Back To The Divide (24 page)

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about the library, as well. For all we know, Snakeweed may have it up and running again."

"Only if he can charge people to use it," said Thornbeak sourly.

"There's something else that's bothering me," said Felix. "That Land Rover. If Snakeweed found a way of producing gasoline, I bet he'd start manufacturing the things -- and it wouldn't stop at vehicles. Eventually you'd get a pollution problem like the one we have in my world."

"We'll see what we can do," said Thornbeak.

Felix and Betony said good-bye to the brazzles and climbed aboard their carpet.

"Where to, then?" asked Nimby.

"East," said Betony. "We need to collect a vial of water from the brittlehorn prediction pool for Felix's countercharm to work."

The carpet rose into the air, and once again Felix and Betony were on their way. As they left the peak they caught a last glimpse of Ironclaw and Thornbeak. They were heading into the forest for some reason, arguing. Felix laughed.

Pepperwort sighed with relief when at long last his feet touched the ground again. The flight to Tromm Fell had not been a pleasant one, and Stonecrop had been sick. The fire-breather had developed a sort of shudder when they were halfway there, and it had had a few near misses with particularly

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tall trees. The landing itself had been horrible. The fire-breather was now lying sprawled across the path, completely exhausted.

Pepperwort glanced around. This was a bare, lonely place. There were hardly any bushes, and he couldn't see any brazzles anywhere.

"We'll split up," said Snakeweed. "I'll start looking for the gold up here, and you two can head off downhill, looking for brazzles."

Pepperwort felt he'd got the short straw. He did a precautionary wand test and exploded a couple of bushes. Then he and Stonecrop set off down the hill, in the direction of Geddon.

The brittlehorn valley wasn't difficult to spot from above, and Grimspite landed Snakeweed's fire-breather without any difficulty. There was a waterfall at one end, tumbling down into a deep turquoise pool. He could see little groups of brittlehorns grazing, and a couple of foals chasing one another. Grimspite caught his breath at the sheer beauty of the scene. He suddenly realized that he had never thought of anything as beautiful before.
Tasty
was the most appreciative adjective he could ever recall using. After that he decided that what he wanted more than anything else was a good roll in some dung, and there was plenty of that around. He changed to his four-legged form and got on with it. Turpsik repinned

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her hair into its horrible bun, and the fire-breather had a good scratch and let out a jet of flame. One of the brittlehorns turned to look and neighed with alarm. Completely forgetting that he was in sinistrom form, Grimspite loped toward them. The whole herd turned and galloped to the other end of the valley and disappeared inside a cave.

Grimspite sat down, feeling depressed. He knew he had to be very careful about this -- brittlehorns could freeze sinistroms for short periods. It was back to the same old thing, how could he look sweet and unthreatening? If he crept forward on his belly, looking suitably submissive, it could be interpreted as a preparation to spring. He went as far down the valley as he dared and stopped a little way from the cave. Then he rolled on his back and waved his paws in the air, glancing to the side from time to time to see if there was any reaction. Eventually a colt emerged, his curiosity overcoming his caution. Grimspite heard his mother whinny to him -- but the colt was obviously showing off to his friends, for he took no notice and came closer. The whinny started to get more urgent.

"Hello," said Grimspite. "I don't mean anyone any harm."

"I'm not falling for that," said the colt. He took a deep breath, glanced at the other colts who were crowded together at the cave entrance, and said,
"Stone you were, and to stone you will return as long as ...
oh
bother."

"You've forgotten the rest of the shadow-spell, haven't you?" said Grimspite. "But you don't need it, because I ..." He stopped. An ancient brittlehorn had emerged from the

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cave, and walking beside him were the human boy and the tangle-child.

"Hello, Architrex," said Felix. "I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you, because Milklegs here will freeze you on the spot."

"I'm not Architrex!" howled Grimspite. "My name's Grimspite, and I hate being a sinistrom!"

