The Serpent of Eridor (4 page)

‘We'll just find the crystal and hand it over. Then everything will be all right,' said Alex, trying to sound calm.

The temperature had risen, the birdsong returning, but the glade still felt sinister.

‘The sapphire may not even exist,' said Ikara. ‘It's probably only a legend.'

‘She's being cruel,' cried Keeko, rocking back and forth, arms round her knees. ‘We'll run around trying to find a mythical gem then, when she's bored of the game, she'll kill us.'

Tariq shambled over to join them. ‘Yet we have to assume it exists and search for it if we want to stay alive.'

‘Alive is good,' said Skoodle. ‘I go with that.'

‘Surely she cannot kill the rest of us. Our death sentences must be an empty threat,' said Ikara, looking at Tariq for confirmation.

Tariq shook his head, deep sadness in his eyes. ‘Unfortunately not. She'll execute us unless we get the sapphire. Evil witches are not known for compassion. The pact, although unfairly made, will be binding.'

Shuddering, Keeko buried her face in her hands. Alex lifted her on to his lap. Skoodle started biting his toenails.

‘But what if Zorrin's not at the Redwood? How are we going to find his hideout?' asked Ikara.

‘I'm not sure,' Tariq said.

‘I know where Zorrin lives,' said Alex.

Ikara stared at him.‘How?' she asked, tone suspicious. ‘That would be impossible if you'd really only just arrived.' Her head rose, the sides of her neck winging out like a cobra. ‘We were wrong to trust you. We were safe before you turned up. You're the cause of our death sentence.'

A sense of injustice boiled up inside Alex. ‘It's not my fault,' he shouted. ‘You can't blame me for something my parents may or may not have done. Furthermore, it's in your country where all this magic and death-binding stuff occurs. It doesn't happen in mine.' Spitting out each word, he continued. ‘This has nothing to do with me.'

‘Go, Alex,' yelled Skoodle.

Ikara glared at Alex. ‘Thinking about it, you must be one of Virida's spies.'

‘I'm not,' Alex replied, furious. ‘You heard her. I'm under the death penalty too.'

‘And me,' shouted Skoodle.

‘It could be a cover,' said Ikara, sounding increasingly hostile. ‘Virida threatens you, but only intends to kill us. If we travel together she'll know exactly where we are going and what we are doing, with you acting as her informant. Perhaps the plan is for us to lead her to Zorrin, then the sapphire. Doubtless she'll destroy us once we hand over the stone, sparing you of course.'

‘And me,' yelled a squeaky voice.

‘Not helping,' Alex muttered.

‘That can't happen,' Tariq cut in. ‘She couldn't kill us if we give her the sapphire. Even the witch cannot override the deeper magic that governs the pact she has thrust upon us.'

‘It seems weird to me,' continued Ikara, as if she hadn't heard Tariq. ‘This human claims he has just arrived on the beach. From where? Then he says he knows how to find Zorrin when he has been here for only one rising of the sun – whereas I, who have lived here all my life, don't know. How? He appears, then bang – the witch comes and curses all of us. Too much of a coincidence. I say he works for her.'

‘I don't work for her,' said Skoodle.

‘Thanks.'

‘Nor does he,' added Skoodle.

Keeko wriggled off Alex's lap and slipped across to Tariq. The bear's face remained unreadable, but his honey-brown eyes looked troubled.

Getting up, Alex stood eye to eye with the uncoiled snake. ‘There's a map showing Zorrin's hideout in something I brought with me.'

‘Virida could have planted that on him,' hissed Ikara, unmoved.

Anger exploded in Alex's head again. ‘All I've done is follow my parents, nearly getting myself drowned in the process. It wasn't my fault that she landed us with a death sentence. That's Virida's doing. So why am I suddenly the bad guy?'

‘The time has come for you to tell us how you got here and why,' said Tariq calmly.

Alex turned his back on Ikara.

‘Tell them,' said Skoodle.

‘Why should I?'

‘If it comes to a fight we're dead meat.'

‘So we leave.'

‘We need their help to get the stupid sapphire, break the curse, then get on with finding out what your parents were doing here.'

Alex walked away a few paces and stood looking at the jungle, trying to regain calm. ‘OK, you're right. I'll explain.' He returned to the others and motioned for them to sit down.

Tariq and Keeko sank on to the grass nearby. Ikara remained upright, towering above him.

‘My parents were explorers, often away for months at a time,' said Alex, tone surly. ‘So I live with my aunt Lisa in England. A few days ago I received an email. An electronic letter.'

He dug in his rucksack. Pulling out the netbook, he found his father's email and handed the computer to Tariq. ‘Read it.'

