by J. M. Lee
Amri turned and bowed deeply from halfway across.
“Yes, my lord!”
Then he hurried across the bridge. Kylan watched, feeling his fingers and toes tingle as he waited. When Amri reached the far side, he attacked the ropes that secured the bridge, hacking away with the fossilized eggshell.
skekLi didn’t notice what was happening until the ropes snapped. He howled as the bridge fell away, the end nearly disappearing into the depths below.
“What are you doing, you stupid spider?”
Kylan leaped to his feet, bolting across the cap to the second and only remaining bridge.
“Come and get me, Skeksis!” he cried.
skekLi shrieked as Kylan passed him, first trying to intercept him with his staff and then clambering after him as he reached the bridge. Kylan nearly toppled off as skekLi stepped foot behind him, the Skeksis’s heavy, uneven weight sending the bridge into a wild swing. He fought for a handhold and continued running, skipping whole panels in his flight.
He reached the second mushroom’s platform before skekLi. Two more connecting bridges waited, and he raced for the closest, drawing Naia’s dagger and cut at the rope posts. skekLi’s shouts and curses grew louder, and Kylan ran to the second bridge. Slicing the rope, it fell away just as the Skeksis mounted the cap, panting and growling.
“Wretched Gelfling!” he hissed. “Vile pest! How dare you run from me, your lord? I ought to make a puppet of you!”
“You’re just mad I fooled you,” Kylan said, backing away. There was one bridge left, but it was the one skekLi had come across. Now it was the only way off the mushroom, and they were both well aware of it. skekLi strode forward, keeping his giant mass between Kylan and the ropeway and rearing up to his full height.
“I am no fool,” skekLi said.
He snapped his jaw, and Kylan jumped in spite of himself. It was hard not to imagine that sharp beak locking shut on him, those clawed hands grabbing him and ripping him apart. He gave more ground, and skekLi followed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Amri was climbing the cliffside, nimbly and fleetly as one might expect of a cave dweller, making his way toward the biggest of the abandoned nests.
“Going to dash by again, cut that bridge, too? Eh, little pest?” skekLi chided. “Good luck. Try it and we will snatch you up and squeeze the essence out of you here and now.”
skekLi swung his staff, and Kylan ducked, feeling the bangles from the end of it whistle over his head. A dark shape glimmered behind skekLi, at the end of the bridge where it reached their mushroom. When skekLi swung his staff again, his coat and cloaks flying up in swaths of crimson and ebony, Kylan saw Naia had crossed the bridge. She was waving wildly down at the other end. Soon after, Kylan heard the creaking and twanging of the bridge’s ropes being cut.
skekLi sniffed the air and whirled. Naia rolled under a swing from the staff, skidding to a crouch near Kylan. skekLi cast down, letting out half of a surprised squawk.
They all looked below. Naia had freed herself and torn the web from the Grottan prisoners. Even now as she joined Kylan, the Grottan used rocks and eggshells and even their teeth to sever the far end of the bridge. Before skekLi could clamber back to the other side, it fell away, stranding the three of them on the mushroom together.
skekLi hissed, thrashing his claws and whirling toward them. His head jutted out and his eyes flashed, but he did not scream. He did not shriek like an uncontrolled beast, as skekMal had. Instead, he lowered his head and growled, his voice dropping low and poisonous.
“You will regret this,” he said.
The spiders that laced the inner walls were a throng of hissing, chittering, and chirping voices. Some were already pouring down the cliffs to the corrie floor. If they were able to cross the lake that lay at the bottom, it would not be long before they climbed the mushroom shaft and overran them. When that happened, there would be no escape.
But the Grottan prisoners were safe, at least for now. That had been Kylan’s main goal. Now he stood with Naia, trapped on an island with an enraged Skeksis. He could only hope Amri and Tavra would find the bell-bird bone in time.
CHAPTER 26
Kylan and Naia parted, flanking skekLi instinctively. Armed with the staff, the Skeksis’s reach was incredible. With the long weapon, he might even be able to sweep them both off the platform in a single move, should they be in the same place.
