by Kit Downes
Zara pulled Etan’s spell-suppression talisman out of her pocket, where it had been since they had escaped the bottle. She couldn’t see Miles, who was still hidden by the Mirror Curtain, but the petals were visible. As they glided over the spot the petals were coming from, she threw the talisman. The chain spread out in the air as it fell and then disappeared. The flower petals vanished as well, as the talisman landed over the vase of Crystal Flowers. They heard a vague curse from an invisible voice, and then the whoosh of a carpet moving away.
“Yes! Take that, Miles!” shouted Zal. “Come on. This is the last leg!”
They were now flying over Pinnacle Plain. The desert was almost flat, but tall, sharp rocks rose like daggers out of the ground at irregular intervals. The Champions began weaving through them as they entered the final stage of the race, flying back towards Shirazar. Zara slipped into the pilot’s place and pressed down with both hands, pushing the carpet faster. They were in second place with only Paradim ahead and they were finally catching up.
“We can do it,” breathed Zal. “We can win!”
Suddenly, the sky darkened. Zal, Zara and Sari looked up as black storm clouds appeared out of nowhere and blocked out the blue sky. Lightning crackled and thunder rumbled. The clouds rolled and twisted and rain started pouring down in sheets across the Great Desert.
“Holy Stork!” said Zal. Zara threw up one hand and green magic streamed from her palm, forming into a large green umbrella to keep the carpet and its passengers dry.
“It’s his last weapon!” said Sari, as the rain hammered on the umbrella. “The Vessel of Tears!”
Zal nodded. He had read the description in the news scroll. The glass vessel contained a liquid that was said to be the tears of one of the Celestial Stork’s children, the Stork of Storms. No one knew if it was true, but what was certain was that if you opened the vessel and poured out even a small amount of the liquid, an instant thunder and lightning storm would appear.
The other Champions shouted, cried and cursed behind them. The pegasus from Xalam, the phoenix from Tabaras, the roc bearing Elsai Wavewind and Prince Neeaj, and the Quakajak team on their serpent all struggled to stay airborne as their animals’ wings got waterlogged. Professor Maltho was desperately trying to squeeze water out of the sofa’s cushions. One by one, they went down to land in the wet sand dunes between the rocky pinnacles. Paradim stared back in disbelief from first place – he could not understand how the rain was missing Celeste.
“We’ve got to stop him!” called Zal.
“Don’t worry!” said Zara. “It’s still a sunny day!”
The storm clouds could not change that. The midday summer desert sun was still there, shining brightly behind them. The sunlight was filled with the yellow shade. Zara focused on the yellow stripe in the carpet between her feet, and on the yellow magic inside her. She reached up with her mind, searching for the same feeling beyond the twisting clouds. It was very easy to find now that she knew how.
Sunlight burst through the clouds in a giant gold and yellow beam. The rain pattered to a stop. The thunder died and the storm clouds dissipated and faded away, revealing the blue sky again. Zal’s clothes started drying as the sun’s heat reached them, just as Shirazar came into view on the horizon.
“Where’s Miles now?” said Sari, looking around.
“Why? That was his last weapon, wasn’t it?” said Zal.
“Yes, so he’ll be getting desperate,” said Sari.
“Don’t worry,” said Zal. He stood up and checked his new sword in its scabbard. The butter made drawing it so much easier, though it couldn’t be good for the blade. “I’ll take care of him.”
“How?” said Zara.
“Just trust me,” said Zal, and jumped off the carpet.
The wind rushed through his hair and ripped at his tunic. He heard Rip howl and Zara and Sari shout behind him as he plummeted straight downwards. The sand dunes hurtled up towards him and he started to think he might just have made a terrible mistake before…
“UMMPH!”
Zal landed flat on his face on thin air. He was lying on a transparent, solid surface, like a sheet of glass, watching the desert dunes flow by beneath him. His hands were touching a smooth, filmy material, with soft carpet pile underneath.
“Meeoww!” said Fluffy, her fur standing up on end.
“You idiot!” said Miles, from the pilot’s place. “What the Stork were you thinking?”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me die,” said Zal. “We’ve been friends for too long.”
