Cyrus LongBones Box Set

blue-eyed phantom watches me fromthe water. Too tired for further study, need rest…’ from there it just trailsoff.”
“Blue-eyed phantom?” Edward asked, his fur bristling, “Cyrus, we need togo!”
“Just a sec.”
Cyrus pulled the book out of the skeleton’s grasp. Its hand crumbled todust.
“Sorry.”
He brushed the book off and stuffed it under his arm. Then he sprangacross the room and gathered up the strange turtle skeleton with the modelvillage on its back.
He and Edward rushed out of the dead man’s dwelling. As they crossed theentryway, they found fresh, webbed footprints leading from the nearest pool. Cyrusfroze, cringing as if about to be struck. The blue-eyed phantom…
“Run,” Edward hissed.
Cyrus shook the terror from his limbs and scrambled out of the caverns.He hurried back through the forest with Edward looking over their shoulders andset sail under the dying sun.
Myrkur was not safe. That was clear.But Virkelot seemed little better. What was Cyrusgoing to do? The book! He had to read the book.

Chapter 6


THE ODDFOOT JOURNAL
 
IT WAS JUST AFTER SUNSET when Cyrusstumbled into the kitchen and found his brother and stepmother hunched over thedinner table. The kitchen smelled of beef stew, but the round table stood bare. Niels looked up, his face pale.
“Where were you all day?” Llysa asked, staringdown at her hands clasped on the table.
Her black hair cast a dark shadow across her face.
Cyrus looked to Niels. Niels shookhis head slowly, but Cyrus could not readthe sign.
“I was helping Niels,” he lied, his stomach turning.
Niels’ head slumped.
“All day?” his stepmother asked, in an even tone.
Her calmness sent tingles over Cyrus’ flesh.
“Mm- most of it,” he said, growing sweaty and hot.
Niels shifted in his chair.
“And where did you go after that?” his stepmother continued, looking up.
She wore a faint smile that did not reach her eyes. Niels shot Cyrus alook. What was its meaning?
“The Western Woods,” he finally said.
“And what were you doing there?” she asked.
“Ga-gathering berries.”
Llysa reached down to her lap andbrought up a leather belt.
“Gathering berries after a long day’s work?” she said in an almost sweetvoice, “You’re a little liar. Niels needed your help. Where were you?”
“Mom, I was fine,” Niels started to say.
His mother cut him off, “And where are these so-called berries?”
“I- ate them,” Cyrus said.
His eyes shifted back and forth between Llysaand the belt.
“We both know you weren’t with Niels or gathering berries. If you were,I would have found you. So, I’m going to ask you one last time. Where wereyou?”
Llysa rose from her seat, her voice becoming a growl. Cyrus’hair bristled, and a chill sweat coated hisflesh.
“I was in the Western Woods,” he stammered.
She started to move slowly towards him around the table. He wished hehad taken his chances and stayed on Myrkur Island.
“I also went mushroom picking a little near the North River. I swear.”
“Liar!”
Llysa threw a chair aside and lunged at Cyrus. Niels stoodup.
“Mom, please, don’t,” he shouted.
“You stay out of this.”
Cyrus cowered away, his back crashing against the kitchen door, “Please,no. I’m telling the truth.”
She grabbed him by the hair and let the belt unravel.
“I won’t tolerate lying in this household,” she shouted, pulling him upby the roots.
Raising the belt high, she bared her teeth and whipped at his backside.Instinctively, Cyrus tried to shield himself. The blow struck his arms. He clenchedhis teeth, fighting back a scream. It felt as if he had been slashed with a blade.
“Stop covering up, or I’ll get thestick!” she snarled.
“Please, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Cyrus begged.
She whipped him a second time across the forearms.
“Aaahh!”
The pain was too much. He pulled his arms away. She lashed at the backof his thighs. The sting was like a glowing rod of iron.
“Aaaahhh!”
Again, he shielded himself.
“I said move those arms,” she shouted.
But Cyrus could not any more than he could keep himself from shrieking.She began to whip at him with wild fore and backhand strikes. Cyrus fell againstthe wall and curled up in a fetal position. She struck him around the head andshoulders. Cyrus took most of the blows on the arms and hands. Finally, hekicked at her ankles and scrambled free, crawling across the floor andrecoiling into a corner of the pantry.
“How dare you lift a hand to me!” she spat.
Rage filled her hate-creased face. She grasped the belt at its leatherend.
“Mom no!” Niels cried.
She raised the belt high and swung the metal buckle around her head in asingle, smooth circle. Cyrus’ eyes grew wide. He tried to somehow scurryfurther into the pantry’s corner. She lashed at him with a furious, snarlinggrunt. Wincing, he spun away. The steel buckle caught him in the ribs.
“Aaaaahh!”
Hot, white pain engulfed his side. Instinctively his back arched as ifshot.
“Mom, that’s enough,” Niels said, stepping between his mother andbrother.
“You get to your room, you ungrateful little bastard,” Llysa said to Cyrus.
Her chest heaved and her hair stuck to her sweaty face.
“We’ll talk more about this in the morning.”
Stumbling, and barely able to breathe, Cyrus fled to his room and shutthe door tight behind him. He took several moments to catch his breath. Then,cringing in pain, he blocked the door with a wooden chest. He winced every timehe moved or twisted. His arms were coveredin dark, red streaks. He took his shirt off and inspected his side in a roundwall mirror. Like a hot brand, the steel belt buckle had stamped its imprintinto his flesh, leaving what looked like a bloody capital E in his ribs. Heshook all over, the terror and adrenalin slowly ebbing from his system.
He wanted to kill his stepmother, choke her by her scrawny little neck.He began to fantasize about striking back at her. Grabbing his own belt and lashing at her with the steel end.Watching her beg for mercy and not receiving it. He thought about lighting thehouse on fire, watching her burn in the middle of the night. She would seeCyrus beyond the blaze and scream to him for help. But he would only stare backat her, and in that moment, she wouldknow that he had had his revenge.
But what if Niels was somehow caughtin the blaze? Or