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Big Wolf stares at his youngest son and messenger. The two traitors peer back, the distance bridged by betrayal. Primus scowls at his brother and turns away.
“You should know, Decipa helped us escape,” I tell them. “She told me they don’t want to be there.”
“But they are there,” Primus snaps. “Is the cat dead? Is it over?”
“No. He’s just tired. He’ll wake up,” I insist. He’d better wake up or we’re screwed.
“I told you all to stay hidden,” hollers Alpha, yet again, this time at the myriad pairs of shiny eyes blinking from the trees as our mixed pack assembles. “I give up.”
“Hello there,” a squeaky voice cheerfully calls down the valley, as though out for an evening jaunt. Armpit waves at me. I’m tempted to wave back, utilising a certain hand gesture, but I doubt he’ll know what it means. He laughs like a psychotic hyena and his entire army duly breaks into orchestrated hysterics behind him. Above their heads, the eagles caw and shriek in eye watering disharmony.
Armpit raises a hand, only as far as his shoulder, but the terrifying mania stops dead as though he pressed an off switch. He rotates his palm and a rumbling battle cry rolls towards us. The serpent men and women break into a swift march as an eagle grasps their puny king and flies him along at the head of his army. They’re coming. They’re not in serpent form yet, but they’re coming.
“Get Kit to the caves with Yellfire,” I holler, pointing at her retreating figure, “and hide him until he comes round.”
“Bears,” thunders Adamo. A pack of grizzlies crash through the trees at his call. “Pick up the cat and follow that wolf.”
They growl an affirmative and drape the rubbery limbed tigerlion over the backs of three bears, covering him in multiple coats to hide his stripy fur from the sky. They set off, jogging in parallel, left, right, left, right.
Screeching overhead announces the return of more eagles to our air space. Wings and Gulid glance at one another, shrug, slap wings and take to the skies.
“We need more time,” Dulcis cries, staring at the oncoming serpent army.
“Diversion,” yells Alpha, rocketing to life. “Wolves and bears, howl, growl and dash around. Keep them in the trees and away from the caves as long as possible. Curt get your mate out of here and under cover. They’ll be coming for her first.” He points into the trees. “The snakes went that way to hide. Anguis shouldn’t be far.”
“Let’s go,” says Curt, grabbing my hand and hauling me into the forest.
“Be safe,” I call out to my mixed pack.
“Bit late for that,” yells Dulcis, echoing Adamo’s line.
“Find Serpen as fast as you can,” Ursid calls to me, as he rallies his bears. He changes before I can answer.
Morphing into their animal forms, the growling pack of bears pelt down the valley towards the enemy, dangling themselves as bait before swerving into the forest.
“My wolves with me,” yells Primus, the southern heir apparent.
Peeping out from behind the bark of a tree, I watch the southern wolves amass into the second wave of decoys. “The serpents will know I’m not there because I’m human,” I mutter.
“I know,” Curt replies. “We have to go, now. You need to get this magic thing done.”
“I need Kit.”
“He’ll wake up. Now come on. We can’t help them.”
I’m staggering through the undergrowth after Curt when I hear Alpha’s lament. “This isn’t going to work. We should have stayed hidden.”
“My pack never did anything I said either,” Big Wolf tells him, clapping Alpha on the back right before they both change into their wolves. They turn up their heads and deliver one mighty joint howl and dash down the valley, two wounded warriors, side by side.
I run through the trees, following the land as it curves up to higher ground and thicker forest. Where would Serpen lead his snakes?
“Serpen,” I call out. “It’s Edi. I need your help. Where are you? Serpen.”
“Anguis,” yells Curt, surprisingly. “Get your scrawny backside down here. Edi needs you.” His wolf nose must have caught a scent.
“You called?”
In response to Curt’s summons, a pair of long, graceful legs swing down from a tree and drop into a ballet dancer’s plie in front of me.
“Good evening,” says Anguis. “I knew the breaking forth of chaos must herald your return. Since you’re here and the noise is deafening, I suspect it all went wrong in the castle. Was the magic idea hopeless?”
“Not hopeless,” I reply, flinging my arms around him for a swift hug. “Delayed.”
“Why?”
“I’d explain, but I’d have to say it all again to Serpen.”
“I’d better take you to him then.”
Anguis spins on his heel and grasps my hand, draping it across his arm like he’s escorting me to the dance floor. Curt grunts in his best disgruntled wolf manner and farts, loudly.
