Simon Thorn and the Viper's Pit

by Aimee Carter

  “I’m not the one who sneaks out all the time,” said Nolan with a sniff.

  “Really?” said Malcolm, eyebrow raised. “Is that how you want to play this?”

  “I don’t,” insisted Nolan, but he didn’t sound as sure of himself this time.

  Simon cleared his throat, and his uncle refocused on him. “Is—is this because of Celeste?” he said. “Nolan said—”

  “Yes, this is because of my mother. And Orion. And every other threat facing us in the five kingdoms.” Malcolm leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “I cannot tell you how important it is for the both of you to stay where I can protect you.”

  “I can protect myself,” said Nolan. Simon rolled his eyes, but secretly, he agreed with his brother. Malcolm was formidable, and any Animalgam with half a brain obeyed his orders. But Simon and his brother weren’t normal Animalgams. If they were being attacked by a bird, they could turn into a bear; if they were being attacked by a wolf, they could fly away. Their abilities were what made the original Beast King so dangerous and powerful all those centuries ago. The only difference was that Simon and Nolan had no intention of forcing the five Animalgam kingdoms to bow to them. Or at least Simon didn’t. He wasn’t so sure about his twin.

  “You think you can protect yourself, but you can’t, not yet,” said Malcolm. “Your education, just like your father’s, is going to be immeasurably more difficult than every other student’s simply because you won’t be focusing on one Animalgam form over the other. You, Nolan, will have to learn how to navigate all five kingdoms seamlessly before you’ll be ready to face the rest of the world. It took your father years to be comfortable with shifting between them. And you, Simon . . .” Their eyes met. “There is no bird in the sky that can defend itself alone against Orion’s flock. I can’t protect you up there, so I need you to stay down here, too.”

  Simon nodded wordlessly, his conscience already eating away at him. He couldn’t stand lying to his uncle, but what other choice did he have? He couldn’t stay and lose what might be his only chance at saving his mother. But he couldn’t tell Malcolm he was leaving, either. Not when his uncle would stop him.

  He tuned out the rest of the lecture, and as soon as Malcolm dismissed them, Simon made a beeline for the Alpha section. Instead of doing his homework, however, he locked his bedroom door and began to pack. His book bag could only hold so much, but somehow he managed to include enough clothes to last him a week and the notebook he’d discovered with all of the information about the Beast King. As he gazed around his room, his eyes fell on the collage of postcards his mother had sent him. Even if he was probably coming back, he couldn’t bear to leave them behind, so climbing onto his desk, he began to unpin them one by one and sort them into a neat stack.

  “Are you going to tell me where you’re going this time, or are you going to sneak off again and forget about me?” said Felix, scampering up onto the chair. Simon groaned.

  “I didn’t forget about you, Felix. I just figured I’d spare you a trip to the desert, since you don’t like snakes.”

  Felix shuddered. “You found Orion?”

  “I found my mother,” he said. “Or she found me, I guess. She sent me this.” He held up the Paradise Valley postcard for Felix to see. “It says ‘wish you were here.’ She wants me to come find her.”

  “And you’re going without telling anyone?” said Felix, his whiskers twitching disapprovingly. “Malcolm would help you.”

  The memory of Darryl lying in a pool of his own blood flashed through Simon’s mind, and he clenched his jaw. “Malcolm would never let me leave the Den. Besides, if Mom wanted his help, she would have written him, too. She probably doesn’t trust him.”

  “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, either,” said Felix. “Having a wolf on your side wouldn’t hurt.”

  Simon set a handful of pins down on his desk. “I’m not telling him, all right? So just drop it.”

  “You know you can’t go out there without someone watching your back—”

  “I said drop it.”

  Silence rang throughout the room, and Simon stopped, hunching over. He’d never yelled at Felix before. Not like that. But as he opened his mouth to apologize, the little mouse interrupted him. “What is this really about?”

  Wordlessly Simon finished gathering his postcards and climbed off the desk, not looking at Felix as he tucked them securely into the side pocket of his backpack. “The last time I asked someone for help, Darryl died,” he mumbled. “I’m not letting the same thing happen to Malcolm.”