Felix and Betony glanced at each other.

"Please
listen," said Grimspite. "I got separated from my pebble, and I've got a conscience, and I prefer cooking to butchery. Turpsik will back me up. She's my friend." He glanced down the valley. Turpsik had wandered over to the river than ran through the middle of it and was gazing hopefully into the water.

"Turpsik?" said Felix. "I know Turpsik. Turpsik's OK."

"I think we'd better take him to the leader," said Milklegs. "He'll want to hear this."

So they all went to the leader's cave, and Grimspite told his story. The leader stood there with his eyes shut, nodding every so often, although it was hard to tell whether the nods were nods of agreement or a prelude to dropping off.

When Grimspite had finished, Felix said, "Actually, I believe him. When he's a lickit he does look a bit different from the way I remember Architrex's lickit."

"Belief isn't proof," said the leader.

"Let's have a look in the pool," said Milklegs. "You never know, it might come up with something."

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They went over. Neither Felix nor Betony could see anything except clear blue water, but Milklegs stiffened sharply and peered more closely.

"What?" demanded Betony.

"This is completely off the point," said Milklegs, "but if the pool thinks something's important, it overrides everything else. Snakeweed's up on Tromm Fell, peering into caves and looking behind boulders. I think he's looking for Ironclaw's gold."

"Where are the brazzles?" asked Felix. Milklegs shrugged. "No idea. They're not up there, anyway."

They all looked at one another.

"I don't know what to do!" cried Felix. "I ought to hurry back to my own world to help my parents, but Ironclaw may be in trouble...."

Grimspite decided that a thoughtful and concerned expression was called for, but wrinkling his nose didn't feel quite right, somehow. It revealed rather too much of his canines.

[Image: Betony, Felix and Milklegs.]

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"Excuse me," said one of the mares to the leader. "We mothers aren't too happy about having a sinistrom around."

Grimspite deleted the thoughtful and concerned expression and hung his head.

"I don't think this is a typical sinistrom at all," said the leader. "He has no pebble, therefore he has no master. Without a master he has no mission. When he crossed the Divide the first time, his psychopathic streak got left behind in his pebble, and he's developed a conscience to fill the gap. I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt."

Grimspite looked at the leader with something approaching hero worship in his eyes. Betony suddenly felt really sorry for him, so she patted him on the head. Nothing like a pat had ever happened to Grimspite before, and he felt a sudden and overpowering urge to please absolutely
everyone.

"I know," he said, "why don't
I
go and look for Ironclaw and Thornbeak and warn them?"

"There you are," said the leader. "Funny how things sort themselves out, isn't it?"

Grimspite trotted off down the valley, holding his head high. He had a proper mission now, one he'd
chosen
to accept.

"So what are
we
going to do?" asked Betony. "Just sit here, doing nothing?"

"Sometimes doing nothing can be remarkably productive," said the leader. "However, in this instance I think you should fly off to the Andrian mountains and do what you were going to do all along."

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"Without knowing what's happening on Tromm Fell?"

"That's right," said the leader. "That's how it is sometimes."

Grimspite was halfway to the peak before he remembered that he hadn't asked anyone to lift the blocking spell. There was no point turning back now; he'd gone too far. When he'd fulfilled his mission, he'd be able to ask for it without feeling as though he were requesting a favor. He brightened up and quickened his step.

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***

13

***

Desperate to be off and wriggling with enthusiasm, Nimby watched Felix fill a little vial with water from the prediction pool, put a stopper in it, and place it in his backpack. The carpet was full of energy after his brief sunbath in the brittlehorn valley and eager to impress -- he wanted to show his owners that there were things a carpet could do that a brazzle couldn't.

Once they were on the move he decided to demonstrate some acrobatic low-level flying, following the path at high speed and keeping just a couple of feet above the ground. It was really good fun, dodging tree trunks and zipping along beneath overhanging branches. It required skill to do it properly, and he nearly made a mess of it when Felix suddenly hissed, "Stop, Nimby!"

