Free Centaur Legacy by Nancy Straight Page B

it.”
    “Who was he?”
    “I forget his name. Said he lives by
Crazy Horse.”
    “Crazy Horse, the Indian?”
    “I knew enough to know that Crazy Horse
was dead. But this fella says near Crazy Horse’s Mountain. I handed
it o’er and have no’ seen him since. Crazy Horse was a powerful
Centaur Warrior – but he adopted those Indians like they was his
own. Seemed like a good idea for the arrow to be near his mountain.
The fella needed it, so I handed it over.”
    “You don’t remember the man’s name or a
way we can get in contact with him?”
    “Robert or Roger. . . maybe, I don’t
remember. All I can tell ye’ is he isn’t a Centaur.” Zethus paused
as if there was something important he wanted us to know. “He’s a
man. He’s go’ that arrow. You tell ‘em I sent you.” Zethus stood up
to leave the room, “Good luck to you. If that fool sister o’ mine
shows up here – I’ll give her the what for.”
    When we were alone in the room again, I
asked, “Did I hear that right? He gave the arrow to a man he didn’t
know, because the guy lived near Crazy Horse’s
Mountain?”
    “That’s what it sounded
like.”
    “We’re supposed to find the guy: no
name, no description, no clue who he is, and tell him Zethus said
we could have the arrow?”
    Drake smiled at me, “Yeah, unless you
have a better idea.”
    “We do this while we avoid my
grandmother?”
    “He didn’t tell us that, but I think
that’s implied.” Drake’s smirk grew bigger. I was ready to give him
a smart aleck comment back when it hit me. It didn’t matter how
much danger we were in, we were together. My blood debt should be
forgiven – Bianca should have chosen Gage by now. None of those
things seemed possible on Friday; now less than a week later, my
life was nearly my own, other than the one little thing I still
hadn’t figured out how to tell Drake. Spending the night here and
talking to Uncle Zethus helped put everything in better
perspective.
    As we emerged from the staircase, Eadie
was waiting for us on the first floor. “You talked to Jeb, did
you?”
    “We did.”
    “Don’t believe a word he says. He ain’t
been right since his sister killed their parents.”
    “His sister? Zandra? She killed their
parents?’
    “Aye, about thirty years ago. She was
convinced they were hiding that fool arrow from her. Jeb tried to
convince her that it didn’t exist. She didn’t believe him. If they
had it, they took that location to the grave with ‘em. He hasn’t
been the same since.”
    It sounded like Zethus had hidden the
arrow from Eadie, too.
    “Here, it isn’t what you’re looking
for, but it protected my family against her. He wants you to have
it.” She handed me the ugliest broach I’d ever seen. It was a gold
and metallic green spider with a torso that bubbled out and was the
size of a full-sized locust. The spider had large bulging gem stone
eyes, and I wanted to hand it back to her. When she pressed down on
the spider’s head, the abdomen opened to reveal a locket with hair
in it.
    “It won’t protect you from any of her
people, but it’ll protect you from Zandra. This was Athena’s
locket.”
    I remembered this story from the
endless lessons at Zandra’s house. “Athena was the goddess of
weaving. She got jealous of a mortal and killed her, but felt
guilty, then brought the mortal back to life as a spider,
right?”
    “Yes. Arachne was the girl. Whoever’s
hair is placed in this locket cannot harm you. Zandra’s hair is
already in it.”
    “But, what will happen to
you?”
    “I’m an old woman. I don’t need
Athena’s protection anymore. Be on your way. Sides, if Zandra shows
her face here, Jeb won’t be so kind. She won’t leave this island
unless it’s in a box.”
    If things didn’t go well, Ireland may
be a place that we could set up as a safe haven from Zandra. I
wasn’t sure what to call my uncle, so I asked Eadie, “You keep
calling him Jeb. I thought his name was