by K J Taylor
‘Yes,’ Northrop murmured, ‘it’s a terrible cost. I never realised it would be this bad. But the eruption back there killed every demon in the Sixth Mountain, and now they’re gone, the plants and the trees can come back. Destroying the mountains causes a disaster like that every time, but at least it kills the demons. It’s an evil, but a necessary evil.’
‘The plants aren’t going to come back!’ said Snarl. ‘Do you think anything could grow on that?’
‘What would you know about it, demon?’ Tannock rasped. ‘Why are you even out of your cage?’
‘Ambit let me out, and you’re not putting me back in,’ said Snarl. ‘Try it and I’ll bite your hands off and eat the bones. Northrop, you’re deluding yourself. As usual. Acornville is gone, and so is every other human settlement around where the Sixth Mountain used to be. Everything there is dead now. Humans, demons, plants – everything.’
‘It will grow back,’ said Northrop. ‘We burned the land clean.’
‘That’s what the old stories say,’ said Wittock. ‘The ones my grandfather told me. The Sixth Mountain is gone, and now it will never birth another demon to torment the people.’
‘We never tormented anybody,’ said Snarl. ‘We never even leave demon country unless we have to. You’re the ones who come and harass us.’
They all ignored her.
‘We have to go on,’ said Elyne. ‘Which mountain is closest to here, Northrop?’
Northrop wearily pulled out a map. ‘The . . . Second. We’ll help these people get to Cornplow; they can find shelter there. Then we’ll move on and destroy the next mountain.’
Ambit finally found his voice again. ‘What?’ he said. ‘You want that to happen again?’
‘No, but some things must be done,’ said Northrop.
Ambit held his spear against his chest. ‘Well, you can count me out,’ he said. ‘I’m not doing that again.’
‘Suit yourself,’ said Northrop. He nodded to the others. ‘Take the spear away from him.’
Ambit was too worn out to put up much of a fight. He did his best, stubbornly clinging to the spear, but Wittock and Whitear pulled it out of his hands, and when Snarl tried to intervene Deeble threatened her with his dagger. Wittock gave the spear to Northrop, who held it out toward Rai.
‘You know how to handle this properly,’ he said. ‘You can carry it for us.’
Rai took it. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’ll do my best.’
‘Good,’ said Northrop. ‘I’ve had enough of this little rat. We’ll leave him here with his pet and handle this ourselves from now on. I don’t care what any prophecy says.’
Some of the others looked uneasy, especially Rigby and Elyne.
‘Ambit did very well back at the Sixth Mountain,’ said Elyne, ‘and what if he’s right? What if we’re doing the wrong thing?’
‘He’d know all about the wrong thing, wouldn’t he?’ said Srawn. ‘Forget him, Elyne.’
‘Give me back my spear,’ said Ambit. ‘You’re going to ruin everything.’
‘Shut up,’ said Northrop. ‘Guards, tie him up and leave him here.’
Ambit got up quickly. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ he said. But the guards came after him, pointing their spears at his neck. Ambit backed off and ran out of their reach. ‘Leave me the fuck alone!’
The guards surrounded him, but Snarl bit one of them on the hip, and Ambit shoved him over and made a break for it. Snarl followed. The guards chased them at first, but then Ambit heard Northrop yell after them. ‘Let them go. We don’t need them anymore.’
The guards stopped, but Ambit kept going, following Snarl’s glow when she passed him. People watched them go, but nobody tried to follow. Most likely they were too worn out to care. Ambit and Snarl kept going until they were out of sight, and then Ambit finally let himself rest. He sat down on a grass tussock, and groaned. ‘Unbelievable. There’s naivety, there’s blind stupidity, and then there’s that.’
‘We’re going to have to go after them,’ said Snarl, ‘to try to stop them.’
‘Yeah,’ Ambit said reluctantly. ‘I need to get my spear back. At least I’ve got you. That’s a start. And don’t make any speeches about how together we’re unstoppable. I’m really not in the mood.’
‘Don’t worry, neither am I,’ said Snarl. She moved closer to him. ‘But . . . I’m glad we’re together again. From now on, I want it to be just us.’