He stood up, carefully testing the invisible surface beneath his feet. Miles had draped the Mirror Curtain over his carpet and somehow, by standing on it, they were also invisible. So too were the Moon Bow, the hilt of the Fire Scimitar and the vase of Crystal Flowers, with the spell-suppression talisman tangled up between their stalks, which were all sitting on it.
“Oh. Good guess,” said Miles. He placed his hand on his sword hilt. “Now we’re going low. You can jump off into the dunes.”
“Not a chance,” said Zal. His placed his hand on his own sword.
“Zal, I won’t let you die, but that doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you,” said Miles.
“Likewise,” said Zal. He spread his feet apart and flexed his knees.
“Don’t bother,” said Miles. “We both know I’m faster. I’ve beaten you enough times.”
“Has that one got butter in the scabbard as well?” said Zal, nodding at Miles’ sword.
“Camelpat!” said Miles, as he noticed Zal was wearing one of his spares. “That’s just to give me an extra edge. I don’t need it to be faster.”
“Let’s find out,” said Zal.
They faced each other. Miles paused for a second, and then drew. It was the fastest Zal had ever seen, faster than any of their previous competitions, faster than when he had broken Zal’s sword. He didn’t even see Miles’ arm muscles move. One moment Miles’ sword was in his scabbard and one half-second later, it was flying through the air towards Zal’s neck. Zal let go of his sword and ducked underneath it.
“WHOA!” said Miles. The blade sailed over Zal’s head and the speed of his swing pulled Miles off balance. Zal grabbed Miles’ legs by the knees, lifted and threw him over the edge of the carpet with a wrestling throw that they had practised together hundreds of times in the sawdust pits at the School of Swords.
“YAAAAAAHHH … OOMPH!” Miles yelled as he fell ten feet and plunged head first into a sand dune.
“MEEOOOWWWW!” shouted Fluffy, and dived off the carpet after him. In seconds, the speeding six-colour carpet had left them far behind.
“Too fast, Miles,” said Zal. “Always too fast.”
Zal pulled the Mirror Curtain off the carpet and let it blow away on the wind behind him. Pushing the Crystal Flowers, the Fire Scimitar and the Moon Bow overboard, he sat down in the pilot’s place. He leant backwards and steered the carpet up high into the sky. Zara slowed the Rainbow Carpet down so he could catch up and Zal jumped across, letting Miles’ carpet fall away. He landed on the Rainbow Carpet as the white marble of the Arch of Champions came into view.
“Nice work,” said Sari, as Rip barked with joy and licked Zal’s face.
“Never mind that! This is it!” said Zara, pushing the carpet to full speed.
There were five contestants left in the race. The two dragons, the Xuan twins and Paradim and Celeste were accelerating towards the finish. Paradim was still in the lead, his red ponytail flying behind him. As Zara pushed the carpet, they started catching up. The flying fish and the snow dragon slipped behind them. The distance closed between the carpet and Celeste’s tail feathers. Paradim looked back and saw that they were catching up. He smiled with excitement and turned forwards to urge Celeste on. Rip barked with excitement as they gained on him.
“This is it!” breathed Zara. “We’re going to win—”
“NOT SO FAST!”
The Nygellian rainbow carpet suddenly arrived next to them. Zal rolled over, drawing hi
s scimitar, and Sari swung her spear, fending off Hara and Mira as they swung their swords at the Rainbow Carpet. Zal blocked the Leader’s dagger and Etan fired his crossbow at Zara, which she blocked with her magic.
“AAARGH! VULTURE!” screamed the Leader, as Rip bit his wrist. “TAKE THEIR CARPET DOWN!”
Paradim looked back again at the sound of swords clashing behind him. Sparks were flying as Zal and Sari furiously fought with Hara and Mira. The two female Shadows were superbly trained to fight together, blocking and counter-attacking for each other. Zal tried to keep fighting and get through their defences as his arm muscles started to burn. There didn’t seem to be any way to beat them, unless…
“TALLY-HO!”
Paradim and Celeste, who had turned around and flown in a circle away from the finishing line, came in behind the Shadows’ carpet.
“HOLY VULTURE!” screamed Etan. “STORK!”
