by Eoin Colfer
'Our first priority is to get out of this crater and find some silver. I suggest we leave the bomb here. The temperature is not enough to ignite it, and if it does explode, the volcano will absorb some of the force. If we are going to find some other magical creature, we will undoubtedly have a better chance outside this crater. At any rate, the sulphur is giving me a headache.'
Artemis did not wait for agreement. He turned and made for the crater lip. After a moment, the others followed, struggling with each footfall through the crust of ash. It reminded Artemis of a giant sand dune he'd trudged up with his father once. Here, falling would have harsher consequences.
It was a difficult and treacherous hike. The ash concealed grooves in the rock and small crevasses that vented warm air from the volcano.
Colourful fungi grew in clusters around these vents, and they glowed in the crater shadows like coral night lights.
Nobody spoke much during the climb. No.1 muttered his way through large tracts of the dictionary, but the others realized that this was his way of keeping his chin up.
Artemis glanced upwards occasionally. The sky was dawn red and glowed above him like a lake of blood.
That's a cheery metaphor, thought Artemis. Maybe it says something about my character that a lake of blood is the only image I can come up with.
No.1 's build was best suited for the steep climb. He had a low centre of gravity, and could rest on his stumpy tail if need be. His thick feet anchored him securely and armoured plates covering his body protected him from sparks or bruising in the event of a fall.
Qwan was clearly suffering. The old warlock had been a statue for the past ten thousand years and was still working the kinks out of his bones. Magic soothed the process somewhat, but even magic could not completely erase the pain. He winced each time his foot punctured the soot crust.
Finally the group reached the summit. If time had passed it was impossible to tell how much. The sky still had the same red tinge, and all timepieces had virtually stopped.
Holly jogged the last few steps, then raised her right hand, fingers closed in a fist.
'That means halt,' Artemis told the others. 'It's a military thing. Human soldiers use the exact same sign.'
Holly poked her head above the rim for a moment, then returned to the group.
'What does it mean if there are a lot of demons on their way up the mountain?'
Qwan smiled. 'It means our brother demons saw the flash of our arrival and are coming to greet us.'
'And what does it mean if they are all armed with crossbows?'
'Hmm,' mused Qwan. 'That could be a touch more serious.'
'How bad can they be?' asked Artemis. 'We've faced trolls together.'
'It's fine,' said Holly, powering up her handgun. 'They're not so big.
We're going to be fine. Really.'
Artemis frowned. Holly only bothered reassuring him when they were in deep trouble.
'That bad?' he said.
Holly whistled, shaking her head. 'You have no idea.'
Chapter 14: LEADER OF THE PACK
THE ISLAND OF HYBRAS
While Artemis and company had been zooming around the time tunnel, Leon Abbot had been in Council with the pride elders. Council was where all the big decisions were made, or more accurately, where Abbot made all the big decisions. The others thought they were participating, but Leon Abbot had a way of bringing them round to his way of thinking.
If only they knew, he thought, biting the inside of his cheek to prevent a smug grin spreading across his face. They would eat me alive. But they can never know, because there is nobody left alive to tell them. That dolt Number One was the last, and he's gone. What a pity.
Abbot had something big for planned for today. A big departure for the pride, the dawn of a new era. The Leon Abbot era.
He looked down the table at his fellow demons, sucking the bones from a bucket of recently live rabbits that he had laid on for the meeting. He despised the other Council members. Every one. They were weak stupid creatures, ruled by their baser appetites. What they needed was leadership. No arguments, no debates, just his word was law, and that was that.
Of course, under normal circumstances, the other demons might not share his vision of the future. In fact, if he suggested it, then they would most likely do to him what they were currently doing to the rabbits. But these were not normal circumstances. He had certain advantages when it came to negotiating with the Council.
