Dragon Sword Episode 2 : Danger Boy

by WILLIAMS, MARK LONDON

• ISBN13: 9780763621537
• ISBN10: 0763621536
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-24
• Publisher: Candlewick

Summary

Hitch a ride through time on the Danger Boy adventures! These rich, action-filled fantasies about a reluctant time-traveler and his unusual sidekicks will keep readers on the edge of their seats. In DANGER BOY: DRAGON SWORD, Eli's time-traveling talent leads him to his missing mother's location: San Francisco at the start of World War II. Unfortunately, Margarite Sands is deeply involved in efforts to keep time-sphere technology away from the enemy, and once again Eli is thrown into the thick of things. He and his fellow time-adventurers, Clyne and Thea, are hurled far into the past, where they find new allies in the legendary King Arthur and his wizard, Merlin. Together, they must do whatever it takes to keep the powerful sword Excalibur from falling into Nazi hands.

Author Biography

Mark London Williams lives in Los Angeles, where he writes articles, comics, plays, and Danger Boy books, and continues to draw inspiration from his two young sons and one old dog. In fact, when his oldest son was a toddler — long before he played his first video game — he ran down the hall one afternoon shouting, "I’m a Danger Boy!" and then quickly added something about dinosaurs. Mark London Williams has been thanking him for that inspiration ever since.

Excerpts

PROLOGUE

THE LAKE

The old king stands by the lake, looking over it as for the last time, waiting.

Waiting for a woman. A woman who’s never touched land.

After a moment, she appears from under the water, calmly floating up, then hovering just over the surface. The woman remains utterly serene, as if rising from a lake then standing above it were scarcely remarkable. She seems very patient, as though she could wait a long time to take tired kings into her liquid embrace, take them into the lake with her when their hearts are broken for the last time.

This king is very tired. He’s seen too much war, too much bloodshed—-and knows he’s caused a lot of it.

When he was younger, he never thought he’d wind up hurting like this. He thought everything would be perfect.

The king is going to throw the sword into the lake, let this water sprite have it, because this sword, it seems to him now, is the root cause of all his misery.

He remembers pulling it from the rock when he was younger; he remembers thinking it would make him invincible.

That was a lie. It only made him king.

Now, no more lies. Just water. And silence.

He holds the sword above his head, ready to fling it into what he thinks will be its final resting place.

"Arthur."

It’s Merlin’s voice. The old wizard is always speaking at moments like this, breaking the king’s concentration, never quite taking anything seriously enough.

This time Merlin’s pointing. Out at the water. The serenity is even draining from the Lady of the Lake’s face. There’s a swirl of foam and bubbles next to her, and something unexpected. An intruder.

It was just supposed to be the king and Merlin here, alone with the water sprite, to dispose of the sword. The sword and a whole lot of bad memories.

But there’s someone else. Someone who’s kind of . . . fading in. Thrashing about in the water, gasping for air, trying to swim.

Is it another wizard, here to challenge Merlin? Or perhaps a spirit, the wandering ghost of some man killed by the king in a forgotten war?

The king can’t tell. But Merlin doesn’t seem worried. He seems, in fact, slightly amused.

But then, Merlin always seems amused, no matter how bad the situation.

The small caps and breakers in the lake are shredded apart by the frantic splashing as the intruder buzzes through the water like a small, agitated shark.

As the trespasser draws near, the king lowers his sword and lets it rest in the mud by his leggings.

It’s a boy coming to them. Out of the water. A boy.

Soon to be a man, but not quite.

About twelve years old.

Wearing jeans and a baseball cap—-though the king wouldn’t have the faintest idea what to call them.

"Hello," the boy finally gasps.

"Well met," the king says. "Or, perhaps, not so well. Merlin, is this one of yours?"

The boy looks from one man to the other, then back at the king. "Arthur?" The boy speaks with the strangest accent the king has ever heard.

But the conversation is interrupted. The water starts bubbling and churning again. And another boy begins fading into view.

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Excerpted from Dragon Sword: Danger Boy by Mark London Williams
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