Beast & Crown #2

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Beast & Crown #2 Page 15

by Joel Ross


  Tell them “Grkratck owkhteckcrrtat!” Nin urged.

  “Gratack ow quit ratatat!” Ji announced.

  The gorilla-looking ogre backhanded Ji across the plateau.

  19

  IT FELT LIKE being smacked by a mountain. Ji hurtled twenty feet and crashed into a stone rosebush, his feet tangled in his ears and his butt throbbing.

  Roz stepped forward. “There is no need for that sort of—”

  The gorilla-ogre swiped at her with his huge paw, aiming a blow strong enough to crack a boulder.

  Roz caught his wrist and roared in his face, her curved horn an inch from his throat.

  The gorilla-ogre jerked backward, then spun and slammed her chin with his other paw.

  Roz shook off the blow and punched him so hard that he flew off the cliff.

  A moment later, a splash sounded from the river.

  “You mess with the governess,” Sally growled, “you get governed.”

  At least, that’s what Ji thought she said. He couldn’t hear much over the ringing in his ears. He watched through teary eyes as the ogres spread out, facing Roz warily. Sally stalked beside her and Chibo unfurled his wings. Green light brushed against red skin and yellow hair and gleaming tusks.

  “Jiyong!” Roz called, without looking toward him. “Are you hurt?”

  “Hardest rosebush ever,” he groaned.

  “You behaved abominably,” Roz told the ogres. “Nin is mortified for you, and I hope that you are sensible enough to feel remorse!”

  A bull-like ogre rumbled at her, and a vaguely human one cracked its knuckles.

  They understand a tinylittle Humanish, Nin said, but they do not speak Rozlish.

  “I bring news from the human realm,” Roz told the ogres. “Nin wants me to inform you that the Summer Queen is strong again. Do you understand?”

  The bull-like ogre pawed the ground.

  They do not! Nin blurted. They do not standunder!

  “After the Diadem Rite,” Roz said, weirdly calm, considering all the ogres, “your ogre shaman—that is, your shamoon—expected the Summer Queen to weaken, yes? However, she is strong again. If the ogres attack, the queen will kill them. You must tell them not to attack.”

  The ogres roared like an avalanche.

  Tell them “Grkratck owkhteckcrrtat,” Missroz! But don’t say it like Sneakyji. He said that they lick regretful toenails.

  “I cannot pronounce that,” Roz told Nin. “We shall have to muddle through without—”

  She stopped when the ogres shambled closer to her. They were so big that Roz only came to their shoulders. The dripping-wet gorilla-ogre bounded onto the plateau and the bull-like one turned its horned head toward the Clay Plain and snorted quizzically.

  “I bet he’s asking about the armies,” Sally said.

  She’s a she! Nin said. Silly Sallynx! And yes, that is what she ponderasks. If we’re leading the invading army to destroy the Ogrelands.

  “Of course we’re not,” Sally told the ogres. “Those armies aren’t our friends.”

  Chibo nodded. “They kind of want to kill us.”

  “You’d better listen!” When Sally snarled at the bullish ogre, she looked like a kitten scolding a boulder. “The Summer Queen sucked the spirit out of every blue-bat in the realm—”

  “Poor little guys,” Chibo murmured.

  “—and she’s stronger than ever.” Sally glowered up at the ogres. “And Prince Brace is pretty nasty too.”

  “We are friends of Nin’s,” Roz added. “The cub you sent to the human city.”

  “We’re stonefriends of Nin’s,” Ji said, limping closer.

  Roz nodded. “Nin wants you to know that an attack on Summer City will fail horribly, at great cost.”

  The ogres glanced at each other. The bull-ogre grunted, and one that looked almost human growled. Yellow eyes narrowed and red paws scratched at ivory tusks.

  They start to believe you! Nin said, sparkling with relief. Tell them again! Then beg them to safeguide us through the Gravewoo—

  A sudden clash of human weapons echoed through the petrified forest. Harsh voices shouted and stone trees fell with a bone-shaking crash. Plumes of dust rose through the lifeless canopy below the plateau, and the ogres stomped in sudden anger and suspicion.

  “You are spyguides.” The gorilla-ogre scowled at Roz. “Half-human scouts.”

