Jinx On The Divide (14 page)

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"I could always kill him in the morning," agreed the brandee, sheathing his dagger again.

"Spoken like a human being," said the carpet.

"There!" cried Felix, pointing at three dark smudges in the distance.

"Fuzzy saw them ages ago," said Betony, who was sitting in front of Felix. "They're the rescue huts."

"What's that lump, by the biggest one?"

"A sleigh, I think," said Fuzzy. "But it's so covered with snow, it's hard to tell."

"No, next to it."

"Oh, yes -- it's a fire-breather. And I can see firelight through the window. There must be people inside."

"The smallest hut's occupied as well," said Betony.

"We'll use the empty one, and fly on to Yergud in the morning."

The brazzle spiraled down as silently as the snowflakes that accompanied her, and landed behind the middle shack. "Gotta hunt," she said. "I'm famished. You two go inside and warm yourselves up. I won't be long."

Felix opened the door, and he and Betony stepped inside.

"Quite cozy, really," said Betony, shaking out some of the brightly colored blankets and fluffing up a few cushions.

"What's Fuzzy going to find to eat out there?" wondered Felix.

"No idea," said Betony. "But I hope she brings us back a

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haunch of something. There's a roasting spit in the corner. Otherwise, there's dried fruit, dried mushrooms, or dried fish."

Felix kneeled down by the fire and recited the only spell he could do, waving his hand across the dry tinder. To his delight, a flame licked out, and before long the wood had caught fire, too.

"Here." Betony had recovered from her fright over Fuzzy and was back in bossy mode. She handed him a kettle. "Fill it with snow, and we'll have a hot drink. There's some powdered stuff in this jar; it smells quite nice."

Felix went outside into the moonlight and walked a little way away from the huts, so that he could scoop up some clean snow. The blizzard had stopped. He noticed that the fire-breather had woken up, and he stood there and watched it for a moment. It didn't look terribly happy. It couldn't be the cold, because it had built-in central heating, and it couldn't be hunger, because the japegrins had brought a carcass for it, which it had nearly finished.

Felix watched it treading down the snow with its feet and circling on the spot -- the way cats do when they've chosen a bed but it isn't quite to their satisfaction. Every so often it looked around, scanning the surrounding countryside with bloodred eyes. Somewhere in the distance, a swivelneck called
hoo-hoo-hoo,
and the fire-breather nearly jumped out of its skin. /
suppose they must shed their skins like reptiles or insects,
thought Felix.
Maybe it's about to do that and that's why it's behaving oddly -- could be interesting.
He'd watched a mantis

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molting once. It hung upside down from a twig and pulled one leg after the other out of the old skin like someone peeling off thigh-high boots.

But the fire-breather wasn't about to shed its skin. Instead, it stood rooted to the spot, and stared very hard into the distance. Then it looked wildly around, selected a downhill route, and ran like blazes until it had sufficient speed to take off. Felix watched it spread its wings and lift into the air.

The door of the biggest hut flew open and a japegrin dashed outside, swearing, just as the fire-breather disappeared behind a mountain. Then the japegrin saw Felix, and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Who in the name of a bent wand are
you?"
he demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing," stalled Felix.

"Catchfly. Here on Thane Squill's business."

Squill had become a
thane?
The last Felix had heard, he'd been chief prosecutor for the late President Fleabane -- and he'd lost his case against Snakeweed, who'd been just a smidgen cleverer than he.

The japegrin looked at the patch of melted snow where the fire-breather had been. He turned to Felix, his face livid.
"What did you say to it?"
he yelled. "You
idiot.
That wasn't just our transport, it was our insurance against attack."

Felix stiffened. "Attack? Attack by what?" And then he didn't need an answer anymore. The unearthly wail that had started up told him everything he wanted to know. "Snagglefangs," he said, and both he and the japegrin dived

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simultaneously for the nearest door. They squeezed through it wedged together, neither wishing to give way, and slammed it shut behind them. The japegrin locked it, barred it, and bolted it.

"Well, well," said Rhino, leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head. "Fancy meeting you here."

Felix just stared, lost for words.
Rhino, here?
He'd been in Yergud the day before. The coincidence was beyond belief. Or was it? Fuzzy had known where to find the huts, and the japegrins presumably had known where they were, too. And the reason for their visit didn't take a lot of brainpower -- sulfur. He'd even told Rhino where to find the stuff himself. He stood there, meltwater running down his neck, feeling stupid. Then he thought,
We've found him. We've found Rhino. We've just got to get him to come back with us now.

There was a second japegrin sitting on one of the cots, a bangithard between his knees, and he looked decidedly familiar. /
remember you,
thought Felix.
Pepperwort. Snakeweed's sidekick, but very junior.

"I could tell them to throw you out into the snow," said Rhino. "But I don't think we want to open the door really, do we?"

The song of the snagglefangs was all around them now, and so close that the singers had to be right outside.
It's a good thing Betony's safely inside the other hut,
thought Felix.
If truth be told, it felt rather more substantial than this one.

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He suddenly realized that Betony had no idea where he was, so he decided to take a look out the window and see if he could signal to her. The pane of glass was thick and old-fashioned, with a greenish tinge to it. He could see the other huts, warped by the glass so that they seemed to lean at crazy angles. And then a face appeared -- and it appeared so suddenly that Felix let out a gasp of shock.