“We gotta get that staff,” Naia said, echoing Kylan’s thinking out loud. She pressed her hand to the wound on her head, wiping away some of the blood that was still seeping from it.
“Are you all right? I tried to get him away from you . . .”
“I’m fine. I’ll be better once we take care of this big heap.”
They had left their bola at the entrance to the Pass, but Naia did have Gurjin’s dagger, though it seemed impossibly small compared to the looming Skeksis before them. Even if she were to strike him with it, Kylan wasn’t sure how much damage it would really do. He glanced over his shoulder, dizzy from the height, and wondered whether they should try to escape instead.
“Thinking of flying?” skekLi asked. “Drenchen wings can’t fly. Long drop from here, you can see that. She would be lucky if she could save herself. No way she can carry you, too.”
Kylan grimaced. Even once Naia’s wings had fully grown in, she would never be able to fly like Tavra had. Drenchen wings were for swimming and gliding. There would be no escape for the both of them should they jump.
skekLi’s beak broke into a grin.
“Though we could then say you had fallen for each other! Ha!”
He laughed, turning his attention a smidgeon more toward Kylan. That was when Naia leaped. She made it inside the reach of skekLi’s staff, ducking under it as he swung wildly toward her. His aim was bad and uncoordinated, and Kylan realized the Skeksis was not a fighter. He was large and dangerous, with the advantage of a weapon, but he was no hunter. Naia surfaced right inside the space made by his outstretched arms, then jumped, holding her fist up and clocking skekLi solidly in the bottom of his bill. His beak made a loud CLACK and he stumbled backward.
Kylan took the opportunity and skirted the flailing arms and thrashing staff, going for skekLi’s hand. He grabbed the Skeksis by the wrist and used the only weapon left that he had—his teeth. He chomped on skekLi’s hand, right where it gripped the staff. skekLi shrieked, but did not let go. The Skeksis grabbed at Kylan with his free hand and flung him away. It was only because of skekLi’s lack of coordination that Kylan was able to grab hold of a ridge in the cap’s surface and stop himself before he slid right off and into a long, long fall.
“Wretched Gelfling!” cried skekLi.
Kylan spit the rancid, salty taste of Skeksis skin from his mouth. Naia fell back again, on the other side of the cap, crouching and readying herself for the next attack. skekLi righted his head and hunched over again, arms wide and claws ready to grab. Kylan looked over the side of the cap.
“I don’t mean to add to our troubles,” he said, “but the spiders are coming.”
Indeed, arachnid bodies were streaming from the walls of the corrie, trickling like streams to the lake below. As Kylan had feared, most of the spiders floated on the water, skating across it like pond-walkers toward the base of the mushroom.
“Maybe you should go,” he told Naia.
“I’m not leaving you. Once Amri finds that bone, we’re going to need you to use it.”
“Someone else might have to!”
skekLi made a trilling, laughing noise that came out of the top of his beak and forehead. He narrowed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth turned up, baring the sharp teeth inside.
“Oh yes. The bone! The bell-bird bone from the Book of Raunip. Krychk told me of it, that you had a bone to pick. Ha! I’m sad to say, you won’t find it here. Poor, stupid Gelfling. All the bones have been borne away, ch
ewed up by ruffnaw and crawlies and time.”
He stepped forward, this time with Naia in his sights.
“You know. If you came with us, Drenchen. We might consider letting your friendlings go. The Grottan. This little Spriton. If you came with us, to the castle. To the Emperor. We only need a little essence. A little, only a little. From you and your other half. In exchange, we would feed you. Care for you, as we have always cared for Gelfling. We need only a little to save our Emperor.”
“Save him?” Naia asked. “You mean steal the life force from his other half. I won’t help you do that.”
skekLi’s head tilted, wobbling as if his brains were rolling from side to side. He stepped forward, but when Kylan and Naia moved away, he stopped his advance.
“No, no, no. You misunderstand! Emperor skekSo is dying. So, too, his other half is dying. In a way, we are all this way . . . But with special Gelfling essence . . . we can reunite. We can save ourselves and our others.”
Kylan didn’t like skekLi’s tone at all. It sounded too noble, too good to be true. Yet when he slowly lowered his staff, Naia did not attack.