“Take that!” yelled Paradim, as Celeste reached her long neck forward and bit through the Shadows’ carpet. Her spear-length beak almost sheared it in half. The Nygellian carpet folded instantly. Hara, Mira and Etan fell into the middle and the Leader – deciding he wanted to live more than he cared about his followers – leapt across to safety on the Rainbow Carpet.
“SIR!”
“AAARGH!”
Rip sank his teeth into the Leader’s ankle as he landed. The Leader kicked him off and spun around to face Zal, Zara and Sari, pulling out his spare dagger.
Zal moved by reflex, without thinking. He whipped his sword out in a perfect diagonal-draw-cut, as fast and precise as any Miles had ever performed, hitting the Leader’s dagger and sending it flying from his hand. Sari flipped her spear around and hit the Leader between the eyes with the end of the shaft. His eyes rolled back as he collapsed unconscious. Zal and Sari grabbed him before he could fall overboard, just as the Rainbow Carpet shot, in first place, across the finishing line.
Twelve
The spectators’ seats erupted with cheering. Shouts and applause rang out all around the Arch of Champions as Zara landed the Rainbow Carpet back in the middle of the courtyard. The spectators from Azamed and all the other kingdoms were on their feet clapping, having enjoyed every minute of the race.
“We did it!” cried Zal.
“Wraff, wraff!” barked Rip.
The wind washed over them from Celeste’s wings as she arrived and landed behind them in second place. Paradim jumped down from his saddle and dashed over to them. To their surprise, he was smiling.
“Ha, ha! Well done!” he cried, shaking all their hands. “I knew it! I knew it all along! If anyone was going to beat us, it would be you two!”
“Thanks, Mr Nocturne,” said Zal. Celeste leant over them, cawing happily. Rip yapped back and Zal rubbed her beak.
“Miles was right,” said Paradim. “Twenty times was too many. But I’m still glad I did it. That was the most exciting Champions’ Race I’ve ever flown in.”
“It certainly was,” said Empress Haju, who had just arrived with two of her ministers and her bodyguards. “But who on earth were those lunatics on the other carpet?”
Paradim bowed and Zal and Zara jumped to their feet. Sari nodded politely.
“It’s a long story, Your Majesty,” said Zara.
“ZAL! ZARA!”
Augur and Arna rushed out of the crowd, surrounded by Sheertooth, Cloudclaw and Jeweltail, who jumped into Sari’s arms at once and knocked her over.
“YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT! I KNEW YOU COULD!” cried Arna, hugging both of them. “Sorry, Paradim.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Paradim. “I wouldn’t be happy to lose to anyone else.”
“Oh, second place is perfectly respectable, Paradim,” said the Empress. “Especially after you turned back to save these two and … and who is your friend?”
“Oh. Umm…” said Zal, looking at Sari and the tigers. “This is…”
“Shara Strongstorm of Kandara, Your Majesty,” said Sari, bowing to the Empress. The tigers lowered their heads as well. “Please forgive Sheer, Cloud and Jewel. My family runs a tiger reserve. Zal used to train with me at the School of Spears and as soon as he told me what was going on, I insisted on coming along to help.”
Behind them, the other Champions started to arrive. The Xuan twins flew their flying fish straight back into their water tank with a big splash, showering the snow dragon and the Heaven Steppe dragon as they landed side by side. Their teams leapt down from their saddles to congratulate one another. Behind them, the sofa landed with the Professor and Mistress Shen on board, followed by two five-colour magic carpets, carrying several Royal Protectors and Hara, Mira and Etan, who were all in handcuffs.
“Uuuuuhhh?” The Leader regained consciousness and sat up on the Rainbow Carpet. “Etan? What happened?”
“I was about to ask you that,” said the Empress. “Who are you and why were you trying to ruin my first Champions’ Race?”
The Leader paused as he realized where he was, and then leapt off the carpet to make a run for it. He stopped dead as the tigers cornered him, growling.
“Uh… Not a chance, Your Empressness! Forget it!” he said, as her bodyguards grabbed his arms and handcuffed him. “I’ll tell you nothing. I swear, by both of the Cosmos Vulture’s nostrils, you’ll get not one single word out of me! Isn’t that right, my friends?”
Hara, Mira and Etan all scowled at him, remembering how he had left them to die and leapt to safety on the Rainbow Carpet. They had only survived because the Royal Protectors’ carpets caught them as they fell.