  “Lead evilarmy to ogrehome,” the bull-ogre grunted. “Friends of Summer.”

  “We’re not the queen’s friends!” Ji told the ogres, spreading his arms. “We’re her enemies.”

  “We’re running from them,” Sally growled to the ogres. “Not leading them!”

  A gravelly crash sounded in the distance. Horses screamed and soldiers bellowed.

  “Protect ogrehome!” the bull-ogre roared.

  “Stop humonsters!” the gorilla-ogre grunted. “Rockvow.”

  Broad red shoulders tensed. Yellow eyes narrowed. Fangs flashed and tusks shook—

  “Wait—” Roz started.

  They’re going to stomp! Scamperfast! The warparty is going to stomp!

  “Run!” Ji shouted. “Into the river and—”

  “NO!” Roz prodded the bull-like ogre in the chest with one finger. “I will not have it! You are acting dreadfully! Like spoiled children throwing a tantrum. You should be ashamed of yourselves! First you hit Jiyong and now you—”

  The humanlike ogre raised a massive fist. “Tckrachgo ogwachka!”

  “Enough!” Roz snapped, not even flinching. “Enough! We came as friends! We came to help you, with a message from Nin—from one of your own!—yet you attacked us. And now you threaten more violence? Is this how ogres behave? Is this how low you have sunk? Are you truly monsters? Mindless brutes?”

  Ji gaped. The ogres gaped too. Partly because of Roz’s impassioned words, but mostly because bushes were flowering across the plateau. Stone buds swelled and blossomed, unfurling into stone roses. A few petals shed from delicate blooms and shattered on the ground.

  Roz looked from one ogre to the next, her voice gentler. “You are better than this. I know you are, because I know Nin, who is a cub with a sweet soul, an engaging humor, and a lively mind. I expected more of you. I expected better.”

  The bull-like ogre shifted and the gorilla-ogre fell to one knee.

  “We must speak together as friends,” Roz continued, ignoring the chime of shattering rose petals behind her. “As family, because Nin is our sibling. Did you understand the message we brought? The ogres in the tunnels must not attack Summer City. They must not invade or they will die. Grkratck owkhteckcrrtat!”

  Ji had no idea what that meant, but the ogres all bowed to Roz, their yellow eyes lowering and gleaming tusks dipping. The bullish ones knelt on front legs, touching their horns to the ground, while the gorilla-looking one ducked her head.

  “What are they doing?” Chibo asked. “Are they bowing?”

  “Yeah,” Sally said. “To Roz.”

  They are claimgreeting Missroz as a truetroll.

  “A true troll?” Ji asked. “What did— Those roses— Why?”

  This is a Beginning, Nin said.

  “This is the grand rite of passage you were talking about?” Sally asked in disbelief. “She’s just scolding them! This is a solemn thunderclap soul rite?”

  Not usually— Nin started.

  “Grkratck owkhteckcrrtat,” a pot-bellied ogre with three eyes repeated.

  An ogre with a face like a wild boar’s nodded. “Grkratck owkhteckcrrtat!”

  With a bellow, the ogres started stampeding in a frenzy around the plateau. Red skin gleaming, yellow hair streaming, they thundered past Ji. Breath snorted from flaring nostrils, while clawed feet and sharp hooves pounded the ground. Red hands plucked stone roses, and then the ogres started bounding off the cliff to the riverbank.

  “Wait, they’re leaving?” Ji said. “No, stop! Stop! We need your help!”

  “Stay here!” Sally leaped in front of a charging bul
l-ogre. “You have to guide us!”

  The ogre hurdled her like an ox leaping over a hamster. The wind of the ogre stampede ruffled Ji’s hair. Then the last few ogres leaped the river and vanished into the petrified forest.

  “Come back!” Ji yelled after them. “Come back, you stupid ogres!”

  “Great,” Sally growled, her ears drooping. “Now who’s going to guide us?”

  “I think,” Roz rumbled, “that I am.”

  Ji spun toward her. “What, because now you’re a true troll?”

  Now she’s a truetroll!

  “That was a Beginning?” Sally asked.

  That was a Beginning!

  “You don’t look different,” Ji told Roz.

  “I don’t feel different,” Roz said. “But I feel . . . more.” She crouched and touched the gravel with her thick fingers. “Trolls aren’t mages or shamoon. We’re simply ogres.”

