Free Underworlds #3: Revenge of the Scorpion King by Tony Abbott

J ON D OYLE POKED ME IN THE RIBS . “O WEN, WE SHOULD really hide.”
    “We are hiding,” I said, “behind this very big sand dune.”
    “I mean hide better ,” he said. “So we don’t die.”
    Jon had a way with words.
    Sydney Lamberti peeked over the sand dune and slid back down. “Jon’s right,” she said. “Those guys aren’t just regular Underworld soldiers. They have nasty lion heads. And long swords. And they brought a big ugly thing with them.”
    Underworld soldiers. Lion heads. A big ugly thing .
    This was my life right now.
    Ignoring the fact that my brain was spinning non-stop, I peered over the crest of the dune and tried to focus.
    It was nighttime, and the crescent moon shone in the black sky like a jewel. But even in the pale darkness, the big ugly thing was easy to spot because it took up so much space.
    “He looks like a serpent,” I said. “A cross between a dragon and a giant crocodile.”
    Dana Runson edged up beside me. “He’s coming really fast —”
    WHOOM!
    The air roared like a thousand jet engines, and green flames shot out of the serpent’s mouth like a cannonball. Just like that, our hiding place wasn’t there anymore.
    “Get — out — of — here!” cried Jon.
    We turned and ran across the sand. That’s fairly hard for people to do, but apparently it’s what Babylonian Underworld monsters are built for. The serpent’s four webbed feet clawed the ground like propellers as he leaped over the dunes.
    WHOOM! The sand to our left crackled and went shiny in the moonlight.
    “Glass!” Sydney said. “He just turned the sand into glass! I don’t want to be glass! Run this way —”
    The sand exploded in front of her.
    “Run the other way!”
    We jumped over the top of the next dune and rolled down the other side. Then we zigzagged right and left until we heard the serpent’s thundering steps slow to a stop.
    We huddled at the base of a big dune and all held our breath. A slow minute went by.
    “No sound,” Dana whispered. “I can’t look. Did we lose him?”
    My stomach flip-flopped as we crawled up to peek over the sand. Not twenty yards away the serpent stood on his hind legs, moving his head back and forth. It was clear that he couldn’t see very well, but his snout was snorting in and out as if it were a bellows.
    “He’s trying to smell us,” I whispered.
    “Humans sweat, and sweat smells,” said Sydney, sliding down the dune. “The glands in our skin give off sweat when we’re running for our lives.”
    “Thank you, Encyclopedia Syd,” said Jon.
    Sydney thinks and talks a little like a computer sometimes, even when there are more important things to worry about.
    Beyond the serpent marched a long column of warriors. They were bigger than regular men — just our luck! — and each of their heads had the snout and long, shaggy mane of a jungle lion. Great.
    “Halt!” one of the guards growled, and the soldiers surrounded a wooden sledge with long, curved rails that looked a little like a Santa’s sleigh. Except I knew that its owner, Loki, was the exact opposite of friendly old Santa. Loki was an evil Norse trickster, determined to overthrow Odin, the Norse god who lived in the mythological world of Asgard.

    Myths were my life now, too.
    “The soldiers are bringing the sledge into the city,” Dana whispered.
    The city.
    A few minutes earlier, we’d watched as Loki and his wolf, Fenrir, had entered the gates of that city. We’d soon realized that it was the capital of the Babylonian Underworld. Surrounded by a massive wall of amber stone and marked with a series of tall blue gates, the city must have been hundreds of square miles in size. It looked like the world’s largest, oldest, most terrifying prison. A single tower stood just inside the walls and rose up into the black sky, as if it might touch the moon.
    Sydney tapped my shoulder. “The serpent is still sniffing. I say we don’t move.”
    “Good plan,” I said.
    I didn’t want to