Rampage! (28 page)

‘Believe what?’ said Aries, unable to drag his eyes away from the cracks that now spliced the rock to reveal four stubby legs, each topped by a clawed foot.

‘The Lake Guardian,’ said Wat.

The shape began to tremble.

No, it began to
breathe.

Alex stared, awed, as the weird creature wrenched itself proud of the rock and stretched as though waking from a comfortable sleep. There was a scrunching sound, like a boat being dragged up a pebbled beach, and Alex realised that the creature’s skin wasn’t leathery like the other caimans. Instead, it was made of greasy-looking shards of rock that overlapped its head, back and legs, fitting it like a stony suit of armour. A line of jade bristled along its spine and twinkled greenly in the moonlight as it swung its head from side to side. Catching sight of Rose on the water below, it bellowed furiously.

‘According to the old legend,’ gasped Wat, wiping
his brow with his cuff, ‘El Dorado threw gold into the water to appease the demon of the lake.’

‘Demon?’ said Alex, feeling his stomach turn over.

‘Otherwise it would wreak misery on his people, stealing into the village at night and devouring them as they slept. Alack, I never believed in such a beast, what with it being some made-up creature from a flight-brained myth.’

‘Made-up creature from a flight-brained myth?’ muttered Aries.

‘Fain, I meant no insult, ram!’ soothed Wat, raising his upturned palms. ‘That was before our paths crossed.’

Alex lurched backwards, looking across the water at Rose, white-faced, in the canoe. ‘And if it thinks someone is taking its gold away –’

‘He’ll attack them,’ said Wat.

‘Then what are we waiting for!’ cried Aries as the Guardian spun its head round and began to stalk down the rock towards the lagoon. ‘We have to get Rose off the water.’

‘Wait!’ said Alex, suddenly noticing what the sorceress was doing.

Breathlessly, the others spun round and stared.

Medea was turning circles at the foot of the cliff, twisting her hands out in front of her. Abruptly she threw her arms over her head, releasing streamers of light.

Distracted, the Guardian dipped its head low and watched the dancing beams, fascinated, tilting its snout this way, then that, as she tossed the gleaming plumes
higher into the air. Wreathed in dancing black stars, they crackled and spat with energy. Entranced, the Guardian took a lumbering step down the rock in her direction.

‘She’s drawing it away from the maid,’ said Wat, his voice little more than a whisper.

And he was right.

All thoughts of Rose clearly forgotten, the Guardian’s eyes flashed like lighthouse flares as it stalked along the top of the cliff, following Medea and her trailing ribbons of light far below. Alex stared, certain that luring the Guardian away before the gold was raised must be the ‘much more unpleasant things’ the sorceress had told Rose about. Relieved, he realised that as long as it was following Medea, Rose was safe.

Yet how could she keep it distracted for long enough?

As if in answer, the sorceress drew the light back towards her and kneaded it between her hands. Then, throwing it like a basketball towards a hoop, she hurled the glittering globe high up the cliff to spotlight a craggy outcrop just below the summit.

The Guardian turned its massive head, its neck crunching as Alex felt his jaw drop in horror.

Tied spread-eagled across a boulder, high on a rocky ledge above Medea, and struggling hopelessly against the ropes of

XXIX

G
ANG
R
AM
S
TYLE

Flung back against the floor of the boat, Rose clung tightly to the canoe sides as it tipped and yawed, giddy as a see-saw on the boiling water of the lagoon. Clumps of rock smashed down either side of her, sending water slapping into the boat as she struggled to pull herself up. Her ears rang with the last of the thunderous rumbles and now she could hear someone screaming, shrill and terrified. Pawing her wet hair from her eyes, she saw the brightly lit outcrop of rock and the man tied to the boulder on it, his hair a flash of yellow against the grey stone. Despite her own terror, she knew that it had to be Jason and fleetingly imagined how clever Medea must have felt in giving the man who’d caused her so much heartache the best seat in the house for tonight’s performance.

Suddenly her eye was drawn to a scuttling in the shadows above him, and horrified, she saw something enormous and lizard-like skittering down across the face of the cliff. Her stomach roiled as a gigantic rock-clad caiman edged into the pool of light and threw open its glittering mouth. Unable to drag her eyes away, she
pulled herself upright and, pitched and bounced on the water, she stared upwards, utterly frozen with sudden knowledge.

Teeth like shards of rock.

As a wave of terror shuddered through her, she knew that this creature, this monster, this vile, vicious horror, was what her father must have seen when the men finally reached the lagoon. Her heart boomed in her head as the scene flashed in front of her. Daylight. Her father taking geological readings on the shore. The others in their dinghy, sinking their underwater cameras in the murk, and her father glancing up, to see that, that
thing
clambering down from the rock towards them, to stop them from what? Taking its gold? Certain of how the others had perished in the creature’s terrible jaws, she scrunched her eyes shut and hunched low in the canoe.