Alex paused as they read the email. ‘Yes, you can read it calmly. I couldn't. That day I booked a ticket to Tikopia.'

On Tariq's and Keeko's faces Alex could see interest: on Ikara's, frank disbelief and impatience. Skoodle caught his eye and shrugged.

Settling himself more comfortably on the ground, Alex went on. ‘However, on the boat, a man in black threatened to kill me.'

‘Can you describe him?' asked Tariq.

Alex described the man in detail, ending with, ‘Oddly enough, he had violet eyes.'

Tariq nodded as if he had been half expecting this last piece of information. ‘What happened next?'

Alex told them about casting himself adrift in the lifeboat, ending up on the beach. Silence fell on the group as he finished. Keeko sat twisting her tail, frowning.

‘Lies,' Ikara said, rising higher, tension in every muscle of her body. Skoodle ran and hid behind Alex.

‘I think not.' The bear motioned for Ikara to coil up again. ‘Don't you recognise the man?'

Ikara shook her head remaining rigidly upright.

‘It was Karlan.'

Ikara sank back on to the ground, resting her head on a wide coil as Keeko started tying and untying knots in her tail. Skoodle stuck his nose out from behind Alex's jeans.

‘Who?' asked Alex.

Tariq looked worried as he sat with his huge golden-brown arms resting on his knees. ‘A powerful, evil wizard. But he would have had little magic away from the circumferential forces of the island, which is why he had to resort to threatening you with a knife.'

‘Before we get too carried away with this belief business,' said Ikara, ‘we should have a little proof. Where is this map of Eridor?'

Anger ignited within Alex again. He turned a hostile pair of eyes towards Ikara. ‘I've nearly been killed hiding my netbook. The information's mine. I no longer trust that you're on my side.'

‘Our side,' said Skoodle.

‘He's right. There are two of us.' It sounded good to be a team, but Alex couldn't help thinking that an added couple of ounces of hamster didn't make him the strongest fighting unit on Eridor.

‘Yet,' replied Tariq placidly, ‘if you try to escape the death sentence alone, you won't live long in the jungle. The rest of us will also be as good as dead. If you show it to us so that we can work together, we may find the sapphire. We have to trust each other for survival.'

‘Like that's going to be easy. She's just attacked me.'

‘It was only words,' said Skoodle.

‘Provoked by anger, which you felt too,' said Tariq. ‘And since when has something become impossible just because it's difficult? An animal survives or dies on instinct. What was your impression, Ikara, when you first met Alex and Skoodle?'

Ikara dropped her eyes. ‘I liked Alex. The rodent took longer to accept.'

‘You, Keeko?'

Keeko was absent-mindedly pulling a leaf to pieces. ‘I took to them. They seemed fun, if a little strange.'

‘For me the connection was also good,' said Tariq. ‘You're an animal too, Alex. What were your feelings?'

Alex's wrath was draining away as he recognised Ikara's honesty, doubtless at considerable cost to her pride. He owed them the truth, however wound up he felt. ‘You all seemed OK. Well… great, really.'

‘Skoodle?'

‘Fine, once I got over my fear of the legless one.'

‘Then there must be a pact between us,' said Tariq, ‘Ensuring openness, trust and honesty. When we fight, as we surely shall, we'll be victorious together or die defending each other. Salute.'

Tariq held his paw out, back uppermost, so that his flesh-shredding claws pointed downwards. Without hesitation, Keeko reached out and placed her small red and brown paw on top of the heavy golden one. Ikara paused, looking at Alex long and hard. Finally she uncoiled her heavy tail and placed the tip on top of the paws.

Decision time. If Alex failed to reach for the others, he would be alone in a hostile jungle. But did he truly trust Ikara? Just now she had turned against him, so how could he believe that she could become totally loyal to him? It needed to be a two-way confidence. Still uncertain, Alex hesitated.

Skoodle scrambled on to Keeko's arm and placed his small paw on Ikara's tail.

Decision made. The final hand reached out and joined the heap.

‘Until the sun implodes,' said the Eridor three.

‘Until the sun implodes,' echoed Alex and Skoodle.

‘Right,' said Ikara, pulling her tail away. ‘That binds us. Tariq, what do we do next?'

Before Tariq could answer, Alex made a decision. They were now bound together, like blood brothers. ‘I'll show you my map, but not here. I'm worried about this clearing. It feels evil to me.'

‘That's interesting,' Tariq said. ‘This could be useful. You may have the power of predor.'

‘Of what?'

