Free The Key of Kilenya by Andrea Pearson

away from
himself, stumbling backward when he saw it flatten itself mid-air
and float swiftly to a nearby tree.
    Then the trees ceased moving. With their
stillness, the light was no longer dancing, allowing Jacob to see
better. Nearly every surface was covered with snakes—the ground
seemed to have come alive. Several of them floated through the
air.
    Worried that the trees had stopped moving
because something even larger and scarier than flying serpents had
entered the forest, Jacob peered through the darkness, gingerly
treading forward. He tried not to step on any of the snakes and
grimaced when he did, but they didn’t react to him now that the
trees weren’t moving.
    As he walked cautiously, watching the trees
in case they started to fling their branches around again,
something large brushed against his left leg. He looked down and
made out the shape of a snake, two feet in diameter, as it slowly
slithered past him, then stopped.
    Jacob’s body stiffened with fear. He flipped
through all his Scouting memories—what kind of snake was this? Was
it poisonous? He couldn’t remember ever having seen one like it
before—even on TV. He gasped when he felt the snake coil around his
feet. He tried to step away, but couldn’t.
    The snake hissed, and suddenly its face was
right in front of Jacob’s, the intelligent green eyes level with
his own, piercing into him. Pressure around his knees told him the
snake was increasing its grip there. He tried again to move, but
couldn’t—the massive serpent had coiled around his chest and
tightened its hold.
    The snake’s tongue flicked out, barely
touching Jacob’s skin and hair, testing the air around him. Then
it’s body tightened so much it knocked the breath out of him.
Lifting Jacob completely off the ground, the snake hissed at him,
revealing six-inch fangs only a foot from his face. It whipped its
head away and started to drag him through the forest. Jacob gasped
for air and was finally able to pull in a breath.
    After they had gone about fifty feet, they
were joined by a second snake, just as big as the first. This snake
slithered alongside them for a moment, then headed off to the
right.
    The forest ended, and the snake reached the
edge of a clearing. Toward the center was a hill with a very large
manor on the crest. There was no sign of Akeno.
    The manor must have been impressive in its
day. It had large columns which looked like granite, and massive
windows, most of which were boarded over or had been smashed open.
The wide cement porch that circled the house was cracked. Vines
grew uncontrolled through most of the cracks and up many of the
columns. The front right corner of the foundation had begun to
sink, and rotted wood lay everywhere.
    To the front and right of the house was a
large pit. Jacob thought he could hear Akeno’s voice coming from
it, and he strained to get out of the snake’s tight grip. But the
snake ignored his attempts and continued slithering across the hard
ground, up the stairs, and right through the open front door of the
house.
    It was musty and dirty inside, and dim light
shone in through a couple of smashed windows. The front entryway
was spacious—at least two stories high, maybe three. The floor was
marble, and there were huge marble pillars lining the entry.
Stained glass windows, most of them boarded over, were visible
between the pillars.
    Before the snake took him up a large,
circular stairway, Jacob got a brief glimpse of a side room with
sheet-covered furniture. They went down a hall, the first half of
which overlooked the entire front entry. The second half was
enclosed and lined with doors, all of which were shut, and many of
them had a slight, greenish glow coming through the cracks. The
snake stopped abruptly at the end of the hall. A silvery,
translucent sheen covered the entire doorway in front of them, and
the door was missing.
    The snake paused before entering. The moment
its head passed the frame, a loud clap burst through