Broken Prophecy

by K J Taylor

What a terrible idea, Ambit thought.

  But he smiled back at her. It couldn’t hurt. Much.

  The journey to the Third Mountain dragged by, and Ambit did not find a way to get them out of it. Nor did he bother to pretend he was trying. Toward the end of the first day Snarl appeared, walking among the escort. She and Ambit exchanged encouraging looks, but couldn’t risk talking to each other. Elyne and Tannock spotted her and looked hopeful, but of course Snarl did not bravely unlock their cages in the middle of the night. She stayed close by to keep an eye on Ambit, but only spoke to her fellow demons, who played along and accepted her as one of the gang.

  ‘She’ll find a way to help us,’ Elyne whispered that night.

  ‘She will,’ Ambit had to reply. ‘She’s just biding her time and stuff. Yeah.’

  Snarl went on biding her time for the next two tedious weeks. The caravan passed through human country, but nobody dared to attack it. They saw people running away at the sight of it, even though the demons did nothing except look at them. The pack of giant demons plodded on, trampling anything that got in their way, and rarely said anything. Ambit had never talked to one before and he wondered what they were like.

  He sat in his cage, bored out of his mind, forced to eat the burned food his captors brought him, and trying to guess at how much longer it would take to get to the Third Mountain. He’d thought travelling with Elyne and Rigby had been boring, but this was even worse, plus he had to keep on pretending, because the demons were letting them talk to each other, meaning he had to keep spouting rhetoric about how everything was all right, how they were going to escape any minute now, and so on.

  Finally – mercifully – they got to the edge of the demon country near the Third Mountain. Ambit vaguely recognised it, and even thought he saw Lakeweed Village in the distance as they entered. The pack of demons rumbled on over the dry landscape for a good distance, until night fell and the caravan stopped to make camp, as they had every night. Ice and his fellow small demons unhitched the cages and pushed them into a circle at the centre of their camp, which they set up by digging pits in the ground to sleep in, and sending out some of their number to mine for some food.

  Then the demons relaxed and crunched on the quartz they’d found, leaving the prisoners to chew on the charred remains of a cow one of them had caught the day before.

  ‘The good thing about demons is they cook everything they pick up,’ Ambit said, peeling off the blackened hide. ‘And the bad part is that the cooking only takes two seconds.’

  ‘I always liked my meat well-done,’ Tannock grunted. ‘What about you, Elyne?’

  ‘My favourite,’ she smiled wanly.

  Once he’d eaten, Ambit yawned and relaxed with his back against the bars. ‘Don’t worry. I think we’re close now,’ he said.

  ‘But close to what?’ said Wittock. ‘If only they would tell us where we’re going . . .’

  Ambit said nothing. He’d found a semi-comfortable spot in the corner of his cage, and he pressed himself into it, ignoring the sharp jab from his still-painful ribs, and tried to rest. He suspected they’d be at the mountain by tomorrow, and then he could finally be on his way.

  With that encouraging thought, he went to sleep.

  Sometime during the night, a pain in his leg woke him up. He sat up with a confused cry which turned into a different kind of cry when the pain hit him again. It was still dark, but he was surrounded by the dimly glowing shapes of the demon escort. Also, his knee appeared to be on fire. ‘What the –?’ he started to say, but the little glowing shape beside him silenced him with another burning-hot poke.

  ‘Shut up! Something’s wrong!’ it hissed.

  Ambit clutched at his knee. ‘Snarl? What’s happening?’

  Something went zipping past just outside his cage, and Snarl started to shout. ‘Attack! Attack! Wake up! Attack!’

  The camp exploded in a confusion of shouting. Ambit vaguely saw the demons getting up, and heard their voices, but then bright light bloomed out of the darkness as one of them fell dead, body breaking open to release the lava inside. Ambit caught the briefest glimpse of the metal arrow sticking out of the demon’s throat, and then everything went mad.

  Something hit the side of his cage, and the entire thing tipped over. He hit the bars with a thump, and heard the clang as the door fell open. Snarl appeared, clambering over him to undo the shackle around his waist. ‘Now get out!’ she hissed the moment it came close. ‘Get out and run! Now!’

  Ambit crawled out of the cage. ‘My spear? Where’s my spear?’

  ‘Forget it!’ said Snarl. ‘Run!’

