Free Kendra Kandlestar and the Shard From Greeve by Lee Edward Födi Page A

for a few of the smaller books that Uncle Griffinskitch had given her as part of her training, so these were also included. The only remaining thing was . . .
    The shard.
    She stared over at it, still resting in the corner of her room where she had tossed it only a few moments ago. The shard frightened her, at least part of her, and she very much wished she could ignore it. But she couldn’t. All she could think of was the thrill of energy that had soared through her body by its mere touch. In the end, its allure was too great. Picking it up with a bit of cloth (so she didn’t have to directly touch it), she stuffed it into her pouch and quickly left the room.
    When she arrived back downstairs, the stranger was still keeping watch at the kitchen window. Oki and Jinx had already assembled there, ready to set off. A small satchel was slung over Oki’s shoulder, but Jinx carried nothing more than the poker she had borrowed from the fireplace.
    “They’re coming; I can see them crossing the garden,” the stranger said, calmly turning away from the window.
    “Eek!” Oki cried. “What now?”
    “We leave,” the stranger replied.
    “Every door we have leads to the garden,” Kendra told the stranger.
    “That’s not entirely true,” the cloaked figure announced.
    He moved quickly across the floor to the kitchen fireplace and, reaching into the flue, flicked a switch. The back of the fireplace opened up to reveal a long, dark passageway.
    “How did do you know about this?” Kendra gasped with a tug of her braids. “I’ve never seen this tunnel!”
    “That’s because you’ve never had cause to use it,” the stranger said. “Now, quickly—in you all go.”
    He stood back and let Kendra, Oki, and Jinx scramble across the hearth and into the tunnel. The stranger came last, hitting another switch inside the passage to close the hidden entrance. Just as the back of the fireplace slid shut, Kendra heard Rinkle and his men storm the house, pounding the door so loudly that she was sure it would burst into a pile of splinters.
    “They’ll destroy the whole house,” Kendra whispered frantically.
    “All will be well,” the stranger rasped, shuffling to the front of the group. “Come, we must make haste.”
    He reached up and took down a torch that was resting in a bracket on the wall. In a moment it was lit, and he set off down the corridor. Even with the light, it was a dark tunnel, with a rocky, uneven floor. The ceiling was so low that Kendra’s braids kept brushing cobwebs or catching in the tree roots that dangled down like so many claws. She finally threw up her hood and tried to crouch low. As for the short stranger, he found little to impede his progress. He led them with a determined, measured pace, never once looking back to ensure that Kendra and her friends were following.
    Kendra tried to concentrate on the stranger’s torch, trudging ever forward through the cold and narrow tunnel. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts. Had Lurk detected her use of the maiden’s mirror? Or was it the shard that had alerted him? And just who was this stranger they were now following? How did he know of a secret passage hidden inside her house? But Kendra’s mind soon grew heavy, as did her feet, for you’ll remember that it was the middle of the night, and she had only managed a few hours of sleep.
    At long last, the tunnel came to an end at a round door of wood. The stranger placed the torch in a waiting bracket and rapped heavily on the door. In a moment it creaked open, and the cloaked figure beckoned them forward. They scrambled through the portal and found themselves in a large, dimly lit chamber. They were still underground; Kendra could tell because of the thick tree roots that lined the walls. These roots, however, were a little different—for tiny books were sprouting upwards from their curling branches.
    “We must be in the Een library!” Oki exclaimed.
    “I do say, you possess an observant mind, little