‘Rose!’ The sorceress’s voice splintered her thoughts. High and hectoring, it rang out over the lagoon. ‘Start pouring!’

Rose looked across to Medea standing on the shore. She was holding her arms outstretched far beneath the monster, like a weird puppeteer, tweaking its movements on invisible strings, controlling it, enticing it towards Jason.

‘Now!’ she yelled.

Rose stared at the bag on the floor. What should she do? Biting her lip, she glanced up, desperately scouring the shore for a glimpse of Alex, Aries and Wat, knowing that they could never have imagined Jason turning up like this either. Plucking the first vial out with trembling
fingers, she stared at the hateful green lights twinkling inside. She couldn’t, she shouldn’t, no, she
wouldn’t
pour it into the lake. It had never been part of the plan she’d made with the others. She simply had to pretend, that was all. Pretend to be raising the filthy gold. Woo the sorceress into a false sense of security and then destroy her.

Yet, even as she thought it, she knew that it was thoroughly stupid. It was far too late for deception now. If she failed to pour the potion into the lake, Medea would know, she’d know and then they would all be in terrible danger. Her hand was forced. The others would need more time. She clasped the vial tightly in her left hand. For a moment it felt like a hand grenade and the cork its pin, and it was with every cell in her body willing her to stop that Rose yanked it out and tipped the potion into the water.

There was a hissing sound and a whoosh of silvery smoke, as the spangles of green melted together and rippled away like a shimmering electric eel into the depths.

For a moment nothing happened and Rose found herself hoping madly that she might have misread the spell, have added too much Trojan ash or not enough bubbling lava so that the whole charm would fail. As the seconds stretched on, her hope grew and she tried to empty her mind, refusing to picture the gold rising, trying to sabotage the spell.

But, suddenly, like a whale blowing spray, a plume
of lagoon water shot high in the air. Glistening in the moonlight, it churned and frothed, a pillar of water, rocketing out of the lake. Something glinted at the top, like an exhibit on a pedestal, bouncing in the foam. Then, slowly, the pillar of water shrank down and, blinking, Rose saw a narrow gold figurine jostled on its watery top. Closer now, she could see that it was a crudely wrought eagle, its hammered wings tucked tightly behind it. The pillar dropped down again and again, so that it was only a metre, then half a metre above the top of the lagoon, shrinking away to leave the gold nested in a ring of froth on the surface. A second later, a caiman’s head bobbed up, then five or six more. There was a fierce wrestling thrash of scales and snouts as the caimans fought to snatch the prize, until one emerged victorious, carrying the eagle in its maw. Turning gracefully in the water, it began paddling towards Medea on the shore.

‘The gold’s coming up!’ gasped Alex.

Aries stared, horrified.

Behind him, Wat gaped like a goldfish, mesmerized by finally seeing the treasure that had lured so many to their deaths. From beneath the bluff, the sorceress’s laugh echoed back to them, sharp as shattering glass.

‘I can make the distance in twenty strides,’ hissed Aries, feeling his hocks trembling as Jason’s terrified screams twisted through the air, ‘before she gets her hands on it.’

‘No,’ said Alex.

‘But it’s the perfect moment,’ persisted Aries. ‘Look how distracted she is. We could —’

‘No!’

Aries looked up into Alex’s frowning face, knowing what he was going to say.

‘You have to save Jason.’

Aries brain erupted with fury. Wasn’t this whole sorry mess Jason’s fault in the first place? He was a liar, a coward and a cheat. Twice he’d abandoned them to save himself. And now his sneakiness had finally caught up with him. He snorted hotly and threw back his head. They should just finish the quest, deliver the Nemesis statue and take Rose back to her father.

Except that however much his brain told him it would serve Jason right to perish up there, it didn’t change the freezing frost around his heart at the thought of actually leaving Jason to his terrible fate.

‘Aries?’ Alex crouched down beside him. ‘I hate him too, for fooling me, for making me doubt you. Mostly I hate him for the way he left you to be extinguished. But ––’

‘I know,’ snorted Aries.

‘Besides,’ Alex smiled sadly, glancing up at the rock face, ‘you’re the only one who can make the climb in time.’

For what felt like a long moment, Aries looked into Alex’s anguished face and bit back his anger that of all people it should be Jason who ruined their simple plan to overthrow Medea.

Then he glanced over the boy’s shoulder. Over on the shoreline, the sorceress was stooped, calling out to a solitary caiman swimming back to her, with something chunky and gold clamped in its maw.

‘You have to get her right now,’ Aries said.

Turning, Alex pulled the shield up on to his chest and rubbed Aries’ head one last time.

‘And soon as we’re done,’ he promised, ‘we’ll come up and help you.’

Nodding, Aries stomped backwards out of the bush, wrenching himself free of the branches that snagged his harness. Determined now, he glanced back at Alex, confident that the boy could, no,
would
defeat Medea, and galloped towards the cliff.

