The Book of Shane #1 by Nick Eliopulos

Author:Nick Eliopulos
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

The first time he’d gone to war, Shane had been eight years old.

It had started quietly. Privately. There had been no great speeches. Instead it came to him like a revelation: It was up to him to wipe out all the snakes of Stetriol.

Thanks to his mother’s quick thinking, the venomous bite he’d suffered in the field hadn’t been too serious. Still, he was bedridden for several days while his body worked through the toxins. Fevered and nauseous, his dreams were full of sharp fangs and eerie slithering scales. His sister dozed in the chair beside him while Shane felt his pulse in his leg, hammering at the twin puncture marks and the cut the healer had made to bleed out the worst of the venom. And he wondered: What is the point of a snake?

He found he could not answer that question. They were worthless and cruel, and he would be the end of them.

Days later, when he was well enough to be on his own, he didn’t return to his toys or his wooden fort or his rambles about the castle. Instead he went to the gardener for a shovel. And he went to the tinker for scraps of metal, which he fastened around his shins and calves and forearms. No snake would be able to bite through. He was armed for war.

Shane prowled the castle grounds over the course of a long afternoon, moving slowly and carefully through the grass. He never found a single snake. But as dusk fell, his mother found him.

“Oh, my dear prince,” she said, and he turned to see her approaching. “What have you been doing out here?”

Shane shrugged, suddenly worried that he may have done something wrong.

“He wants to hurt the snakes,” Drina said, peering out from behind their mother’s dress. “Because they hurt him.”

It wasn’t tattling, exactly. Shane hadn’t meant for his war to be a secret one. So why did he feel like he’d been caught?

His mother knelt down to his eye level, but he kept his eyes on the ground. “Most snakes are harmless, Shane. And the one that bit you was only surprised. You don’t want to hurt snakes for being snakes, do you?”

Shane shrugged again. “Maybe,” he said.

“One day, my love, you will be king. And if you’re to be king, you must know mercy.”

“But I hate them,” he said.

“Oh, I don’t think you hate them,” said the queen. “I think maybe you’re afraid of them.”

“I am not!” Shane yelled. “I’m not afraid. They’re stupid and I hate them.”

His mother tilted her head. “Well. Sometimes hate and fear are the same thing.” She unstrapped the piece of tin at each of his forearms, letting them fall to the ground. “Sometimes they go together, walking hand in hand.” She removed the guards from his legs. “If you want to prove you’re not afraid, then learn to walk among snakes in peace.” She winked at him. “But it’s always wise to watch your step.”

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