The dog nodded out the window. Alex gazed outside. On the horizon he could still make out the great black shape that loomed through the smoke like a dead volcano. From its very top now shone a great bright light. Alex blinked. It was the light he had seen from the desert.
‘Your father, he is heading there now,’ said the dog, heaving the pot onto the table and ladling out some green slop from inside. ‘If we hurry, we might even make it there before him.’ It pushed a bowl over to Alex. ‘I hope you like seaweed.’
The dog pulled up a chair and started eating. After a while it looked up again. Alex wasn’t eating. He sat perfectly still across the table, staring at it.
‘Yes?’ said the dog.
Alex thought long and hard about the best thing to say.
‘You’re a dog,’ said Alex.
There was an awkward silence.
‘Who lives in a house,’ he added. ‘And makes food.’
Pause.
‘And talks,’ he said.
They both fell silent and stared at each other for a moment. The dog narrowed its one visible eye.
‘… What is your point?’ it said.
Alex thought about it.
‘Well, in my experience most dogs don’t do any of those things,’ he said. ‘Most dogs just bark and run around and stuff. They definitely don’t build houses and cook food in them. And they don’t make tea. That’s just weird.’
The dog bristled and started carefully arranging its napkin over its legs.
‘Well, I am not like most dogs, Alex,’ it said shirtily. ‘So that explains most of those things. Anything else “weird” about me that you feel is worth mentioning?’
Alex nodded. ‘You have a slight French accent.’
‘My father was an Alsatian,’ said the dog.
Alex blinked. ‘Oh.’
The dog gave him a withering look and without any further explanation launched into its food again. Alex kept staring.
‘Can any other dogs talk in the Forbidden Land?’ he said.
The dog glanced up. ‘Non,’ it said thinly.
‘So you live here by yourself, then?’ he said to the dog.
The dog nodded. ‘Yes,’ it said. ‘Just me.’
‘Why?’ said Alex.
The dog looked up. ‘What do you mean, why?’
Alex blinked. ‘Why live here all alone?’
The dog shifted uncomfortably. ‘Why not?’
‘Because you’ll get lonely,’ said Alex.
‘I don’t,’ said the dog.
‘Oh,’ said Alex. ‘Can’t the other dogs make it over here?’
The dog sighed. ‘Does it look like there are any other dogs here, Alex?’
Alex looked around and shook his head.
‘No,’ said the dog. ‘There aren’t. Because dogs cannot make it over the water.’
‘Except you,’ said Alex.
The dog grumbled. ‘Except me.’
Alex paused. ‘What about a name? Do you have a name?’
The dog appeared to be gritting its teeth with frustration. ‘Arnauld.’
It made to start eating again, but was suddenly blocked by Alex’s outstretched hand. It looked up to the boy’s grinning face.
‘Alex,’ said Alex.
The dog looked at his hand for a moment, and then looked up again.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Arnauld.’
There was an embarrassing pause. Alex slowly dropped his hand. The dog made another attempt to start eating again.
‘Why didn’t you talk to me before?’ Alex said suddenly.
The dog looked up impatiently. ‘I didn’t feel like it,’ he snapped. ‘Alex, aren’t you going to eat something?’
Alex looked down at the slime in his bowl and grimaced. He might have been starving, but nobody was that starving. ‘I’m all right,’ he said weakly.
Arnauld sighed. ‘Just eat. You haven’t eaten for days, and we need to get to the centre as quick as we can …’
‘Why do we have to get there so quickly?’ said Alex.
Arnauld glared at him in disbelief.
‘We must talk about this now?’ he said.
‘I don’t see why not,’ said Alex huffily.
Arnauld looked like he was trying his best not to lose his temper.
‘I mean,’ said Alex, ‘no offence, but I don’t see why I should be listening to anything you say at all. I’ve only known you for a few days.’
The dog raised an eyebrow.
‘And also you’re a talking dog,’ Alex added.
Arnauld nodded thoughtfully. Then he wolfed down the rest of his seaweed in a single gulp and pushed the empty bowl away from him.
