by Laurence Yep
Staring at the frightened, deadly animal that Mr. Hu had become, Tom suddenly remembered his grandmother’s last instruction to the tiger: Use your wits, not your claws. Finally he understood what she had meant by that.
Swallowing, Tom reached in to grasp the tiger’s leg. “Mr. Hu, Mr. Hu.”
The tiger swung his head, flattening his ears, as if he were about to tear the boy apart; but then he saw it was Tom. He swayed for a moment as he fought his own instincts to attack him. He stilled, but even then, he could not speak but made growling noises.
“Mr. Hu,” Tom said. “Think of Mistress Lee. Remember her final lesson.”
His grandmother’s name had its own magical effect upon the tiger. With difficulty the tiger growled, “Yes-s-s.” His ears rose. “Yes.”
“Thank heaven you brought him back,” Mistral said, and then called to Mr. Hu, “We need your magic, not your muscles.”
“Yes,” the tiger said, rising on his hind legs and glancing about him self-consciously. “Of course, you’re right. I’ll give it a try.”
Tom stepped back, surprised that he had been able to tame the tiger.
Closing his eyes, the Guardian made signs in the air with a paw as he began to chant. They all watched hopefully, but the wall stayed intact.
Mistral shook her head. “Vatten always seems one step ahead of us. He’s probably protected these walls with the strongest enchantments.”
“We can’t give up,” Mr. Hu snarled. He started on another spell.
“That’s my old tiger,” Monkey grunted, and began swinging his staff again.
“Tigers don’t have the sense to know when they’re done,” Mistral said with a grin, and she roused herself once more into trying to smash her way out.
By now the water was up to Tom’s waist. Some of the dogs were paddling about, wailing and yelping; but the tiger, the dragon, and the monkey had not stopped trying to break out.
Tom searched the room again. He owed it to them to get them out of this deadly trap. But how? He didn’t have Mr. Hu’s magic or Mistral’s and Monkey’s strength, so what could he do?
He’d have to use his brains. While both the dragon and Monkey tried to smash out of the trap, Tom began to study the room for some other way to escape. Then he noticed Mr. Hu leaning forward to sniff the invisible barrier.
Curious, Tom bent over and smelled the water—and noticed the briny odor. Dipping a finger into the water, he tasted it. It was salty, so it must be from the ocean—which would be the handiest source. There had to be a way for it to come in. Like a pipe.
Taking a deep breath, Tom plunged his head under the water, feeling about with his fingers to find the source of the water.
When he rose for air, he found Räv in front of him.
“Why don’t you just give up?” the silver-haired girl asked, puzzled.
From the corner of his eye, Tom could see Mr. Hu trying yet another spell. If the tiger wasn’t going to give up, neither was he. “I don’t care what your master wants; he’s not going to kill us!” Tom snapped, and dived again. It was hard searching under the water, which kept rising steadily. The cold sucked the energy right out of his arms and legs.
Tom finally traced the flow to small, finger-sized holes along one wall. They ran its length. He rose in the water, which was now chest high. “I found the way the seawater’s getting in,” he spluttered. “I was hoping we could block it somehow; but it’s coming out of lots of small holes along the wall. There are too many to cover up.”
The descending ceiling had already forced Monkey back to the floor, and Mistral was crouching while the tiger tried yet another spell. Mr. Hu stopped and lowered his paws. “What lets something come in must also let something go out.” He nodded to Tom. “Well done, Master Thomas. Truly, you’re Mistress Lee’s grandson. I can shrink us so we can leave through the pipe and cast a spell so we can breathe underwater.”
“I’ll check out Tom’s discovery right away.” Monkey grinned. After he had shrunk his staff, he plucked hairs from his tail and blew on them. Throwing them into the air, he shouted, “Change.”
The next moment, there were dozens of little monkeys swirling around his head like flies.
“What else can you do?” Tom asked Monkey in amazement.
“Now you’ve done it,” Mistral said, rolling her eyes. “He’ll never stop boasting.”
