The Key of Kilenya

Author's Note:

We're doing another contest! It ends on October 3, 2011 at midnight. Prizes include a $25 gift certificate to your online store of choice! (Amazon, iTunes, etc). Go here:

http://bit.ly/qt7JhB

For more information! If you can't access the link above, just go to andreapearsonbooks.blogspot.com :-)

Happy Reading! :-)

- Andrea

1. Into the Woods

Would my father kidnap his own daughter-in-law? The castle has been attacked and ransacked. I suspect my father was behind it. We are trying to count how many are dead and missing, and I’m heartbroken because I can’t find the princess anywhere. Eight months’ pregnant with our first child—and such a difficult child to come by, after years of trial and loss.

            Aldo and Ezra have instructed me to meet them at their mother’s cottage nearly a mile from the castle. They believe Princess Arien was kidnapped and that her captors will demand ransom. What else would they want from the royal family?

 ***

 Jacob tossed his favorite hand-held video game onto his bed, then grabbed his basketball and dashed downstairs. He paused, glancing out the kitchen window to check on his six-year-old sister—still playing in the sandbox out back—then bolted through the front door, eager to take advantage of the last hour of sunlight.

            “Hey, I wanna shoot too,” Matt, Jacob’s sixteen-year-old brother said, popping out from under the truck he’d been working on in the garage.

“Fine, but I really need this practice. So give me a challenge.”

“Don’t I always?” Matt said, then laughed.

They played a quick game of one-on-one with Jacob barreling past Matt, constantly staying at least fifteen points ahead. His last three-point shot won the game for him, and he bent over, hands on knees, panting.

“Yeah, well, I can still beat you at football,” Matt said with a grin.

Jacob laughed, then tossed the ball to Matt. “Here. You need to practice more.”

 “You still trying out tomorrow?”

“’Course—I have to.”

“Uh-huh.” Matt glanced at Jacob, holding the ball under his arm. “You know . . .  letting Kevin win at something might not be a bad thing. ‘Sides, you could both make it.”

“No, we couldn’t. You know Coach—he’s not going to let two fourteen-year-old guys on Varsity.”

A rustle in the trees next to the driveway made Jacob look that way. It sounded like a large animal or a person. “You hear that?”

“Hear what?” Matt was back by the hoop again, throwing the ball up into the net.

Jacob motioned for Matt to stop, and took a step closer to the trees, squinting to see better. The sun had set, though, and the brush was too dark. “Hey, turn on the light. I think something’s in there.”

Matt’s footsteps faded, then light flooded over the cement of the driveway, casting weird shadows into the forest. That wasn’t much better.

“Hello?” Jacob called.

            Matt came back and stood next to him for a moment. “Nothing’s there, man.” He dropped the ball at Jacob’s feet. “I’m gonna go work on the truck some more.”

            Jacob reluctantly picked up his ball and started shooting again. After several satisfying swishes, he forgot the sound, picturing himself on the court at Mountain Crest High School, playing in front of Coach and the Varsity team. He had to make it. He just had to. He’d never live down Kevin’s teasing and Coach’s patronizing glances of pity if he didn’t.

            Thirty minutes later, he dropped his basketball, trapped it, and pushed it with his toe toward the open garage door, watching it roll up the driveway. It bounced off the tire of the truck where Matt worked. Jacob was ready for tomorrow. He could do this—he really could. He just had to make sure he got plenty of sleep that night and was warmed up before tryouts began.

            “Matt,” he called into the garage, “we need to get Amberly inside and to bed.”