The Potion Diaries (28 page)

The normally solitary abominable is a creature that would run from mankind if it had the choice – but now Zain’s just made it angry. He runs to the edge, but as we feared – it’s too far to jump without breaking our legs or our necks or both.

The abominable’s already clambering onto our ledge. Its face is completely black and the hump smoulders where Zain hit it. It’s twice the size of Zain. Zain tries – in vain – to use his wand again, but his wand smokes, combusting from the inside. There’s no performing magic with that again.

I grab his hand. ‘Come on!’ There’s only one place that we can go. Back – back into the cave. Find somewhere to hide from it, wait until it gets bored, figure out some kind of plan.

We run into the cave. The abominable stops by our backpacks – maybe it thinks they are also a threat, just lying there like other humans – and takes them up in its great hands, ripping them apart and shredding them with its fingernails. It tears into our tent, sending strips of orange plastic into the air. It then dives in with its teeth, but that’s when I know we’ve lost our small advantage. Nothing in those packs is going to taste nice. It tosses them off the side.

‘This way.’ Zain pulls my arm. He’s chosen a path where the tunnel twists through a narrow channel. The abominable has spotted us, though. It comes towards us at a canter, and the entire cave shakes with its movement. Stalactites shake from their posts and fall on the monster, shattering off its back. No wonder Zain’s spell had no effect. Its hide must be extremely tough, if ancient stalactites that would easily have killed us can barely make an impact.

In the seconds it takes for the creature to reach the entrance of the narrow tunnel, we already know that it’s a dead end. We slam up against sheer rock, and I spin around. If I’m going to meet my end, I’m going to do it bravely.

Zain scrambles against the wall, trying to find something, anything that might help us break through or fight back. But there’s nothing.

The only blessing is that the abominable can’t get through to us. It thrusts its arm down the narrow tunnel, the claws, those nails, coming so insanely close that I scream and scream and scream. Zain grabs me, pinning me to the rock as closely as possible, even as the abominable screeches its frustration. Eventually those claws retreat, and maybe it realises we have no place to go, because it sits down right outside the entrance of our tunnel. I grab a pebble from the floor and mark a line in our little alcove. That’s how far the abominable’s claws will go. We don’t pass that line. Zain looks at me, and nods.

Then he holds his head in his hands. ‘Wh-what do we do?’ he stutters. ‘Oh god, we’re never getting out of here. We’re going to die here.’

He’s right. We could die here. It’s scary seeing him break down like this. I would be acting the same, if I didn’t have a plan.

In his panic, Zain throws down his smoking wand, and it crosses our line. The abominable jams its arm back down the tunnel, trying to reach the evil piece of wood that hurt it earlier. But I need that wand. I jump down and grab at it too.

The abominable’s nails rake my hand. I cry out in anguish. Zain pulls me back. ‘What are you doing?’ he yells.

I clutch my hand to my chest. Blood gushes from the wounds, and I can’t look at it, or else I might pass out. Zain takes his scarf and wraps it tightly around my hand. The muscles in my arm are trembling. I keep it tight against my body.

‘What did you do that for?’ he hisses.

‘I have a plan, but it needs your wand.’

‘Well you could have said something . . .’

‘I didn’t have time! If you could just keep your head!’ Tears blind my eyes. My hand stings like crazy. I’m lucky that abominables don’t have poisonous claws. At least, I think they don’t.

‘I’m sorry.’ He hugs my shoulders, careful not to press on my hand. ‘Right, a plan? That’s more than I’ve got. Can I help?’

‘I think you’re going to have to now. The only thing I was holding onto when the creature attacked is this.’ I point to the bag of ingredients that I dropped on the ground. ‘I think I have something in there that might help us.’

Zain picks up the red bag. He opens up the drawstring, and peers inside. ‘Oh god, Sam, I could kiss you.’

‘Let’s not start that again. The plan hasn’t worked yet. And honestly, I’m not sure that it will at this distance. At least . . . not with the abominable so awake. We might have to wait for a bit.’

Zain shrugs. ‘I don’t think we’re going anywhere.’

‘True.’

‘What do you need the wand for?’

‘It’s burning. Look at it.’ The wand still glows red. Still smokes. I blow on it, and its embers glow. It’s slightly magical fire, of course.

We settle down at the back of the cave, waiting for the abominable to show any signs of tiring. After an hour, the abominable has finally calmed down, and stopped clawing the edges of the tunnel. But its beady black eyes still stare at us with a glint of anger. It’s in this for the long haul.

‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Shake out some of the petals from the bag, and put them around the wand.’ It’s the mountain sweet I collected earlier. A heavy sedative – which only affects abominables. Nature often keeps its remedies close by. I’m just lucky my instincts struck me on the journey up here.

The petals need to smoke, or else it won’t work. But they won’t stay on top of the wand.

‘The drawstring,’ I say. Zain nods, and unthreads the drawstring from the bag. Then he ties the petals to the wand. Immediately the smoke, which had been black, turns a light blue colour. It’s working. I stand behind the smoky concoction, which we place right by the line. Then I start waving it down the tunnel.

The abominable shuts one of its eyes. It might be because of my concoction, we just can’t tell. ‘We’re going to have to get closer to it.’

‘But . . . is it working?’

‘I don’t know. If we’re lucky, it’s getting sleepy already. But we don’t have much mountain sweet petal left.’

He takes my hand, my good hand. ‘I’m going ahead of you, okay? This is my wand. My choice.’

‘It’s my idea though!’

‘And you’ve already been hurt for it. But you promise me something. If anything happens, and I mean, anything, you run for it. You run as fast as you can, and don’t look back.’