“Good to see you too, Curt,” Anguis throws over his shoulder as he guides me through the forest.
“What were you doing up that tree?” I ask him.
“Staying out of sight, unlike you two. I’m there to keep close contact with Alpha and the pack, to see what’s happening in the forest. Serpen and our snakes are hiding at that big drop.”
“In the mountains?” I splutter, remembering Alpha’s near fatal fall. “How did they get up there?”
“No. I mean the one here, in the forest,” Anguis replies.
“You mean the Dreadly Cliff?” Curt offers.
“The what cliff?” I ask, glancing back at my following wolf. “You never showed me a cliff. Actually, you never brought me south at all.”
“No, I didn’t,” Curt replies. “I knew you’d fall off it. Most likely dragging me with you.”
Anguis laughs and I withdraw my hand from his arm.
“Excuse me, Mange. I wasn’t the one who ate the mould or tried to kill himself in the vault.”
“You did fall off the castle wall.”
Anguis glances at me and decides not to comment.
“I didn’t fall or jump,” I insist. “Kit threw me off. What’s your excuse?”
“You know what?” Curt says, grabbing my now free arm and yanking me behind him. “You can stay there, just in case. The cliff’s not far. You’ll be on it suddenly. And it’s dark.”
That’s true. I can barely see where I’m putting my feet, which is great for staying hidden from enemy eagles, but not so good for staying upright.
“We’re here,” says Anguis.
We emerge from the treeline at the edge of a sheer drop, one mighty oak leaning over the precipice as though about to throw itself off, scraggly roots suspended in mid fling.
“Don’t get too close,” says Curt, sticking his palm in my stomach. “The edge crumbles and down you go.”
“Yes, thank you,” I reply, slapping his hand away.
Mind you, it’s a hefty drop, nonetheless. It’s also an expansive view over the valley, even illuminated by pale starlight. In the distance, flashes of flaming torchlight flicker through the trees as the serpents chase down the diversions. Above the forest, eagles swoop and dive. My heart aches for my family, striving to keep them all at bay.
“Great view,” I mutter, glancing above my exposed head for any eagle sightings. Only stars blink down at me, for now.
Anguis points to my left. “The children are in the caves down there. Audira or Mama Bear signal with torches. We’ll see if the serpents get too close, even in the dark. Who’s that?”
“Yelena.”
Her figure jogs down the valley at an enviably steady pace, heading for the caves. I’d be crawling in the dirt, hyperventilating by now, but Yellfire’s made good time without needing to turn wolf. The bears travel a short distance behind, carrying the unconscious cat, his covering rendering them almost invisible in the darkness. It’s only because I’m looking for them that I spot the moving shadow.
“The view’s great,” Curt tells Anguis, “but you’ll not be much use up here, waving.”
“On the contrary,” the ambassador replies, as though about to pull a rabbit from a hat. “If the serpents get near the children, we’ll be quickest to defend them.”
I peek over the cliff’s edge. “By breaking your neck in the fall? It’s a swift way down, but you won’t be good for anything when you land.”
Curt snorts.
“It’s not a sheer drop.”
The sudden voice directly behind us gives me such a fright, I trip over the precarious tree. A shower of soil detaches from the roots and scatters down the cliffside. Curt wraps both arms tightly around me.
“Alright, Mange,” I tell him. “I wasn’t jumping.”
The disembodied arrival turns out to be Serpen, carrying a burning torch, his face ghoulish in the flickering shadows.
“A snake can slither and slide down the cliff,” he continues. “I’d say welcome back, but I guess nothing good is coming our way. What did you do with the cat?”
“He’s down there,” says Curt, pointing in the direction of the caves, “taking a nap.”
“To be fair,” I interject on behalf of my sabre toothed friend, “he’s expended a lot of energy saving everyone. He’s a hero.”
“He’s mad,” adds Curt.
“That as well,” I agree. “But his magic will work. We just need to give him time.”
Now that we’re standing in a circle of light, glistening eyes and the odd flash of blond hair appear out of the darkness. Snakes listen with rapt attention to the doom bringer.
“So what changed?” Serpen asks. “Why didn’t it work?”
“It got more complicated,” I begin. “Here’s the potted version.”
“The what...”
“Never mind, just listen. When Kit planned to conjure the serpents away, he tried to exclude you and Sospa from the magic, but it wouldn’t work. The only way to send them away and still save you is for me to take you to Earth. Once the serpents have gone, we can come back, but that’ll be tough.”
“I’m going too,” states Curt, for no apparent reason.