‘Correct, Alex,’ he said. ‘But I am also a talking dog who knows the only way to get to the centre.’ He nodded out the window again. ‘Would you prefer to go out there on your own?’
Alex glanced outside. The island had become darker since they started talking. The ground stretching ahead was littered with drops and craters and jagged edges that split into dozens of different pathways. The smoke was thick, and clung to the slippery rocks on every side.
‘I thought not,’ said Arnauld. ‘You’ll need my help if you want to get to the centre. And I leave now. So I suppose the question is, do you want to find your father or don’t you?’
Alex stared at him.
‘You know where he is?’ he said.
Arnauld snorted. ‘Of course I do. Where do you think I’ve been taking you this whole time? I know exactly where he is, Alex, and I know how to get there before we run out of time, too. So let me repeat my question: do you want to find your father, or don’t you?’
Alex shifted uncomfortably.
‘Of course I do,’ he said quietly. ‘But …’
‘Then you have two choices,’ said Arnauld, jumping from his chair. ‘You can either try to find him out there on your own, or you can shut up and eat your seaweed and come with me.’
Alex looked dejectedly at the bowl of green slop in front of him. It did not look appetising. His stomach howled.
‘Er … you don’t have anything else, do you?’ he asked.
Arnauld shook his head. ‘You have two minutes to decide,’ he said. ‘I wait outside.’
Without another pause he scampered out the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Alex looked at the door for a moment. Then he looked out the window, at the distant black mass towering through the smoke. Finally he looked back down at the bowl of green slop. His stomach groaned with hunger.
With a sigh, he pulled the bowl towards him and started stuffing the seaweed into his mouth. It had already turned cold and slimy. Alex didn’t care. He crammed in handful after grisly handful until there was nothing left, and then when he was done he licked the bowl clean. With determination, he stood up and strode towards the door. Then he quickly turned back and licked the pot and the ladle clean as well, before turning around and striding out again.
Arnauld stood waiting. Smoke was rolling in great gusts across the rocks behind him, dipping the distant ocean in and out of view.
‘You are coming?’ said Arnauld.
Alex nodded.
‘Good,’ said Arnauld. ‘I will lock up.’
He propped a bit of wood up against the door. Alex looked at the hut. From close up he realised it looked like a very large kennel. Arnauld turned to him.
‘The rest of the journey is not easy,’ he said sternly. ‘The rocks are slippery and it is easy to get lost, but we will have to go fast if we want to catch up with your father. Stay with me at all times. Understand?’
Alex nodded.
‘Then let us go,’ said Arnauld. ‘Let us find your father.’
He flew off into the smoke, his claws scuttling across the slimy rocks. Alex shielded his eyes and gazed at the distant light of the centre. It glowed through the haze like a lighthouse, turning the air all around them white.
‘My father,’ he said.
He stepped into the smoke, his gaze
fixed ahead.
23
On the farthest horizon, something appeared. It was a light, surrounded by smoke.
Kyte smiled.
‘Squiggles,’ he said quietly.
A desert sunset stretched before him, drenching the barren room in blood-red light. He reached out a hand, raw with sunburn, and absent-mindedly stroked the muzzle of the wolf beside him. Their gazes were both fixed on the dot on the horizon.
‘Almost there,’ Kyte whispered.
He lowered his hand and slowly turned his chair round to the wooden desk. It was rapidly disintegrating, as all things made from wood and metal did once they passed the boundary that separated the Cusp from the Forbidden Land. The leather surface had already been bleached white by the desert sun, and the rows of buttons were now chipped and peeling. Kyte pressed one with a long and knotted finger. A ragged wooden drawer opened beside him. A television screen emerged, its wires frayed and sparking.
Kyte smiled. The screen showed the kennels below. He could see the huddled crowd of prisoners locked inside their single tiny pen, clutching each other in fright. He could see the rows of caged wolves beside them, already harnessed up so they could be sent to the ground with the flick of a switch. He could see the two enormous wolves left free to pace the kennel walkways, stopping any attempts at escape.
