinding daylight. Both Virgil and Bernice had a brown stripe up their backs from cycling through the wet mud. The cold from the tunnel lingered even under the heat of the day.

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