The climb to the top was much steeper than it looked, but even with his injuries Aries made light work of it, deftly placing his hooves into every small indentation and sidestepping the clusters of loose shale that had shaken free when the Lake Guardian wrenched himself out of the ridge. Hocks stiffened, he quickly scrabbled up the narrow ledges and, wedging his front hooves into a couple of perfectly sized nooks, peered over the top of the bluff.

Jason was tethered a on a wide plateau a few metres below to his left, squealing and thrashing against the creeper ropes as the monster caiman circled him, its granite tail
chink-chink-chinking
over the rocks.

Instantly sensing the ram’s presence, the huge creature paused mid-step and, in stomach-twisting slow motion,
tilted its enormous V-shaped head round to regard Aries. Filmy eyelids flicked back over its eyes to reveal twin chunks of gleaming obsidian, twinkling like black glass. And, clearly amused to see Aries, it drew back its lips in a mockery of a smile, its jaws glittering with shards of quartz.

Aries held his breath as the Guardian lurched towards him. Just as suddenly, a flash of blinding white light exploded from the shore below. For a moment the monster froze, a black hump against the dazzling brilliance. A high-pitched yell rang up from the shore and Aries felt his heart soar, knowing that Alex had delivered the statue.

He’d done it.

He’d done it!

Medea was defeated.

Startled, the Lake Guardian now slammed down its foot and shot up the shallow slope, speedy as a sun-warmed lizard, towards Aries. But emboldened by Alex’s success, the ram skittered down the slope to meet it, horns first, and, twisting his head at the last moment, caught the Guardian under its jaw with a resounding crunch. Of course, on a normal caiman the throat would have been a fleshy weak spot and might have sent the creature winded, squealing away. But there was nothing fleshy or weak about the Lake Guardian and as Aries stumbled onto the plateau in a clatter of hoofs, his head felt as though he’d slammed it against a brick wall.

Roaring in fury, the Guardian stumbled back into
the pool of light and launched itself a second time at Aries. But Aries reared up out of its way, paddling his front hooves in the air, yelping as the rock-caiman’s snout glanced his belly, scraping it like the edge of a barnacled boat. As the Guardian twisted round, Aries brought his hooves furiously down and hammered them over the creature’s back, before pounding its terrible muzzle. He lifted his head into the night and snorted in delight. Grunting, the Guardian drew back, pawing at its injured nose and dizzily shaking its head.

Seizing his chance, Aries leaped over its sweeping tail and skidded to a stop beside Jason.

The Argonaut twisted his head to face him, wide-eyed. ‘I thought you were ––’

‘No thanks to you,’ snapped Aries, positioning himself behind Jason’s head, so that he could see the monster flailing a few metres away as he frantically began chewing at the first creeper.

Luckily, rams’ teeth are great at grinding grass, and even though the creeper was tough as ship’s rope, in only a few seconds Aries had snapped the first one in two. Then, hearing the crunch of approaching footsteps, he clopped round to Jason’s other side, chewing and staring as the Guardian stalked back over the rock towards them.

‘Athena preserve us!’ cried Jason, reaching across to Aries’ harness with his one free hand. He blindly groped for something from its buckles, and flung the first thing he found – the portrait of Zeus – at the Guardian.

Unfortunately, charming pictures of Greek gods are not known for their ability to stop furious monsters in their tracks and this one was no exception. Bouncing off the Guardian’s head, a giddily grinning Zeus vanished in a blur of parchment and silver. Fans made from Pegasus’s feathers aren’t of much use either and despite Jason’s furious lobbing, they still twirled into the night, as dangerous as a chicken aerobatics team. Now, finally snapping the last strand of creeper around Jason’s second hand, Aries rolled his eyes to see Dionysus’s flying cocktail stirrer whizz past his horns.

He snorted, wondering at the Argonaut’s desperation.

Until he heard a low, curious grunt.

Twisting his head back, Aries was startled to see the stirrer flip out what appeared to be two metal wings and flap over the rock, looping and diving, stitching the night with a fizzle of orange. It dipped and twirled, fluttering in circles and spiralling down and around the Guardian’s head. Fascinated, the giant caiman forgot all about Aries and Jason and began chasing it, lurching up and snapping at it, like the world’s ugliest kitten chasing a dazzling dragonfly.

Paddle,

            
Whir,

                       
Snap!

                                  
Paddle,

                                                  
Whir,

                                                            
Snap!

Aries lifted his head up from the creeper. ‘About my
statue at the zoo,’ he said, one eye on the Guardian as it flapped a webbed-foot after the stirrer.

‘What about it?’ demanded Jason, tearing uselessly at the creeper around his other foot.

Paddle,

              
Whir,

                         
Snap!

‘I want you to stop drawing moustaches on it and hanging targets from its rump.’

‘All right,’ gasped Jason. ‘Just hurry up.’

‘And no more funny hats?’

‘No more,’ said Jason.

Aries chewed again.

Paddle,

              
Whir,

                         
Snap!