The snagglefang's snout was pressed right up against the glass, and its slanting green eyes were looking straight into his. Although the animal remained there only for a moment, its image stayed etched on his retina as clearly as if he'd taken a photograph. The head itself was huge, as big as a bear's, and covered with shaggy white fur. The muzzle didn't taper the way a true wolf's would have; it was heavy and blunt, and armed with ferocious teeth. He caught a glimpse of thick black gums and a scarred black nose. And then the creature was gone, and he remembered to start breathing again.

Catchfly looked at Pepperwort. "Wand fully charged?"

Pepperwort shook his head.

Catchfly tossed a notebook over to him. "There's a recharging spell in there I keep for emergencies. Use it." Pepperwort used it.

Felix turned back to the window, glad that the glass was so substantial.

[Image: Snagglefang.]

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The snagglefangs had stopped howling. They'd discovered the remains of the fire-breather's dinner and were tucking into it with relish, snarling and batting one another out of the way with paws the size of shovels. Table manners clearly weren't their thing. Felix could see two of them having a tug-of-war with a length of intestine. It broke in the middle, and they both did backward somersaults. He laughed -- but the laugh sounded slightly hysterical, as though it belonged to someone else. He tried to be constructive and counted them: six, fewer than he'd expected. It was only when he saw the door of the middle shack open a fraction that he realized Betony was going to go outside and look for him. She couldn't see the snagglefangs from where she was, but surely she could hear them? He banged on the window, but it had no effect. "What?" said Rhino.

"Betony," said Felix, heading for the door.

Catchfly reacted like lightning, and reached the door before Felix. He stood there, his back against it, shaking his head.

Felix tried to push him out of the way, but he drew his wand.

"Here," said Rhino. "You can share my window if you like."

"No, thanks," said Felix, and he went back to his previous vantage point. Betony had come right out of the hut now and was bravely following Felix's tracks through the snow, carrying a blazing torch as protection. In a moment, she would turn the corner and come face-to-face with the pack.

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Felix kept banging fruitlessly on the window, harder and harder until his knuckles bled. If only Fuzzy would come back. He heard himself asking the japegrins if snagglefangs were shadow-beasts, as though this were some scene from a film and nothing to do with him.

"No," said Catchfly.

"Yes," said Pepperwort.

"What's a shadow-beast?" asked Rhino.

Felix saw Betony turn the corner, spot the snagglefangs, and drop the torch into the snow. It went out almost instantly. The northern lights chose precisely that moment to renew their display; the sky was suddenly awash with emerald, and the bloody remains of the carcass turned black beneath the green light. Felix watched helplessly as the first snagglefang raised its bloodstained snout and turned its head to look at the small blond figure standing there. Felix dug his nails into the palm of his hand; he was powerless to prevent this appalling tragedy.

And then, astonishingly, the door of the littlest hut opened just a fraction and a
carpet
squeezed itself through the gap.

Felix wanted to cheer at the top of his voice, but he kept quiet just in case he might spoil Nimby's plan. One of the predators took a pace forward, then another, and then the first one was padding forward and the lights seemed to dance in time with its steps. The carpet flew across the snow like an arrow and swept Betony's feet from beneath her as the

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snagglefang broke into a run. Lifting his edges to keep his passenger in place, Nimby swooped upward. The snagglefang sprang, but the carpet was too quick for it.

The scene blurred; Felix realized that his eyelashes were wet, and he brushed them dry with the back of his hand.

"Nifty bit of flying, that," said Pepperwort admiringly. "Top-of-the-line carpet, has to be."

"The werewolves are going," said Rhino. "Look."

"They're not werewolves," said Felix.

"I thought they only came out at night? Werewolves only come out at night."

"I told you what they are -- snagglefangs," said Pepperwort. "They turn to stone at sunrise, and come alive again at sunset."

The creatures seemed very jumpy all of a sudden. They jibbed and shied and snapped at one another, and two of them slunk off with their tails between their legs.
How odd,
thought Felix. One of them looked up into the green-and-black night sky, and after that the other three followed suit. And then they were streaking away across the snow. All they left behind was a welter of paw prints, a patch of blood where the carcass had been, and two lengths of intestine. As he watched, a dark shape swooped down on the pack from above.

Fuzzy.

The snagglefangs scattered in different directions -- all except for one, which seemed to have decided that attack was

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the best form of defense. It was no match for a brazzle, though. Fuzzy seized it in her talons and rose into the air once more. When she was high enough, she simply dropped it, and the snagglefang must have broken its neck as it landed, for it didn't move again. It didn't turn into something else, either, so that proved snagglefangs weren't werewolves.

This time Catchfly didn't stop Felix from opening the door and dashing outside. Nimby had circled around, and now he floated gently down. Betony jumped off, and Felix ran over to her and flung his arms around her.

Betony didn't hug him back. "Were you in the other hut all the time?" she said coldly.

"Yes."

"And you didn't try and stop me from going outside?"

"I
did,"
protested Felix. "Look." He showed her his skinned knuckles. "There are two japegrins in there, though, and they wouldn't let me out."

"Two japegrins and me," said Rhino, appearing in the doorway wearing the brandee's black hooded cloak and looking like the grim reaper. Then he saw Fuzzy overhead, and froze. It was the first time he'd seen a brazzle. Fuzzy's sheer size alone was intimidating -- and then there were the razor-sharp claws and the curved aquiline beak to consider.

"What a result," said Nimby. "Betony, do you think you could nominate me for the Magical Objects Bravery Award?"