At the far end of the table, Hadley Shrivelington Basset, a recent addition to the Council, stood and growled loudly. The signal that he wished to speak. In truth, Basset worried Abbot slightly. He was proving a little resistant to Abbot's regular powers of persuasion, and some of the others were beginning to listen to him. Basset would have to be handled soon.
Basset growled again, cupping both hands round his mouth to ensure that the sound travelled to the head of the table.
'I would speak, Leon Abbot. I would have you listen.'
Abbot sighed wearily, waving at the demon to go ahead.
The young ones certainly loved their formality.
'Things are happening that worry me, Abbot. Things are not as they should be with the pride.'
There were murmurs of assent from round the table. Not to worry. The others would soon change their tune.
'We are known by human names. We venerate a human book. I find this sickening. Are we to become human altogether?'
'I have explained this, Basset. Perhaps a million times. Are you so dull-witted that my words do not penetrate your skull?'
Basset growled low in his throat. These were fighting words. And pride leader or not, Abbot would soon find those words rammed down his throat.
'Let me try one more time,' continued Abbot, plonking his boots on the table, a further insult to Basset. 'We learn the human ways so we can better understand them, and so more easily defeat them. We read the book, we practise with the crossbow, we bear the names.'
Basset would not be cowed. 'I have heard these words a million times, and each time they seem ridiculous to me. We do not give each other rabbit names when we hunt rabbit. We do not live in foxholes to hunt the fox. We can learn from the book and the bow, but we are demon, not human. My family name was Gristle. Now that's a real demon name! Not this stupid Hadley Shrivelington Basset.'
It was a good argument, and well presented. Maybe in different circumstances Abbot would have applauded and recruited the young demon as a lieutenant, but lieutenants grew up to be challengers and that was one thing Abbot did not want.
Abbot stood, walking slowly down the length of the table, gazing into the eyes of each Council member in turn. At first their eyes blazed with defiance, but as Abbot began to speak, this fire faded to be replaced by a dull sheen of obedience.
'You are right, of course,' said Abbot, running a talon along one curved horn. An arc of sparks followed the path of his nail. 'Everything you say is exactly right. The names, that ridiculous book, the crossbow. Learning the language of English. It's all a joke.'
Basset's lips curled back over pointed white teeth, and his tawny eyes narrowed. 'You admit this, Abbot? You hear him admit it?'
Before, the others had grunted their approval of the young buck's challenge, but now it was as if the fight had gone out of them. All they could do was stare at the table, as if the answers to life's questions were etched into the wood grain.
'The truth is, Basset,' continued Abbot, drawing ever nearer. 'That we're never going back home. This is our home now.'
'But you said. .'
'I know. I said that the spell would end, and we would be sucked back to where we came from. And who knows, it may even be true. But I have no idea what will actually happen. All I know is that for as long as we are here, I intend to be in charge.'
Basset was stunned. 'There will be no great battle? But we've been training for so long.'
'Distraction,' said Abbot, waving his fingers like a magician. 'Smoke and spells. It gave t
he troops something to concentrate on.'
'To what on?' asked Basset, puzzled.
'Concentrate, you moron. Think about. As long as there's a war to be planned, demons are happy. I provided the war, and I showed them how to win. So, naturally, I am a saviour.'
'You gave us the crossbow.'
Abbot had to stop and laugh. This Basset really was a prize fool. He could almost pass for a gnome.
'The crossbow,' he panted at last, when his mirth had petered away.
'The crossbow! The Mud Men have weapons that shoot death. They have iron birds that fly, dropping exploding eggs. And there are millions of them. Millions! All they would have to do is drop one egg on our little island and we would disappear. And this time, there would be no coming back.'
Basset did not know whether to attack or flee. All these revelations were hurting his brain, and all the other Council members could do was sit there drooling. It was almost as if they were under a spell. .
'Come on,' said Abbot mockingly. 'You're getting there. Wring out that sponge of a brain.'
'You have bewitched the Council.'
'Full marks!' crowed Abbot. 'Give that demon a raw rabbit!'