‘Predor. The ability to detect evil when there is no visible sign. You're right about the atmosphere here. This clearing has been used for the ceremonies of the forces of evil. Let's get back to the beach,' said Tariq.

No one spoke as they strolled back down the jungle path. On arrival, Alex pulled out his parents' netbook and found the map. ‘Over here up in the north east is Zorrin's place, Ravenscraig, with an eagle sign above it.'

‘We are due directly south,' said Tariq. ‘There's the Single Redwood, immediately north of us on the way there. We'll carry on to Ravenscraig if Zorrin is not at the tree.'

‘Who is Zorrin, anyway?' asked Alex.

‘The most powerful of the elemental wizards – the good guys,' said Tariq. ‘He looks like a pirate: long, curly, black hair down to his waist; brilliant blue eyes. I met him at the Battle of Gelforth.'

‘We'll need to tackle this quest by daylight,' said Ikara.

‘Ok. Meet early at my clearing tomorrow,' replied Tariq. ‘Then we'll cross the river to the path going directly to the Single Redwood. Questions?'

‘None. I'm too tired to think,' replied Skoodle, as Alex hoisted him into his top pocket.

‘Not like you. You'll be OK tomorrow,' replied Alex.

‘If we're really unlucky,' muttered Ikara, slithering up Tariq as he stood up. Snake aboard, he shambled back into the dense undergrowth.

As Alex watched them walk away a buzz of excitement shoved out his fear. Odd, but the adrenaline whizzing round him felt great.

‘Stress makes me hungry,' said Skoodle. ‘There are some nuts in the emergency box.'

‘I'll get them.' Alex scrambled over the side of the boat, but lost his handhold on the wet edge.

‘You nearly squashed me,' said Skoodle.

‘Sorry.'

‘Not much point in being sorry once I'm dead and with Uncle Toomba.'

Alex put the grumpy rodent on the boat edge and climbed aboard. ‘Who?'

‘Toomba. Long-dead uncle. Invaluable, though. Gives me all sorts of advice.'

‘Isn't that tricky if he's not exactly alive?' Finding the nuts, Alex passed a couple to Skoodle.

‘No. I ask questions and his voice replies inside my head.'

‘Mad people hear voices. Probably mad rodents too. So how do you know it's him?'

‘It sounds like him. His advice is the kind that Uncle Toomba gave. Why do you ask all this? Don't you get advice from life-challenged relatives?'

‘Only in my worst nightmares.'

Alex had a sudden wave of longing. Advice from his parents would be great. To talk to them again would be amazing, even if he couldn't see them. For a moment the sadness overwhelmed him. He sat down and gazed out to sea.

‘You OK?' asked Skoodle.

‘Yeah, just missing my parents.'

‘Then there's only one thing to do.'

‘What's that?'

‘Dance.'

Standing up on to his back legs – small front paws in the air – Skoodle started flinging himself about energetically, singing loudly and tunelessly. ‘Join in,' he called.

After watching for a few more minutes Alex got up and started to dance, copying Skoodle's moves. After twenty minutes he collapsed in a heap, laughing, while Skoodle jived on.

‘That's awesome. I feel a zillion times better.'

‘I have to practise at night,' panted Skoodle. ‘It would look a bit odd if a human saw a hamster dancing.'

‘Lisa would have run away screaming. Brilliant thought.'

Finally, Skoodle lowered himself down on to all fours again. ‘I'm shattered. Why don't you look for food? I'll sleep.' Without waiting for an answer, Skoodle curled up in the shadow of the boat.

‘Sleep tight, Skoodle Van Winkle.'

‘Always.'

Alex walked the length of the track to the clearing, but no fruit hung within reach. The jungle on either side of the path was dense and forbidding, the forest floor alive with multicoloured insects. Beetles the size and colour of lemons tramped silently through the undergrowth. Lines of giant flying ants marched in winding trails, their wings folded on to their backs as they stamped across the ground or snaked up tree trunks.

Almost on the point of giving up, Alex saw some juicy-looking dark purple fruit hanging a short distance off the path. One of the purple fruits had fallen, bursting as it smashed to earth, releasing intense fragrance like an overripe nectarine. For a moment he stood looking at the fruit longingly, unable to decide whether to try and get to them.

‘Uncle Toomba, should I try and get that fruit?'

I'm losing the plot
, he told himself.
Asking for advice from dead rodents
. Too hungry to resist, even if Uncle Toomba refused to help, he forced his body through the undergrowth towards the fruit. Thorns scored deeply into his arms as the jungle enclosed him in a painful embrace.

