Monster War (17 page)

Bright and beautiful
.

The words reminded Charlie of the Slumber - but maybe the Slumber was just a pale reflection of what the Nether could once again become.

“How?” Charlie asked. “How can we make it like it used to be?”

“
That
you will have to discover on your own, Charlie Benjamin.”

“Through the Monster Portal?”

The Named Lord nodded.

“Then help me,” Charlie said finally. “Take me there.”

The great beast thought a moment, then lowered his right hand to the ground - the very hand that Charlie had cut off many months before. Charlie took a breath and stepped on to it. Barakkas lifted the boy up and gently deposited him on the platform beneath the glowing green portal, careful to avoid touching the Sword of Sacrifice,
which hung at Charlie’s waist, shining brightly.

“Thank you,” the boy said.

“My pleasure.”

Charlie turned to the giant portal and tried to imagine what lay beyond. He couldn’t.

“Well, see you when I come back -
if
I come back.”

“Goodbye, Charlie Benjamin.”

“Goodbye, Barakkas.”

And then Charlie Benjamin - the youngest Director the Nightmare Division had ever known - drew the Sword of Sacrifice and, raising it high, stepped through the Monster Portal and was gone.

First published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Children’s Books
2009 HarperCollins
Children’s Books
is a division of HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

The HarperCollins website address is:

www.harpercollins.co.uk

FIRST EDITION

Copyright © Dean Lorey 2009

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EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-35166-4

Dean Lorey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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