Read Paladin Prophecy 2: Alliance for Free Online Page B

said Nick. “I’m hanging out all summer. I’ll camp right here in front of your cage until you feel like talking.”
    “I can’t, ” said Nepsted in a strangled voice.
    “That answer is clown shoes, dude—”
    “You don’t know what you’re playing with!” said Nepsted fiercely.
    Nick tried to keep him calm. “Dude, whatever happened, whatever went down around this, whatever kind of trouble you might be in, I promise we can help you.”
    “WE? Who’s WE???!!!”
    Nick didn’t answer but Nepsted saw him glance ever so slightly over his shoulder.
    “You’re not alone out there, are you? Who’s with you? Who is it? COME OUT SO I CAN SEE YOU!”
    Will and Ajay exchanged a worried glance.
    “Show yourselves right now, you cowards, or I’ll never say one word to ANY of you!” shouted Nepsted.
    Will nodded, and then he and Ajay walked around the corner into view.
    “West!” snarled Nepsted. “I should have known he’d put you up to this, McLeish. You haven’t got the brains —”
    “You can shout at us all you like, Happy,” said Will, sliding in front of Nick. “That’s not going to change the fact that we know what we know—”
    “You don’t know ANYTHING!”
    “We know this much,” said Will.
    He held up the black-and-white photograph close to the cage. When Nepsted saw it in Will’s hand, he went completely still, his eyes fixed on the picture.
    “We know, for instance, that this is you, ” said Will, pointing to Nepsted in the photo. “And this was taken at the school, so we know you were a student here.”
    Nepsted only blinked at him.
    Then Will pointed to Hobbes in the photo.
    “We also know that, just last year, this guy right here—who should be in a graveyard by now—terrorized my parents and tried to kidnap me by impersonating a federal officer. For all we know, he might even be a federal officer. And you know who he is because you were in the Knights of Charlemagne with him. In 1937. ”
    Nepsted seemed genuinely stunned, staring at Will with his eyes stuck wide open.
    “What’s this creep’s real name, Happy? Tell me who he is, how to find him, and what the hell happened to the two of you?”
    Nepsted balled his strong right hand into a fist and banged it down hard on the arm of his wheelchair. On impact, for a brief second, Will thought he saw the fibers and muscles and bones of Nepsted’s hand pulsate apart into a hundred separate strands before they coalesced back into solid flesh. Will glanced around and realized that Nick and Ajay saw it, too. When their eyes widened, Nepsted seemed to realize they’d seen it happen and pulled his hand back, covering it with his left.
    “I can’t tell you anything. You don’t even know the kind of trouble you’re in—”
    “You’ve got that turned around, Happy,” said Will, making an effort to sound calm. “You always try to come off as spooky or mysterious, but here’s what’s changed—after what I’ve been through, you can’t scare me anymore.”
    Nepsted gave an abbreviated, heaving sigh that Will thought might have been a sob.
    “What did they do to you?” asked Will quietly. “Did it have anything to do with something called the Paladin Prophecy?”
    Nepsted put his face in his hands and now the sobs came one after another. Now’s my chance. Will moved closer to the cage, signaling the others to stay quiet.
    “What’s your real name, Happy?” asked Will softly.
    “Raymond,” he whispered, barely moving his lips. “That is, I used to be … Raymond Llewelyn.”
    “What year were you born?” asked Will.
    Nepsted looked up at him, tears streaming down his face. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
    “Try me,” said Will.
    “In 1919,” he said.
    Ajay saw Nick trying to silently do the math and nudged him with an elbow.
    “Raymond, I’m only going to ask you this once,” said Will gently, “and I’ll assume you know what I’m talking about: Whose side are you on?”
    Nepsted looked almost