Blue Fire and Ice (38 page)

Aunt Mag started to run to the sledge. She reached it and put both hands on the side of the tank to still its rocking. Grunge was already on the other side, trying to keep the sledge upright.

‘Miniver,’ yelled Aunt Mag, ‘the blue patches! Head for the blue!’

Miniver roared her assent and pulled. There were still fifty or sixty paces to the next blush of blue.

Copper ran to his apprentice. He could feel the heat of the blue fire as he raced towards her. Dot had fallen close to the blue flames and she heard the fire gather strength as it consumed the snow around it.

‘I’m OK, Copper!’ she shouted, rolling away from the flames and getting to her feet. ‘The tank! Get the tank!’

Miniver stretched out her legs and raced for the safety of the blue ice. She had only gone a few strides when she heard the runners grind on rock and the sledge was shaken as fire erupted under it. It was only Miniver’s speed that saved it. She could feel the rear of the sledge buck and then thud as it came back down and hit the ground but this time Miniver’s momentum helped her stay upright.

Grunge felt the snow burst into flame beneath him. He leapt forward just as the fierce blue flames licked his clothes. He could smell the singed fabric but he had been quick enough to prevent anything from catching alight.

‘Keep away from the flames!’ he warned the others. ‘Your clothes! Don’t let them catch fire!’

The sledge pulled away from the second fire. Each fire seemed to seek the other. The flames of the second raced towards the first, away from the sledge. Those few seconds were enough for Grunge to reach it. Copper and Aunt Mag were on the other side, preventing it from toppling that way. There was no one holding his side and the tank swayed back towards him, lifting the sledge. Just a few inches more and it would be too late to hold it.

Grunge’s hands slammed against the side of the tank. He knew he couldn’t run and hold the tank at the same time. It kept leaning down on him. In a moment, it would flip the sledge and overturn, crushing him underneath.

Miniver could feel the tilt of the sledge. Without breaking her stride, she turned sharply in the same direction as the tilt. The sharp turn whipped the sledge back on its runners. Grunge was thrown off balance and fell, but in a trice he was on his feet again. The sledge bounced and threatened to overturn in the other direction but Copper and Aunt Mag held fast. It steadied and Miniver began a longer, shallower turn away from the flames towards the safety of the blue.

Crimson ran to help her friends. As she did, she noticed the ground between them and the blue. The snow was different. It was smooth, but softer, without the shine of an icy crust. It was as if someone had carefully swept the snow …

‘It’s a trap!’ she yelled. ‘Miniver! Stop!’

It was too late. Miniver’s momentum carried her forward. The right runner scraped rock. Free of the blue ice, the rock burst into flames. This time, Miniver was safely past. Grunge skirted the flames and ran to Crimson.

‘What is it?’ he shouted. ‘What’s happening?’

Before she could answer, they heard the sound of the runners screeching on stone again. This time, the patch of exposed rock was larger. It ignited with a greater roar. Both runners were on the rock and Miniver and the sledge were tossed into the air.

‘Miniver!’ screamed Dot.

Miniver hit the ground hard. She felt the shaft hit her wickedly on the shoulder. She roared in pain as the shoulder dislocated. Caught in the harness between the two shafts, she was helpless. Miniver struggled wildly to get free. She could feel the flames attacking the sledge. In a moment, they would be upon her.

Crimson ran to Miniver. Grunge knelt beside Copper and Aunt Mag, who lay motionless on the ground.

‘Dot, help!’ Crimson screamed, as she reached Miniver and started to unfasten the harness. Her fingers sought the buckles holding the bear in the leather straps, but the buckles had twisted round and lay under the bear. Miniver vainly tried to stand but pain shot through her shoulder and she fell back.

Even before Crimson’s cry, Dot had started running towards them. She watched in horror as the flames ate at the sledge greedily, coming closer to her friend. Then, suddenly, Dot changed direction. She hurtled towards the blue peak.

Grunge raced to Crimson, dropping to his knees beside Miniver. ‘Aunt Mag and Copper are OK. Just a little stunned,’ he said.

‘You and I will lift Miniver. Dot can undo the harness!’ Crimson shouted to him. ‘Where is she?’

Crimson and Grunge turned just as Dot sped across the white snow.

‘Dot, no!’ cried Crimson. ‘The rock! No, Dot!’