He pressed another button and leaned forwards to the empty vase beside him.
‘Attention,’ he said.
At once, his voice boomed from all the loudspeakers on the ship, echoing down the empty corridors and blaring outside across the rolling dunes ahead. On the screen, he watched the prisoners flinch. Kyte smiled again. He picked up the vase and turned back around to face the desert. His eyes silently scanned the horizon. He licked his dry lips.
‘Alex Jennings,’ he said slowly. His chest heaved. ‘Father and son. I know that you’re out there. And I know that you can hear me. So I will say this only once.’
Kyte took another moment to collect his breath.
‘Give yourselves up now,’ he said, ‘before it is too late. You cannot hide from me for much longer. I will find you. Give yourselves up.’
He paused. ‘If you do not,’ he said, ‘then I will set the wolves on the prisoners inside the kennels. The wolves have not been fed for many days. There will be no survivors.’
Kyte turned back round to the screen on his desk. The prisoners were petrified, frozen to the ground with fear, holding each other. He reached out and touched the centre of the screen, where the teacher and the young girl sat.
‘Amongst them are friends of yours, Alex,’ he whispered into the vase. ‘I will make sure that they are killed first.’
The zeppelin shuddered, and a great groan of bending metal echoed through the empty corridors behind him. Kyte sat and waited until it had finished. The zeppelin was falling apart. They did not have long left now. They had to move faster. Always faster.
‘The ones on the ground are getting tired,’ Kyte muttered, glancing behind him at Number 51. ‘Time to swap over.’
He pressed another button on the desk. On the screen, the cage floors of the kennels suddenly flew open and dropped the harnessed wolves from view, their chains slowly unwinding to the sand below. At the same time, the chains in the empty cages opposite began winding in.
The zeppelin came to a stop. Then, very slowly, it began to float backwards. There was nothing pulling the zeppelin forwards any more and the Forbidden Land was trying to push them back out. Kyte turned round and faced the dot on the horizon, hidden by smoke.
‘Squiggles,’ he whispered.
The zeppelin suddenly jerked forwards. A new set of wolves appeared on the ground below, heaving against their chains. Kyte turned slowly to Number 51. The wolf stared back at him, without expression. Kyte smiled.
‘Almost there,’ he said.
The wolf smiled back.
‘Almost,’ it growled.
24
‘Almost there!’
Alex’s wet shoes slipped and stumbled across the slimy rocks. He seriously doubted that they were almost there. Arnauld had been saying that for hours.
‘For heaven’s sake hurry up, Alex!’
Alex sighed. He’d been saying that, too.
He looked up hopelessly. The dog had run ahead again, too far for Alex to see in the smoke. The rocks in front split into endless slimy pathways and wove into nothingness. He had no idea which way the dog had gone.
Alex stopped and leaned on his knees, gasping for breath. How his dad could find his way through this on his own was beyond him.
‘Hey!’
Alex looked up. Arnauld had suddenly appeared from the smoke ahead. He looked extremely annoyed.
‘What are you standing there for?’ he snapped. ‘No time for rest! We have to keep going!’
Without warning he shot off again over the rocks. Alex straightened up with a groan and ran after him. The dog was tireless, leaping between the slippery stones with ease, winding expertly through the knotted pathways, his nose fixed to the ground. It was all Alex could do to catch up. He ran alongside him, panting for breath.
‘So how much farther is it?’ said Alex.
‘I told you,’ said Arnauld. ‘We are almost there. Look.’
He pointed to the shadow on the horizon. It was closer now, much closer. It seemed to stretch from one end of the world to the other, although Alex knew that wasn’t possible. It was the smoke. Once you were inside it, there was no way of telling what was real and what wasn’t.
‘And when we get there,’ said Alex, ‘what exactly are we going to do?’
The dog cast him a glance over his shoulder. ‘We are looking for your father,’ he said. ‘Remember?’
‘So you already know where he is?’ said Alex.
