As Valor led them out of the reeds, Wily found himself on one of the jutting precipices of the Web. The view to the forest below was staggering, and looking far to the north, Wily thought he could spot the lake that was home to the Floating City and the mountains beyond that hid the entrance to Carrion Tomb. But Wily knew his attention should be on the nearby cave and the strange pattern of claw prints in the mud in front of it.
“Do you think it’s inside?” Wily asked as he peered into the darkness of the cave.
“Nope,” Valor said. “I think it’s right behind you.”
Wily turned to see a two-headed beast crawling toward him on six clawed legs. It had the body and tail of a giant panther—but its two heads were not a panther’s. One head resembled an eagle with a giant horn sticking out from between its eyes. The other looked as if it had been taken from a goat, except that it had dagger-sharp fangs where its teeth should be. Neither head looked friendly.
“I’d say good luck,” Valor said as she scurried over and took cover behind a nearby rock, “but I think you’re going to need a lot more than that.”
Wily’s heart was racing as he faced the beast on his own. The manticorn didn’t hesitate. It pounced on Wily, its mighty body striking the ground just as he rolled away. The eagle head let out an ear-piercing screech. Not to be outdone, the goat released a terrifying bleat.
I’ve faced off against crab dragons and fed swarms of ghost spiders without blinking an eye, Wily reassured himself. Just take it nice and easy.
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a slice of tunnel trout. Both heads of the manticorn eyed the salted fish in his hand.
“That’s right,” Wily said, holding the fish out before him. “Salted tunnel trout. Very yummy.”
The two heads of the manticorn snapped the air as it moved closer.
“Which of you is going to get it?” Wily asked.
As both heads lunged for the briny treat, Wily took a quick step back and tossed the fish over the manticorn. The salty treat landed behind the beast.
Unfortunately, the beast didn’t turn for it the way a giant scorpion or ghost spider would have. It kept all four of its eyes locked on Wily and let out another screech and bleat in unison. And although Wily was not fluent in either Avian or Hoofspeak, he was pretty sure the manticorn’s two heads had said something to the effect of “I’m not falling for that. I’ve got my eyes on a bigger meal.” The manticorn pounced again at Wily, who scrambled back and grabbed a tree branch to defend himself.
He was cornered.
This is it, Wily thought. This is the moment when Valor will see that I’m in mortal danger, come rescue me, quell the manticorn, and change her mind about helping us on our quest.
He looked over his shoulder to find—that Valor was nowhere to be seen.
The manticorn moved closer, preparing to feast.
This is not what I expected to happen, Wily thought. “Valor!” he called out. “I need help!”
“If Olgara thought you were ready,” Valor replied from her hiding spot, “I’m sure you’ve got this.”
Wily realized he had to do this on his own. I need to find a way to get on the back of the manticorn and quell it myself.
Wily knew what Odette would do if she were in this situation: she’d use the stick he was holding to vault up and over the two manticorn heads, making a perfect landing on the beast’s back. The problem was that he was not trained to pull off that complicated an acrobatic maneuver. Besides, backflips were not the way he dealt with trouble. He invented his way out of problems. He scanned the ground for a solution. Is there something I could use as springs for my shoes? Or a giant elastic string to launch myself like a tomato from a slingshot?
As he dodged the sharp horn jutting out of the eagle’s forehead, he spotted an oval-shaped rock on the ground. Then he looked down at the branch in his hand. He could use it to make a simple lever, just a beam and a fulcrum.
Now the ram’s head lunged at Wily with its black-tipped fangs. He rolled out of the way and laid the branch on top of the rock so that it was perfectly balanced in the center. Wily hopped onto the end of the branch that was closer to the manticorn, then turned to face the beast as it stalked forward.
“Okay!” Wily taunted the beast. “Pounce on me.”
