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“Hello to you too, brother,” says Curt, finding his feet and hauling a muddy lock of hair out of his eyes. He whips the book out of my grasp with a “Give me that.”
“We were hiding here. Quietly,” Alpha replies, looking anything but pleased to see us. “Now we’ve got screeching and yelling and bangs going off in the sky, lighting up all the dark places where we’re hiding. You led them straight to us with all this noise. You could at least have turned up quietly. Why are you back if the serpents are still around?”
I’m scrambling to my feet, nursing my bruised bum, when a roaring tigerlion hurtles into our muddy group, giant paws skidding to a halt with a wave of mud that engulfs the moaning Alpha.
“You did that on purpose,” I mutter.
The cat grins at me before yawning so wide I can see his tonsils.
Alpha scrapes the mud out of his eyes and glares at me. Why me? It’s always my fault. He opens his mouth, but before a word comes out, Kit roars, “Raow. Raow. Raow,” and points both front paws over his shoulders. Farther up the valley, right in the path of the oncoming serpent army, a wall of flame ignites and rises high into the air, catching light to every tree in that vicinity.
“Watch the trees,” yells Alpha.
At least I think he does. I’m lip reading as another explosion goes off directly above us.
“What’s he doing?” Alpha demands.
“Saving our lives and yours too,” I shout back.
“Maybe now,” screams Alpha, in a very poor display of petulance. “We were fine before.”
A tattered, bruised and bleeding Wings staggers up and shoves his beak in Alpha’s muddy face.
“I am not being ungrateful,” Alpha tells his livid, beady eyed nanny.
“Yes, you are, Daddy.”
Dulcis dashes out of the trees, runs straight past her seething father and flings her arms around me. I had no idea how much I needed this until I hug her back.
“I am not ungrateful, I’m trying to... You get back into hiding,” Alpha bellows at his daughter.
“Bit late now,” says Adamo, jogging after her. He locks his hand around Alpha’s shoulder and gives him a bone crushing squeeze. “Looks like trouble’s already here. We probably need to start running.”
“Might have known this would be your doing,” says General Ursid, emerging directly behind his prince. He envelops me in a hug. “Why are you back? Didn’t the magic work?”
“Are the serpents here?” asks Primus, a step ahead of his father. “Hey, Edi’s back.”
“Get back in the trees,” yells Alpha, pretty much apoplectic with rage.
“They’re on fire down there,” Adamo replies, as though he’s only just noticed. “Is that the mad cat throwing the magic?”
Kit gives him a squinty eyed scowl and the ginger prince waves at him.
“Somebody. Listen. To. Me,” bellows Alpha in his full werewolf voice.
Curt tucks the DreamWay in his filthy shirt and grabs his brother by the shoulders. “Stop shouting, Parco, and listen to me.” His brother’s use of his pre Alpha name sends him temporarily mute. “The serpents are right on Kit’s scraggy tail. They’re already here. The fire magic may hold them back, but it won’t stop them. We need to find Serpen and Sospa.”
“What?” stammers a confused Alpha. “Why?”
“Kit needs to conjure and me storytell,” I add. “We can still send the serpents away, but we need Serpen and Sospa before we do it.”
“Sospa?” echoes Alpha. “Why? She’s a child.”
Gulid squawks and his eyes cross.
“Didn’t Gulid tell you what’s happening?” I ask, extricating myself from Ursid’s embrace.
Alpha scowls. “He flew in, changed, yelled a lot of gulch I didn’t understand and flew off again, before I could say a word.”
“Right.” Curt shakes his brother to get his attention and taps the DreamWay. “Listen carefully. Kit and Edi can send the serpents into the book, but Serpen and Sospa would go too.” He points at me. “So idiot over there is going back to Ert with them, until it’s done. And I’m going with her.”
“Why?” Alpha asks.
“Who knows?” Curt replies. “I just am.”
There’s a flash and a huge bang right over their heads and the brothers simultaneously duck and fling their arms around each other with fright. It’s entirely inappropriate, but I guffaw as Curt yells, “Stop doing that,” at the tigerlion.
Kit points at the sky with a toe. “For the stupid amongst us - Eagles above us. Serpents out there.” He rotates the toe to himself. “Very tired. Soon out of energy. Then firewall comes down. Understand?”
“Let me get this straight,” says Alpha, staring at him. “You could have magicked them all away when you were at the castle, but you came back here, bringing them all with you?”
“It wasn’t Kit’s decision,” I tell him. “It was mine, for Serpen and Sospa. Are you saying I was wrong?”
“No,” thunders the one wolf yet to pile in.
Yellfire marches past her son and grandson, heading straight for me with murder in her eyes. I brace myself.
“You did the right thing,” she announces, grabbing my hand and pumping it up and down. “We’re not giving up my, er that little snake.”
“She’s coming with me to Earth until it’s all over,” I repeat.
“Good.”
“Why didn’t you send Gulid to get Serpen and Sospa?” asks Alpha, with a belligerent air of incredulity.
That’s when I expend more precious time trying to explain the difference between a vortex and a portal and realms and magic and opposing forces and the ins and outs of the need for love and anchors and goodness knows what, we don’t have all night. They all look at me as though I’ve gone stark raving mad, so my diatribe ends with me shouting, “Just trust me.”
“So, whoever loves them most, can pull them back from Ert?” asks Yelena.
“Yes. And it’s Earth.”
“The children are in the caves,” she says, tugging her coat into place and setting off at a brisk pace. “I’ll go for Sospa. You find Serpen and bring him there. There’s more rocks to anchor ourselves to and trees that aren’t on fire. I’ll tell the others you’re coming.”
Another loud bang makes me jump, but Yellfire barely quivers and her pace doesn’t falter. For once, I’m glad to have her on my side, and Sospa’s.
“And who do you expect to hold back the serpents?” bellows Alpha.
“We can hold them off,” says Curt. “We have the cat’s magic.”
That, of course, is when Kit emits a rolling groan and keels over on his side. The wall of flame wavers, delivers a weak pop and fades away with a sad fizzle, revealing the front line of sneering, soon to be serpents and their nondescript king, staring down the valley.
And, front and centre, Fidus and Decipa.
“Typical,” says Alpha.
