²Olden Crown.

015.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter fifteen

━━ NOTHING LOOKED BETTER than the wheels falling off the chariot. You didn't think that would be a good thing, but traveling easily hundreds of miles per hour, barely hanging on to the chariot, Frank was ready to stop. He felt like he left his stomach back in the Amazon warehouse.

               He'd already thrown up twice from the back of the chariot, which was not fun at the speed of sound. The horse seemed to bend time and space as he ran, blurring the landscape and making Frank feel like he'd just drunk a gallon of whole milk without his lactose intolerance medicine. Ella didn't help matters. She kept muttering: "Seven hundred and fifty miles per hour. Eight hundred. Eight hundred and three. Fast. Very fast."

               The horse sped north across Puget Sound, zooming past islands, fishing boats, and very surprised pods of whales. The landscape ahead began to look familiar—Crescent Beach, Boundary Bay. Frank had gone sailing here once on a school trip. Faster than ever, they'd crossed into Canada. He felt his lungs open up. Even traveling almost nine hundred miles per hour, he could smell the scent of home.

               The horse rocketed onto dry land. Arion followed Highway 99 north, running so fast that the cars seemed to be standing still. Finally, just as they were getting into Vancouver, the chariot wheels began to smoke.

               "Hazel!" Frank yelled. "We're breaking up!"

               She got the message and pulled the reins. The horse didn't seem happy about it, but he slowed to subsonic as they zipped through the city streets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last, Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Frank, Abilene, and Ella onto the mossy and wet ground.

               Frank stumbled to his feet. He tried to blink the yellow spots out of his eyes. Percy groaned and started unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot. Abilene laid still on the ground, her fingers curling into the grass. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."

               Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"

               Abilene groaned, looking as green as the moss. "I don't like your definition of fun, Hazel."

               Arion whinnied.

               "He says he needs to eat," Percy translated for the others. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."

               Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here ... Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—"

               The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

               Hazel knitted her eyebrows together. "Do you think he'll come back?"

               "I don't know," Percy said. "He seems kind of ... spirited."

               Abilene sat up, smoothing her hair down. "That's one way of putting it," she grumbled.

               Frank almost hoped the horse would stay away. He didn't say that, of course. He could tell Hazel was distressed by the idea of losing her new friend. But Arion scared him, and Frank was pretty sure the horse knew it. And he was pretty sure Arion took a little pride in the fear.