‘Of course,’ said Arnauld haughtily.
‘Oh,’ said Alex. ‘And you’re certain he’ll still be there when we get there?’
The dog sighed. ‘No Alex, I’m not. Do I look like a fortune teller to you?’
‘Er … no,’ said Alex. ‘But you seem to know a lot about the Forbidden Land.’
‘That is because I am an expert,’ said Arnauld.
They came to a set of sprawling crossroads. Arnauld paused only for a moment, sniffing the ground furiously, before flying down the one that lay ahead. Alex heaved himself forward after the dog, his shoes sliding across the stones.
‘How come?’ said Alex.
The dog glanced over his shoulder again irritably. ‘How come what?’
‘How come you’re an expert?’
The dog shrugged, but Alex was certain he saw his chest puff out just the slightest bit as he ran.
‘It is self-taught, mainly,’ Arnauld said, with a roll of his eyes. ‘I have studied it my whole life. Probably the only one ever who knows as much as I do, in fact. I am one of the select few who has ever made it this close to the centre. I was even born in the Cusp, you know. At the base.’
‘Really?’ said Alex. ‘I didn’t know they had kennels.’
‘They built them for your father,’ said Arnauld. ‘For his Expedition. Even after that failed, they kept the dogs. They used them for their research on the grassland. That was what my mother did.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Still does, I suppose.’
‘But … how did you find out all of this stuff?’ said Alex.
Arnauld laughed bitterly. ‘You hear many things growing up in a top-secret base, Alex. Especially if you are a dog. No one expects you to understand anything – they might as well be talking to a stone, no? I just listened whenever anyone talked, that is all. Soon enough I heard some workers talking about a hole in the fence, and so I escaped. I have lived here ever since.’
‘So how come you were at the base just now?’ said Alex.
Arnauld stumbled ever so slightly on a stone. ‘What, that? Oh, you know, just some … research. Er …’
‘What about the other dogs at the base?’ said Alex. ‘Are any of them like you? Can they talk?’<
br />
Arnauld frowned. ‘I told you, non.’
‘Really?’ said Alex. ‘You’re certain you’re the only one?’
‘Yes, Alex,’ said Arnauld irritably.
‘What about your mother? Could she talk?’
Arnauld was silent.
‘What about your f––’
‘Good grief!’ Arnauld suddenly snapped, swinging round. ‘Do you always ask this many questions?’
They stood still, staring at each other.
‘Sorry,’ Alex muttered, his face burning. Arnauld glowered at him and set off over the rocks.
‘Now for heaven’s sake, hurry up!’ he barked. ‘Do you have any idea what I did just to get you here? Honestly, the efforts I have made … it’s not as if I’m not busy enough already! You must be the slowest human I have ever met – your father’s probably at the centre already, and you act like we are both out for a walk …’
‘So what if he is?’ Alex snapped.
The dog stopped and turned round. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘So what if he’s already there!’ Alex shouted. ‘You’ve practically dragged me here since I met you – what’s the hurry? What’s going on?’
If dogs could blush, Arnauld would have turned a fruity crimson.
‘I did not drag you,’ he said defensively.
‘Yes you did!’ said Alex angrily. ‘You dragged me! You did it while I was sleeping in the forest too, didn’t you?’
Arnauld started taking great interest in a nearby pebble.
‘Well, you were coming here anyway,’ he muttered. ‘I was just … helping you along, that’s all …’
‘I don’t need any help!’ Alex shouted. ‘It’s my father! And I can find him without your help if I have to!’ He waved his hand at the black shape looming through the smoke in front of them. ‘I mean, it’s only a mountain, for heaven’s sake! Can’t we just climb after him and …’
‘It is not a mountain,’ said Arnauld.
Alex sighed. ‘Whatever it is! Can’t we just –’
‘It is a wall.’
Alex stopped. He looked back at the dog in disbelief.
‘A wall?’ he repeated.
The dog nodded. Alex gazed at the black shape, dumbfounded. It could have been half a mile high.
Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door Page 16