‘It will be,’ said Ambit. ‘We’ll work together on this one. Trail them to the Second Mountain, steal the spear back . . . and if we get ourselves killed at least we’ll be doing it as a team, right?’
‘Right,’ said Snarl, ‘but I don’t think we should work alone. The demons at the Second Mountain could help us.’
‘Okay, but I don’t want the companions to get hurt,’ said Ambit. ‘I kind of . . . like some of them a bit.’
‘If I thought there was any chance of you deciding to be the Chosen One again I’d be worried to hear you say that,’ said Snarl, ‘but I’m not.’
‘Elyne’s all right, and so’s Rigby,’ said Ambit. ‘Actually, I only really hate Northrop. And Whitear’s a bitch.’
‘Whitear Arrowsmith,’ Snarl snorted. ‘With a name like that, what else do you expect? I’m never going to forgive her for taking my tail off. Anyway . . . we should rest first. You look terrible.’
‘I feel terrible,’ said Ambit. He lay down on his back, staring at the eerily red sky. ‘I would give anything for a proper bed tonight, and maybe some female company. But I’m broke again. I swear, every single time I get some money in my pocket some jerk takes it away. I was loaded after the demon king affair, and I’ve lost the lot.’
‘I think saving the world is worth more than money,’ Snarl said rather severely.
‘Oh yeah? How many beers can it buy me?’
‘None, but you’d be making sure the breweries didn’t burn down,’ said Snarl.
‘You’re being reasonable again,’ said Ambit. ‘Stop it.’
‘Fine,’ said Snarl. ‘Now get some sleep. I’ll watch out for trouble.’
‘And then in the morning we can go save the world,’ said Ambit. ‘Ironically.’
He rolled over and went to sleep.
Twenty-one
There hadn’t been any real risk in taking the night off. The eight companions had such a big group of people following them, they were never going to be able to move as fast as Ambit and Snarl. Besides that, Ambit already knew where they were going. He woke up in the morning covered in dew, but the air still felt hot. He got up, clutching his head, and turned to look up at the mountains. The lava had cooled now, leaving the site of his old home a mass of grey and black humps and hollows, like heaps of coal. There was also no sign of the Sixth Mountain anywhere.
‘Terrible, isn’t it?’ said Snarl, poking her head out of the burrow she had dug for herself while he was asleep.
‘I can’t really see anything growing back in that,’ said Ambit. ‘Old Northy needs to grow a brain.’
‘Well, why would he want to believe what we told him?’ said Snarl. ‘He never trusted us to begin with, and he thinks the Chosen One is meant to do something good. He’d never be able to face up to the idea that following the prophecy would ruin everything.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Ambit. It was too early in the morning for this kind of discussion, so he didn’t try to say anything more meaningful than that. He sucked the dew off some grass stems to relieve the dryness in his mouth and looked around automatically for his spear. Remembering it was gone, he walked off in the direction of Cornplow, Snarl following him. With just two of them they could reach it ahead of the eight companions.
‘We’ll stay out of sight until the companions leave the town, and then see if maybe Thorwald can help us,’ he decided. ‘We need to pick up some supplies before we go. And I need to find another spear. An ordinary one will have to do until I can get mine back.’
‘Right,’ said Snarl. ‘Here we go again.’
Cornplow itself was surrounded by fields of lush crops, and its roofs had been painted a cheery shade of grain gold. Ambit left Snarl to dig herself a burrow and snuck into the fields to steal some food for himself. He gathered a few ears of corn, some squash and cucumbers, and even found some raspberries. Loaded down with fresh produce, he found himself a hiding place just outside the village, near Snarl, and settled down to eat while he waited for the refugees to arrive. He wished he could risk going into the village itself, but they’d report him to Northrop and anyway, he didn’t have any money to spend.
Snarl had managed to dig up some food of her own and she crunched on it while they watched the people of Acornville gradually arrive. Some of the stragglers at the edge of the group passed quite close to Ambit’s little shelter, but none of them spotted him or Snarl. They looked ragged and tired and miserable. Ambit didn’t blame them. He kept an eye out for Thorwald and spotted him toward the rear. At least he’d made it out. And maybe he’d still be sympathetic. Ambit didn’t have much else left to hope for.