A sudden puff of wind wafted the scent of fruit through the humid air. Acute hunger felt like a drill boring into the pit of his stomach. Resolutely, Alex shoved on another step.

Without warning the ground gave way, pitching him into a mudpit hidden beneath the heavy carpet of leaves. Thick black glue-like mulch enveloped his lower legs. Instinctively Alex grabbed the solid edge beside the mudbath, wrestling to get his legs free. Struggling drove him deeper into the cold, foul-smelling muck. Gripping like a python, the lake sucked him down into its black depths. Within minutes, both legs were compressed up to the thigh by the deadly embrace of the mulch.

A graphic picture filled Alex's mind of drowning in this filth – slowly, horribly, his mouth filling up with black tarry mud as he suffocated. Breathing fast and raggedly he fought on, muscles screaming. Virida's death sentence had seemed horrendous, but now he would be grateful to live long enough to be killed by her.

From the distance came the pad of heavy paws. The horror of being ripped apart while lying trapped immobilised him. The footsteps paused. Totally still, hardly breathing, Alex waited silently, powerless to stop himself sinking. The footfalls set off again, becoming fainter.

As he started to struggle another sound reached him: the unmistakeable slithering of a snake. Desperate, Alex grabbed a thick stick, even though he knew how little use it would be against some of the monster serpents that lurked in the jungle. The leaves in front of him parted. A snake's head shot out, poised for attack, neck winged, green eyes glittering.

‘Ikara.' Relief surged through Alex.

‘In trouble, I see,' said Ikara, lowering her head.

‘Get Tariq quickly. This stuff is like a vice.'

‘Too late by the time he arrived. You'd be gone by then. I'll do it.'

‘You're not big enough,' yelled Alex. ‘Throw me a vine.'

‘It would snap. Don't keep struggling. Things will get worse. You're already in deeper than when you started fighting, aren't you?' Ikara dropped her head and stared at the ground, immobile.

Alex held still. Frustration filled him, made more intense by the flash of hope being ripped away.
Why doesn't she do something
? he wondered.
Anything. Cry, get help from someone else, bite me so I die of poison… anything other than this unbearable frozen inaction.

As he glared at Ikara he noticed that the tail lying on the jungle floor had begun to slide away. Then he realised that she was not uncoiling but enlarging. Fast. In one minute Ikara had doubled in width and length.

‘That's impressive. But scary,' said Alex.

‘Would you prefer me puny and useless?'

‘No, but I'm not exactly used to snakes yet. Particularly giant ones.'

‘Frankly, I'm not entirely comfortable with humans. Even moderate-sized ones.'

Alex leaned forward on to his arms, concentrating on breathing slowly, trying to calm the crashing waves of fear in his head.

Within another minute a massive snake lay before Alex, its body as wide as a football. Two vast discs of green flecked with gold gazed, unblinking, at him.

‘Stay still while I slide around you,' said Ikara, her voice deeper and stronger.

Slithering forward Ikara coiled the upper part of her body round Alex's torso, the great head swaying past inches from Alex's face. Her skin didn't feel slimy, as he had expected – more like the roughness of chain mail. Her tail encircled the closest tree.

‘Brace yourself.' Ikara contracted, snapping tight like whipcord, forcing the air out of Alex's lungs in a whoosh. Her body hauled against the mud.

Pressure built up in Alex's chest as his airless lungs compressed agonisingly. Oxygen starvation gripped his brain, making stars dance in front of his eyes. In a reflex attempt at survival his hands tore at Ikara's body, but uselessly. He had no breath to shout for release, despite the pain. The sounds of the jungle floated away as Alex started to slide into oblivion.

With a huge squelch she wrenched him free. As Alex flew out, the tenacious goo fell away from his lower body like the unclasping of a straitjacket. He still couldn't breathe, but even on the verge of unconsciousness he was aware of being free of the slime.

A second later, total-body agony ripped away the joy of escape as he crashed on to solid ground. Ikara relaxed, releasing his chest. Heavy breaths filled Alex's tortured lungs – air burning his throat, the taste of blood in his mouth. For a moment his body hurt too much for him to care that he was still alive.

‘Exciting,' said Ikara.

Despite being numb from shock, his brain registered that her voice seemed normal. Dazed, Alex raised his head. Facing him lay not the vast monster who had rescued him, but the usual four-metre version.

‘How did you do that?' he asked, voice hoarse.

‘Genetic ability from my mother's side. It's a rare power.'

Slowly Alex rolled on to his back then sat up, wincing. ‘How big can you get?'

‘About five times that size. So tell me, what were you doing in the depths of the jungle?'

‘Food. I was starving.'

