The Serpent of Eridor (17 page)

‘No,' replied Zorrin. ‘This map may not be self-updating. We could appear immediately in front of Hypnos or in the middle of a stone wall. Either would be a painful death. We'll reparticulate in the jungle, then approach via one of the tunnels leading to the central cave.'

‘And I suppose you want us to start instantly,' said Ikara. ‘One hundred per cent mental effort, then full-on physical.'

‘I think not,' said Zorrin, turning towards her with a smile. ‘Tomorrow at first light will be soon enough. We need to be refreshed to meet the challenges of Desdea.'

‘Frankly,' said Alex, tossing a grape to Ikara, ‘I'm in no rush to meet Hypnos, even if the back end might be a half-brother of yours.'

Ikara caught it in her mouth. ‘Front half aqua, back bit late, as we might be tomorrow. Late departed.'

‘Write “Gone to lunch with Toomba” on my gravestone,' said Skoodle. ‘That's if anyone can find enough bits of me to bury.'

The jungle was dark and sinister, its vegetation dense. No bright flashes of colour broke up the shades of green and brown enmeshed with black. A rich earthy smell mingled with the musty aroma of the leaves that had been crushed on reparticulation.

‘Can you feel evil here?' Tariq asked Alex.

‘Yes, very strongly.'

Zorrin raised an eyebrow at Tariq.

‘Alex has the power of predor.'

‘Unfortunately you're right, Alex. I can feel it too,' replied Zorrin. ‘However, I don't sense a strong magic field. There will doubtless be powerful defences, but it seems that an enchanted wall is not one of them.'

They set off in a straggling line, Zorrin navigating by his watch crystal, which now held a copy of the map.

As they strode deeper into the jungle, hairs rose on the back of Alex's neck. His palms grew sweaty and his pulse raced, as if he were a hunted animal. Yet there was no obvious threat. Colours shifted in the dappled light of the weak sun, which struggled to break through the dense canopy above. Long black vines entwined themselves in strangleholds around the branches then cascaded on to the forest floor. Great droplets of condensation quivered on the ends of leaves, dripping chillingly on to their faces as they brushed past.

Keeko clung tighter to Tariq's chest. As they moved through the thick curtain of vines she reached up to push one out of her way. ‘It's a snake.' Looking around, she screamed, ‘They all are.'

The jungle writhed into life. Serpents dropped to the jungle floor, coiling themselves around the limbs and bodies of the invaders, enveloping them in cold moving flesh. The world became a sea of black muscle, blazing red eyes, flickering tongues.

‘Volta,' shouted Zorrin.

An electric bolt shot through Alex's body. Jolted rigid with pain, he couldn't breathe. The snakes arched backwards as the shock bolted into them then fell motionless to the ground. Instantly more snakes twined around him, bodies like flexible steel cables, hard, tight, painful.

‘Transparticulate us,' shouted Ikara, wrestling with a snake twice her size.

‘I can't,' Zorrin gasped, almost suffocated by a snake around his face stifling him, another clamped round his chest. ‘We're not close enough together.
Volta
.'

A shaft of white-hot pain seared up Alex's thigh followed by warmth as if he was bleeding, then numbness. ‘My ankle's been bitten,' he yelled.

‘Squeeze your thigh to stop the venom spreading,' Zorrin shouted back.

It was too late. Alex felt light-headed, hot and sweaty, as poison raged around his body. Skoodle scrambled out of his top pocket.

‘Don't move,' Alex muttered. ‘The snakes will get you.'

Undaunted, the pinprick of feet travelled upwards. Alex's legs were starting to buckle, his arms hanging uselessly, his breathing heavy.

Through swimming vision he could see Skoodle's face only inches away, a blue flower held in one of his front paws – the open mouth of a snake immediately behind him. The teeth started closing in on Skoodle.

‘Skoodle,' Alex said, mouth muscles tight. ‘Behind—' The numbness of his lips stopped any further words as his muscles stiffened in the final agonising phase of paralysis.

There was a dull thud by Alex's ear. A small-pronged fork pushed into his mouth.
It must be a snake tongue injecting venom deep into my core,
he thought. He tried to spit it out as his eyes started to close for the last time, but his mouth was too weak to work. Everything lay hidden in a thick mist as blackness moved in. There was no more pain in his body. The paralysis must now be complete. They would all die together: Skoodle eaten, the others poisoned or suffocated. Alex felt totally calm for there was no more fight in him, no further struggling to be done.

‘Volta.'