The carpet braked sharply, only just remembering to tilt his front end upward so that he didn't tip his passengers off into the undergrowth. Then he subsided as gracefully as he could into the foliage.

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"Listen," whispered Felix.

"Don't you
care
that Snakeweed's stealing your gold?" a japegrin was asking.

Betony looked at Felix, wide-eyed.

"Move forward a bit," hissed Felix, and Nimby wriggled forward until he found a tree to hide behind, so that his passengers could see what was going on in the glade in front of them.

A japegrin was holding Ironclaw and Thornbeak at wand-point in the middle of the clearing. "I don't believe you," Ironclaw was saying. "The gold's rather well hidden."

"Not well enough."

"In that case you'll be able to tell me precisely where Snakeweed found it."

"Up there," said the japegrin vaguely, indicating the peak of Tromm Fell with his head.

Ironclaw laughed. "So why bother to come and tell us?"

There was a moment of silence.

"You can't answer that one, can you?" said Ironclaw. "You thought I'd be so incensed I wouldn't stop to think, I'd just go flapping up there like a pullet. The only reason you want me up on the peak is so that Snakeweed can pry the real location out of me. You must think I fledged yesterday."

Thornbeak had sidled around so that she was nearly within striking distance, but unfortunately the japegrin noticed, and he sent a shower of sparks shrieking across her feet. She made a funny little squeak of pain and hopped backward.

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The feathers on Ironclaw's neck stood up, and his eyes blazed with fury. He took a step forward, and the japegrin gave him the same treatment.

"Ouch," said Ironclaw, glaring at him.

"You'd better tell
me
where your hoard is then," said Pepperwort.

"You won't be able to get at it," said Ironclaw. "I hid it in the other dimension, across the Divide." Felix gulped.

"Hey," whispered Betony, "that's really clever."

Hundreds of crocks of gold, just lying in a jungle in Costa Rica? Felix couldn't begin to imagine the consequences of someone finding it.

"You're joking," said the japegrin.

"I'm not," said Ironclaw. He looked extremely pleased with himself.

"Well, in that case you'll just have to cross us both over and bring them back."

"Go sit under a vamprey."

Pepperwort smiled a rather horrible lopsided smile. "Do you know what happens when the death sentence is passed on a brazzle? No? They're plucked. From head to toe." He fingered his wand. "This little beauty can remove a single feather if I switch it to narrow beam. Let me show you."

A thin shaft of light shot out of the wand, and one of Thornbeak's golden feathers spiraled gently to the ground.

"See?" said Pepperwort. "But I don't intend to pluck
you,

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Ironclaw. I'll strip Thornbeak here until she's just skin and bone." There was another streak of light, and a second feather drifted lazily down.

Ironclaw screeched with fury, spread his wings, and drew back his head like a swan about to deliver the peck of all pecks. The japegrin raised his wand in self-defense -- and that might have been the end of Ironclaw if Felix hadn't yelled, "No!"

The japegrin spun around and sent a sheet of flame shooting across the undergrowth. The carpet tilted violently to one side and deposited Felix in the bushes. Suddenly there was smoke everywhere, and he couldn't see anything at all. He blundered about, bashing his arm against a tree trunk and coughing. His eyes were stinging, and his throat felt as though someone were trying to push a hedgehog down it. He could hear Nimby screaming and Ironclaw shouting, "You win, curse your entrails! I'll take you across the Divide. Just leave Thornbeak and the youngsters alone, will you?"

Then the smoke cleared, and Felix found himself facing Pepperwort's wand. This must be what it's like looking down the barrel of a gun, he thought, and his knees suddenly turned very weak.

Betony was standing a little to his left, ashen-faced, and Nimby was smoldering on the grass. "I stamped out the flames," said Betony, "but he's badly burned."

Nimby gave a faint moan, and Betony made a move toward him.