“I think he’s lying,” Kylan warned her.
skekLi ignored him, appealing to Naia instead.
“That is what you want to do, isn’t it? Drenchen? Save the others? Save the Crystal? Save Gelfling—save Thra? To do so, help us save Skeksis. Look! We are not mad with Gelfling. Even when it bites us. We only want Drenchen twins, for reunion. Only a little. You would spare only a little, if it might save everyone . . . wouldn’t you?”
“A minute ago you were trying to kill us!”
“If all they wanted was a little of your essence,” Kylan added, “then why would they have gone through such efforts to capture us? If all they wanted was a little, to save themselves and the Mystics, why not just ask?”
“Speaks around us as if we’re not here,” muttered skekLi. “Would Gelfling have believed us? Eh? EH? Imagine this! Skeksis comes to Drenchen village. Dressed nicely, of course. He asks if this one will come back to the castle. Sit in the chair. We’ve seen the chair in the Chamber of Life. Sit there, staring into the fire? Sure? Ha! Who would do that! But listen, Gelfling. Listen. Gelfling people entrusted the castle and the Crystal to the Skeksis. We keep it. We protect it. Dust the mantel, clean halls, and so on. All for free, with never thanks. So, least Gelfling could do is help the Skeksis when they can. What are two lives to all lives on Thra?”
Two spindly legs peeked over the side of the platform, and Kylan jolted back into defense. The spiders had made it to the top of the mushroom already. skekLi crowed as Kylan and Naia jumped away from the spiders that crept over the edge. Kylan cursed under his breath. Whether or not he was telling the truth, skekLi had been stalling, and they’d fallen for it.
The Skeksis chuckled to himself, gnashing his teeth.
“Gelfling waited too long. Time to make a deal is over. Now the deal is only that both Gelfling come quietly, or Spriton dies.”
Kylan gulped as skekLi swung the staff so its crystal-clubbed end was pointed at him, so close, it nearly touched his nose.
“Hey! I got it!”
Amri’s voice was so far away, Kylan thought maybe he had imagined it. The corrie walls bounced the words back to them, and they scanned the cliffs. Kylan finally spotted the Grottan boy high up in one of the bell-bird nests, waving. Even as the wind was caught in the tiny object in his hand, an eerie tone filled the valley. The spiders chittered, and even skekLi turned his gaze upward.
“The bone,” Naia whispered. “He found the bone—now what?”
“Play it!” Kylan shouted.
“Play it? I’m no musician!”
“Just blow in it!”
“Oh!”
From so far away, Kylan could only see Amri move his hands to his face. None of the spiders moved, frozen in anticipation, one with its foreleg on the top of Kylan’s foot.
A long soft note rang through the corrie. It was faint, and only one note, but it brought a chill to Kylan’s spine. The spiders that were closing in on the nest where Amri perched backed away, too close to the sound of breath in the bell-bird’s bone. Even the spiders on the cap trembled, whispering among themselves in hesitation and fear.
But the note did not grow louder, instead fading out as Amri lost breath. Kylan fidgeted in frustration, licking his lips. He knew if he had the bone, he could raise its song to fill the entire corrie. Amri was blowing too hard, or too soft—either way, it wasn’t enough.
“It’s too difficult! I don’t know how!” Amri called. “I’m sorry!”
“Naia. You have to get it for me.”
Naia’s mouth fell open in protest, but then she yelped as a spider reached her heel. She kicked it away, tightening the grip on her dagger. skekLi’s promises and stories had disarmed them for long enough, and whether or not they held any truth did not matter now.
“We’ll stop him first,” Naia said, pointing her blade. “Then get the bone.”
“Yes. You cannot leave the little Spriton alone with the spiders and us!” skekLi said. He prodded Kylan’s chest with the staff. It was sharp, but the gesture was more patronizing than meant to hurt him. Kylan felt the heat of anger growing inside him. He reached out and grabbed the end of the Skeksis’s staff, holding it tight and raising it over his shoulder so its sharp end could no longer jab him.