  Felix sighed. “You know that wasn’t your fault.”

  “I’m not giving Orion the chance to kill the only uncle I have left,” he said. “Are you going to tell Malcolm?”

  Felix sniffed, clearly offended. “I am not a rat.”

  “Then help me,” said Simon. “I need to get out through the tunnel again after dinner. The zoo will be closed, and the pack will be patrolling.”

  “I’ll help you if you let me go with you,” said Felix. Simon shook his head.

  “I’m not taking you to Arizona. You’re an appetizer to half the reptile kingdom. Besides, someone needs to keep an eye on Winter,” he said.

  “She isn’t coming with you?”

  “Not unless I can convince her before the end of dinner.”

  Felix snorted and flopped onto the pillow. “Great. I’m never going anywhere again.”

  “You never know,” said Simon.

  However, as optimistic as he tried to be, by the time he walked into the dining hall, he knew his chances of convincing Winter were slim. His hopes dimmed even more when he spotted her in the corner, as far from their usual table as she could get. He headed over, but before he could say a word, she spoke.

  “I’m not coming with you.”

  “I—” Simon paused. “We can’t do this without you, Winter. We need you.”

  “Not my problem.” She turned the page of the book in front of her, and Simon bit the inside of his cheek.

  “Okay,” he said. “I just thought you should know that Robert Rivera is the head of the reptile council, and there’s a really good chance he’s the one who knows where the reptiles’ piece of the Predator is. I don’t know if he’s really your grandfather or not, but if he is—”

  “Simon.” At last she looked at him, her expression a mask of coldness. “I don’t care.”

  He exhaled, deflated. “Okay. If you change your mind, we’re meeting by Darryl’s statue after dinner.”

  Winter shifted her resolute stare to the page once more. Resigned, Simon returned to their usual table, where Jam rambled nervously throughout dinner, barely touching his sushi. While Ariana broke the monotony of his one-sided conversation every now and then, Simon remained silent, occasionally glancing over at Winter. She left the dining hall twenty minutes before dinner ended, and while he was tempted, he didn’t follow her. They would just have to figure out how to save his mother and find the reptiles’ piece of the Predator without her.

  Though Felix was still grouchy about not getting to come along, he once again stood guard, ready to distract the pack while Simon sneaked out through the tunnel behind Celeste’s portrait. Nolan must not have come back from dinner yet, and to Simon’s relief, Malcolm was nowhere in sight. He supposed there was some silver lining to Celeste causing trouble after all.

  The sky was already dark when Simon crawled out of the tunnel and onto the bridge near the pond. He crept across the zoo toward the wolf statue, careful to listen for any signs of the pack. No doubt they would be on high alert thanks to Celeste’s threat, and sure enough, before Simon could reach his uncle’s grave, he heard the telltale click of claws against stone.

  Ducking into a nearby bush, Simon remained as still as possible in the cold November breeze. He could see the wolf through the leaves, coming closer and closer as he sniffed the air. Simon’s palms began to sweat, and for a moment, he considered shifting into a rat or a cockroach to escape. But if he was caught
shifting, that would only make everything infinitely worse, so instead he held his breath, silently willing the wolf to leave.

  Suddenly the wolf’s ears perked up. Tilting his head, he howled a warning to his fellow pack members and, much to Simon’s relief, ran off toward the edge of the zoo.

  As soon as Simon was sure he was alone, he hurried across the courtyard, jumping from shadow to shadow until he reached the wolf statue. In the darkness he spotted a gleaming black spider clinging to the stone ear. “Did anyone see you?” he said.

  “No, but if you keep talking, someone’s going to hear you,” said Ariana in a tiny voice.

  Soft footsteps sounded against the stone nearby. Before Simon could hide, Jam appeared with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

  “Something’s going on. I saw seven members of the pack gathering near the polar bears,” said Jam. “They looked like they were waiting for something.”

  The spider dropped from the statue, and Ariana shifted back into her human form. “We need to leave while they’re distracted.”

  Simon opened his mouth to agree. The sooner they left, the better, but before he could say anything, someone behind them cleared his throat. “Going somewhere?”

