Jinx On The Divide (22 page)

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a pink-and-orange leg ring. "Squill's fire-breather had gone, and the female was off hunting. So Dad leaves me on guard and goes into the cave. Then I see the female coming back, and I do my alarm squawk and hide, like we arranged." She couldn't continue, she was laughing so much.

"There was a large silver tray among the treasure," said Ironclaw, "so I polished it with my feathers and stood it against the end wall. As the female entered, she saw her own reflection and she thought there was another fire-breather in her lair. She let out a huge jet of flame, rushed the mirror, and banged her nose. I was able to slip out with the crystal ball, and we made our escape."

No one else seemed to think it was quite as funny as the two brazzles did, but the crystal ball was there in front of them, and ready for use.

Ironclaw peered into it with one eye, his head to one side. Then he peered into it with the other. He looked disappointed and shook his head.

"Let me try," said Fuzzy, but she had no better luck -- although this could have been because her black spiky feathers kept getting in the way.

Felix was rummaging in his backpack again. He pulled out the magic lamp handbook and turned to the back. There was an advertisement for the K'Faddle crystal ball in there, as he'd suspected, with a few rudimentary instructions. "You can't use it in bright daylight," he said, running his finger along the text. "That's why it worked in the cave, Ironclaw."

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"I'll make an umbrella with my wings, then," said Ironclaw, "and you can do the honors."

Felix placed the crystal ball on a little rocky ledge and kneeled in front of it. Ironclaw spread his enormous azure wings, and everything darkened.
Useless,
thought Felix.
I can hardly
see
the ball, let alone anything in it.
Then he remembered that he had to cup his hands around it.

Right away, the glass began to glow with a pearly light. Felix took his hands away, as if he'd burned himself, and the light faded. He took a deep breath and tried again. The glass began to glow once more, although it didn't heat up. At first, all he saw were swirling gray shapes, like fast-forwarding clouds.

"Well?" said Betony.

"I think I'm getting something." The shapes went grainy, and Felix realized he was looking at snowflakes. Then, like a picture coming into focus through the viewfinder of a camera, the snowflakes dissolved and the scene behind them became visible. He stiffened. That four-legged shape was unmistakable ... the heavy head, the pricked-up ears, the sloping back, the silly little tail ... "I'm getting a sinistrom," he said. His voice had sunk to a whisper.

There was a chorus of indrawn breaths.

"What else can you see?" asked Betony.

Felix fought to suppress the fear that had suddenly taken over his body, making his heart race and his skin prickle and his palms perspire. The fact that he had faced sinistroms

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and lived to tell the tale -- had even been friends with one -- was no defense against this knee-jerk reaction. Sinistroms were absolutely terrifying, with their knifelike fangs and their calculating eyes. He moved his hands and realized that they were behaving like a cursor on a computer, allowing him to survey different parts of the curved crystal screen. He concentrated on another area of the globe, and this time he saw a two-legged figure -- one he recognized. "Yes!" he shouted, punching the air. "I've got the brandee!"

"Who's about to be killed and eaten by a sinistrom," said Betony dryly. "Yes, Felix. Just what we needed."

The brandee didn't seem especially perturbed by his proximity to the sinistrom. Felix moved his hands a little farther, and to his surprise he discovered a carrionwing.

"Does it look like she's been dragged backward through one of those predator hedges she patrols?" Ironclaw mused. "Sounds like Scoffit. Can you figure out where they all are? My wings are getting tired. It's most unnatural, holding them at this angle."

"Take another look at the sinistrom," said Fuzzy. "There's something odd about this. Sinistroms and carrionwings don't just sit there, discussing the price of carcasses."

"All sinistroms look the same to me," said Felix.

"They don't to me," said Betony. "Let me look."

Somewhat reluctantly, Felix moved over.

"It's Grimspite!" declared Betony.

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"So is this scene in the past, the present, or the future?" asked Felix.

And that was the moment when one of the twin spitfire mountains decided to erupt.

There was the most tremendous bang, and they all turned to look. A shower of rocks and lava shot into the air, and a little streak of red treacle started to make its way down the side of the mountain. A tiny winged figure took to the air and headed east.

"The wild fire-breather's decided to move on," said Ironclaw. "No doubt she's taken her eggs with her. I think we ought to get going, too."

But Felix had first seen the eruption in the crystal ball, just before Ironclaw let in the light, and he was able to pinpoint their friends' position. "They're not very far away at all," he said, and he pointed. "Over there. But they're right in the path of the lava. Is a carrionwing capable of carrying them all to safety?"

"I don't think Scoffit could carry more than one at a time," said Fuzzy.

"All right," said Ironclaw. "We'd better get moving, then. Come along, Rhino, up you go. You can sit behind Felix."

Betony and Fuzzy were already in the air and winging their way across the snowfields toward the mountain.

Squill was leafing through an advertising brochure for K'Faddle & Offspring, and wondering whether to order one of the magic lamps from their latest line. There was a waiting

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list, apparently, despite the fact that the lamps were ludicrously expensive; they only manufactured one every thirteen years. "How long
is
the waiting list?" he asked the rep, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Two lifetimes, Your Excellency."