The manticorn bent its knees just like it had before, preparing to leap. As it launched itself into the air, Wily quickly backed up, positioning himself on the other side of the makeshift seesaw. When the manticorn landed on the empty, elevated side of the lever, the impact sent Wily flying into the air, up and over the heads of the beast. Wily landed on the back of the manticorn, facing the creature’s tail.
As the manticorn tried to buck Wily to the ground, he slid up its back and spun around so that he was facing the front of the thrashing beast. He found the spot at the base of the two necks and grabbed it with his fingers.
I can do this, Wily thought. Quell the manticorn.
He squeezed tightly down on the spot where the eagle and goat necks joined together.
Use calm energy. Channel it into the pressure point.
The manticorn lashed wildly, kicking its hind legs.
You have to do this right, Wily silently shouted at himself. Everyone is counting on you.
It wasn’t working. The beast was beginning to thrash more.
What am I doing wrong?
He had the sudden feeling that he was going to disappoint all his friends. All the people of Panthasos who were counting on him to be perfect. The pressure he’d been feeling over the last few months pressed down on his shoulders heavier than ever before.
The manticorn was only getting more riled. Wily realized he was channeling the wrong kind of energy. But the panic of doing the wrong thing only got him more agitated.
I can’t quell the beast. I can’t do any of this. It’s too hard to be the perfect prince. The perfect future king. It’s all too much.
The manticorn shook its back with such force that Wily went flying into a boulder on the edge of the Web’s jagged cliff. All the air went out of him, and when he was finally able to breathe again and looked up, the manticorn was practically on top of him.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw Valor running. She let out a wild bird screech that sent a flock of herons fluttering out of the bushes. The manticorn was distracted by the birds. It snatched one with its beaked eagle mouth.
This gave Valor enough time to jump onto the manticorn’s back. Wily watched as the manticorn tried to shake her. But as the beast struggled, it seemed to be slowly losing the will to fight.
“Down!” Valor said as she pressed her hands firmly into the beast’s neck.
The manticorn dropped its belly to the ground submissively. Then it opened its mouth and let the caught heron limp away with only an injured wing.
After another moment, the manticorn’s two heads began to coo and baa quietly.
Valor bounded off the back of the creature. “Who’s a good two-headed manticorn?” she said as she scratched behind the goat head’s ear.
The eagle head gently nudged Valor’s shoulder with its horn.
“I haven’t forgotten about you,” Valor said. She gently stroked the line of white feathers above the eagle head’s eyes.
The manticorn rolled over, exposing its furry belly. Valor kneeled down to give it some soft belly rubs.
Then Valor turned to Wily. “I knew what you were planning from the moment we left,” she said. “I saw right through your lie. Olgara would never have asked me to take you. You thought that you could turn me into the hero. Make me see myself in a new light. And that I would join you on your mission.”
“Well…,” Wily said, “will you?”
“Not a chance. I don’t need to be a hero for Panthasos. Let the kingdom fall for all I care.”
“Then why did you bring me up here?” Wily asked.
“Because it was fun watching you squirm.”
“You came just to embarrass me?” Wily said, feeling his cheeks redden.
“You’re going to need to find another way to deal with the stone golems,” Valor continued. “Because there’s no way you are quelling a lair beast. Maybe you could get a chisel and chip away at them very slowly.”
Valor turned and started back through the reeds with the manticorn following behind, tail wagging happily.
Wily wondered what he was going to do. If the pressure of princehood had seemed heavy before, now it felt as if he were a single stone pillar supporting an entire mountain range.
DURING THEIR WALK back down the mountain, Wily had tried several times to appeal to Valor’s sympathy. He hadn’t been doing a very good job.
“The Roamabouts don’t need towns or villages or castles,” Valor said. “They only create more problems. The stone golems will be doing us all a favor.”
“Stalag and his fellow mages,” Wily pleaded, “care only about themselves. They’ll use the throne to fill their own vaults while the less fortunate suffer.”
