Free Vipero the Snake Man by Adam Blade

P ROLOGUE
    T HE SUN BLAZED DOWN OVER THE DESERT. Sand dunes stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. There was no shelter from the merciless heat.
    A nomad, wearing long robes the same color as the sand, was stumbling among the dunes. His thin face was burned by the sun and he screwed up his eyes against the glare. His throat was parched and his lips were cracked. “Water,” he muttered. “I must find water.”
    At the foot of a dune he spotted a small plant with dark, thick leaves. Falling to his knees beside it, he tore it up by the roots and crushed the leaves against his mouth, hoping to extract precious drops of water.
    But, with an exclamation of disgust, he tossed the plant aside. The leaves scarcely held enough water to wet his lips.
    He almost wished he had never agreed to take part in this deadly challenge. But if he could succeed in crossing the desert, alone and with no food or water, he would win great honor for his tribe. Yet if he couldn’t find water soon, he would die here, his bones scoured by the sand.
    He rose to his feet and brushed the sand from his robes, determined to set one foot in front of the other. He clambered painfully up to the crest of the next dune.
    When he reached the top, shock and relief made him stagger. In front of him at the bottom of the slope lay a shimmering blue lake. Trees shaded it, their broad leaves swaying gently.
    “I’m saved! I’m saved!” The nomad staggered down the side of the dune, his feet sinking intothe loose sand. “My tribe will be the greatest of all….”
    But as he drew closer to the foot of the dune, the shimmering water began to fade and the trees vanished into the glare of the sun. The nomad fell desperately to the ground, grabbing handfuls of sand, which trickled between his fingers. The beautiful lake had been a mirage. There was no water. Shattered by the sudden loss of hope, he buried his face in his hands and began to sob.
    After a while he realized that his sobs were echoing. He looked up and noticed what he had missed before. Rocks emerged from the sand just behind him, and between them was a dark gap, leading back into the dune. A cave!
    The nomad’s hopes revived, he stumbled into the cave, muttering a prayer of thanks for shelter from the burning rays of the sun. He took deepbreaths of the cool air, and felt eddies of it swirling around his ankles.
    Then the grasp of the icy breeze tightened and the nomad realized that something was wrapping itself around him. Terror struck like a sudden blow. He tried to run, but the grip on his ankles tightened further and he fell flat on his face. He kicked out frantically, reaching down to wrench at whatever was gripping him, then froze.
    Around his legs were the coils of a snake! But this was no ordinary snake. The tail itself was grotesquely huge, each of its scales bigger than the nomad’s hand, and above it was a human torso, patterned with a raw, angry red and a sickly green. Unlike an ordinary, cold-blooded snake, its body sent out a huge wave of heat.
    The nomad choked in terror as his gaze traveled upward and he saw that the snake had two heads.Its four eyes stared at him, narrowing in sinister hatred, then the heads reared back.
    “No!” the nomad yelled.
    But the two heads swooped down on him and two sets of fangs buried themselves in his neck. He saw nothing more.

C HAPTER O NE

F AREWELL TO E RRINEL
    T OM DREW STORM TO A HALT A FEW MILES beyond the village of Errinel. Turning in his saddle, he looked back.
    “I wish we didn’t have to leave,” he said to Elenna, who sat behind him on the magnificent stallion. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to visit my home since I set out on the Beast Quest.”
    “It’s hard,” Elenna agreed sympathetically. “I miss my parents, too.”
    “I don’t know when I’ll see my uncle and aunt again.” Tom knew that until Avantia was safe from the Dark Wizard Malvel, his Quest must come first — even before his family. It