“I’m not a hostage,” he growled. “And I’m not helpless. And I’m not weak! Naia, go get the bone from Amri and bring it to me. Then I will take care of the spiders and this Skeksis liar!”
skekLi grunted, then hissed, trying to pull the staff back. Kylan held on, lifting his feet just a little so he slid easily across the surface of the cap. As long as he held on to the staff, it wasn’t a danger to him. Naia watched, torn between doing what Kylan had told her to do and protecting him, as she had always done in the past. Then she sheathed the knife and turned toward Amri.
“Throw it!” she shouted.
“Are you sure?”
Kylan wrapped his arms around the staff as skekLi hoisted him into the air, shrieking and waving the thing back and forth, trying to dislodge the Gelfling attached to the end. Kylan held on, far from the Skeksis’s grasp, and for the moment, he grinned. Naia saw that he was not afraid, finally turning her back completely. Under normal circumstances, that might have scared him—but now, his heart exploded with pride. Naia trusted him to take care of himself.
Naia put her hands to her mouth and shouted, “Just throw it! On three!”
skekLi changed his attack and let out a cry, slamming the staff down onto the mushroom cap. Kylan let go before it struck, landing nimbly on his feet and shielding his eyes as the end of the rod and its crystal shattered and splintered. The ringing from the crystal breaking brought up squeaks of pain from the spiders. Even skekLi halted, holding the unbroken end of his staff, beady pupils floating in the whites of his eyes.
“No!”
“One . . . two . . . three!”
Amri threw the bone. Kylan uncovered his eyes in time to watch the tiny white bone spin through the air. It fell fast, at first, but then something blue sparkled on it. A balloon of web blossomed from the bone, slowing its fall like a seedpod floating in the wind. Naia took a running leap toward the end of the cap, wings folded along her back.
“No!” skekLi cried again, but the words had no effect. Naia was in free fall, unafraid of the depth below her. The bone twirled close enough that Kylan could see it was fork shaped, much like a firca. As it flipped, the wind caught it in different ends, eliciting a three-part note that sent the spiders shying away.
“NO! Drenchen! I hope she drowns!” skekLi screamed.
Kylan jumped back as the Skeksis slashed at him with the splintered end of his staff. He couldn’t see whether Naia had caught the bone or had opened her wings in time to keep from crashing to her death. He
had to trust her, and save his own hide in the meantime. He scrambled back, snagging a piece of the crystal that had not fallen into the pit below. As the spiders darted toward him, he struck the crystal against the fossilized flesh of the mushroom cap. Its ringing sent them away, back over the edge of the cap, where they watched with their trembling legs and faceted eyes.
“She can’t drown,” he told skekLi. “She caught the bone. Even now, she’s got hold of the bridge dangling there. Any minute she’ll come over the side, and I’ll have it. I’ll send these spiders away with a single note. Then it will be just you and us.”
“You can’t know that. You can’t see it. We’ll kill you before she gets here!”
Kylan snatched one of the staff’s splinters, stepped and threw it like a miniature spear. It made its mark, striking skekLi in the shoulder, sticking out like a pin. The Skeksis squawked and yanked it out, but Kylan threw another, and another, sticking him full of darts from his own staff.
“GRAGGGHHH!” roared skekLi. “Stop it! Stop it, Gelfling!”
“Or what?”
“Or—Or—wait! Stop it, and! AND! Stop it and we’ll let you go! Eh?”
“I don’t think you’re in a place to negotiate!”
“Oh, really? Which one was it, said the Drenchen is coming up the bridge? Eh?”
Kylan frowned. In his confidence, he’d lost track of the location of the bridge that hung from the cap. Now he saw skekLi had taken up position there. The Skeksis crouched and held up a finger in front of a smile, plucking two more slivers from his arm.
“Listen,” he cooed. “Listen!”
Kylan did. He did not like what he heard—Naia, shouting and swearing, close but too far away.
“She’s on the bridge, but the spiders are after her!” Amri shouted from his vantage above. Without the bone, he had moved from ledge to ledge, batting the spiders away with a tree branch. “Kylan, you’ve got to do something!”
“Here we go. Watch, Gelfling. skekLi will do something. Yes! Something kind. Spiders! Away!”