I ran. Hack pounded along behind me, but he was slower than I remembered. Soft living had slowed his pace.
Fortunately, Black’s hideout was riddled with rat holes. I plunged through one, heedless of my destination. The boys, for the moment, were safe, but they wouldn’t be for long. This war, over a key, would result in destruction that would devastate Stromgate. I had no doubt that Piper’s retaliation would be awful.
I had to get him to see reason.
I kept running. The tunnel opened onto a thin rope, which led to a hole in the wall. I scrambled across it.
Behind me, Hack tested the rope and then, eyes narrowing, took one step out onto it.
I began gnawing on the rope when I reached the other side.
Hack growled.
"Scrap thinks he can get away,
But he should run the other way.
Hack is not alone this time.
Scrap will pay for all his crimes!"
I ignored Hack. I had become accustomed to his stupid poems while in the maze.
Hack used his claws to rappel across the rope, hanging upside down.
"Piper wants a truce," I mind-blasted him. "If you value your life, tell your master to meet him in the square at noon tomorrow!"
I finished gnawing and the rope snapped. Hack disappeared into the darkness. If he hadn’t stopped to say his poem, he would have made it across. Stupid goblins.
I heard him hit bottom with a squeak, followed by goblin curses. He was hurt, but alive. Hopefully my message would make it back to Black.
I turned around and ducked into the hole behind me. I couldn’t see very far; it was pitch black. But I could tell that it was a wide, open room.
Freedom! If I could just make it…
Something was wrong. I sat up, sniffing the air. That smell was all around me again. Goblin smell.
In the meager light, a pair of yellow goblin eyes opened. I took a step back and turned, but then another pair opened.
And another. And another.
In a huge circle around me, yellow goblin eyes glared at me. I was surrounded.
The goblins were everywhere. Resigned to my fate, I sat down in a defensive crouch.
A terrible barking caused the eyes to suddenly fill with fear. Jacko came bounding in, barking like mad. The goblins scattered in every direction.
"Jacko?" I said in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you!"
Jacko did what he did best. There was a terrible din as goblins were tossed to and fro in the darkness. They scattered like…well, like rats. They scrambled to evacuate the area.
Before I knew it, Jacko gently picked me up by the scruff of my neck.
"Where are we going?"
"I was going to ask you the same question," said Jacko, able to communicate with me despite having a rat in his jaws.
He bounded out into the streets, slipping through a gap in a boarded-up door. Cool air rushed around us.
"But aren’t you staying with Black?"
"Black kicked me out of the rat-fighting business. Not that there are any rats left to fight."
"How did you escape?"
"I didn't. They set me loose looking for you!" I could tell he was amused by the irony. "This war between Piper and Black is going to end poorly for everyone. Tell me you’ve got a plan to stop it."
"I do," I said. "But you might not like it."
"I believe in you," he said simply.
"In that case…take me to Piper."
* * *
Unlike Black, who had moved his operations after the assault on Piper’s residence, Piper stayed stubbornly put.
There was more to his home that met the eye. It was trapped, but then I realized that those traps had been placed there by Black, the original owner. Piper’s skills were in his music.
"What happened to you?" I asked Jacko, now that we were momentarily safe. "I thought you were Black's prized fighting dog?"
"I was," he said. "But he claims I bit him."
"Claims? You don't remember?"
"I remember very well.” Jacko was different somehow. Freed from his master, he was a lot more talkative. “I never bit him. But he claims I did. He said because it was his right hand he would be unable to do his work."
I told Jacko about my adventures: the ogre Margrave, the troll prince, and most important, Mama Yaga’s hut, as he released me from his jaws and I climbed onto his back.
"Any animal can speak in her hut?" he asked, curious.
"Yes," I said.
"Amazing," he said.
I’d never thought of it as amazing. But then, my telepathic talents had become quite a boon. For an animal who didn’t have that ability, talking would be quite remarkable.
