Underworlds #1: The Battle Begins Read Online Free Page A

You have already seen a monster, have you not?”
    Jon gasped. “Fenster, a wolf the size of a horse!”
    “Fenrir, the Norse monster wolf,” Death Maiden corrected him. “He may be the first beast to have escaped the Underworlds. He will not be the last.”
    “Fenrir is the pet of Loki, the Norse trickster god,” said Doom Rider. “Odin and Loki have quarreled for centuries.”
    “What does all this have to do with Dana?” I asked, shaking my head.
    Miss Hilda leaned down at us. “The battle is beginning. You know this already, Owen Brown. You were with Dana when she was taken. You gazed upon Hades’ kingdom.”
    I remembered the fiery pit. “Other monsters were thrashing around there. I think I saw the one called Argus. Are you saying that more monsters are coming?”
    Miss Hilda’s eyes fixed on me. “I am saying the battle has begun, Owen Brown.”
    “I’m not a fighter,” I said, stepping back.
    Miss Hilda leaned even closer. “All your H.E.R.O. charities? Your love of people? You fight for what’s right, don’t you?”
    “Well, sure, I try, but …”
    “Try harder,” said Death Maiden.
    “Try more,” said Soul Catcher.
    “Try now!” they all said together.
    Miss Hilda pointed her spear out the kitchen windows. “There is one weapon that may help you.”
    “A sword?” asked Sydney. “Does it have a cool name, like Demon Biter or Chopper or —”
    “It is a stringed instrument,” said Doom Rider.
    Sydney and Jon turned to me. “That’s your department,” they said together.
    “The lyre of Orpheus,” Soul Snatcher added. “It’s like a small harp.” She spread her hands about twelve inches apart. “The music of Orpheus’s lyre could charm people and beasts to do his bidding. Even trees bowed at the sound of it. Travelers to the Underworlds might find it very … useful.”
    “Travelers to …” I didn’t want to understand what she meant. “We’re supposed to —”
    “Retrieve your destiny!” boomed Miss Hilda. “Enter the double red doors! Walk among the ancient things. And remember … three!”
    “Fifty!” said Soul Snatcher.
    “One hundred!” said Death Maiden.
    “Is this math again?” asked Jon.
    “Or a riddle?” Sydney added.
    “A riddle, dear,” said Soul Snatcher with a chuckle. “We’re ladies from mythology, so we have to speak in riddles. It’s one of the most charming things about us!”
    Then the three Valkyries sang out again.
    “Ho yo -to ho !”
    The torches vanished, the lights came up, their armor became aprons again, and their spears turned back into kitchen utensils. They used them to dollop macaroni specials on each of our plates.
    Then Miss Hilda smiled and said, “Shoo — lunch period’s nearly over!”

W E STUMBLED TO A HALF-EMPTY TABLE WITH OUR trays and pulled our chairs close.
    “So, are we ready to call the cops yet?” asked Jon.
    “Or the loony bin?” asked Sydney. “Maybe we can get a deal. Three for one.”
    I made a face at her. “Who are you talking about — us or the lunch ladies?”
    Sydney had the book now and was flipping its pages with one hand while she forked up macaroni with the other. “To borrow a line from you, Owen, I don’t know.” She was quiet for a minute, thinking. “I mean, we did see a fire-breathing wolf.”
    “We did,” Jon said.
    “And Dana did vanish,” she added.
    “She did,” I said.
    “And if those ladies …” Sydney paused to look toward the kitchen. “If those ladies really are the Valkyries from Norse mythology, what they told us might be true.”
    “If. Might,” I echoed, stabbing my macaroni a little harder than I planned. “Are you saying Dana was actually taken to the Underworld? And that the Underworld is below our school?”
    The other kids at the table looked over at me. Oops.
    “Ha-ha! Still kidding!” said Jon.
    “Listen,” said Sydney, whispering now. “Where do they have double red doors? And ancient things? Guys, I think we need to learn more about