‘What about me?’ shouted out Keeko from the top of the crater, Skoodle on her shoulder. ‘What of my fate if I pledge allegiance to you now?’
Lowering her sword, Rectoria turned to view the monkey, her lip curled. ‘Why would I want to be associated with a turncoat like you, so puny, so little to be trusted?’
Jaw set, face rigid, Keeko dumped Skoodle on the ground. He scurried away as Keeko squared up to Rectoria. ‘I saw exactly where the stone fell. I could climb down and get it. Then you would have more power than any goblin in history.’
‘What are you saying?’ said Ikara, tone low and dangerous. ‘You can’t mean this.’
Keeko’s face screwed up with anger. ‘Why not? Loyalty never kept anyone alive. All I’ve had from sticking with you lot is pain and near-death experiences. I want to be on the winning side. You taste death for me.’
‘We trusted you, Keeko,’ hissed Ikara. ‘Makusha asked about a turncoat among us. I bitterly regret how strongly Zorrin denied such a possibility.’
Keeko shrugged, then turned back to Rectoria. ‘Well?’
Sharp claws dug into Zorrin’s ankle. He looked down to see Skoodle by his side, his back to Rectoria. Sitting on his haunches Skoodle smiled, first with a twitch of his lips then fully. Blue light poured from his mouth.
A surge of hope pounded through Zorrin as Skoodle disappeared behind him. Keeping his face blank, he looked back at the confrontation between Ikara and Keeko: Ikara furious, body rigid, eyes glittering with cold light, the sides of her neck winging out. Keeko defiant, mouth a grim line.
Something wet and hard dropped into Zorrin’s hand. Warmth and power surged up his wrist. With minimal mental effort his wrist bonds severed. Flexing his shoulders lightly, all the others fell away.
He held the sapphire up high. ‘The stone is now mine,’ he called out.
The sapphire flashed blue and silver, shards of light cutting into the air around his hand.
‘Your bonds have broken,’ said Tariq. ‘It’s definitely the Sapphire of Akan.’
Rectoria swung her sword at Flick’s neck.
‘Acier clarus,’ shouted Zorrin.
The blade rocketed towards Flick’s throat as she shrank away. With a loud clang it hit an invisible obstruction, throwing Rectoria’s stocky body backwards. Screaming, she looked down at her sword hand, now swollen and distorted.
‘You’ve broken it, ogre brain.’
Face marred with pain, Rectoria grabbed the sword with her left hand and lunged at Alex, who lurched backwards. A dull resounding thud echoed round the cavern as the sword bounced off his chest. Rectoria staggered back with a howl, sword hanging.
‘A useless move,’ said Zorrin. ‘The sapphire doubles and redoubles my powers. The acier clarus spell protects my entire band. Not one of you can harm any of us now.’ He reached down to touch his sister’s shoulder. Her ropes fell to the ground, releasing her.
Rectoria backed away. ‘You have won this round,’ she said, hate etching deep lines into her face. ‘But one day we shall meet again. Then it’ll be me who is victorious.’
She pointed her sword at the ceiling. From the tip shot a shaft of green light; the ceiling started to crumble. Within seconds a barrier of rock separated the goblin band from Zorrin.
Her muffled voice could be heard shouting, ‘Flee. Meet at the forest rendezvous. Everyone for himself.’
Zorrin turned away from the avalanche. Stony-faced he addressed Keeko, seemingly oblivious to the chaos of falling rubble and choking dust around him. ‘So you want to change sides, do you?’
Wide-eyed, Keeko faced the furious wizard. ‘I… sorry, but—’
‘The sapphire flew into the crater,’ said Skoodle breathlessly, as he ran to Alex. Without pausing in his tumble of words, he pushed a flower into Alex’s mouth. ‘It landed close by me, so I shoved it into my cheeks. Any hamster can easily store a lump that size, with almost nothing showing.’ He pulled the flower out by the stem. ‘Cut the sucking-a-lemon face. Be grateful, or I’ll let Toomba have you.’
‘I am, truly,’ Alex whispered hoarsely.
Skoodle shoved the flower back into Alex’s mouth, creating a mulch of spit and flower juice. As the pool of bitter fluid slid down his throat Alex felt an outpouring of power passing through him, warm, blissful. The pain in his wrist and ribs died. The deep slash on his arm healed instantly, leaving a livid red weal. Alex touched it, amazed.
‘Late-onset birthmark,’ said Skoodle. ‘Anyway, Keeko pretended to have seen it fall into the crevasse. I sat on the ground playing the part of the sobbing rodent, nothing visible in my mouth. Then Keeko invented a distraction while I got to Zorrin. She’s a great actress.’
‘Played a little too convincingly for comfort,’ hissed Ikara. ‘In future I’ll have difficulty believing anything that Keeko says.’
Alex sat up, still weak but no longer in pain. An ominous rumbling began. Tremors shook the mountain as the unstable mass of stone shifted. An avalanche of rubble tumbled from the fresh ceiling crack.