Green flecked eyes surveyed the trees beyond. ‘Were you aiming for that purple fruit over there?'

‘Yes. It smells amazing.'

‘Extremely poisonous.'

Even through his pain the irony got to Alex. ‘Fantastic. So having been squeezed to within an inch of suffocation and being catapulted on to rock-like ground, I'm now supposed to be grateful that I fell into a deadly man-eating mud pit?'

‘As it happens, yes.' Ikara coiled as she spoke.

Wearily, Alex picked himself up from the ground. From his hips down, both legs were covered in what appeared to be tar. His muscles ached as if he had run a marathon. Pain shot through his lungs each time he took a deep breath. ‘By the way, thanks. Body-crushing is a real winner compared to a one hundred per cent, full-on death experience.'

‘No problem,' replied Ikara. ‘There will probably be worse on the way to the sapphire. I'd give you a lecture on the dangers of the jungle, but I'm too shattered.'

‘I can empathise with shattered. Also ripped, broken, bruised, mauled and terminally spooked. I'll never trust mud again.'

‘We'd better go back to Tariq's clearing. I'll meet you there with some food.' In a murmur she added, ‘Novice.'

Shoving his aching body through dense undergrowth, Alex eventually made it to the path. Legs weighed down by thickly-caked jeans, he plodded to the river.

Not bothering to undress, Alex walked straight into the shallows, swinging round to lie with his head on the bank. Cold water swirled past him, healing, strengthening. He pulled up his shirt to see the snake damage. An angry red band encircled his chest, swollen and grazed.
A small price to pay for life
, he thought.

He was lying on the bank drying in the sun when Ikara reappeared, a bunch of red bristly fruits suspended from her mouth by the stalk. ‘Orton. Try one. It's a pain getting rid of the husk, but the fruit inside is worth the aggro.'

Starving, Alex ripped several open. Munching contentedly, savouring the exquisite taste, he chose two of the biggest and shoved them in a pocket for Skoodle. As he demolished the rest of the pile Ikara slid away, reappearing a few minutes later, tail wrapped round a large green fruit.

‘More food. Great.'

‘Wrong. It's a giffrod. To drink. The juice is fantastic.'

Using a jagged flint, Alex cut into the emerald shell to find a sea of pale green fluid. He handed it over to Ikara. ‘Want some?'

‘Thanks.'

Alex watched as mouthfuls of fluid passed down the snake's neck like a row of ping-pong balls. Once Ikara had finished Alex reached forward to drink. A sudden thought struck him. He halted with the giffrod almost to his lips. ‘You're not a venomous snake, are you?'

‘Not my style to rescue you from the mud and then poison you.'

Alex lifted the giffrod back up, and then paused. ‘By the way, I'm not venemous either.'

‘I've realised that, although you were poisonous after Virida blew through.'

‘History. And it was both of us.' Alex finished the juice in one hit.

‘Agreed. You'd better get back to the beach before it gets dark. I'll leave some fruit by your boat later.'

On arriving at the beach Alex found Skoodle shredding the lifeboat instruction manual for a nest. Over a shared tin of cold macaroni he told Skoodle about nearly dying in the mudswamp. After Skoodle had finished laughing they settled down to watch the deep orange and red tropical sunset.

Eventually Alex turned his attention to the emergency box, pulling the large hunting knife and a waterproof torch from its interior and putting both in the rucksack with the netbook. ‘That's it. Packing done. Better turn in,' he said. ‘No sun equals no light, as I don't want to use up the torch batteries.'

Skoodle finished the last orton and wiped the juice off his face on to Alex's jeans. ‘You could have packed a few extra. You're a failure at this survival stuff, aren't you?'

‘Oddly enough, I didn't expect to be cast adrift. You?'

‘Nope. Not a usual hamster experience, so Uncle Toomba tells me.'

Alex picked up Skoodle and climbed over the edge of the boat. ‘At least I got us to shore.'

‘Yeah, right. Like it was you, not the tide. Anyway… good going, Weston. Positive score: three new friends. Negative: five death sentences. Looks like the opposition wins.'

‘Not yet, they don't. It takes more than a talking smoke column to muscle me out of the picture.'

‘Even if it's really an angry witch bristling with evil spells?'

‘I'm still fighting,' replied Alex, settling himself on the hard floor. ‘Step one: find sapphire. Step two: break curse. Step three: have hamster's jaws wired together.'

‘That wouldn't work. Remember thought transference?'

‘Blast all weird perceptions. Why did my parents come to this bizarre place? What was wrong with Brighton?'

‘Limited opportunities for explorers. Sleep tight, death-curse brother.'