I mentioned the clockwork soldiers and the rat king.
"Those clockworks came from Black," he said. "He’s become obsessed with them. Keeps nattering on about some army of Piper's. I don't see an army. Piper’s just one man."
"That one man kidnapped all of Black’s pickpockets and drove all the rats of Stromgate into the Porro River, remember?"
"Don’t I know it! There are no more rats for me to fight, because of Piper. The expense of importing a rat to fight made it too costly to run an event. For a little while Black had me fighting other dogs, but…I've lost my appetite for it."
It explained some of the patches of missing fur on Jacko's neck, which I could make out from my position on his back. I didn’t want to press the issue. If Black even THOUGHT that Jacko had bitten him, the consequences would have been terrible indeed.
"If I can just get him to listen to reason…I’ve had some experience in negotiating politics and I think if I can get Black and Piper to talk, we can avoid all this."
"You could just hand that key on your back over."
"I don’t think that would solve it. I think there’s a reason Black wants the key."
"There is. Piper said he has it."
"What?" That didn’t make sense. Piper didn’t have the key, and he knew it. Maybe he was bluffing. "The key is our most powerful bargaining chip. I’ve got to make them see reason."
"I don’t see what the big deal is," said Jacko. "It’s just a key."
"It’s much more than that," I said. "But for now, let’s concentrate on getting into Piper’s house."
Jacko slowed down as he advanced on the front door. I slipped off his back.
He sniffed the air, and I did too. "You smell that?"
"I don’t smell anything," said Jacko.
"Exactly. This place once smelled like cheese. Piper’s got something up his sleeve, I just know it."
A lithe form rose up behind Jacko, with two white fangs that gleamed in the darkness.
My first thought was: Look out, it’s a snake!
But then I was frozen in fear as I realized just precisely which snake it was: Big Bertha.
The warning died in my mind. My rat senses just froze up completely.
I thought she was dead. My mind raced—how could she have survived? Was she resurrected to come after me?
No, it couldn't be. But it was Bertha, of that I was sure. There was a discoloration in her skin where the y-shaped stick had pinned her.
Jacko looked at me curiously when I became silent.
With lightning reflexes, the guivre coiled around Jacko once, twice, three times. The serpent was unnaturally large, and despite his skills as a fighter, Jacko was caught by surprise.
He whirled and sunk his teeth into the guivre, gnashing furiously. But the effort required breath, and that’s just what Bertha was taking from him. His bites were ineffective; after a few more squeezes Jacko started coughing.
I wriggled out of my harness. There was only one way to save Jacko.
Did guivres remember? Did they hold grudges? For Jacko’s sake, I hoped so.
"Hey, ugly!" I mind-blasted Bertha. "Remember me?"
The narrow green head swung towards me, tongue licking the air. Oh yes, she remembered me.
&nb
sp; The coils loosened as Bertha drew herself up for a long-range strike. I had only one chance at this…
I twisted and turned the key just as the snake head darted towards me. A portal opened and Bertha, jaws extended, didn’t have an opportunity to catch herself. Her body surged through the opening.
I turned the key and the portal closed.
Jacko coughed and wheezed.
"Are you all right?"
Jacko coughed again. "I see why Black wants that key."
Getting the key back in position wasn’t as hard as I thought. I wriggled around, turning the harness to my front, and using my forepaws, slipped the key into the pouch. Then, with a little acrobatics, I was able to twist it again to my back.
I climbed back up on Jacko and we went around the far side of the house, facing the gate.
"I don’t understand," said Jacko. "If Piper is building an army, where is it? Shouldn’t it be here?"
"I don’t know," I said. "With magic, anything is possible."
The backyard roiled with a strange hissing noise. Jacko whined and took a few steps back as I climbed up the gate to unlatch it.
"Wait," he said. "Look."
I looked down. In the moonlight, it looked like the yard was covered in black glass. But it rippled and moved. Clattering and clicking.
