Lion Read online

  The Five Ancestors

  Book 1: Tiger

  Book 2: Monkey

  Book 3: Snake

  Book 4: Crane

  Book 5: Eagle

  Book 6: Mouse

  Book 7: Dragon

  The five Ancestors

  OUT OF THE ASHES

  Book 1: Phoenix

  Book 2: Lion

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2013 by Jeffrey S. Stone

  Jacket art copyright © 2013 by Richard Cowdrey

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  The Five Ancestors is a registered trademark of Jeffrey S. Stone.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Stone, Jeff.

  Lion / Jeff Stone. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (Five ancestors: out of the ashes; bk. 2)

  Summary: Betrayed by his uncle, Dr. V., Ryan must rely on his friends to help him recover and rebuild his life but Dr. V’s confederates think the four friends still know too much and follow them to California to silence them.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-98760-1

  [1. Bicycles and bicycling—Fiction. 2. Bicycle racing—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. Supernatural—Fiction. 5. Chinese Americans—Fiction. 6. California—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.S87783Lio 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2013004945

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  For Keith Boggs,

  book-loving sensei

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books in This Series

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Stage One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Stage Two

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Stage Three

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  About the Author

  “You can do it, Ryan!” Phoenix Collins shouted from above me.

  I gritted my teeth. Of course I could do it. If Phoenix could do it, so could I.

  I shifted my mountain bike into an easier gear and inched up the muddy slope. Two feet forward, one foot back. Two more feet forward, one and a half feet back. It was quickly becoming an impossible climb. The already heavy rain was getting worse, sending rivers of brown water down the troughs that the other three bikes had gouged into the hillside ahead of me. Strange-smelling sweat poured from beneath my helmet, mixing with the warm July rain.

  “Dig deep, bro!” Jake called down.

  “Push yourself!” Hú Dié shouted.

  My thighs burned and my calves ached, but I continued to hammer, my legs pumping like pistons. My riding shoes were connected to my pedals, and my quads bulged on the upstroke, my large hamstrings working the downstroke.

  I roared like the lion on my Vanderhausen family’s Belgian coat of arms.

  “Whoo-hoo!” Hú Dié called out. “That is the spirit!”

  I looked up to see that I was nearing the top of the hill, where Phoenix, Jake, and Hú Dié were waiting for me on this training ride.

  “Almost there!” Phoenix called out. “You’re doing great!”

  I frowned. I knew Phoenix was only trying to help, trying to motivate me to sweat a dangerous substance called dragon bone from my system. But some of his comments were beginning to get on my nerves. The last thing a guy in last place wants to hear is how great he’s doing.

  “Come on, Ryan!” Phoenix shouted. “If you manage to catch me, I’ll—”

  “Arrr!” I growled, and I drove my legs even harder.

  My bike began to fishtail, the rear tire swinging wildly from side to side. I rose out of the saddle and shifted my weight back over the rear tire. Mud and trail debris sprayed up around me while massive raindrops pelted my helmet. I couldn’t see a thing.

  I felt an unexpected jolt as my front tire bumped over a gnarled tree root, and my slipping rear tire found an instant of traction. There was a sudden increase in torque against my drive sprocket and—

  SNAP!

  My bike chain broke in half.

  My legs began to free-spin wildly. I started to slide backward, and I cut my wheel to one side. The bike spun around as I’d hoped, but it went too far. I’d only wanted it to turn ninety degrees so that I could ditch the bike on a downhill angle. Instead, it did a complete one-eighty.

  I found myself barreling straight down the muddy slope, my legs still whirling. I tapped the brake levers, but it was no use. There was too much mud and gunk lodged in the calipers.

  I slowed my spinning legs and saw rows of gnarled scrub pine waiting for me at the bottom of the hill, their dagger-like arms outstretched. I disconnected one foot and cut the wheel again, jamming my mountain bike shoe into the hillside. The bike began to slow, but then my foot skittered across a slick rocky shelf and I lost control.

  I dropped onto my side, quickly disconnecting my other foot and kicking the bike away from me as my leg, hip, and rib cage scraped over the exposed rock like raw meat across a cheese grater. I opened my mouth to cry out in pain, but my torso collided with the base of a large oak tree and all the air was forced out of my lungs.

  My momentum continued to push me around the tree, and I rolled a few more feet before finally coming to a stop. I closed my eyes, struggling to catch my breath. The muscles of my abdomen began to cramp, but they relaxed a moment later, to my great relief. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that I was at the bottom of the hill, just a few feet in front of the wicked scrub pines. My bike was about ten feet away, half buried in mud and pine needles.

  From the top of the hill, Phoenix called out, “We’ll be right down, Ryan! Sit tight!”

  I didn’t feel like sitting around for anybody. I stood on wobbly legs and checked myself over. My rib cage and one of my legs were sore and scraped up, and my riding jersey was mud-streaked and torn. Otherwise, I seemed to be okay.