Serpen glances at Anguis, then back at me. “I would have been prepared to accept the sacrifice for my people to be safe. If it were just me. But not Sospa...”
“I know. We’re not letting either of you go,” I reply.
“It would have been easier and safer for everyone else.”
“We’re one pack,” announces Anguis. “Well, aren’t we? Wasn’t all that southern wolf business about that? We care for one another.”
“That’s good,” mutters Curt. “Since he’s not getting back otherwise.”
“What does that mean?” asks an instantly suspicious Serpen.
Curt points straight at me, passing the buck. Deep breath. Here I go.
“Once the vortex taking the serpents closes, we can come back from Earth, but our portal will be against us, according to Kit,” I begin, deftly dumping the blame on the absent cat. “He says only the power of love can counteract the portal forces. Those who love us must anchor themselves against being pulled across and then reach out to bring us home. But we have to believe we’re loved for it to work.”
Silence.
“That’s ridiculous,” says Anguis, eventually.
“Yep, you couldn’t make it up,” agrees Curt, nudging me. “Well, she can, apparently.”
“If it saves Sospa, I would do whatever you want,” says Serpen, “but I’m the only serpent left to defend my people. I can’t just...”
A shower of leaf and dirt rains down as a swathe of snake people pop up, brushing off camouflage and amassing behind their king in a silent show of solidarity.
“Well, there we are,” states Anguis. “Go down there and find Sospa, quietly. It’ll draw too much attention if we all go, but we’ll follow if you signal for us.”
“Are you sure?” Serpen asks his snakes.
“Sospa needs you,” Anguis replies, “and we need you both.”
Mumbling agreement spreads through the snakes.
“Ambassador Anguis leads you now,” Serpen announces, facing his people. “You should know how very proud I am to have been your king. You deserved better.”
“We already have better,” states Anguis. “We await your return. All hail the king and our princess heir.”
The snakes all quietly echo that pronouncement, bringing a lump to everyone’s throat.
“What a load of gulch,” Curt mutters.
Alright, maybe not everyone.
“Hush up, Wolf,” I tell him. “I happen to know you’re soppy.”
“Am not.”
“Are so.”
“Did you call me an arsehole?”
“No. But you are.”
A teary eyed Serpen clears his throat and turns to Curt. “I’d be grateful if one of you could bring my clothes.”
“Bring your clothes where?” I ask, as Serpen hands the torch to Anguis and swiftly disrobes.
“Down there,” Anguis replies, pointing down the sheer drop with the torch.
Not happening. “No way we can get down there,” I state. “We’ll die. I don’t see any ropes.”
“You don’t need ropes. You’ll be riding on our king,” says Anguis, with an expression that makes me think he’s enjoying this.
A horrible ripping, squelching noise announces the return of the serpent. Thankfully he moved far enough away to avoid spraying me with gore. Not that I could get any dirtier than I already am. Curt nods at Serpen’s discarded clothes.
“What are you nodding at?” I snarl.
“I can’t carry them. I’ve got the book,” says the wolf, waving the offending item.
Muttering all the way, I swipe every piece of clothing off the dirt, stuffing them inside my coat, including a boot in each pocket. I can’t believe I’m actually going to sit on a serpent and go over a cliff. At least I’ll be padded when I fall off and bounce down the slope. Serpen undulates and his ridged head wafts down to my eye level to deliver a wink. My hesitation elicits a musical hiss from my friend.
“You scared, wobbly bum?” asks my wolf, goading me.
“I’m fine, thank you, limpwit. How do I get on?”
“Let me assist, my lady,” says Anguis.
Giving me no warning, he grabs my foot and propels me up and over the tail end, leaving me draped like an old saddle. I can hear them all quietly tittering as I haul one leg over the scaly bulk and sit up, facing the front end, thankfully. The ageing wolf with a dodgy hip is given a far gentler helping hand from the ambassador and he manages to leap up behind me. Shuffling into position, he wraps an arm around my padded middle. I admit that makes me feel better. Marginally.
“See you soon,” says Anguis and slaps the serpent’s tail.
One mighty undulation later, we’re off, slithering side to side, heading towards the cliff, way too fast. Curt tightens his grip on my midriff as we whip left and right.
“I don’t know about this,” he says.
Now he tells me.
Serpen’s front end goes over the edge and drops out of view, leaving us staring at thin air. I let out a terrified squeal as the snake rollercoaster slides over the cliff, taking my stomach and sanity with it.