  Ariana cursed, and Jam shrank behind the statue. With dread coiling inside him, Simon turned.

  Nolan stood on the cobblestones, his arms crossed and his lips twisted into a smirk. He must have followed them, Simon realized. “Go back inside, Nolan. It’s dangerous out here,” he said coolly.

  “I can protect myself. What can you do? Fly away?” said Nolan. “That’s great until a peregrine falcon catches up to you and—”

  Suddenly a huge hand appeared out of the shadows and grabbed Nolan’s shoulder, making him jump half a foot in the air. It would have been funny if Simon hadn’t also been terrified, and his heart pounded as Malcolm stepped out from a dark path.

  His uncle was more furious than Simon had ever seen him before, and for a moment, the three of them stared at one another. Simon’s mind raced as he tried to think of how to get out of this one. Sprouting feathers wasn’t the worst idea in the world right now, but he couldn’t leave Jam and Ariana behind.

  “Simon’s the one who sneaked out,” said Nolan quickly. “I was only following him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.”

  The anger didn’t fade from Malcolm’s eyes. “Tell me, both of you,” he said in a deep growl that made the hair on the back of Simon’s neck stand up. “Do you think this is all some sort of joke? Do you think your life is a game? And you, Benjamin, Ariana—do you not understand the danger Simon is in? Do you think you’re enough to protect him?”

  Simon tightened his grip on the strap of his backpack. “You don’t understand. We have to go—”

  “The only place you have to go is back into the Den, where a member of the pack will be assigned to watch you at all times for the rest of your school career,” said his uncle, advancing on him. “You can either come quietly, or you can clean the toilets in the mammal section for the next five years. It’s entirely up to you.”

  Simon let out a hiss of frustration. “Malcolm, if you’ll just listen—”

  A shrill cry filled the air, and goose bumps prickled over Simon’s skin. That wasn’t a wolf.

  He looked up. An entire army of birds of prey was gathering above the zoo. There had to be hundreds, a dark cloud that blotted out the moonlight.

  “The flock!” called Malcolm in a booming voice. With his hand still on Nolan’s shoulder, he started to drag him toward the safety of the nearest brick building, but when he reached for Simon as well, Simon dodged his grip, stumbling backward over the cobblestones.

  “I can’t. I—” He couldn’t go back, not when they were so close to freedom. If he didn’t leave now, he never would.

  In a split second, he took in the terror on Nolan’s face as the flock circled above them. His brother would be safe with Malcolm. Their uncle would protect him. And Simon—Simon would protect him by going to Arizona. He would find their mother and the reptiles’ piece of the Predator, and he would figure out a way to stop Orion from putting the weapon together and using it to kill his brother. In order to do that, he had to go.

  “I’m sorry, Malcolm,” he said. And before his uncle could protest, Simon darted across the open square toward the zoo exit.

  Wild-Goose Chase

  “Simon, wait!” shouted Malcolm, but Simon didn’t stop. With Jam and Ariana at his heels, he dashed past the zoo border and toward the Arsenal, the old brick building that marked the entrance to the underground Den. Beyond it was Fifth Avenue and the glittering city, with street lamps illuminating the bustling sidewalk. If Simon could just run fast enough—

  “Where do you think you’re going, Simon Thorn?” A red-tailed hawk landed on the concrete in front of him, blocking their path. Before Simon could dart around, the hawk shifted into a thin man with beady eyes. Perrin, Orion’s lieutenant.

  “Not with you,” said Simon, aiming a swift kick at Perrin’s knee before taking a sharp turn into the park. Perrin howled with pain, and Ariana and Jam quickly caught up with Simon, her hair whipping wildly behind her and his glasses askew.

  “We need to lose them,” said Ariana evenly, as if they were walking down the sidewalk instead of running at breakneck speed. “We can try the subway—”

  “No, that’s the rats’ territory,” gasped Simon. Celeste was already allied with the rat army; no doubt if the three of them stepped foot down there, she would capture them in an instant. “What about the bus?”

