Salamaine's Curse Read Free Page B

know then, do you?”
    â€œKnow what?”
    â€œAbout follies. There are men who’ve devoted their entire lives to hunting these creatures.” He held the tip of the folly’s tail aloft and gave it a soft shake. “Just to claim this prize.”
    â€œThat thing?
Why?”
    â€œThink, lad. What does the word
folly
mean?”
    Tom vaguely recalled seeing it once on a vocabulary test. He dredged his memory. “I don’t know … doing something foolish, I guess. Building something ridiculous. Acting without thinking or showing good sense.”
    â€œAye. Like making a wish and not understanding the consequences.”
    â€œRight.” Tom nodded, then froze as Umbrey’s words slowly sank in. “Making a wish? You don’t mean …”
    â€œI do.” He tossed the tail back to Tom. “Only the one who captures the serpent’s rattle can make the wish, and only once. So think hard before using it, if you choose to use it at all.”
    If
he chose to use it?
If?

    Wild elation surged through Tom, leaving him almost dizzy with excitement. A wish. His mind whirled as hundreds of greedy thoughts bombarded him at once. A million dollars. A private jet. Lifetime season passes for him and his friends to snowboard. His very own pro basketball team. How could he possibly narrow it down?
    He stared down at the object nestled in his palm. Pine-cone shaped, it looked like an enormous rattlesnake tail. He held it cautiously, half-expecting it to suddenly sprout a claw and change into something else. It didn’t. In Umbrey’s hands, the thing was gray, dead-looking. But the moment Tom had touched it, it pulsed with light, emitting a gentle heat that warmed his icy fingers. “You’re serious, right? You’re not joking. This is real?”
    â€œI’m afraid so.”
    â€œNo matter what I wish for, this rattle thing will make it come true?”
    â€œAye. Your wish will be granted, but always at a cost.”
    A distant alarm sounded in Tom’s mind. He narrowed his eyes at Umbrey. “What do you mean, ‘at a cost’?”
    â€œWishes are dangerous things. They can turn a man’s life in a direction he never meant to go. Many a man who captured the rattle lived to regret it.” Umbrey gestured toward the water’s edge. “Might be best to just throw it back in the lake now, while you still can.”
    Throw it back? Absolutely not.
    Tom wanted it. Even more than he’d wanted it when he’d snatched it out of the frigid water. Something about it had called to him. Now he understood why.

    Forgetting the ugly viciousness of the creature itself, he focused on the glowing warmth and beauty of the rattle. It pulsed to a silent rhythm of its own, shifting from fiery crimson to deep orange to shocking pink. Amazing. He could stare at it for hours.
    Umbrey watched him for a moment, then he let out a low sigh and shook his head. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. But if you’re determined to keep the blasted thing, get it out of my sight.”
    Tom reluctantly stashed the rattle in his pocket. Turning away, he lifted Fred upright and stuck him in the packed dirt like a tilting Statue of Liberty. As he did, he noted that Fred had earned a souvenir from the battle as well: a jagged white scar stood out across his cheek. It gave him a dashing, rugged, and distinctly pirate-like air—a vast improvement to his former geeky prep school self.
    Umbrey looked at the statue and seemed to concur. He nodded approvingly. “Gives him a little character, doesn’t it?”
    â€œLost won’t like it.”
    â€œNo, I expect not. But we’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”
    Thunder rumbled and jagged forks of lightening split the sky. The long, drifting shadows in the woods were thrown into stark silhouette. They shifted through the tree limbs, reaching toward Tom and Umbrey like long,