‘Back to Phaedea before the whole cavern collapses,’ shouted Zorrin above the roar of the rock fall. ‘Ikara, get up here. Shrink.’
‘We must take the badger,’ yelled Flick, pointing to where Smuddy Binks had been felled. ‘He’s buried among those rocks.’
As Ikara swung herself up to the lip of the crater the others ran to where the badger had last been seen. They wrenched rocks aside, heads pounded by a hail of stones from above.
‘The badger can’t be alive after being buried under so much rubble,’ said Skoodle. ‘We’re digging for a corpse.’
‘Maybe not,’ replied Alex, grim-faced. ‘Dig on.’
‘I see the tip of his tail. Out of my way,’ yelled Tariq.
As the others fell back, his powerful paws ripped away the last of the rocks.
The badger lay bloodstained, one ear badly ripped, back left leg at a bizarre angle. Flick sank to her knees by his side. She put her head on his chest, then smiled. ‘He’s alive.’
‘Skoodle, get this flower down him,’ said Alex, thrusting one into a tiny paw.
‘Save him as we go. The roof could collapse in seconds,’ said Zorrin.
Tariq scooped up the badger, hoisting Skoodle up with the other paw. Skoodle was stuffing a blue flower into Smuddy Binks’s mouth as Zorrin yelled, ‘Ventus.’
They were swept towards the fireball-lit tunnel, arriving inside the mouth as the central ceiling collapsed, obliterating the cavern forever.
CHAPTER 36
Almost midnight. Fifteen minutes ago they had been standing exhausted in the tunnel, listening as the last of the tremors died away and the earth settled again. A few muttered words from Zorrin produced the now-familiar coldness and distant elfin music as they transparticulated to Phaedea, moored off Desdea.
‘There’s so much I don’t understand,’ Alex began once his body had passed through the hazy stage, his limbs becoming solid.
‘Eat first, then talk,’ said Flick, sweeping an arm over the galley table.
A magnificent feast appeared: bowls of hot soup, chicken pie, fruit, cake, juice. They all dropped into chairs and started eating as Zorrin pointed to a huge ripe pineapple. With a shower of sparks it began to peel itself, the skin unwrapping in one long curl. For a moment it hung in the air motionless, then began to twist itself into the outlines of various jungle creatures. The snake formed quickly, but it took several seconds to create a passable elephant.
‘Easy,’ hissed Ikara. ‘Rhino?’
Zorrin waved a finger. A charging rhino bore down on Tariq, who half rose to attack it. It became a monkey. Tariq sat back, laughing.
‘Tell me, Flick. How exactly did you manage to get enchanted by Karlan?’ asked Zorrin.
‘Stupidity,’ she replied, stabbing a hefty wedge of roast yam. ‘As soon as Karlan had flown into the stables he changed back into a man. Scheming, vengeful, back to full magic power, he crept to the main part of Ravenscraig, leaving the hexed drink for me.
On finding a goblet of gorgeous-smelling juice in the kitchen I drank it, believing it to have been left by either you or Viskar. Unfortunately – as I was distracted by relief at your sudden appearance and concern about Tariq – I didn’t register that it was magical, despite it being irresistible.’
‘This food’s irresistible. Is it enchanted?’ asked Keeko, ploughing her way through her fourth mango.
‘Only enough to make it yummy. Once I had drunk Karlan’s vile potion I had no choice but to obey his orders.’
‘Good spell. I must get the recipe,’ said Zorrin.
‘No chance. Subsequently, Karlan transmorphed into a mouse to eavesdrop on your plans. Yet Clawds has such a highly-developed sense of predor, he recognised him to be evil. Once you had gone, on Karlan’s orders, I released him from his bubble and took him down to the dungeons to talk to Tevo.’
‘But why didn’t you say something to us? Give a hint?’ asked Ikara.
‘I couldn’t, owing to the hex. Yet his influence was radically weakened by being lignified. That’s why I could send for you when threatened by someone other than him. I couldn’t directly contradict his orders, but I could do some things that he had not expressly forbidden and he had not banned me from sending a souvent.’
‘How would he have known that souvents exist?’ asked Zorrin.
Flick’s face broke out into a huge gin. ‘Exactly. He didn’t.’
‘But why did you imprison Rectoria?’ asked Alex.
‘She wasn’t working for Karlan at that time.’
Tariq picked up another hunk of warm fresh bread. ‘So under his orders you released the goblins from the dungeons and let the whole pack of them out of Ravenscraig?’
‘Yes, and led them to you. Yet even under the influence of such a major spell I’d insisted that you wouldn’t die, Zorrin. That was his major mistake, underestimating the power of the bond between brother and sister. For when he went to kill you and I moved to stop him, he stated that the agreement was broken. Hence the enchantment combusted.’