  A screech cut through the night sky, and Simon glanced up long enough to see the silhouette of a red-tailed hawk above them, along with a handful of falcons and other raptors. The rest must have been going after Malcolm and Nolan, he realized, horror spilling through him.

  “We can’t stop,” he managed, sucking in great gulps of air. “If we do, they’ll catch us. Is there another way to shake them before we get to Penn Station?”

  Ariana dodged a couple walking hand in hand down the path. “I have an idea,” she said. “We need to find a taxi. They won’t come after us if we’re with humans.”

  “Are you sure about that?” said Simon. The rats had had no problem attacking him in front of half of New York City. But Ariana nodded, and together they darted toward Fifth Avenue.

  It took them three blocks before Ariana managed to hail a cab without stopping. As they ducked inside, Simon once again shot a nervous look into the sky. Perrin and his soldiers circled the taxi, but none of them made a move to attack.

  As soon as Simon slammed the door shut behind him, Ariana said, “Times Square, fast as you can.”

  She shoved a crisp fifty-dollar bill under the driver’s nose, and he snatched it and slammed the gas pedal so hard that the tires squealed. Simon flew back against his seat, and he exchanged a look with Jam, who was squeezed in beside him. At least Ariana knew what she was doing.

  Minutes later, they reached their destination, and the three of them spilled out of the taxi and into the huge crowd. Times Square was chaotic and claustrophobic, with people pushing up against them from all sides and bright lights coming from every direction. Jam grabbed the handle of Simon’s backpack so they wouldn’t get separated, and Simon followed Ariana through the masses as best he could, losing her half a dozen times before he spotted her purple hair again. Whatever she was trying to do, it wasn’t working—the flock appeared overhead nearly as soon as they arrived, and from their vantage point in the sky, Simon and his friends had no chance of shaking them out in the open.

  “Ariana,” he said, his voice rising. She glanced up and cursed.

  “Hold on,” she muttered, stopping under an awning big enough to hide them from view. Leading them into an abandoned corner behind a sandwich board sign, she said, “I’m going to shift.”

  “In front of all these people?” said Jam, looking at the crowds passing by.

  “I’m a spider, not a bear. Everyone’s walking too quickly to no
tice, and even if they do, it’s hectic enough that they’ll think they imagined it,” she said. “You two wear these and head to Penn Station.”

  She produced a pair of hats she must have stolen from a vendor, and both Simon and Jam pulled them on. As a cluster of sightseers passed, all staring upward at the bright billboards decorating Times Square, Ariana knelt behind the sign like she was going to tie her shoelace. Instead she shifted into a black widow and immediately crawled up Simon’s clothes, settling near his collar.

  “Where are we going when we reach Penn Station?” said Simon as he walked out from underneath the awning and back out into the open. He didn’t dare look up at the birds and give them away.

  “Chicago,” said Jam. “We’ll pick up tickets to Arizona there, just in case. I researched the route on the captain’s computer during afternoon drills, while everyone else was in the water. It’ll take us a few days, but the train will bring us as far as Flagstaff, Arizona. We’ll figure out how to get to Paradise Valley from there.”

  “Why don’t we just fly?” said Simon as they hurried along, pushing their way past tourists with cameras and puffy jackets. Someone jostled him, and he quickly checked his shoulder to make sure the black spider still clung to his sweatshirt.

  “Do you have enough money for three airline tickets to Arizona?” said Ariana, her tiny voice barely audible. “Taking the train is much cheaper.”

  “It’s better like this anyway,” said Jam, his voice suddenly higher than usual. “The birds might take down our plane or something.”

  “Don’t lie. You just hate flying,” she said. Jam’s cheeks turned pink.

  “And you hate water, so I guess we’re even.”

  Ariana leaped from Simon’s shoulder to Jam’s, and the pair of them bickered for the next nine blocks. Simon tuned them out. All he cared about was the fact that he hadn’t heard a single squawk since the awning. Once they were clear of Times Square, he dared to look up again. There was no sign of the flock.

  Penn Station came into view, and Simon broke into a jog. “Follow me,” he called. A crowd surrounded the entrance, and he squeezed a path through them, closer and closer to the escalator that would take them inside the train station.