I peered closer. Crawling over each other, snapping and striking, was a carpet of black scorpions. Thousands of them.
I now understood the scope of Piper’s army, and why neither humans nor goblins would be enough to stop it.
A single clothesline, long forgotten, hung from a pole, within jumping distance of the fence, its other end leading up to one of the windows.
"I’ll wait for you here," said Jacko.
The distance between the fence post and the pole holding the rope wasn’t far, but for a rat it was far enough. If I was going to make this jump, I needed a running start. It was no mean feat, as the top of the fence wasn’t exactly broad. Some days, I wished I was a squirrel.
I had no choice. Screwing up my courage, I took a few steps back and then bounded forward.
Nervous energy propelled my steps. I jumped from fence top to fence top; Three, four, five, and JUMP!
I sailed through the air. Below me was the waving black foliage that I knew was a forest of scorpion stingers. Anything falling into the sea of scorpions was dead meat.
I overshot my goal, sailing past the post. I reached out with my paws but couldn’t grab it.
My momentum threw me past the post, landing on the rope itself. I scrabbled desperately and snagged hold. For a second, I just hung there, catching my breath. That was too close!
Now it was only a matter of crossing over to Piper’s house. I hoped he was home. I would have hated to risk life and limb for nothing.
The rope, though frayed, seemed stable enough. I moved in inches, step by step.
The clattering from below increased. The scorpions started surging up the pole.
Wait a minute, I screamed to no one in particular. Scorpions can CLIMB?!
I dashed across the rope, heedless of all caution. Black chitinous bodies reached the rope.
I was at the halfway point. If I kept running, I might make it…
A silent black form dive-bombed me. I lost my grip and fell, just barely catching hold of the bottom rope of the clothesline.
The line started to bounce. I knew what that meant without having to look. The scorpions were on the rope.
I regained my footing, looking around for whatever it was that flew by. Another raptor?
This time claws nearly snatched me off the line, but instead managed to catch in the rope above me. Huge, leathery wings flapped in front of me. The thing let out an awful screech of frustration. It was a bat. A big one.
I held on to the line for dear life as the bat released the rope, causing it to sway wildly. Scorpions flew off in every direction. My weight hanging from the middle didn’t help to steady the line; I was tossed to and fro.
The bat turned to dive and missed the rope. Seeing its broad back, I decided to risk it. I let go.
The bat squealed in surprise as I landed on it.
"Why are we fighting?" I shouted at it. "Aren’t we both from the same rodent family?"
The bat didn’t respond. It flapped furiously, trying to keep us both aloft above the scorpion swarm. Then we were ascending, just barely. It made for the eave of the house.
The bat barely made it. I leaped off its back as it crossed the roof-line.
The bat landed on the roof and hunched down on its knuckles. It hissed at me.
I backed up, making my way to the edge of the roof. As it snapped at me, I could make out the rat-like razor-sharp teeth glistening in the moonlight.
The rooftop shale started to give way. I scrambled faster, barely making headway as one of the tiles flew off the roof and fell into the scorpions. Black’s house was old, and it was clear Piper wasn’t keeping it up.
I ran faster, towards the bat. Surprised, it skittered towards me, snapping as it went.
But the shale wasn’t complying. The bat slid past me, its head now level with my hindquarters.
Using my powerful hind legs, I hopped up on a tile and kicked off, launching it into the bat’s head. It shrieked, a horrible sound.
I hopped another tile higher and fired off that one too. The bat shrieked again and lost its footing, sailing over the edge.
I knew it would be back in moments. I ran over to the edge of the roof, then leaped down to the outside edge of a window sill.
And there was Piper, staring up at the rooftop, fingering his pipes. It was time to start negotiating.
"Piper!" I transmitted in my best booming telepathic voice. "Piper!"