“Don’t brag yet,” Mr. Hu warned Monkey, “you’ll use up the oxygen.”
Monkey had raised his staff to test the ceiling. “I see that getting wet hasn’t helped your disposition any.”
“What about us?” Räv demanded, gesturing to the pack of wet, frightened dogs that had clustered around her.
“Indeed,” Mr. Hu demanded, “what about you? Should I be any more merciful than your master?”
Räv drew back as if she had been slapped. “You’re right,” she said bitterly. “Nobody owes anybody anything.”
Even though she’d tricked him twice, Tom couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. What kind of life had she led as a servant to Vatten? “If you think that, why did you fool Loo at the store and save me?”
Räv pivoted in exasperation to show them her stiff back. “Don’t make anything out of it. If it had been a lot of trouble, I wouldn’t have bothered. But you were already unconscious. All I had to do was cut my hand on some broken glass and then smear it on you when I pretended to feel for a pulse.”
Tom glanced at her bandaged hand. “So that’s when you hurt yourself.”
She pulled at the bandage irritably. “I’ll never do that again.”
“Loo was wrong. Mercy is no sin,” Mr. Hu said gently.
Annoyed, she wiped at her eyes as if she did not want them to see any tears. “No, he was right. The one time I thought of someone else, I got into trouble. I should have just stepped aside and let this idiot die.”
Mr. Hu studied the girl. “No, I don’t think you could have. Loo is right in this much: You have too tender a heart to follow Vatten.”
“Please, Mr. Hu,” Tom said. “I owe her.”
“It doesn’t matter. Even if we didn’t have to repay your favor. We won’t abandon even the Clan of the Nine.” Mr. Hu’s chin sank down on his chest and he closed his eyes. “Now let me concentrate.”
Räv kicked one foot back and forth in the water. “Why did you open the door in the first place?” she asked Tom without looking at him.
“Because it’s . . .” Tom shrugged. “It’s what my grandmom would have done.”
“You don’t know how lucky you are to have had someone like that.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
She looked so forlorn that despite everything Tom began to feel sorry for her all over again. “Don’t you have anyone?”
Räv shook her head. “I never knew my parents. I have always been by myself. Anything I’ve gotten, I’ve had to take.”
Up until then, Tom had always thought he’d had it bad; but at least he’d had his grandmother. “When I opened the store door, you almost looked surprised.”
She gave him a funny little half smile. “I was ordered to try to get you to let me in, but I never expected you to do that.”
Tom was puzzled. “Why not?”
She stared at him with a distant look as if she were hearing about some bizarre foreign custom. “Because where I come from, everyone is on their own.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your pity,” she snapped, and turned away from him angrily, refusing to say anything else.
In the meantime, the miniature apes had returned with the news that the openings led into a pipe that went directly to the sea. At the news Monkey began tearing more hairs out of his tail to make tiny versions of himself; but even now, when they were still in danger, he could not resist some mischief. After a whisper from him, the copies flew in a swarm about Mistral’s head.
“Ugh, get these blasted things out of my ears!” the dragon said, swiping at them with a wet paw.
“C
areful,” Monkey said gleefully. “If you hurt them, who’s going to guide the children out?”
Mistral dropped her paw with a splash. “I won’t forget this.”
“Come over here, Master Thomas,” Mr. Hu gestured to Tom. The water was now almost up to Tom’s chin.
“What about Räv?” he asked.
“Her too.” Mr. Hu motioned impatiently.
Tom swam over to the tiger, but as he passed Räv, he noticed she was trying to force her way through the flood.
“It’s faster this way,” Tom said, treading water for a moment.
“I never learned how to swim, all right?” Räv snapped.
“Vatten’s element is water,” Tom said.
“But not mine,” the girl said sullenly. “Just because you’re the tiger’s apprentice doesn’t mean you have stripes too.”
“Can you float on your back?” Tom asked.
“I guess. Why?” she asked uncertainly.
“I’ll take you,” he said, raising a hand.
She drew her eyebrows together suspiciously. “Why are you helping me?”