  Ambit turned to run, but he was too late. All around him demons were falling, and dark shapes had appeared, running to open the cages. Freed, the others ran to Ambit’s side. Someone thrust the spear into his hands.

  ‘Get them!’ a voice shouted out of the darkness. ‘Fight if you want to live!’

  The others had reclaimed their weapons as well, and before he knew what was happening Ambit was surrounded by demons and shouting people. He turned around, searching for Snarl. She was there, not far away, waving frantically to him.

  He ran toward her. ‘Snarl, what’s happening?’

  ‘Run!’ she shouted. ‘Come on! I –’ She screamed as an arrow shot out of nowhere and pinned her tail to the ground.

  Ambit ran to her and kicked the arrow. It refused to come loose. Snarl scrabbled at the ground, putting with all her might, and as Ambit bent to try and remove the arrow her tail broke off halfway along its length. Hissing, trailing lava, Snarl ran. Ambit ran after her.

  ‘Get away!’ someone yelled behind him . . . Tannock. ‘Follow the Chosen One!’

  ‘Oh shit,’ Ambit muttered, and sped up. But it was no good – they were after him now.

  He ran back toward human country, following Snarl, whose light guided him on and away from the demon camp. Unfortunately, it guided other people as well.

  Dawn began to lighten the horizon as Ambit left demon country behind. He finally staggered into a grove of handy trees, where he slumped down to rest.

  Snarl stopped close by. Hardening lava had closed the wound where her tail ended, but she was obviously still in pain. She curled up as close to Ambit as she dared go, nursing the injury.

  Ambit threw his spear down. ‘Fuck! How did that happen?’

  ‘Arrows,’ Snarl whimpered. ‘Metal arrows. Arrows that can hurt demons . . .’

  She didn’t get any further. Tannock arrived at that moment, blundering through the trees and half-pulling Rigby, who seemed to have hurt his leg. Elyne came trailing after them and, a short time after that, everyone else arrived as well. Wittock, with Whitear, Srawn, Deeble, and . . .

  ‘Oh fuck no,’ Ambit mumbled.

  Northrop had already seen him. ‘You.’

  ‘Hi, Northy,’ said Ambit.

  Wittock came straight over. ‘Thank heavens we’re all safe. You rescued us! But who are you?’

  Northrop leaned against a tree to catch his breath. He had his sword, Whitear was carrying the bow and arrows Ambit had seen in Saphron’s throne room, Deeble had the dagger, and Srawn had the axe.

  ‘We’re four of the eight companions of the Chosen One,’ Whitear panted. ‘We were being held prisoner in the Third Mountain, but we escaped. On our way out of demon country we found you. But who are you?’

  ‘You?’ said Elyne. ‘Companions?’

  ‘Yes.’ Srawn held up the hand with the mark on it. ‘Why were you being held prisoner?’

  Silently, Elyne and the others displayed their own bellflower marks.

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ said Tannock. ‘We’ve found them. The other four companions. Ambit, we’ve done it.’

  Northrop straightened up and advanced on Ambit. ‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded. ‘You and your pet demon.’

  ‘Well, I was being held prisoner,’ said Ambit, his mind racing. ‘Thanks for getting me out of that, by the way.’

  ‘You mean you know each o
ther?’ said Elyne. ‘How?’

  ‘We were being held in the Third Mountain,’ said Northrop. ‘Until the demons let him go.’

  Everyone stared at Ambit.

  ‘What?’ said Tannock. ‘Why would they do that?’

  ‘Because he’s working for them,’ said Northrop. ‘He’s their spy. Him and that little pet demon of his.’

  Tannock laughed uproariously. ‘Him? Working for demons? You must be crazy. Don’t you even know who Ambit is?’

  ‘He’s a traitor and a liar,’ said Northrop. ‘He stole that spear from the Chosen One!’

  Now Elyne laughed as well. ‘What are you talking about? He has that spear because he is the Chosen One.’

  ‘No, he isn’t,’ said Northrop. ‘He lied to you as well. Well, Ambit? Why don’t you tell them the truth?’

  Ambit stayed slumped and panting. He had taken the opportunity to do some fast thinking, and while everyone was staring at him, he stood up and showed Northrop his hand.