Dot ignored Crimson’s cries. Her heart was like a hammer in her chest. Every step she expected to feel the rock beneath her feet and the flames explode around her. She ran on. Just metres ahead was a large patch of blue, deeper than the others. A few long strides and she was there. She dropped to her knees and scooped a large pile of snow and blue ice into her arms. The large snowball in her arms, she turned and raced back to the sledge. She tried to retrace her tracks but she knew she was straying. She hoped it wasn’t onto the deadly rock.

Crimson and Grunge pushed their hands under Miniver, feeling blindly for the buckles. Despite the pain that racked her shoulder, Miniver tried to lift herself from the ground. She could feel the fire start to burn the shafts. The air was filled with the foul-sweet smell of singed fur.

‘Leave me!’ she roared at her friends. ‘You’ll get caught in the fire! Go!’

Neither Crimson nor Grunge acknowledged Miniver’s plea. They could no more leave her than stop being Muddles.

A large white ball flew over their heads onto the sledge. The fire crackled and hissed and steam enveloped them. The heat of the flames disappeared.

Dot had thrown the ball of snow directly onto the flames. The blue ice within the ball scattered in a wide circle, extinguishing the fire that was consuming the sledge and spraying on the rock that spouted the fire. The rock hissed its protest; its flames surged and flared for an instant, and then disappeared.

Dot sank to her knees at Miniver’s head. She grabbed Miniver’s large muzzle in her hands and pressed her face against the bear’s cheek. Huge sobs came from the young apprentice and tears streamed down her face. Miniver made a low noise in her throat. Her long pink tongue flicked from between her teeth and touched Dot’s cheek.

*

Amelia watched the havoc she had created. She felt joy tempered by frustration. Two of the companions lay still on the snow. The bear was obviously injured. ‘If it hadn’t been for that stupid girl, the bear would be out of the way completely,’ Amelia muttered to herself. It was a miracle the girl had made it. Amelia had prepared all the ground that surrounded them and even a young girl’s footsteps should have turned the area into a blue inferno.

The two figures lying still in the snow moved. Amelia cursed as they rose to their feet and staggered to the sledge. Behind them, the blue fire still burned. The fires had converged into one and a wall of flame steadily made its way towards the figures huddled around the bear. Amelia picked up a snowball lying next to her. She rose and stepped out from her hiding place onto the snowfield. She would make sure that they would not escape the flames this time.

*

Copper and Aunt Mag walked shakily to the sledge.

‘How is she?’ asked Aunt Mag.

‘She’s hurt,’ said Crimson. ‘We can’t get under her to undo the harness. We’ve got to hurry.’ She nodded towards the fire behind them. It had grown in intensity and they could feel its heat as it approached. ‘That’ll be on us in a minute.’

‘Miniver,’ said Grunge, ‘we have to lift you. I know it hurts, but we have to.’

Miniver growled. ‘You think this hurts? Try giving birth to bear cubs.’ She strained to lift herself. ‘Let’s get it over with.’

Gently, they slid their hands under her.

‘OK, gently lift when I say. Dot, when we lift, get the buckles undone.’

They nodded and slid their hands under Miniver. On the upper slope of the snowfield above them, Amelia approached.

‘Ready?’ said Grunge. ‘OK, one …’

A billow of steam from the sledge drifted across them.

*

In a cave deep in the mountain, a cloud of smoke rose from a fire that had been burning for thousands of years. The cloud drifted up, borne by eddies of heat from the fire, up to the roof of the cave and into a crack in the stone ceiling. The crack became a crevice that split the surface and the cloud was caught by the wind. It whisked upwards, straight for the bright sun in a sky of clear blue. It became silhouetted by the sun, a small cloud with outstretched wings.

*

‘… two …’

Copper, Dot and Aunt Mag watched as the Muddles shimmered, covered in a hazy, flickering glow. Their bodies blurred and shimmering haze flared briefly, then disappeared.

‘Oh, my,’ said Aunt Mag. ‘I never …’

‘By the fire!’ exclaimed Copper.

‘That’s so cool!’ said Dot.

Miniver stood. The harness hung limply around her shoulders and chest. Which, for the moment, were Eugene’s. He was a big lion, but not as broad from shoulder to shoulder as Miniver. She felt a twinge of guilt as she wondered who had her injured shoulder and hoped they weren’t in too much pain. She looked down Eugene’s sleek tan body to her grey hindquarters. Bray’s tail swished and his right hoof stamped the ground. For a donkey, Bray could be surprisingly impatient.