He and Snarl laid low for the rest of that day, both watching for any sign of the eight companions and Rai. But they didn’t appear until the next morning, shortly after dawn, when Snarl woke Ambit up and silently pointed them out. They were walking together in a loose group with Northrop and Rai leading them. Ambit could see the spear in Rai’s hands, and his own hands itched to get it back.
‘Look,’ Snarl whispered, ‘it’s Thorwald.’
Sure enough, Ambit’s old friend was following the companions at a short distance. ‘He’s not helping them now, is he?’ Ambit said in an undertone. He got up and crept through the cornfield, hoping to catch their conversation.
‘Just tell me what you’ve done with him,’ Thorwald was saying. ‘You can’t expect me to believe he ran off and let you keep his spear. It’s the only thing he ever cared about.’
‘I confiscated it,’ said Northrop. ‘He can’t be trusted. We left him behind with his pet demon. No doubt they’ve run off back to the demon king to tell him everything.’
‘Then where are you going?’ asked Thorwald.
‘To the Second Mountain, to continue what we’ve started,’ said Tannock.
‘What?’ Thorwald stopped in his tracks. ‘You can’t mean you’re going to do that again! Look what happened last time! And what about us? Our homes went up in flames. Where are we going to live now?’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Northrop, patronisingly noble as always, ‘the trees will grow back. You can go home and rebuild one day.’
‘There’s no rebuilding from that,’ said Thorwald. ‘You’re crazy. You’re going to ruin everything.’
‘That’s enough,’ said Northrop. ‘Stay here and take care of your friends. We have to go. Trust me. Everything is going to be all right.’
‘But I don’t trust you,’ Thorwald muttered as the companions walked off.
Ambit waited until they were out of earshot and then peeked out of the corn and hissed Thorwald’s name. Thorwald turned, spotted him and his face lit up. ‘There you are!’
‘Yeah, get over here,’ said Ambit.
Thorwald ducked into the corn. ‘I thought they’d hurt you or something.’
‘Nah,’ said Ambit. ‘They don’t like me, but they wouldn’t do that. I hope not, anyway, because I’m going after them.’
‘Oh, good,’ said Thorwald. ‘Hoping to get your spear back, are you?’
‘Yeah, and stop them from smothering the whole country in lava,’ said Ambit. ‘If I get my spear back that should do the job.’
‘Why? Is it the only weapon that can kill demon lords?’ asked Thorwald.
‘Maybe,’ said Ambit. ‘I hope so. But maybe it can’t happen unless I’m the one using the spear, so that Rai woman can’t do it. Whatever. I still want it back.’
Thorwald smiled at him. ‘I knew you had it in you, Ambit. I really did. You’re finally doing what’s right.’
‘Oh, great,’ said Ambit. ‘You had to go and put it like that, didn’t you? Ambit Afterman is saving the world after all. Well, I’m not. I’m just getting my spear back and making sure there’s a world left for me to enjoy myself in. And then when that’s done I’m going to get back to doing whatever the fuck I want.’
‘Of course,’ said Thorwald. ‘Can I do anything to help?’
‘Well, I could use a new shirt,’ said Ambit, patting the large burn mark on his sleeve.
‘Done,’ said Thorwald. ‘Let’s go into the village and find some things for you. I’d offer to go with you, but I’m not a fighter, and I think you’ll do better on your own.’
‘Not on my own,’ said Ambit. ‘I’ve got my “pet demon”, remember?’
‘Oh, right,’ said Thorwald. ‘Of course. Come on, then – let’s get you kitted out.’
Thorwald helped Ambit get himself some fresh clothes, a bag, some food and even a new spear. The village didn’t have a weapon shop – why would it? – but a couple of wounded guards had stayed behind, and Thorwald distracted one of them while Ambit stole his spear. It was a decent weapon, with a solid wooden shaft and a good steel point. It wouldn’t last long in a fight with demons, but Ambit wasn’t planning to tangle with anymore of those unless he had to.
Once Ambit had everything he needed, Thorwald walked him out of the village. ‘Can I meet your demon friend before you go?’ he asked. ‘If you don’t mind.’
‘You know, that’s the first time anyone’s ever asked that,’ said Ambit. ‘Come on, then.’