  Northrop gaped for a moment, then grabbed him by the wrist and started to try and rub the mark off. Ambit let him. He knew it wasn’t going to work. The mark had been growing clearer all the time.

  ‘It’s a fake!’ Northrop roared. ‘He had it tattooed on him!’

  ‘No, he didn’t,’ said Rigby. ‘I’ve been with him all this time. It wasn’t there before, but it’s been coming back because he was with us. He’s the Chosen One. He’s been travelling around searching for us.’

  ‘You betrayed Daisyfield to the demons!’ said Northrop. ‘You told them about the princess!’

  ‘What princess?’ asked Elyne.

  ‘The princess,’ said Northrop. ‘Our princess, who’s currently being held prisoner by the demon king, thanks to this man here. He’s working for the demons.’

  ‘No, I’m not,’ Ambit lied.

  ‘No, he’s not!’ said Rigby.

  ‘Well then, if you’re not working for them, why did they let you go?’ said Northrop, turning triumphantly to Ambit. ‘Well? They had you back there in the Third Mountain. How did you get away if they didn’t let you go?’

  ‘I tricked them,’ said Ambit, ‘and Snarl helped me.’

  ‘That’s . . . right,’ the small demon groaned.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ said Wittock. ‘Tell us everything.’

  Ambit took a deep breath – this was going to take a lot of getting away with. ‘The demons who took me prisoner before noticed I had a demon for a friend, so they took me to the demon lord in the Third Mountain. He wanted to question me. I told him Snarl and I were agents for the demon king. Snarl backed me up and the demon lord believed us and he let us go.’

  ‘You lied to him and got away with it?’ said Elyne.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Ambit. ‘Well, you know, demons aren’t too clever. And that was before my mark came back, so they didn’t know who I really was.’

  ‘That’s amazing,’ said Rigby. ‘I can’t believe they fell for it.’

  ‘Hook, line and sinker,’ Ambit grinned at him.

  Wittock frowned. ‘Why didn’t you tell us about it before?’

  ‘Oh, I felt so guilty for leaving these four behind,’ said Ambit, quickly losing the grin, ‘that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But as you can see, Northy, I went and found the other companions and we were on our way to rescue you when we were captured.’

  ‘And we rescued you instead,’ said Deeble. ‘Thank you so much, Ambit. I can’t believe it! You were the Chosen One all along.’

  ‘No, he isn’t!’ Northrop exploded.

  ‘Oh stop it, Northrop,’ said Srawn, smiling at Ambit. ‘He came all this way for our sakes and he looked a demon lord in the face and tricked him. He’s a very brave man.’

  ‘That’s me,’ said Ambit. ‘No hard feelings, right Northy?’

  ‘Stop calling me that, you liar,’ said Northrop.

  ‘But it suits you so well,’ said Ambit.

  ‘He’s right, it does,’ said Whitear. ‘Come on, that’s enough arguing. We should go and find a safer place to rest, and then we can plan what to do next.’

  ‘Yes, good idea,’ said Ambit. ‘Snarl’s hurt and so is Rigby, and we’re all tired. Why don’t we try and get to Blueberry Hill? I remember that wasn’t too far away. I’ve been there before. It might have a good place to stay, and they specialise in fruit pies. C’mon, who fancies some pie?’

  ‘I do!’ said Rigby.

  ‘Then let’s go,’ said Ambit, and when he set off they all followed him, even Northrop.

  Ambit walked slowly, not just because he was tired and stiff from so much time spent in a cage, and not just because he was allowing for poor Snarl.

  He’d done it. He’d gathered all eight companions, and now he was leading them, just as the prophecy said he was supposed to.

  ‘Fucking fantastic,’ he muttered under his breath.

  Twelve

  They got to Blueberry Hill without much trouble. It was just as Ambit remembered, sitting in a lush valley between two streams, well away from demon country. The air was cool here, and as expected the place was surrounded by fields of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and other small fruits, including a grove of cherry trees. Blueberries grew in the village itself as well, and various blue-flowering plants including the blue bellflower, which was a cousin to the silver bellflower. The village boasted a large bakery which sold about a hundred kinds of fruit pie, and Ambit, who kept a small bag of demon eyes hidden in his boot, bought a few for the companions to share. He left the others to eat and went to meet up with Snarl. She had found a heap of rocks to shelter in, and he lit a good fire for her to curl up in.