As the weight fell away from his body Alex found he could move. Two glistening eyes were staring straight into his. Instinctively his hand rose to pulverise the snake that had eaten Skoodle but his reactions were still slow. The sluggish hand missed.

‘What are you doing?' squeaked an indignant voice.

‘Sorry,' he croaked, throat tight. ‘I thought you were the snake that had eaten you.'

‘Nobody ate me. Keeko fixed him.'

As sensation returned Alex became aware of Keeko wrapped round his chest, blood on her foot. At his feet lay the unconscious body of a snake, bleeding from a gash on its head.

‘She kicked the stuffing out of him.' Skoodle's voice rose in terror. ‘Hide me.'

Another snake's head reared into Alex's vision, sweeping rapidly down towards Skoodle.

Alex rammed Skoodle inside his shirt, hand over the top. The snake's teeth tore into his shoulder.

Grabbing the serpent behind its head Alex squeezed with strength born of anger. ‘Can't get me. Blue flower protection.'

The jaws opened as the snake gasped for air. With no pity, Alex squeezed the life out of him, ignoring the other snakes wrapping themselves around his limbs and body.

‘Volta.'

The snakes fell back, stunned. The pile of unconscious bodies lay a foot deep. Yet still more came to attack, dropping from trees, slithering over their unconscious comrades to get to their victims. Alex flung the snake's body on to the pile.

Tariq's voice scorched across the gap. ‘Save yourself, Zorrin. There's no sense in all of us dying.'

‘No. I'm not leaving you,' yelled Zorrin as he wrestled with an enormous serpent which had wound its way up through his long curly hair, its body round his throat. ‘Without the shock we are seconds from death.
Volta
.'

‘The eagle feather,' shouted Tariq. ‘Call on it.'

Zorrin reached into an inside pocket, getting to the feather seconds before a snake clamped his arm to his body.

‘Help us,' he bellowed. ‘We're in mortal danger.'

Alex hoped that the snakes would evaporate or explode. Little else would help. Even with an entire rainstorm of swords they couldn't hack their way through the mass of snake heads that came in waves. Like the Hydra, where one fell two took its place.

‘Feather, do something. We're minutes from death,' cried Zorrin. ‘
Volta.'

The adrenaline rush of battle spurred on both attacked and attackers. The fight grew fiercer: the snakes fuelled by the smell of blood, sweat and fear; Zorrin's group by anger, revulsion and frustration.

‘Something's happening,' choked out Ikara, her senses infinitely more acute than the others'.

Then they all heard it: a rhythmical beating noise like the wind, rapidly increasing. Seconds later, Fernando tore through the canopy of leaves above them, wings folded, neck outstretched in a full dive. Behind him, in a V-shape, six more eagles rocketed straight at them.

‘Quickly. I'm being strangled,' croaked Alex hoarsely. ‘Say
“Volta.”
'

‘No,' said Zorrin, his voice husky as he clawed at the snake around his throat. ‘The timing must be right. We disentangle as the eagles arrive or take the snakes.'

The body clamp around his chest stole Alex's breath. Another squeezed his abdomen. Through dimming vision Alex could see Tariq slashing with his razor claws at the half a dozen wriggling snakes encircling him. Only a hair's breadth of time separated the eagles from the victims below.

‘Volta,'
shouted Zorrin.

A rustling of wings above him: a rush of air on his face. Fernando grabbed Alex across the shoulders with his talons, hoisting him up. Keeko lay motionless against Alex's chest: no flicker of life in her staring eyes, no heart thudding against his own. An eagle swooped in to pluck her from Alex.

‘Not the monkey,' screamed Skoodle. ‘She goes with us.'

The eagle nodded his head slightly, then diverted to help the two largest birds hoist Tariq.

Skoodle's hand forced Keeko's lips apart to cram some small blue petals into her mouth. Alex looked down at the still face.
It doesn't work on the dead
, he thought, mind awash with pain.

Wrenching the flower back out of Keeko's mouth, Skoodle pulped it between his front teeth. He shoved the mulch back into Keeko's mouth. With a small paw he ground juice into her gums. ‘It's got to work. Breathe, Keeko, breathe.'

Despite no response he worked on, small claws scratching open her gums to reach blood.

A deep shuddering breath shook Keeko's body. With a jolt her heart started – erratic, but a definite beat. The cold face became infused with warmth. Keeko's eyes remained closed. Her lips moved slightly.

‘Don't spit it out; swallow it,' Skoodle shrieked, his words almost ripped away by the wind.

