CHAPTER 35

JEFF GRABBED ME AND SHOUTED, “Now!”

Lecanora wagons slammed against the katyhopper’s barrier, stacked side to side and on top of each other. A Poof might have been able to get through, but nothing bigger.

They were standing there, creating a great barrier. But no one was touching them.

As Jeff put me down I heard the snakipedes slamming their heads against the wagons, but I wasn’t looking there. I looked for who was doing this. And I was unsurprised to see the Big Birds all clustered together and obviously concentrating.

“You and I are going to have a talk about this,” Jeff said. His voice was shaking and so was he.

Didn’t let go of kid and kitten, but hugged him one-armed. Tightly. “Hope you didn’t hurt Chuckie.”

“The flyboys wouldn’t let me,” he growled.

“Good. Chuckie’s better than you at realizing who’s the best person to do a job, Jeff.”

“I have no argument about the job you do, baby. I have an argument about my wife running off to face monsters by herself.”

“I knew I could find them.” I let go of Jeff and hugged Patrina and Pretty Girl. “They were extremely brave.”

As I said this, Patrina’s parents broke free from whoever had taken on the job of holding them back. They and the rest of their clan swarmed us. I handed Patrina to her mother, then gently moved out of the family circle.

“I need to speak with Nanda,” I told Jeff.

“Later. The strautruch can’t hold this barrier for long.”

“They’re telekinetic, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, appears so. You seem unsurprised.”

“They were carrying the bosthoon with too much ease, and if you have a section of your planet that assists with mind reading, it makes sense that there’s a part that helps with other psionic talents, too, and telekinesis is the most likely. Who came up with the barrier idea?”

“Chuck. The wagons wouldn’t fit through the tunnel and the Lecanora were making a fuss about leaving them, understandably. Chuck said that the wagons were needed to save Shealla and protect the rest of us, and they shut up and let him have them. As soon as the strautruch realized what he wanted to do, they helped.”

“And I’d bet that Leoalla saying ‘Do as Alcalla the Wise says’ helped a lot.”

He sighed. “Yes, it did. And you can stop worrying—I’m not mad at Chuck. Anymore. I know he was following your insane orders.”

Pointed to Patrina’s family. “I note again that my crazy’s working a lot better than your sanity.”

Jeff managed a laugh. “True as always.” He went over to the mink family. “Okay, folks, you need to hurry up and join the others and follow Binalla down the tunnels. Now,” he added sternly, while Patrina’s father kept on trying to take Pretty Girl away from her.

“The ocellar is Patrina’s,” I said in what I sincerely hoped was a Godly tone. “Patrina risked her life to save Pretty Girl, and bravery, love, and loyalty like that should be rewarded. I will clear things with Nanda, but as of right now, that cat is hers, and anyone trying to take it from her will answer to me.”

Patrina’s father put her and the ocellar down. She ran over to me and hugged my legs. “Thank you, Shealla! Pretty Girl thanks you, too!”

Bent down and hugged her. “It was my pleasure.”

Her mother grabbed her paw, then, whole family bowing to me in a really obsequious way, they backed off and ran to do what Jeff had told them to.

This left me, Jeff, and the strautruch in the cavern’s entrance. “Where’s Bruno?”

“I have him with Christopher, in case of something. He’s fine. Same with your new dog and cat. They’re with Chuck.”

Okay, I could stop worrying a bit about my pets. Checked my purse. Harlie, Poofikins, and Murphy were in my purse. Presumed Toby was back with Christopher and all the other Poofs were with their respective owners. “Great. What’s our plan?”

“The moment all of our group, animals included, are far enough into the tunnels that we can feel confident that the snakipedes can’t get to them, then everyone holds on and I run us to the others at hyperspeed. All the kids and elderly are on the backs of bosthoon, which supposedly never panic. Based on what we just went through, I’d say that’s accurate.”

“That’s a great plan, only it doesn’t cover what we do when the snakipedes reach the tunnel. I could outrun them because I could go anywhere. There’s nowhere to go in a tunnel other than through that tunnel. And we can’t go fast at all, even if the bosthoon were fleet of foot, which they very much are not.”

“I’m open to ideas.” Jeff shot a glance at the strautruch. “They can’t hold it too much longer, I don’t think.”

“No, probably not. And I assume we’re out of ammo.”

He nodded. “The guys kept their guns, just in case but, yeah, we’re out of bullets.”

Looked around the cavern. There were no convenient boulders in here. Looked at the wagon wall. “So . . . we’ve told the Lecanora that they’re never going to see their wagons again, right?”

“Right. They’re fully refugees now. Everything they own is being carried by each one of them. Conveniently they didn’t own much.” He sighed. “Still, they had homes, albeit traveling ones. They were better off before they met us. All of them were. Because if we fail, they’re all going to die. And us, too.”

Thought about this. “Maybe, but hold the fatalism at bay for a bit. I know we’re here for a reason. And it’s always darkest before the suns shows up or some such. We need to come up with another way.”

Trotted to one side of the wagon wall and looked out through a little gap between wagon and rock. There was enough light left that I could see that we had a lot of snakipede bodies on the ground. But still had at least a half a dozen or more in the air trying to break their way in.

Trotted back to the Big Birds. “I know you guys are concentrating, but I may have an idea. Can you manipulate things or just move them, make them lighter, or whatever it is you did to move the bosthoon and the wagons? As in, make the wagons fold in on themselves and sort of bite the snakipedes’ heads off?”

Received a couple of squawks and a garbled mental reply, but the gist appeared to be that, were they not exhausted, it was a definite maybe. Not good enough to bet on, especially now, however.

Time to come up with a stellar Plan B. Pity I didn’t have one.

Wrong thinking. I was stressed and that was never good. Reached into my purse to get my iPod—in times of stress music remained my go-to move, especially if sex with Jeff wasn’t possible, which it certainly was not at this precise time.

As I pulled the iPod out I looked at the screen. It was lit and the album cover being displayed was “Elemental” by Tears for Fears. The album that had the song that had saved us from a giant snake what seemed like so long ago now.

Dug out the speakers. They were small but powerful. I knew because they were speakers I’d coveted but hadn’t gotten yet because I was the wife of the Vice President and it was probably wrong to be blasting music wherever I went.

Other than here, apparently. Go team.

“Jeff? I have a plan.”