  The small demon sighed as she bedded down. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Are you going to be okay?’ asked Ambit.

  ‘The wound is healed,’ said Snarl. ‘Once I find myself a lava pool, I can bathe and my tail should start to grow back. But I’ll be fine for now.’

  ‘Great,’ said Ambit, ‘except we’re still fucked.’

  ‘I know,’ said Snarl.

  ‘I mean, we were supposed to make sure they were all locked up!’ Ambit finally exploded. ‘We weren’t supposed to wind up leading them to freedom! Next they’ll want me to take them to Lucknow to meet the king. What am I supposed to do?’

  ‘Easy,’ said Snarl, flinching a little. ‘We lead them straight to where they were supposed to go: the First Mountain. To the demon king.’

  ‘You think so?’ said Ambit.

  ‘Yes. Take them to my king,’ said Snarl, ‘and he can lock them up again. I can go ahead to warn him. If we bring him the eight companions, he’ll reward us very well. That was some good thinking back there, by the way. Maybe Northrop didn’t buy it, but the others did, and they’ll drag him along whether he wants to go or not.’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind sending him straight to the demon king’s dungeon,’ said Ambit, ‘especially if they put him in with the princess.’

  ‘Same here,’ said Snarl. ‘Do it. Tell them now you’re all together it’s time to start the war properly. Go straight to the First Mountain to rescue the shrieking harpy and take her back to daddy. It’s proper heroic work. They’ll want to do it.’

  ‘All right,’ said Ambit, ‘I guess that could work.’

  ‘It will,’ said Snarl.

  ‘But it’ll mean travelling around with eight people who all hate you,’ he added.

  ‘If it means getting rid of them, I’ll do it,’ said Snarl. ‘Now go on back and play at being a hero.’

  ‘Just as long as I don’t end up in a cage again,’ said Ambit.

  ‘You won’t,’ said Snarl. ‘But good luck.’

  Ambit ambled back into the village, where the others had sat themselves down cross-legged in the grassy square to share the pies. Some of the locals had stopped to chat, including one very odd-looking woman whose hair didn’t have any colours in it. Instead, it was a vaguely red-brown shade all over, with no spots or stripes. She had a small yellow bird sitting on her shoul
der, and both of them watched Ambit as he passed.

  Ambit gave the woman a wink as he rejoined the others, who quickly moved aside to let him sit down.

  ‘There you are,’ said Elyne. ‘Here, try the strawberry pie. It’s delicious.’

  Ambit helped himself to a steaming slice and munched on it while he formulated his next convincingly heroic speech. The others looked happy to just relax and eat for the time being. Elyne and Tannock had sat next to each other and were sharing a blueberry pie, Northrop was chatting to Whitear, and Deeble was making eyes at Srawn. Eventually, though, with the pies starting to run out, Rigby turned to Ambit and said, ‘What are we going to do now?’

  The others went quiet and looked at Ambit, waiting for his reply.

  Ambit cleared his throat. ‘Okay, so here we are. Free and together. But how did you get out of that dungeon anyway?’ He resisted the urge to glare at Northrop.

  Northrop, however, was quite happy to do the glaring himself. ‘We were lucky. No thanks to you.’

  ‘All right, but what happened?’ said Ambit.

  ‘You won’t believe this, but a demon let us out,’ said Whitear.

  Wittock stared at her. ‘A demon?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Deeble, ‘didn’t see him too well. It’s so dark in those places. It was a big one, though, with no horns. He came and opened the dungeon door, and took our chains off. Then he ran away, and when we left the dungeon we found our weapons just lying there waiting for us.’

  ‘No horns?’ said Ambit. ‘A demon with no horns?’

  ‘I don’t think he had any claws either,’ said Srawn. ‘I tried to catch up with him, but he wouldn’t say anything and I lost him. I don’t know where he went.’

  The Oracle, Ambit thought. Had to have been. What other demon would actually want this lot free? The Oracle might not want it to happen, but he believed it couldn’t be avoided. And maybe it couldn’t, if idiots like him went around helping it happen.

  ‘That’s weird,’ said Ambit, ‘but I guess you shouldn’t look a friendly demon in the fangs. Anyway . . . now we’re together it’s time we got started on what we’re supposed to be doing.’