“Doesn’t sound like my problem,” Valor said. “Or the problem of any of the wild beasts of the land.”
Both heads of the manticorn snorted in agreement.
As the path twisted under the stone legs of Spider Rock, Wily wondered how he was going to break the horrible news to the others. He had failed them and every Panthasan who Stalag would soon treat with the same cruelty he had shown Wily for all those years in Carrion Tomb.
Just ahead, Valor raised a hand to signal Wily and the manticorn to stop. She bent down near a small mushroom patch.
“Is it dangerous?” Wily called out cautiously.
“Not in the least,” she replied. “I just don’t want you scaring it away.”
Valor reached out and picked up something gently in her hands. Wily moved closer and saw she was holding a small furry animal with eyes that took up half its face.
“What is it?” Wily asked.
“A baby wildeboar,” Valor said. “He must have wandered off.” She spoke directly to the wildeboar. “Your mother must be terrified. You need to stay near her until you grow your first pair of tusks.”
The small little animal gave a timid squeak. Then it nuzzled tightly into Valor’s hands, pressing its snout into the crook of her thumb and forefinger.
“You are a cute one,” she said with a smile.
The manticorn’s two heads bleated and squawked in unison.
“You’re very cute too,” Valor reassured the manticorn.
Both the eagle head and goat head seemed to grin, satisfied.
“You stay here,” Valor gently commanded the manticorn.
The beast lay down, pressing its body up against the warm, dusty road. Wily was impressed. Even the beasts of Carrion Tomb that he’d spent his entire life training had never responded with such understanding and obedience.
Valor stepped off the path and into the underbrush. Wily followed behind her as she stepped over berry shrubs and chunks of rock that must have slid down the steep cliff during the last rainstorm.
“Shhhh,” Valor admonished him. “We don’t want to scare away the rest of the family.”
Wily could have sworn he was being just as silent as her, but clearly she would have disagreed.
“Many small animals make their homes here because of the safety it provides. The arches of Spider Rock block the view of the terrorhawks that patrol the clouds. And the hunters from the neighboring villages stay away in fear of the bigger beasts that lurk in the forest.”
As they approached the rocky mountainside, the wildeboar sniffed the air and gave a little squeal of happiness. The underside of Spider Rock was teeming with life. Families of swallows had built mud nests all along the cracks in the stone. Frogs and lizards bathed in the small pools made from the dripping rocks above. Mice and ferrets stuck their heads out from the burrows in the dirt. From the path just a few strides away, none of this could be seen. Wily was amazed by how much life was hidden just beyond his eyes. It reminded him of the maintenance tunnels of Carrion Tomb; while most invaders saw only the main path, there was so much secretly happening just out of sight.
“Look,” Valor said with a grin, “there’s his family.”
Wily spied a mama wildeboar with her squeal of pups gathered around her. The mama boar began to grunt as Valor approached with the baby in hand. She gently put it down on the ground. The baby wildeboar ran to its mother’s side, happily joining its siblings. The mother wildeboar gave a little squeal to Valor, thanking her.
The sweet reunion gave Wily a comforting rush of good feelings. It almost made him forget all about what had just happened with the manticorn.
“I care about the people of Panthasos the way you care about these animals,” Wily said. “Please help me. If you just met some of the wall-dwellers, I think—”
“You think you have something to teach me?” Valor scoffed. “The boy who spent his whole life underground? You’re the one that’s sheltered. You’re the one who has a lot to learn.”
“In the last few months, I’ve grown so much.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Valor said as she clenched her fist. “I saw what your father did. What a king is capable of. You will be no different from him. And this Stalag you talk about will be no different either. No person should rule anyone else. Especially if they’re only twelve.”
Valor turned her back on Wily and stormed away, leaving him with the menagerie of animals. The birds, mammals, and reptiles all stared at him.
Valor’s right, he thought bitterly. He might be the future king of Panthasos, but the last thing these animals needed was somebody to rule over them.