“Miles?” said Paradim.
Zal and Zara looked around. Another five-colour carpet had just landed. Miles and Fluffy, covered in sand, were on board with two Royal Protectors.
“Miles! What the Stork were you doing out there?” said Paradim, running over to him. “And where have you been?”
“Dad,” said Miles, looking terrified. “I—”
“He was helping us,” said Zal, quickly stepping over to them. “Thanks a lot, Miles. You were great. Though you could have been a bit quicker when they were using the Fire Scimitar on us.”
“Yes!” said Zara. “And what happened to you being able to fight all the Demon Chessmen with one hand tied behind your back? And great job saving us from the Boomerang of Astigor.”
“And we’ll be discussing you testing out the dozing dust on Sheer, Cloud and Jewel later,” said Sari.
“What?” said Miles. “I… I…”
“We found out what the Shadows were planning three days ago,” said Zara, to Paradim and the Empress. “I put an invisibility spell on Miles’s carpet so he could fly with us to help out when we needed it. We just hadn’t counted on them using the Mirror Curtain to be invisible as well.”
Miles stared at them in amazement, blinking sand out of his eyes.
“WHAT?” said the Leader. “That’s not what happened! Not at all! It was—”
“Sir!” said Etan. “You just swore to the Cosmos Vulture not to tell them anything!”
The Leader stuttered to a stop. His face froze as he realized he could not speak without breaking his vow. His eyes shot to Hara, Mira and Etan, whose angry expressions showed they were in no hurry to speak the truth either.
“Who are you?” said the Empress.
“I can answer that, Your Majesty!” said Lord Dasat. The Azamedian Ambassador skidded through the crowd, red faced and puffing. “They’re members of the Shadow Society. They’re all wanted for a long list of crimes back in Azamed.”
“Good. We’ll add them to the charges,” said the First Minister of Shirazar. “Along with sabotaging the Champions’ Race. Arrest them all, Protector.”
“Miles! I’m so proud!” said Paradim, hugging his son. “So that was why you didn’t want me to race this year! No wonder you were so distracted!”
“But … but Dad,” said Miles, “you came second. You … you lost!”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” said Paradim. “I’ve won more
times than my fair share. You were right. I am getting too old for this and I’ve been Champion of Champions long enough. It’s someone else’s turn. And I can’t think of anyone better.”
“You still could have won if you hadn’t turned around,” said Zal.
“No, you would have overtaken me anyway,” said Paradim. “I know the winds of the race well enough to tell that. And what kind of Champion would I be if I’d won by leaving you at their mercy?”
“Nobly spoken, Paradim,” said the Empress.
“Three cheers for the new Champions!” called a man in the crowd. “Hip Hip!”
“HOORAY!!!” the spectators shouted. Rip barked and the tigers roared and even Sari clapped as Zal and Zara were hugged and congratulated. Then she tapped Zal on the shoulder.
“I’d better be going,” she said, under the cover of the second cheer.
“What? Why?” said Zal.
Sari nodded through the crowd. Captain Curta was pushing through the spectators towards them, staring fixedly at Sari. In his hand was a WANTED poster.
“Oh, Stork!”
“Don’t worry. You can thank me later,” said Sari. She beckoned to the tigers. “Come on, Sheer. Cloud. Jewel. Let’s go.”
“Wait, Sari,” said Zara, but she vanished into the crowd as the Azamedian spectators crowded around to congratulate their Champions.
The official award ceremony took place four hours later in the throne room of the Royal Palace. Under its great domed ceiling, Zal and Zara stood on the marble floor before the throne. Their fathers and friends, the other Champions, and all the important ministers and dignitaries in Shirazar watched from seats around the edges as Paradim picked up the trophy from a golden stand and passed it over to them, recognizing them as the new Champions of the Great Desert.
“Congratulations to you both,” he said. “It feels like there was never any doubt it would be you two.”
“Thank you,” said Zara, as Zal took the trophy.
“You’ve certainly earned it,” said the Empress, from the throne.
“Hurrah!” cried Arna. He and Augur led Miles, Mistress Shen, Professor Maltho and the rest of the crowd in cheering.