‘Thank Xenos for the love of a sister.’ Zorrin threw a ball of bread at Flick. Just before she caught it it morphed into a single white rose. ‘Why did Karlan have you release the goblin band? He and Tevo have been enemies in the past. Theirs seems an unlikely alliance.’
‘Karlan needed allies. Deep in the dungeons he made a pact with Tevo. He would get me to release all of them and hand over the Sword of Alwyn. In return they had to accompany us and fight for him. The goblins were more than happy to agree, as they love a battle. Furthermore, Tevo would have agreed to almost anything to get the Sword of Alwyn back.’
‘Which unfortunately they have achieved. That will be a problem for another day,’ sighed Zorrin.
A grunt escaped Smuddy Binks, lying sleeping on a chair.
Alex glanced over towards him. ‘Why did the badger help? Risked his life for us. Seems odd, when we only met him today.’
Flick told them all about Smuddy Binks’s visit to her room and how he’d subsequently lied for her. ‘I wasn’t sure of him at that point, which is why it seemed safer to imprison him with the others, but he’s certainly proved his loyalty to us.’
Zorrin pushed back his chair and stood up. ‘I’m going to the forward deck to fish for a while.’
With an uncomfortably overfull stomach, Alex followed Zorrin, Skoodle in his pocket. The moonlight seemed suspiciously bright. Alex suspected that Zorrin had somehow turned the brilliance up a few notches. The sea lapped at the gently rocking boat as a few clouds drifted across the heavens.
Zorrin was sitting on an air cushion, a drink and a bowl of nuts on a table beside him, the fishing line aiming straight upwards towards the moon. Figstaff slept nearby, his breathing so shallow that he resembled a statue of Buddha. Zorrin threw a Brazil nut at him. One of the frog’s eyes opened, his mouth yawned wide and the nut vanished down his throat. His heavy lids closed and he started snoring.
‘Asleep again in less than three seconds,’ said Zorrin. ‘Not a record, but close.’
Skoodle yawned. ‘This boat is awesome. Better than the caves. On an enjoyment scale of nought to ten this is ten – the encounter with Hypnos being about minus forty-two point three.’
‘So precise?’ asked Zorrin.
‘I don’t want to exaggerate.’
‘What are you hoping to catch?’ Alex asked, gazing up into the dark heavens in which the stars stood out as tiny bright holes in the velvet canopy.
‘Sky fish.’
There was a tug on Zorrin’s line. He reeled it in to find a pale blue octopus-shaped cloud. Zorrin unhooked the undulating mass. He glanced up at Alex. ‘I’ve got a reasonable chance of tracing your parents, as we know where the time tears that blew them away came from.’
‘I’ve just clicked. Is that why you kept Rectoria talking?’ asked Alex. ‘I thought you were stalling for time.’
‘No, fishing for information. If I can find more time tears at the same place they should transport me to the same era as your parents. Then I can bring them back to the present.’
Zorrin turned the luminous shape over, viewing it from all sides. ‘Only a dream.’ He allowed the cloud to float away then let the line play out, glinting silver in the moonlight.
‘We may have sent Karlan and Virida to the same time zone as your parents. However, I feel that Virginia and Mark should be a reasonable match for two displaced wizards.’
Alex picked up a Brazil nut. About to shove it in his mouth, he realised that he couldn’t stuff anything else in. He lobbed it to Figstaff. There was a pop as his mouth opened and the nut vanished. The frog closed his eyes, instantly asleep again.
‘Three seconds,’ said Alex. ‘Equalling you on my first attempt.’
‘Luck. Your final task on Eridor will be helping me return the sapphire to the heart of Makusha.’ He gave a wry smile as Alex shuddered. ‘The journey will not be bad at all this time. As the stone is in my possession, we’ll find a sunny tropical morning when we arrive.’
Zorrin gave his line an impatient shake. There was a strange stiffness in his body and his speech sounded odd. It’s like he’s being really formal, thought Alex. Then another thought crossed his mind. Or brave. Suddenly he understood.
Zorrin’s line straightened a little, swaying in the weak current, the hook drifting in the air. ‘Once you’ve replaced the sapphire you can return to your own country.’
‘Yes,’ shouted Skoodle, punching the air. ‘What do you think, Uncle Toomba? Leaving this place with poisonous snakes, evil wizards and exploding aqualates to return to safe old England… what?… yes, I know we haven’t found… but surely… oh, fine… thanks a whole heap.’
‘What did he say?’ asked Alex.
‘He didn’t answer.’
Alex scratched Skoodle behind the ears. ‘Toomba’s right. Since I know now that my parents are alive somewhere, I have to try to find them. Anyway, Eridor feels more like home than my aunt’s house ever did.’ Alex picked up a second rod and let his own line float towards the stars. ‘So you’re stuck with us for a while.’
As Alex’s hook drifted up to join his own, Zorrin grinned. ‘Ice.’
The Serpent of Eridor Page 23