'B-but that can't be,' stammered Basset. 'Demons are not magical creatures, except the warlocks. And warlocks do not warp.'
Abbot spread his arms wide. 'And I am so obviously a magnificently warped creature. Does your brain hurt? Is this all too much for you, Basset?'
Basset pulled a long sword from its scabbard.
'My name is Gristle!' he roared, lunging at the pride leader.
Abbot batted the blade aside with his forearm, then pounced on his opponent. Abbot may have been a liar and a manipulator, but he was also a fearsome warrior. Basset may as well have been a dove attacking an eagle.
Abbot drove the smaller demon to the stone floor, then squatted on his chest, ignoring the blows Basset drove into his armoured plates.
'Is that the best you can do, little one? I have had better tumbles with my dog.'
He grabbed Basset's head between his hands and squeezed until the younger demon's eyes bulged.
'Now I could kill you,' said Abbot, and the thought gave him obvious pleasure. 'But you are a popular buck among the imps, and they would pester me with questions. So I will let you live. After a fashion. Your free will shall belong to me.'
Basset shouldn't have been able to speak, but he managed to moan one word.
'Never.'
Abbot squeezed harder.
'Never? Never, you say? But don't you know that never comes quickly here in Hybras?'
Then Abbot did what no warped demon should be able to do: he summoned magic from inside himself and let it shine through his eyes.
'You are mine,' he said to Basset, and his voice was layered with magic, and irresistible.
The others were so conditioned that they succumbed to just a tinge of the mesmer in his voice, but for Basset's fresh young mind, Abbot was calling forth every spark of magic in his system. Magic that he had stolen. Magic that, by fairy law, was never to be used to mesmerize another fairy.
Basset's face was turned red, and his forehead plate cracked.
'You are mine!' repeated Abbot, staring straight into Basset's captive eyes. 'You will never question me again.'
To Basset's credit, he fought the enchantment for several seconds, until the magic's power actually burst a blood vessel in his eye. Then, as the blood spread across the orange sclera of his eye, Basset's resolve faded, to be replaced by docile dullness.
'I am yours,' he intoned. 'I will never question you again.'
Abbot closed his eyes for a moment, drawing the magic back into himself. When he opened them again, he was all smiles.
'That's good. I am so glad to hear that, Basset. I mean, your option was quick and painful death, so you're better off as a mindless lapdog anyway.'
He climbed to his feet and graciously helped Basset to his.
'You've had a fall,' he explained, in a doctor — patient voice. 'And I'm helping you to your feet.'
Basset blinked dreamily. 'I will never question you again.'
'Oh, never mind all that now. Just sit down and do whatever I say.'
'I am yours,' said Basset.
Abbot slapped his cheek gently. 'And the others said we wouldn't get along.'
Abbot returned to his own chair at the head of the lodge. The chair was high-backed and made from various animal parts. He settled into it, paddling the armrests with his palms.
'I love this chair,' he said. 'Actually it's more of a throne than a chair, which brings me to our main business here today.' Abbot reached under a leather flap in the chair and pulled out a roughly fashioned bronze crown.
'I think it's about time the Council declared me king for life,' he said, fixing the crown on his head.
This new king-for-life idea would be a tough sell. A demon pride was always ruled over by the fittest, and it was a very temporary position.
Abbot had only survived as long as he had by mesmerizing anyone who dared challenge him.
Most of the Cquncil had been under Abbot's spell for so long that they accepted the suggestion as if it were a royal decree, but some of the younger ones shuddered with violent spasms as their true beliefs wrestled with this new repugnant idea.
Their struggles didn't last long. Abbot's suggestion spread like a virus through their conscious and subconscious, subduing revolution wherever it was found.
Abbot adjusted his crown slightly. 'Enough debate. All in favour, say graaarghl'
'GRAAARGH!' howled the demons, battering the table with gauntlets and swords.
'All hail King Leon,' prompted Abbot.
