Read BURN IN HADES for Free Online

center squal leapt into the air and crashed onto the opposite end of the table flipping bowls and sending pottery crashing to the floor. The other two squals held back, purposely blocking the main corridor.
    The squal crawled along the table and finally reached him. With its hand-like foot, it grabbed the barbot breast and tossed it backwards. The other two squals leaned to the side to dodge it.
    Cross snatched the barbot wing off the table and lurched back, nudging his throne. The chair legs screeched across the floor sending an echo bouncing off the walls.
    He swung the wing like a baseball bat. The squal leaned back and he missed. His second swing swiped clean over the squals head as it ducked the blow. He faked a third swing. The squal dodged out of the way of the phony swing and when it recoiled, Cross smacked the squal in the head. As it twisted in the air, spit flew from its foamy mouth. It flopped to the floor. The other two squals scrambled around either side of the table just as he wanted them to.
    Cross leapt onto the table and sprinted across it. A claw wrapped around his ankle. He crashed to the table, knocking over centerpieces.
    One squal shoved the other. “Do not damage the head!”
    “It already has-sss a hole in it.”
    They shoved each other. Cross grabbed the lit candle and jammed it in the closest squal’s face. It hissed as the layer of skin covering the top half of its face melted. Stringy skin dripped down its chin until its veil was gone, uncovering two empty pits of eye sockets. The calabash fell off the table and rolled across the floor.
    “Fresh fruit?” said the other squal and chased after the rolling calabash.
    That wasn’t one of the uses Cross had anticipated using the fruit for, but it would work. He jumped off the table and landed near the first squal he had thumped with barbot wing. It was dazed and pulling itself to its clawed feet.
    “How about a second helping?” Cross whopped the dazed squal again with the wing. He took a step toward the cooking area to retrieve his blade and halted.
    The other two squals were blocking the doorway. The one squal was still eating the calabash while his melted-face companion was gathering itself off the floor.
    The wing would have to make do as a weapon for now. He sprinted through the main hall, turned down a couple corridors, and headed for the rear where Bolon-Hunahpu had last sensed Gimlet. The nails of the squal’s feet scrapped the floor behind him. He raced past several rooms, tipping over statues to slow the squals down.
    At the end of the hall, the gloomy orange haze from the flaming sky poured into the window between the animal hides. He aimed for the window and flung himself through it, grabbing the animal hide on his way out, clutching it. He swung. His shoulder slammed into the stone wall. The animal hide ripped, and he plummeted two stories to the ground.
    He jumped to his feet and checked around for Gimlet. She was nowhere to be found. That’s what he got for not tying her up and giving her freedom to roam. Last time he’d be nice.
    “Gimlet!” he called out into the vacant grounds, turning his head every which way in search of his pet cornurus. Skullface had said he would draw Gimlet over to the ball court.
    A squal vaulted through the window he had just jumped through. Cross dashed down the lane of statues and cut around the palace.
    The melted-faced squal met him in the courtyard. It had cut him off by going through the palace. The two squals approached cautiously from front and behind.
    Cross turned sideways so that he could keep an eye on them both.
    “You’re the mo-sss-st sss-stubborn sss-soul,” said the squal on his right. “When you sss-set your mind to sss-something, it is-sss sss-set.”
    “I’m not worth all this trouble.” Cross stepped backwards. “Just go back and tell your clan someone else already captured me before you got to me.”
    The melted-faced squal to his left stepped forward. “Your