He led Thorwald back to the shelter where Snarl was hiding in her burrow. She came out when he called her, and Ambit made the introductions.
‘Thorwald, this is Snarl. She’s the reason why I was always sneaking out of Acornville at night. Snarl, this is Thorwald, who you already know about.’
Man and demon peered cautiously at each other.
‘Hello, Snarl,’ said Thorwald.
‘Hello, Thorwald,’ she answered. ‘It’s . . . er . . . nice to meet you. Thank you for your help.’
‘Any time,’ said Thorwald. ‘So you’re Ambit’s friend, are you?’
‘Yes,’ said Snarl. ‘Since we were little.’
‘Snarl is the smart one,’ said Ambit. ‘I’m the brave, handsome, irresistible-to-women one.’
‘Yes, that would be about the size of it,’ said Snarl, ‘except for the handsome part. Humans are all ugly.’
Thorwald laughed. ‘I didn’t even know demons could talk.’
‘We can,’ said Snarl. ‘We don’t all have anything interesting to say, though.’
‘You mostly have annoying naggy things to say,’ said Ambit. ‘Anyway . . . we’ve got what we need now, so we’d better get going.’
‘Yes, don’t let me hold you back,’ said Thorwald. ‘Good luck, both of you. And Snarl . . .’
‘Yes?’
‘It was . . . um . . . nice to meet you,’ said Thorwald. ‘Take care of Ambit, would you? He’s a good boy at heart.’
‘I will,’ said Snarl.
‘Thanks for the help,’ said Ambit. ‘Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.’
‘I’m sure you will,’ said Thorwald. ‘Goodbye, Ambit.’
Ambit gave him a wave and walked off with Snarl beside him.
‘Funny, that was the first pleasant conversation I’ve had with another human recently where I wasn’t lying,’ he said once they were out of earshot.
‘That was the first pleasant conversation I’ve had with any human in my entire life,’ said Snarl. ‘And that includes you, by the way.’
‘I don’t do pleasant conversations, that’s why,’ said Ambit. ‘They’re boring.’
‘Ah, that explains it, then,’ said Snarl. ‘Now let’s go and catch those idiots before they do anymore damage.’
‘Done and done,’ said Ambit.
Tracking the companions wasn’t too hard. Thorwald had helped them get hold of a new map, and Ambit quickly found the Second Mountain on it. Even if they lost track of the companions they’d still know where to find them.
‘All right, here’s the plan,’ Ambit said as he and Snarl set out. ‘We head straight for the second mountain as fast as we can go, and we should move faster than them. If we’re lucky we can get there before they do, and warn the local demons. We could get them to distract the companions while I get the spear back, if they’re up for it.’
Snarl nodded. ‘We can’t fight all eight of them, plus the guards. If the Second Mountain demons won’t help us, we can try sneaking into the companions’ camp while they’re asleep.’
‘They’ll have guards on lookout,’ said Ambit.
‘Then you’ll have to sneak past them,’ said Snarl. ‘How far is it to the Second Mountain, anyway?’
‘It’s about a week away,’ said Ambit. ‘If we take the long way. I’m betting the companions will go from village to village the way they were doing before and that’ll take them in a big old curve. All we have to do is go in a straight line, and we’ll get there first. It’ll take about three days if we walk fast, and would give us plenty of time to go see these demons.’
‘Sounds good,’ said Snarl. ‘What’s our last stop?’
‘Marrow Valley,’ said Ambit. ‘We’d better stay out of it, though. Can’t have the companions knowing we’re around. I bet Northrop’s expecting us to try and stop him, though.’
‘No,’ said Snarl, ‘he thinks you’re a coward. He won’t expect this.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ said Ambit and started to walk a little faster.
Ambit’s guess had been slightly off, and it actually took them four days to get to Marrow Valley. They avoided other settlements, but once or twice they passed close enough see one from a distance and once they even saw the companions camped just outside the tiny settlement of Parsley Way. Ambit decided to sneak over and see if there was any chance of stealing the spear back, but the camp was ringed by guards who sat themselves so close together that he’d never be able to get between them. He helped himself to some mind-altering herbs from the fields around the village instead, and went back to rejoin Snarl.