“I don’t want your death on my conscience,” Tom said. “Will you trust me?”
“We are not like your master,” Mr. Hu assured her.
Räv hesitated and then turned nervously, facing the ceiling as she lifted her legs from the floor. The motion started to make her sink, but Tom caught her.
She glanced at him, surprised. “The last time I touched you, I got a shock. Why don’t I feel it now?”
“He’s wearing a magical charm,” Mr. Hu explained, “that protects him from evil, but it senses no danger in you now.”
“A lot it knows,” Räv said.
“Arch your back more,” Tom said.
Her hand grabbed his shoulder for support as she obeyed. Slowly her body rose to the surface. Using one hand to stroke the water, Tom towed her with the other over to the wall.
“I don’t understand you at all,” she said, spitting out a mouthful of water.
“You said it yourself: I’m stupid,” Tom said.
“Or very kind,” Räv said, digging her fingers into his shoulder in her fear. “Maybe too kind for your own good.”
It took Mr. Hu only a moment to draw some more signs in the air and mutter some spells. The next second, the water in the room seemed as big as an ocean as they shrank; and as Tom dived through the surface, the floor seemed a mile away.
Then a paw took his arm. Turning, he saw a miniature version of Monkey holding him. With a wink the little ape began pulling him downward toward the wall.
Tom had been holding his breath all this time, but the distance was now so great that he found himself exhaling. He was relieved to find that the Guardian’s magic had worked and he could breathe underwater.
The little monkey pulled him through the opening. They both had to kick to make headway against the powerful current. The swim through the dark pipe seemed to take forever. Then he saw the bright circle of light at one end.
The next moment he was bobbing up through the surf. The cliffs overhead loomed large as mountains and the grains of sand seemed as big as pebbles as the little ape pulled him over to a narrow strip of beach.
A moment later, Räv joined him, gasping on the sand while the little apes returned for the others. “I didn’t see any pump to send the water into the mansion,” Tom said. “It must be magic.”
Then, by the dozens, the dogs’ tiny red heads bobbed up by the pipe intakes. Each had a miniature monkey to help it. The monkeys didn’t leave when they had brought the dogs to the beach; they stayed as guards.
Räv crawled over to Tom and just stared at him for a long time before she finally managed to mumble “Thank you.”
“Forget it. I would have done it for anyone,” Tom said, wiping at the saltwater that stung his eyes.
“Yes,” Räv said softly, “I believe you would.” She bit her lip for a moment and then added, “Lord Vatten’s not going to wait for the phoenix to come out of the egg naturally. He’s found a way to force the egg to hatch.”
Tom stared at her uncertainly. “Why would I believe anything you say?”
Räv drew back her head. “You can trust me or not. I don’t care. But I don’t like owing debts.”
“If you really want to pay me back,” Tom urged, “tell us where your master has the egg.”
Räv hunched her shoulders. “He’s my master no longer. And as for its location, that secret’s worth my freedom.”
Tom still didn’t know whether she was lying or not. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Just then, more of the dogs appeared, along with Monkey himself and a miniature Mistral. “Where’s Mr. Hu?” Tom asked them.
“He’ll be last,” Mistral said with an admiring nod.
“There isn’t much time left before the ceiling will come down against the floor,” Monkey said. “It took such a long time to cast spells on all these hounds.”
At the moment, all the fight was out of their enemies. They sat on their haunches on the beach, panting.
“Change,” Monkey said, and he suddenly grew as large as a giant.
Tom had an anxious moment before he finally saw the tiger’s head break the surface. Somehow the determined tiger had kept hold of his hat as well. “You made it,” the boy said, greeting the Guardian at the surf.
He was so glad that he almost hugged the tiger, but Mr. Hu started to shake himself dry. Though his suit had stayed dry because of the special wool, his fur had not and he sprayed water all over.
“Of course I did,” Mr. Hu said, as if he did this every day.
When the tiger had changed himself back to full size, the dragon began to hop up and down on the beach. “Change me next before that ape steps on me.”