  Trollwise ogres, Nin said.

  “Rozario Songarza,” Ji said, enjoying scolding her for once. “You made stone roses bloom. What else can you do?”

  “I can feel. Trolls haven’t any powers beyond an awareness of the earth.”

  “How do you even know that? You’ve only been a true troll for two seconds!”

  “I’m just . . . aware of it.”

  He snorted. “Are you aware that we’re dying in the Gravewoods?”

  “Are we?” she asked.

  “Yeah, my skin is burning, my hair’s turning to stone, and my eyes . . .” Except his skin wasn’t burning anymore, and his eyes felt fine. “Oh.”

  “They only left,” she said, “because they know I can guide us safely through the Gravewoods. I’ll feel the safest paths and . . . soften the effect of the spell, at least briefly.”

  “Where’d they go?” Chibo asked her.

  “To warn the ogre armies not to attack Summer City,” Roz said.

  Wordless relief burbled in Nin’s mind-speak, bubbling with such happiness that nobody spoke for a moment.

  “What does that even mean?” Sally growled. “That thing you said in Ogrish. Gratatack owlecrat.”

  “I’ve no notion. I don’t speak Ogrish,” Roz said.

  “Ha!” Ji said. “Little Miss Truetroll isn’t aware of that.”

  A rough translation is “We met Nin in Summer City and were dragtaken to the Forbidden Palace, where Sneakyji ruined the Diadem Rite before we were spellchanged into ant lions and troll and sprite and hobgoblin and dragon, and we escaped the rite then peeksaw that the evilqueen is still strong in magic and clayfighters so we ran to warn the ogres not to attack—”

  “Are you telling me,” Ji interrupted, “that ‘gracklefat artifact-hat’ means all of that?”

  Also, it asks about the Ice Witch.

  “No way! Did they tell us where to find her?”

  Through the Ogrelands toward the topmountains. They don’t know more.

  “Do you?” Ji asked Roz.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “But I know I can lead us through the Gravewoods.”

  “One step closer to the Ice Witch.” A slow smile spread across Ji’s face. “One step closer to breaking this spell. We’re just a bunch of servants, an almost-governess, and an ogre cub—and look as us now. We weren’t even supposed to survive the Diadem Rite.”

  “Takes more’n that to stop us,” Sally purred.

  Ji felt his smile widen. “Takes more than fox-demons.”

  “Takes more than an underground city!” Chibo piped, his green eyes glowing.

  Roz laughed. “It takes more than Brace and the Gravewoods.”

  More than a warparty and an evilqueen!

  “They thought we didn’t matter,” Ji said. “They thought we’d die without a murmur and they’d go on to greater things. But look at us now. When we’re together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

  20

  ANOTHER CLASH OF weapons sounded and an ant lion nipped Ji’s forearm.

  There’s something we can’t do! Nin said. We can’t win a battle against knights.

  “Ow!” Ji rubbed his arm. “That hurt!”

  We need to scamperrun to the Ogrelands before the armies catch us!

  “They’re getting closer,” Sally warned.

  “Then let’s scamper and run,” Ji said, trotting across the plateau. “We’ve come too far to get caught now.”

  Sally jumped off the cliff, landed on a ridge, then leaped to a rocky shelf, heading for the river as easily as strolling down a staircase. Chibo giggled in glee, spread all four wings, and glided to the riverbank thirty feet below. Ji and Roz looked at the cliff, then looked at each other—then looked at the cliff again.

  “This would be a good time for some troll magic,” he said.

  “I can’t cast spells,” Roz told him. “That’s the power of shamoon, not of trolls.”

  “Then what can you do?”

  “Trolls simply gain an awareness of the earth’s immensity,” she said. “We curse the mountain for blocking our path, yet the mountain is the path.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She looked toward her feet. “I simply feel the strength of this cliff, and the height.”

  “Believe me,” he told her, “I feel the height too.”

  He also felt the armies marching closer through the petrified forest. They needed to run, even if that meant climbing down a cliff. He worried more for Roz than himself, though: at least he didn’t have fingers as thick as sausages. If she fell, “awareness of the earth” wasn’t going to save her.