  I couldn’t say the same about my bike. I walked over to it and saw that it was trashed. It was a prototype frame made of sturdy lightweight magnesium. Apparently, it wasn’t sturdy enough. The frame was cracked in at least three spots. Also, the rear stays were bent and the handlebars were twisted. My rich uncle, the recently deceased Dr. V, had paid twelve grand for this thing, and it was unrideable after one wreck. What a piece of junk. A horrible bike from a horrible man.

  Phoenix, Jake, and Hú Dié slid down to me. They’d left their bikes and helmets at the top of the hill. Phoenix’s freaky green Chinese eyes shone brightly in the gloom, his weird reddish hair glistening in the rain.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” I replied.

  “Bro, you don’t look fine,” Ja
ke said.

  I shook my head. Jake had a habit of blurting out whatever popped into his head. Sometimes it was amusing. Other times, not so much.

  I glared at him.

  Jake took a step back, flipping a clump of wet, shaggy blond hair out of his face. He raised his hands. “Easy, man. I’m just joking. Don’t Hulk out on me or anything.”

  “I don’t Hulk out,” I said.

  “No? You roared and snapped your chain like it was a rubber band.”

  “I guess I don’t know my own strength.” I shrugged and turned away.

  “Ryan!” Hú Dié said suddenly. “Your side! You are bleeding badly.”

  I twisted and looked at my left side—the side that had absorbed the impact as I slid over the rocks. My torn jersey was still coated with mud, but the mud was now mixed with a deep red.

  Phoenix stepped close to me and peered through the rip in my riding jersey. He grimaced. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

  I shrugged. “It hurt when it happened, but not anymore.”

  “Maybe you are in shock,” Hú Dié said. “We should go.”

  “Hang on,” I said. “I want to see. I thought it was just some minor scrapes.” I took off my shirt and let the rain wash over my wounds. It stung a little, causing my chest and back muscles to ripple.

  Hú Dié looked away, apparently embarrassed.

  I grinned. I’d tried to get her to look at my fine physique once before, but she’d laughed at me. She was one of the prettiest girls I’d ever seen.

  Jake smacked my arm. “That’s enough, Beefcake. You’d better cover up. Those cuts won’t coagulate with water pouring all over them. Let the rain rinse some of the mud off your shirt, then wring it out and tie it around yourself.”

  “Look,” Phoenix said, staring at my side.

  I followed Phoenix’s gaze to a cut that seemed much deeper than the rest. It was like watching time-lapse photography. It appeared to be healing from the inside amazingly fast.

  “Whoa!” Jake said. “What was in your cornflakes this morning?”

  I didn’t reply. The rapid healing must have had something to do with the dragon bone in my system—this ancient Chinese herb my uncle had given me as a performance enhancer. Phoenix and Hú Dié knew all about it, but Jake didn’t. We wanted to keep it that way.

  Hú Dié glanced at my healing wound but said nothing.

  Phoenix straightened. “Let’s head back to my house. I want my uncle Tí to see this.” Phoenix’s uncle was a doctor, and he’d been studying dragon bone.

  “Forget that!” Jake said. “Let’s go to my house so that we can grab my camera. You’ll be a YouTube sensation!”

  “No,” I said. “No video.”

  Jake frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because I said so.”

  “What’s going on?” Jake asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “What did your uncle do to you?”

  “He didn’t do anything, Jake.”

  “Seriously, bro. You go to live with your drug guru uncle for like six months, and when you come back you’re the most ripped kid on the planet. Now you’re healing like a mutant. What gives?”

  I felt my face darken. “The only things my uncle ever gave me were vitamins and all-natural herbal supplements. I don’t know what’s going on with this cut, but my six-pack came from working out a ton. That’s all I did when I was with my uncle besides ride. It’s not like I had any friends. You guys stopped talking to me after my dad died, remember?”

  “Come on, man,” Jake said. “Don’t be that way. You moved thousands of miles away from us.”

  “You could have emailed or Skyped.”

  “Uh—”

  “Forget about it,” I said. “I understand why you guys might have thought I didn’t want to hang with you anymore. I’m over it, and I hope you are, too. Just don’t push me about this stuff, all right? It really bugs me.”

  “Sure,” Jake said. He made a fist and raised his knuckles toward me. “Bros?”

  I made a fist, bumping it with Jake’s. “Bros,” I said. “And for the record, I’m glad we’re all friends again, including Hú Dié.”

  Hú Dié smiled. “Me too.”

  Phoenix raised a fist and we bumped, but he didn’t say a word.

  I wrung out most of the mud from my shirt; then I pressed it against my side while Phoenix grabbed my bike, and the four of us trudged up the slippery slope.

  We reached the trailhead of Town Run Trail Park to find the parking lot completely submerged. Hú Dié and Jake pushed their bikes through the ankle-deep quagmire while I waded behind them, still pressing my shirt against my side. Phoenix pushed his bike with one hand and carried my battered bike over his shoulder.

