The Legend Thief by Unknown Page A

only cheesy, but completely ridiculous: If Bedlam's mind and body were trapped, how could his heart ever change? But there had to be some way for Bedlam to free himself. It was the only reason for coming to Exile that made sense.
     
    Sky could only hope that the hunter he was tracking knew more about it than he did.
     
    As he came around an immense, sharp-edged crag, he found an inscription beside a narrow gap:
     
    Grove of the Fallen,
     
    Chosen of the First
     
    No slowly seeping poison
     
    taints their morbid thirst.
     
     
     
    Disturb their slumber
     
    - disregard this sign –
     
    and join them six feet under,
     
    with maggots in thy mind
     
    Feeling anxious, Sky walked through the narrow gap and clown a steep path. Gray-and-black rock towered over him on both sides, growing taller the farther down he went until he was hundreds of feet below the highest point.
     
    His Pounder hand-cannon was busted, his Jumpers empty, and he'd used up his last can of Fog. The protective Shimmer would recharge on its own eventually, but, at best, he had one or two zaps left. If this place lived up to its engraving, he was destined for brain maggots.
     
    On the other side of the gap, he found himself standing in front of a strange grove. Sheer gray-and-black cliffs, spattered with waterfalls, surrounded the grove entirely, with a few gaps leading out. Lush white trees covered in sparkling leaves and twinkling blue fruit lit up the grove-its very beauty making Sky leery, and reminding him of why he hated botany: Things that looked that good were never that good.
     
    The trail of blood he'd first noticed near the swamps had long since disappeared, but the injured hunter was in a hurry and sloppy, leaving Sky plenty of tracks to follow. He crept into the grove, staying as far away from the trees as he could. Fireflies of all colors darted here and there, and eerie green moss rustled on tree trunks and slunk across earth and obsidian like slugs. He passed odd, bright, bell-shaped flowers and silvery grass that hummed in the wind like an eerie choir. Golden reeds strummed together like cellos, and the trees swayed and whispered until the grove was filled with haunting music.
     
    Sky felt his tension and anxiety slip away, little by little.
     
    The air felt cleaner here, the night brighter, his heart more hopeful. Glancing down, he was surprised to find his Hunter's Mark warm and glowing, the light in the Mark mingling with the light in the grove. The light seemed to move through him, washing away aches and pains he didn't even know he had, and others he was all too aware of. He wanted to be wary-to watch for the traps that must be lying in wait-but for the first time in nearly a year, he felt something he'd almost forgotten....
     
    In the ghostly melodies of this unnatural grove, he felt peaceful.
     
    He pressed his fingernails into his Eye of Legend, the pain helping him focus. Now wasn't the time to get all peaceful; this place was dangerous. If he didn't pay attention, the only peace he would find would be the eternal kind.
     
    In the center of the grove, Sky came upon a clearing and an enormous stone statue, easily a hundred feet tall, of a woman rising from the earth. Ivy shrouded the lower half of her body as it twirled out of the ground like a sickly gray beanstalk.
     
    Her left arm and part of her face had sloughed off and Sky could see the remains strewn across the smaller monuments, statues, and graves that surrounded her, many of which had been crushed to rubble. Her right hand was stretched out in front of her, hovering over the statue of a kneeling man. On her palm, Sky saw the Hunter's Mark.
     
    He crept forward, feeling more and more confused. He'd seen a lot of things in the last year- man-eating pumpkin patches, aggressive pine trees, hardened desserts, even a half man, half manatee (a Humanatee) , not to mention a crazy janitor with a Doritos bag on his head-but he'd never dreamed of a place like this.