'ALL HAIL KING LEON!' mimicked the Council, like trained parrots.
The adulation was interrupted by a soldier demon, who burst through the lodge's flap.
'There's a… there was a big. .'
Abbot whipped off the crown. The general population wasn't ready for that yet.
'There's a what?' he demanded. 'A big what?'
The soldier paused, catching his breath. He realized suddenly that he'd better communicate the bigness of what had happened on the mountain, or else Abbot was liable to behead him for interrupting the meeting.
'There was a big flash.' A big flash? That didn't sound big enough.
'Let me start again. A huge flash of light came from the volcano. Two of the hunting party were nearby. They say someone came through. A group. Four beings.'
Abbot frowned. 'Beings?'
'Two demons, maybe. But the other two. The hunter doesn't know what they are.'
This was serious. Abbot knew it. These beings could be humans, or worse still, surviving warlocks. If it was a warlock, he would surely guess Abbot's secret. All it would take was one demon with some real power, and his hold on the pride would be gone. This situation had to be contained.
'Very well. The Council will investigate. Nobody else goes up there.'
The soldier's Adam's apple bobbed nervously, as if he was about to bear bad news. 'It's too late, Master Abbot. The entire pride is climbing the volcano.'
Abbot was halfway to the door before the soldier finished his sentence.
'Follow me!' he shouted to the other demons. 'And bring your weapons.'
'GRAAARGH!' roared the spellbound Council members.
Artemis was surprised at how calm he felt. You would think that a teenage human would be terrified at the sight of a pride of demons climbing towards him, but Artemis was more nervous than terrified, and more curious than nervous.
He glanced backwards over his shoulder, into the crater they had just climbed out of.
'The pride comes before a fall,' he said softly, then smiled at his own joke.
Holly overheard. 'You certainly pick your moment to develop a sense of humour.'
'Usually I would be planning, but this is out of my hands. Qwan is in charge now.'
No.1 led them along the rim of the crater towards a low rocky ledge.
&
nbsp; There was a wooden rod jammed into the ground beside the ledge, and hooked over the rod were dozens of silver bangles. Most tarnished and soot-caked. No.1 wiggled a bunch over the top of the rod. 'Dimension jumpers leave these here,' he explained, passing them out. 'Just in case they make it back. No one ever did, until now. Except Leon Abbot of course.'
Qwan slipped a bangle on to his wrist. 'Dimension jumping is suicide.
Without silver, a demon will never be able to stay in one place for more than a few seconds. They will drift between times and dimensions until they are killed by exposure or starvation. Magic is the only reason we're here. I am amazed this Abbot person made it back. What is his demon name?'
No.1 squinted down the mountain pathway.
'You can ask him your self. That's him, the big one elbowing his way to the head of the group.'
Holly squinted down at the pride leader.
'The one with the curved horns and big sword?' she asked.
'Is he smiling?'
'No.'
'That's Abbot.'
It was a strange reunion. There was no hugging, no champagne and no teary-eyed reminiscing. Instead there were bared teeth, drawn swords and threatening behaviour. The latest batch of imps were especially eager to skewer the newcomers and prove their valour. Artemis was the number one target in the group. Imagine, an actual live human here on Hybras. He didn't look so tough.
Artemis and company had stayed put on the ledge, waiting for the demons to come to them. They didn't have to wait long. The imps arrived first, breathless from the climb and just dying to kill something.
If it hadn't been for Qwan, Artemis would have been ripped to shreds on the spot. In fairness, Holly had something to do with keeping Artemis alive too. She tagged the first half-dozen imps with a charge from her
Neutrino strong enough to send them scurrying back to what they thought was a safe distance. After that, Qwan managed to hold their attention by conjuring a multicoloured dancing monkey in the air.
Soon every demon who was able to climb the mountain had done so, and they were all staring at the magical monkey.
Even No.1 was entranced. 'What is that?' Qwan fluttered his fingers, causing the monkey to somersault.