  There was a crew-cab pickup truck idling off to one side of the parking lot. A man wearing a dripping-wet poncho climbed out of the driver’s seat. He waved.

  Hú Dié removed a slender tire pump from her bike frame. She gripped it like a club.

  “Relax,” I said to her. “It’s Smitty. He’s the trail supervisor. He’s cool.”

  “Oh,” Hú Dié said, but she didn’t put the pump back.

  “Phoenix!” Smitty called out. “Ryan! Jake! How goes it?”

  “Slow and wet, Smitty,” Phoenix replied. “Ryan took a spill.”

  Smitty sloshed over to us. “Are you okay, big man? Let me see.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Really.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that. Show me the damage.”

  I reluctantly pulled my shirt away and was shocked to see that most of my cuts were now basically just scratches. The deep wound was little more than a scab.

  Smitty laughed. “Seriously, Ryan? If you wanted to take off your shirt to impress the young lady, you could have come up with a better excuse than those scuff marks.”

  Hú Dié smiled, and I shook out my shirt. As I put it back on, the rain slowed to a drizzle.

  Smitty turned to Hú Dié. “Hi. My name is Scott Smith, but everybody calls me Smitty.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Smitty,” she said. “My name is Hú Dié.”

  “Hoo-DEE-ay?” Smitty asked.

  “Yes,” Hú Dié said, sounding surprised. “You pronounced it perfectly.”

  “Thanks. I studied some Chinese in college. Does your name mean Metal Butterfly?”

  “Close,” she said. “It means Iron Butterfly.”

  “Great name. Appropriate, too. You’re the girl who trounced all the fourteen-year-old guys at last Saturday’s mountain bike race, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Trounced?” Jake said. “She didn’t finish that far ahead of me.”

  Smitty laughed again. “You got beat by a girl, Jake. Ten yards or ten miles, it really doesn’t matter.”

  Jake stuck his lip out.

  “So, how’s the trail?” Smitty asked.

  “Not good,” Phoenix answered. “We tore up the last hill pretty bad, and the rest of the trail is washing out quickly, too.”

  “I figured it must be bad when I saw you carrying Ryan’s bike. Have you guys seen the weather forecast?”

  All four of us shook our heads.

  “It’s supposed to rain like this for the next few days,” Smitty said. “Most of the other supervisors around here have closed their trails. I’m going to close this one, too.”

  “When will it reopen?” Hú Dié asked.

  “Hard to say. The White River bordering us is bound to overflow its banks. It always does. Once it stops raining and the water recedes, it will take about a week for the trail to dry out. Then it will take another few weeks of evenings and weekends for our volunteers to repair whatever damage the river and rain cause. Trails are a lot of work.”

  “So it might be an entire month before anyone can ride here again?” Hú Dié asked.

  “It might,” Smitty said. “Some of the other trails in the area could take longer. They have fewer volunteers than we do.”

 
; Hú Dié glanced at me. I needed to sweat, and she knew it. Mountain biking was going to help break my bond with dragon bone.

  “What about the summer mountain bike racing series?” Phoenix asked.

  “It’s not looking good,” Smitty said. “There’s a phone conference about it tonight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we canceled it.”

  “Oh, no,” Hú Dié said. “We were hoping to ride our mountain bikes a lot over the rest of summer vacation. I actually just built this one yesterday from some of Phoenix’s old parts. I only have a limited amount of time before I have to go back home to China.”

  “I’m sorry,” Smitty said. “It might not be so bad for you, though, Hú Dié. The first race of the season didn’t count because Ryan was the only one to finish. We’ve only had one other race since, and you won it. You might just end up being our series grand champion.”

  “I do not care about that,” Hú Dié said. “I just want to be able to ride.”

  “If the four of you scrounge up some rakes and shovels, you can join the trail maintenance team,” Smitty offered. “The more help we have, the sooner we’ll all get to ride.”

  “Great,” Phoenix said. “Keep us posted. Thanks, Smitty.”

  “No problem. I’m going to lock the gate now. How are you all getting home?”

  “We were going to ride,” Phoenix said, glancing at my ruined bike, “but we can walk. The rain has almost stopped, and my house is only a couple miles from here.”

  “How about a lift?” Smitty said. “I’ve got room for your bikes in my truck bed, and we can all pile into the cab. My pickup has two rows of seats.”

  “Thanks for the offer,” I said, “but we’re soaking wet and muddy.”

  “So am I,” Smitty said. “Besides, the inside of my truck is dirtier than you all. Let’s go.”

  Jake asked to be dropped off at his house instead of going to Phoenix’s. He didn’t have a change of clothes, but my mom had dropped off a set for me at Phoenix’s house while we were riding. I’d planned to spend the whole day with Phoenix and Hú Dié, and I was secretly glad that Jake wouldn’t be hanging out with us because it meant that Phoenix, Hú Dié, and I could talk openly about dragon bone with Phoenix’s grandfather and his uncle Tí.