Piper crouched, pipes to his lips, staring everywhere at once. "I’ll warn you, I can have a swarm of scorpions on you in seconds, whoever you are."
"That’s not necessary. I’m here to negotiate a truce."
"A truce?" Piper didn’t lower the pipes. "Is this some kind of trick?"
"No trick. I’m trying to avoid any more suffering. I am a familiar sent on behalf of Black. He wishes you to meet in the square tomorrow at noon, alone. He wishes peace between you."
"And why should I believe you?"
"Because you don’t want a war either. No one will win. The losses will be terrible."
"My army doesn’t worry about families, doesn’t get paid, and doesn’t care about losses. Can Black say the same?"
"Yes. He has an army equal to yours. That is why I’m here; Black sees the futility of this and wishes to settle the dispute once and for all."
"Why would he want to do that, when he accused me of stealing his key?"
"Because he discovered the one who has it."
Piper lowered his pipes. "Really." He straightened up. "Fine. Tell Black I will meet him in the Square, at noon."
"Excellent. He will be there."
I stopped projecting my Important Voice and went back to my own plans. Now that I got into Piper’s house I needed to get out.
The higher vantage point gave me an opportunity to jump down in front of the house, but the fall was too far even for me.
I squeaked as loud as I could. Sure enough, Jacko came to investigate.
The one-eyed dog came around to the front of the house, stub of a tail wagging. "You’re alive!"
"So far. Is there somewhere soft to land down there? I need to jump off this roof and I’m not sure I can just drop down."
Jacko grunted. "Hmm." He rummaged around, sniffing. "Yes, there’s some garbage in the street here. But you could never jump that far."
I climbed up to the roof again. "You’re right. But hopefully this will work."
The bat was around there somewhere. I didn’t have time to look for him. I ran right to the very peak of the house.
Some of the tiles slipped. Hopping up and down, I landed hard on the tile at the very peak of the house.
It started to slide. I pushed off and it sl
id faster, just like Lycus poling Mama Yaga's tub. Other tiles clattered around me.
I pushed as hard as I could and then there was nothing at all to push on as I was airborne.
I underestimated my inertia. The tile spun, and I whipped crazily in circles as I flew off Black’s old house, over the scorpions, and skidded into a pile of trash on the street.
"Wow," said Jacko. "That was..."
"Stupid?"
"I was going to say impressive, but it was stupid too."
"Thanks." Everything hurt. But I was alive. Rat bodies were amazingly resilient.
"This is where we part ways," said Jacko.
"Where will you go?"
Jacko chuffed. The incessant clacking of the scorpions made him uncomfortable. "There’s not much call for a one-eyed dog these days. But I can smell well enough. Perhaps I can be a hunting dog…"
"I’d get out of the city. Regardless of who wins this war, the streets won’t be safe for a while."
"It’s all I’ve known," said Jacko. "But for now, I have to go back to Black so he doesn’t get suspicious. I may be able to throw him off your trail."
"If you do leave the city, go south, toward Laneutia. It’s safer," I told him as I crawled up the fence post. "When I last fled Yaga’s hut, she was due north of here. She may still be there."
"Good luck," said Jacko. "I hope you find what you’re looking for."
"You too!"
Jack turned and bounded off. That left just me, good old Scrap.
* * *
I had climbed up to a vantage point on the thumb of Sikkar’s Hand on the clock tower, which gave me an excellent view of the proposed meeting. My telepathic abilities let me speak to both parties without giving away my position.
So long as I used my Important Voice, they might very well assume a spirit was talking to them. I didn't care what they thought, so long as they didn't think it was a scrawny rat.
People milled about in the square. Merchants hawked their wares from mobile shops on wheels. Visitors gawked at their surroundings. But most people minded their own business, clustered in groups of two and three. The city guard looked on impassively, but they were unlikely to pay much attention to two men talking.
It was high noon when Piper walked into the center square. He wore his pipes in the open, dangling from his throat.
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