A tight metal collar seemed to be constricting Alex's throat. Treacherous tears fell as he clung tightly to the small furry body, willing Keeko to absorb his warmth… his life force. ‘Skoodle, you're a hero.'

A tiny shudder vibrated against his chest. Sobs wracked Skoodle's body as he stroked Keeko's face. ‘I'd do anything for her,' he wailed. ‘No matter what.'

Keeko's long tail coiled round Skoodle. ‘OK. Teach me to jive,' she whispered as she drifted off to sleep.

‘Any time.' Skoodle buried his face into Keeko's shoulder, weeping.

Alex wrapped his arms tighter around Keeko, grateful to feel movement in the tiny chest.

The eagles swept over the edge of the jungle, heading for the coast. The temperature dropped dramatically as they climbed higher. With the added wind chill factor, Alex felt frozen to the core. He pulled Skoodle and Keeko closer, sharing his diminishing body heat.

He raised his head to look at his surroundings, then wished he hadn't. Half a mile below, the jungle looked tiny. If they slipped from the eagle's claws they would fly as well as a bowling ball; death by being pulverised on the ground. He closed his eyes, hoping that the wave of nausea would subside and not lead him to chuck – covering Keeko, Skoodle and his rescue eagle with his entire stomach contents.

Onwards they flew, the powerful beating above them reassuring despite the unpleasantness of the ride: the nausea, the hard talons in his shoulders, the bone-chilling cold.

Zorrin, we're freezing,
Alex transferred.
Can you do something?

Oh, sorry,
replied Zorrin.
Wasn't thinking. I don't feel it.

A small pearly bubble sped from Zorrin's hand, enlarging as it flew. Reaching Alex it encased him, Keeko and Skoodle. The wind disappeared, the temperature rose.

Better?
asked Zorrin.

Much,
replied Skoodle.
I wish he'd had the sense to ask sooner.

Like you couldn't have asked?
asked Alex.

Stop it, both of you,
murmured Keeko.
I need to sleep.

With a glare at Alex, Skoodle put on a thought-block and closed his eyes.

After a while the eagles began to lose height. A small cove came into sight, with several indistinguishable black dots scattered around its sea border. As they began to descend, the dots came into focus as a boat and three small houses. The eagles landed on the beach, releasing the group.

‘Our heartfelt thanks for saving our lives,' said Zorrin to Fernando, bowing deeply.

‘You've got my feather, so I must rescue you,' said Fernando. ‘What an amazing coincidence that we've met again.' He winked at Zorrin, then swung back up into the skies, the other eagles falling into a line behind him. Aiming inland, they flew towards the jungle.

Alex placed Keeko on to the sand, then outlined what had happened. Zorrin gently examined her.

‘She's fine, if a little fragile. It's lucky that Skoodle got to her so fast and that he has the power to heal with the flower.'

‘It shouldn't have worked. Her heart had stopped beating,' said Alex.

‘Reversible if within three minutes, like humans. Any longer…' Zorrin shook his head.

He started a fire on the smooth sand, using some driftwood and a few muttered words. They huddled around it, shivering from cold and the aftermath of terror – which had left them feeling like empty shells.

Zorrin looked like an ancient Druid sitting near the flames with tumbling black hair, shadows flickering on his sculpted face. ‘Are you fully all right now, Alex?' he asked.

‘I'm fine. But I don't understand why they didn't poison all of us. Skoodle would have been eaten long before he made it to the rest of you with the flowers.'

‘Greed,' replied Zorrin. He threw some lime green powder on to the fire, making it blaze higher. ‘A weakness of theirs, which saved our lives. The deadly chemical in their venom makes you inedible. Squeezing you to death is different. They must have thought it was feast time when several hundred kilos of meat wandered in.'

‘Thank Jupiter for their filthy carnivorous stomachs,' said Ikara bitterly. ‘They were going to kill me as well. Cannibals.'

Tariq lay on the sand, curled around Keeko. Ikara slid over to lie on his other side, making it look as if the bear had a greeny-gold streak down his back.

‘Why did you get the eagles to bring us to this cove?' Tariq asked. ‘Are we going to disparticulate from here back to Ravenscraig?'

‘No. We'll approach the caves again, this time from the sea.'

Ikara shook her head. ‘We've just been so close to death that we could count his nasal hairs. And that was on using the easy route. How near to him do we get with the tough route?'

‘Probably closer, but anything has to be better than returning to that bit of the jungle,' replied Zorrin, leaning back in an air armchair. ‘Here's my plan.'