Grunge couldn’t help but wish that Japes had been playing her tin whistle or tambourine when he mixed. The large side drum that hung from the jester’s waist was going to be a bit awkward at the moment. And he would have to get a pair of boots to slip over Reach’s ballet shoes or the poor young ballerina would get her feet back with frostbite.

Crimson felt the bite of the snow and ice on her legs as she knelt beside Miniver. Wave’s board shorts were not really suitable for the topmost peaks of the High Mountains, she thought. With Bright’s nimble fingers she undid the harness and Miniver stepped free of the burned sledge.

‘Is … is … that how it always happens?’ asked Aunt Mag. She had never seen the Mix before.

‘Pretty much,’ said Grunge.

‘It’s so quick!’ Aunt Mag was still awestruck.

‘By the fire!’ repeated Copper.

‘Miniver’s shoulder …’ began Dot.

A look of regret passed over Crimson’s face. ‘Yes, I hope it isn’t too painful.’

‘Do you know who …?’

Crimson shook her head. ‘No, Dot. But Miniver will still bear some of the pain. It will make it easier for the other.’

Dot nodded sombrely. She looked at Miniver, now brown, tan and grey.

‘Awesome …’ she said under her breath.

*

Bright and Professor Weevil reset Miniver’s shoulder. ‘Just dislocated,’ Bright said. Sparkle bore the ordeal bravely. Calamity had fetched help as soon as she had heard Sparkle’s squeal of pain and seen Miniver’s left foreleg hanging limply. Calamity was worried. Not just for Miniver, but for Crimson and Grunge. If Miniver was hurt, Calamity knew her friends were in trouble. And she wasn’t there to rescue them.

*

Amelia watched the Mix from the slope of the snowfield. On the river in Beadleburg, she had been too busy trying to escape to see the transformation. It fascinated and repelled her at the same time. But it offered her the opportunity she needed. The travellers were distracted and she would be able to get a little closer before she was spotted. And she only needed to be a little closer.

The fire still raged behind the group and she saw they were getting ready to move east towards the peak where the blue ice was mingled more densely with the snow. Once there, they would be safe from the fire. She had prepared one or two more areas of fire rock between them and the peak, but if luck ran their way, they would miss them. Luck, however, had no part in Amelia’s plan.

She was less than fifty paces from the companions when they spotted her. She heard the bear roar a warning. They were midway between the fiery rock and the safety of the blue ice. Amelia saw the bear – or lion or donkey? – swing towards her. She brought her arm back and threw the snowball at the area directly in front of the travellers.

Inside, a fire rock lay, its power checked by the small piece of blue ice she had pushed into the snowball. When the snowball hit the snowfield, blue ice would be thrown too far away to be able to contain the fire. And the field beneath the snow was a solid bed of fire rock. The companions would be helpless, caught between two infernos.

The snowball hit the surface of the snowfield. The group saw a brief glow as it smashed apart. The ground where it struck erupted. With too little blue ice to suppress its fire, it ignited with a shattering roar, flames leaping into the air. Then the fire turned, and hurtled towards the companions. Amelia smiled grimly. In a few minutes they would be gone and she would be free to return to the Land to finish the job she had started.

*

Miniver roared her warning and turned towards the robed figure on the slope. The earth shook and fire erupted between them and the blue peak. They were caught between two fires.

‘We can’t go that way!’ shouted Grunge. ‘And we can’t go back!’

To the south, the snowfield ended in a sheer cliff. They looked northward, up the slope of the field. Already flames from the two fires had started to converge in a large arc, cutting off any escape to the north. Beyond the flames on the slope, they could see a solitary lone figure, watching.

Crimson watched the flames. That same call she had felt at Farrow’s farm came to her now. It was not quite as strong – the presence of Bright and Wave within her tempered the call – but still she felt herself moving towards the flames.

‘Crimson!’ Grunge’s voice seemed distant and far away. She walked slowly towards the flames.

Grunge grabbed her shoulders and spun her round to face him. ‘Crimson, no! Keep next to me.’ She nodded. Inside, she fought against the urge. ‘Dot!’ yelled Grunge. ‘Stay with Crimson!’ The young apprentice nodded. She took Crimson’s hand in her own and clutched it tightly.