The Legend Thief by Unknown Page B

Everything else was so horrible, so nightmarishly awful, but this ... this ... was wonderful-mindblowingly creepy, yet magical at the same time.
     
    Phineas had once told him that there was no such thing as magic, just some very misunderstood natural forces. But as Sky looked up at the statue, and heard the symphony of the grove, and felt the light and warmth flowing through him, he couldn't help believing that maybe Phineas had gotten it wrong; maybe there was no such thing as natural forces- just some very misunderstood magic.
     
    Sky passed by the woman's giant stone sword, still clasped in her broken left hand, sitting atop a row of crushed monuments. The blade shimmered strangely as moonlight reflected off particles of precious metals locked within. He remembered reading about such blades- the real blades, not this stone replica. Shimmering blades, they were called, the swords of the Hunters of Legend, like those Solomon and Alexander had used to fight Bedlam in The Edge of Oblivion. Phineas had even carried one, a blade that now sat, Sky supposed, in the belly of the Jack.
     
    Sky recognized many of the names etched into the monuments and graves, Hunters of Legend whose stories he'd studied for as long as he could remember. Nathaniel the Noteworthy, who'd shared delicious toast with Samuel the Simpleton while searching for the Tourmaline of Foresight.
     
    And Gladys Goodright , the first (and last) hunter to fall in love with a Humanatee. He passed the gaudy tomb of Esteban, a hunter so vain he believed other hunters should recognize him from a single name. The fact that it was true had annoyed Phineas to no end, Sky remembered with a smile. And Studious Kelp, who'd cornered the poultry market in London to stop a Satyrn invasion-an invasion that Studious invented in order to corner the poultry market in London.
     
    He passed other hunters, too, real hunters of the heroic kind.
     
    Portense Happenstance, who brought light to the Morospawn giants under the sea and found the cure to Creeper venom . And Frederick von Gooseburg , who gave his life to protect an insignificant village from a cadre of fellow hunters who wanted to destroy it for its wealth of Gilead root.
     
    Sky shook his head in amazement; there were far more bad hunters than good, and even the good ones he'd worshipped as a boy, such as Solomon Rose, hadn't turned out so great. Morton Thresher was another raging disappointment, if Chase was to be believed. Sky found it hard to fathom that one of his idols wanted him dead. With the Hunters of Legend set on killing him simply because of what he might become, Sky found it hard to imagine any of them as heroes. Were any of the stories true? Were there any heroes left?
     
    As Sky rounded the sword, the statue of the kneeling man came into view. Sky guffawed. A stone cloak rested on the man's shoulders, hood down, with a giant rose carved into the back, making it obvious who it was supposed to represent.
     
    Solomon Rose.
     
    The statue lorded over the other monuments, second in size only to the statue of the woman. Solomon had a chiseled jaw and ski-jump nose and looked young, barely out of his teens. He knelt piously under the woman's outstretched hand-directly under the Hunter's Mark-signifying, no doubt, that he was much cooler than everyone else. Solomon leaned on a shimmering stone sword like the woman's, a knight pledging himself to his liege lord. But who was the woman?
     
    Sky stepped forward and read the words etched into the stone:
     
    Solomon Rose
     
    Hunter or Legend
     
    Star of the First Hunter
     
    Keeper of the Light
     
    Sky pondered vandalizing the statue, but at that moment, he heard the sounds of digging. He crept closer. A short distance away, he spotted a humble grave with a large rock at the head. Heaps of dirt were piled around the hole, with more dirt flying out all the time. Someone had rigged together an ingenious pulley system made of branches and vines that looped around a