  “Get back up here, you chuckle-knuckles!” he yelled at Chibo and Sally. “And carry Nin’s backpack down! Does Roz have to do everything?”

  With a sweep of his four wings, Chibo followed the cliffside upward, soaring a few feet from the rock face so he could see. Sally bounded along beside him like a squirrel hopping up a rock pile. When she reached the top, she took the backpack from Roz and staggered from the weight.

  “Ooof,” she said. “Heavy.”

  “You ready, Nin?” Ji asked.

  We’re solidfirm! Nin said.

  Sally and Chibo lowered the pack down the cliff as Ji scooted over the edge, his legs dangling. He groped with his scaly toes until he felt the ridge. Then he shuffled to a jagged crack in the rock, his lizard feet finding a solid grip.

  Pebbles bounced off his head, and Roz rumbled, “Sorry!”

  He peered up at her. “Are you okay?”

  “I am fine, thank you,” she said from a ledge closer to the top. “In fact, I think I shall simply . . .”

  She jumped off the cliff.

  She fell to the riverbank, her cloak flapping and her hair streaming behind her. Ji yelped as the stone ground cracked under Roz’s feet. She brushed dust from her dress, then smiled at him, her trollish eyes twinkling. A moment later, Sally and Chibo reached the bottom and gave her the backpack.

  Then all three of them watched Ji pick his way slowly downward. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and he muttered, “Stupid cliffs.”

  After about a thousand years, he reached the stony riverbank. The water crashed, white and frothing. Droplets of mist cooled Ji’s face. He lay on his belly, cupped his hands, and drank, while Sally lapped beside him, her ears pricked for danger.

  “The battle stopped,” she said. “And the army’s closer.”

  “What were the knights fighting?” Ji asked.

  “I don’t know. The goblins?”

  “But the goblins obey the queen.”

  Roz made a face. “The White Worm has a temper. Perhaps he hates Ji more than he fears the queen.”

  “Great,” Sally said. “The humans want to eat our souls and the goblins want to chop us into pieces.”

  “They’re both going to be disappointed.” Ji looked at Roz. “Which way?”

  “We’ll head upstream,” she said. “That’s safest.”

  “Safest is good.”

  And upstream is happybest, Nin said in an approv
ing tone. Faster into the Ogrelands.

  “And farther from the armies,” Chibo said.

  The river poured out of a narrow gorge. The current crashed, spewing mist and spray, and then the river widened again. Stone trees lined the bank, with drooping stone branches that dangled to the ground like poncho fringes.

  Ji eyed the quiet, jagged woods and asked Sally, “Do you hear anything?”

  “Just the humans.”

  “Perhaps the goblins can’t cross the Gravewoods?” Roz suggested. “They haven’t a mage protecting them.”

  Sally jumped a mound of overturned stone-roots. “Maybe. At least knights can’t gallop through a stone forest. They’ll move slowly.”

  “I wish they’d turn to stone,” Ji grumbled.

  “Brace and Mr. Ioso will protect them,” Roz said.

  “So only one army is chasing us now,” Chibo piped. “Things are already looking up!”

  “As long as the Ice Witch breaks the spell,” Ji said, “before we run out of time.”

  The slope steepened as they followed the river into the mountains. Darkness crept across the petrified forest. Only one moon rose through the stony branches, and a few hours later Sally heard the human army making camp. Roz found a safe grotto, where they shared the last of the mushrooms before falling into exhausted sleep.

  The next morning, the river led higher through the gray landscape. The lumps on Ji’s forehead ached and dust of the petrified forest turned to paste in his mouth. Still, at least his skin didn’t crack. Chibo probed stone spiderwebs with his wings and Sally kept dropping to all fours, but Ji didn’t say anything. Nobody did.

  “Humans are coming,” Sally called at midday from her perch on a boulder. “Closer than ever.”

  Ji rubbed his forehead. “How many?”

  “Does that matter?” Roz asked. “Ten knights or a hundred, we still cannot beat them.”

  “Sally could beat ten knights by herself,” Ji said.

  “Eleven,” Sally purred.

  “And you can throw pinecones at the rest,” he told Roz.

  “Plus, I’ve mastered swoopflying,” Chibo reported.

  We’ve mastered buttstinging, Nin said.

 

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