Monkey slapped a paw to his forehead. “I was so busy worrying about the tiger that I forgot. A lizard like you would make a nice pet.”
He was just starting to reach for Mistral when the dragon suddenly swelled up to her normal size. “You were saying?” she asked with a smile that showed an alarming number of teeth.
Monkey backed off. “But you make an even better friend.”
“I am not now nor ever will be the friend of a furball like you,” Mistral said.
Mr. Hu, in the meantime, was busy restoring Tom to his regular size.
“What about Räv?” Tom asked.
“Unfortunately, she will have to remain a prisoner with the hounds,” the tiger said, fishing out what looked like a green lump of gum from his pocket.
“But she told me what Vatten’s planning,” Tom said. “He’s going to force the egg to hatch early. And she’ll tell you where if you let her go.”
Mr. Hu kneaded the gum between his claws as he considered the offer, but finally he shook his head. “She’s lied to you twice. Why should we trust her a third time?”
“I have no reason to love Vatten now and neither do the hounds,” Räv’s voice came up to them, thin and shrill. “He abandoned us to die.”
“I promise you that you will feel no pain, only sleep and dreams of pleasant things,” Mr. Hu said.
Tom wanted to believe she could change. “Please don’t do this to her.”
“A Guardian must sometimes make difficult decisions,” Mr. Hu said, breathing on the lump.
Tom planted a fist on his hip. “Is that another one of your rules?”
“Not mine, but your grandmother’s. Why do you think she stayed behind?” Mr. Hu asked, and strode over to the dogs, who were swirling about anxiously in a restless, red pool, pressing against the wall of tiny monkeys that now trapped them.
Muttering a spell and making signs with his free paw, Mr. Hu held the green lump over them. The red dots rose into the air, yelping and wailing, and were drawn into the lump.
Tom squinted, trying to see Räv, but there were too many of the dogs and then all that was left of them was the lump, hardened into a green rock, which Mr. Hu now dropped into a coat pocket.
Chapter 9
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br /> The dragon seemed to have gathered new energy after being in the ocean. She was as frisky as a giant kitten. “Careful,” Monkey said, holding up a paw before his eyes. “You’re getting sand over everyone.”
“I can’t help it,” Mistral cried excitedly. “The swim has renewed me.” She gazed toward the horizon. “I wish I could see the coral palaces of the Underwater Kingdom again. And the Fire Gardens at sunset.” Her eyes narrowed as if she were trying hard to glimpse them. “The water overhead turns to red, and the garden itself glows like living flames that dance to the singing of the pipefish. And the pipefish rise in schools that glitter like rainbow clouds.”
“You miss the ocean that much?” Tom asked sympathetically.
“The ache grows with each year,” Mistral said, gazing longingly at the sea.
In contrast Mr. Hu was feeling the effects of working so many spells. The elderly tiger sat slumped, with barely enough energy to raise a paw. “Well, not all of us are waterproof. Use some of that vigor to help us get a fire going.”
Mistral glanced at the shivering boy. “Yes, of course.” She swept the driftwood on the beach into a big pile with her tail and her paws.
“I’ll go try to find some trace of Loo,” Monkey volunteered.
“You don’t want to go out looking like that,” Mistral said. “Your tail looks like a rat’s.”
“Better than having one that looks like a snake,” Monkey said, waving the bald, pink tip of his tail at the dragon. “And I was going to go out in disguise anyway.”
Once he had restored the hairs to his tail, he transformed himself, hiked up the path that zigzagged up the cliff face, and disappeared from sight.
When Mistral had piled enough wood together, the tiger knelt and, with a muttered spell, soon had a bonfire going. The dragon, feeling in an obliging mood for once, stretched out her body and lay down so that her long body acted as a windbreak for the others.
Tom could see how scarred and dented her scales were. “You’ve led a hard life, haven’t you?” he asked.
“No more than Hu,” Mistral said.
“And Monkey,” Mr. Hu reminded the dragon gently. “He’s been as much of an outlaw as you. That ought to give you something in common.”