‘We’re doing this together. I won’t leave you.’

‘Don’t be stubborn!’

‘I’m not being stubborn. I’m just saying. We’re both going to get out of this, or neither of us are. This works, or it doesn’t.’

He studies my eyes, but he’s not going to see any hint of weakness.

Finally, he capitulates. He doesn’t have much choice. ‘Ready?’

‘Ready.’

We step over the line together. Then we both stop, our breath caught in our throats. I don’t even think my heart is beating. The abominable doesn’t move. Maybe some of the sedating smoke did reach it.

We take another step. Zain tries to pull ahead of me despite our agreement, but I catch up with him. We stand shoulder to shoulder, and take another step. Still no movement. Another step. Zain pushes in front as the tunnel narrows. Then there is movement. The abominable grunts, shifts its position. Zain holds the wand, with the petals still smoking at the end of it, the blue smoke drifting towards the creature. It tries to get up, but we keep moving forward. The smoke gets stronger. I can see the abominable groaning, struggling, its eyes rolling listlessly in its head. This is going to work.

The smoke embroils itself around the monster, drawn to it, attracted to it, settling on the creature’s fur, on its eyes. It’s managed to stand – it’s strong, this one – but as it tries to step forward it slumps down, suddenly drowsy. We’re almost in the cave proper. The abominable falls over, so that it’s lying on the ground. It opens one eye at me with an effort.

Zain starts running towards the cave entrance, towards the light, towards freedom and the exit.

For a second, I don’t come with him. I stare at the abominable, and it stares back. Zain yells my name.

The smoke starts to disperse. But I can’t have come all this way for nothing. I simply can’t. I lunge for the abominable but it has just enough strength to attempt to swat me away. I jump back.

‘Run, Sam!’ says Zain, and I turn reluctantly from the beast. Then I spot a clump of fur pinned to the ground by a fallen stalactite. I manage to grab a handful, wrenching it from beneath the rock.

Now I run.

I don’t look over my shoulder. I can sense the abominable lumbering to its feet, stumbling into the cave wall and causing other spears of stone to fall from the ceiling. I dodge around the falling debris, sheer adrenaline keeping me going. I can see Zain is yelling at me from the cave entrance, silhouetted by the bright light of the outside, but all of a sudden I can’t hear him. The beanie on his head is lifted up by a strong wind, and whips away. Then, from behind him rises an enormous helicopter, blades thumping in the cold mountain air.

Zain grabs the railing running down the side of the door and jumps up onto the first step, his other arm reaching back to me. I run to his open hand, and he pulls me up.

I’m inside the chopper, a seat belt being strapped around me. Back on the ledge, the abominable is nowhere to be seen. It won’t come near this terrifying flying beast. But as we pull away from the mountain, back towards safety, and home, I swear that I hear a mournful cry, almost human, from the depths of the cave.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Samantha

‘
I
F THEY WEREN’T READY TO BEFORE, YOUR parents are going to absolutely murder me,’ says Kirsty. ‘I swear, being a Finder isn’t normally
this
exciting.’

‘Oh really? I’m disappointed,’ I reply, with a small half-smile. We’re back in Pahara, in a small but cosy hotel. Kirsty filled me in on how she, Jedda and Zol struggled to get back down to base camp, and how Emilia escaped yet again, back down the other side of the mountain with her Sherpa. The others didn’t want to leave the mountain but knew they couldn’t find us on their own. Jedda’s leg needed urgent medical care, but he was now recovering. I don’t know what Zol must have paid to get a helicopter up to us. He probably could have bought the mountain with that amount of money.

It was Zain’s attack on the abominable – his useless attempt to use the wand – that helped us in the end. The spell worked like a flare. That and the abominable scattering pieces of our orange tent to the wind. Of course, when Kirsty spotted the first sign of a ripped-up tent, her mind jumped to the worst conclusion. In her head, we were as shredded as that tent. Luckily though, for his sins, Zol refused to believe that his son wouldn’t make it down from the mountain alive.

As for my parents – they were beside themselves, but there was no point in them coming out to Bharat when I was going to be on the next flight home. (After my near-death ordeal, they weren’t going to let me port anywhere – and there was no way I’d have the concentration anyway.) Other people did make the journey – namely, the media. There was no hiding from them this time, no reflective material to ward them off. Cameras flashed in Zain’s and my faces as we descended from the helicopter, and we rushed into the hotel to sounds of their shouting:

‘Zain! Zain! How close are you to curing the Princess?’

‘Sam, what does your family think of you allying with ZA Corp?’

‘Are you together, now?’

We’re not allies, I don’t think Zain and I are together but thanks to me, we both have the ingredient.

Yes, I’d shared the fur. Of course I’d shared. Even though my pride won’t let me entertain Zain’s idea of working with him towards a cure, I wasn’t going to thwart his attempts. Someone had to win the Hunt – and we couldn’t let it be Emilia Thoth.

Admittedly, that’s not the reaction I get when I speak to Dan and Kirsty that night.

‘You gave ZA half the abominable fur?’ says Dan. His voice is laced with scepticism. He’s taking notes for his big piece, but I don’t care how I come across.

‘Of course I did. Zain helped save my life. Twice, in fact – once from Emilia, once in the cave.’

‘It sounds to me more like you saved
his
life,’ says Kirsty, her arms folded across her chest.

She’s right about that. All Zain can go on about is how I saved him on the mountain with my impromptu mix of mountain sweet and wand-fire. To the press, to his parents, to everyone, Zain’s been insisting that I’m the hero.