The Legend Thief by Unknown

go down forever. He passed a row of barrows-dark burial hills-and black trees that sent shivers through him. As he continued on, the land, if possible, became even more wretched than the swamps. The numerous crags became pitted and charred and jutted from the earth like a long-forgotten palace or the remains of a swallowed city. Dozens of black streams raced between the rocks, some continuing southwest to join the rivers and swamps, others disappearing into the cracks and gaping holes, great waterfalls of darkness falling into nothing.
     
    Ancient trees grew tall and few, their black branches long and spread out, wrapped together like fingers high above him.
     
    He had never had the time, nor the inclination, to explore this dark and dangerous wasteland. He didn't want to explore it now, but instinct and a certain morbid curiosity were driving him on. Who were these two hunters and why were they here in the Sleeping Lands? And why now? Once again, he thought the timing wasn't a coincidence. Bedlam's army was on its way to destroy Exile, the foreign hunters were here to stop Bedlam, and these two hunters were somehow involved. Everything seemed to revolve around Bedlam, and Sky suspected that Bedlam's arrival was somehow driving these two hunters as well.
     
    Of course, the real question was: Why had Bedlam come to Exile in the first place?
     
    Sky had read about Solomon and Alexander's heroic capture of the terrible monster Bedlam at the beginning of The Edge of Oblivion. He remembered reading about how Bedlam was plotting to destroy the hunters, and how Solomon and Alexander pleaded with him to change his ways. Bedlam had refused and sworn that he would reclaim his father's throne and wipe the hunters from the face of the earth before making all people bow to him. Then, he'd attacked Solomon and Alexander on the spot. They defended themselves with their shimmering blades, while begging Bedlam to give up his mad quest. Finally, with no other options, Solomon and Alexander had wrapped Bedlam in threads of light and trapped him in an unbreakable shell-the Chrysalis. They promised him that one day, when his heart was pure and filled with love, he would emerge like a butterfly.
     
    It was the beginning of the Edgewalker Wars. The rest of the book detailed the brutal wars and how Solomon tracked down and killed every last Edgewalker.
     
    Of course, Alexander and a few other chroniclers had written the book, and as Sky had learned last year and numerous times since, hunters lied. It was quite possible that nothing in the story was true, in which case Sky had little to go on to figure out why Bedlam had come to Exile. Clearly Bedlam hated the hunters and had every intention of destroying Exile; one didn't bring an army to make friends. At the same time, there were relatively few hunters in Exile. If Bedlam had just wanted to kill hunters, he could have gone anywhere, such as the Academy of Legend Chase had mentioned. Whatever and wherever the Academy of Legend was, it sounded like a good place to start. They had to have more hunters there, based on how many they'd sent to Exile.
     
    But Bedlam had chosen to attack Exile first, and that meant he wanted something here, something more than just to kill hunters. If Bedlam somehow knew about Solomon taking the Arkhon's body-a secret known by almost no one-then he could, feasibly, have come for revenge. Bedlam would have to hate Solomon more than just about anyone, besides maybe Alexander, who had died centuries ago due to an unfortunate sword through the neck from an unknown assassin. But if Sky were trapped, the first thing he would do was free himself , especially if he had failed to take control of the one person-namely him-who could have given him an advantage.
     
    But to free himself, Bedlam would have to escape an unbreakable Chrysalis, and to do that, he'd have to have a pure heart filled with love.
     
    Sky laughed.
     
    Even as a small boy, he had thought the idea was not