Squill threw the brochure across the floor in a temper. "Well, that's no use, is it?" he said.

"People usually buy them for their descendants," said the rep nervously.

"I've got a daughter," said Squill. "But there's no sign of
her
deciding to settle down. Anyway, I want one for me, not the children she hasn't had yet. If she ever does. She's a career woman. Breeds fire-breathers."

Squill's secretary came in. "There's a japegrin to see you," she said.

"Name?"

"He won't give it. But he says he knows where your lamp is, and it isn't in Kaflabad."

Squill scowled. "I'll have that carrionwing plucked, poisoned, roasted on a spit, beaten to death, and teased by schoolchildren," he said. "Show the stranger in."

The stranger was wearing a purple cloak, and he had a scarf wound around his neck and covering his mouth. He also had a hat pulled down over his head, so in the end, only his eyes and his nose were showing. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose was red, and he was wheezing a little. "I wish to speak to you alone," he said. His voice was husky.

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"You might be here to assassinate me," said Squill suspiciously. "My secretary isn't very good at searching people." He cast her a venomous look, and she blushed.

The japegrin flung open his cloak, revealing a skinny body wearing a tight purple tunic that couldn't have concealed a wand, let alone a knife. His ribs were just visible beneath the fabric.

"You really don't look very well," said Squill. "All right." He waved a hand at the K'Faddle rep and the secretary, who left.

The stranger unwound his scarf and removed his hat. "Your lamp has been intercepted by a sinistrom," he said.

Squill just stared. Then he said, "I don't believe you."

"I think you should," said the stranger. "And I also think you ought to go and get it, because ..."

"I've seen you somewhere before," interrupted Squill.

"Indeed you have. Pepperwort didn't recognize me, either. I've lost weight, you see. Enchantments play havoc with one's metabolism." He coughed again.

"Metabolism?"

"Just an otherworld expression I picked up."

"Otherworld?" The color suddenly drained from Squill's face, and he put out a hand and rested it on the desk to support himself. "Snakeweed," he said faintly.

"Thirteen out of thirteen. Tiratattle looks like pretty much a dead loss at the moment, with all the rebuilding.

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This is where the money is, am I right or am I right? Stone quarrying. I've always fancied watching people breaking up rocks for a living."

"You can't just saunter in here and take over, you know," said Squill, recovering a little of his composure. "You don't even have a wand."

"True," said Snakeweed. "But I do have this." He turned his hat upside down and extracted a small black pebble from somewhere inside it.

Squill went even whiter. "He's
your
sinistrom? That's his pebble?"

Snakeweed rolled the pebble between his finger and thumb, held it up to the light, and admired it. Squill lunged for his wand.

"I wouldn't," said Snakeweed. "If you try to harm me, he will instantly materialize and rip you to shreds."

"Let me get this straight," said Squill. "You want me to go and face your sinistrom, to retrieve a malfunctioning lamp I was sending back to the makers -- or else you'll rub the pebble and summon him here? Heads I lose, tails I lose?"

"That's right," said Snakeweed. "I think you know the area, for I believe your daughter lives close by. If you're quick, you might get there before the sinistrom pays her a visit. Tell him I said he's not to eat her -- and he's not to disembowel you, either. There's a password you can use so he'll know you've got authorization."

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Squill ground his teeth. "What is it?"

"Cluck-bird," said Snakeweed. He glanced around. "This was once a hotel, wasn't it?" he said. "I'd like a room with a view, a hot bath, some clean clothes, and room service."

Squill couldn't think of a way out. He nodded. As he made his way to the stables, he collared one of his japegrins and instructed him to find a way to relieve Snakeweed of his pebble once he fell asleep. Then he commandeered Pepperwort, opened the stable door, and beckoned to his fire-breather.

Everything was irritating today. The creature seemed to have a silly smile on its face -- and some idiot had burned a heart on the wall, with two interlocking flames in the middle.

Nimby woke up on the floor of Squill's office. It had been a tiring day, and the flight from the rescue huts to Yergud had really taken it out of him. He tended to get all tense when he was carrying japegrins, and flying like that was exhausting. The office was empty -- it looked as though everyone had forgotten about him. He levitated slightly, so that he could see his surroundings more clearly, and realized that the hex had just about worn off. What he really needed to do was find Betony. He knew she and Felix had made off with the sleigh, so they were probably all right. And he was desperate to explain his theory to someone as well. Magic and science were a devastating combination, and he was the only one who had appreciated quite
how
devastating. It was a

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huge responsibility for a carpet. The door of the office was closed, though, and he would have to wait for someone to open it.

After a while he heard footsteps, and then, to his delight, the door opened. He watched a pair of purple boots walk across the floor, and stop on the other side of the desk. A japegrin, then. Only japegrins wore purple. The owner of the boots coughed a couple of times -- a male cough, not a female one -- and after a moment there was the rustle of papers. A drawer opened and closed again, then another. After that there were some scratching and scrabbling sounds. Then the scrabbling stopped, and a drawer slammed shut. Nimby wriggled forward a little, so that he could see.

The owner of the boots was waving a wand around theatrically, as if remembering how to use one. Then he stuck the wand through his belt and flicked through some documents. His face was turned away. He selected a few papers and put them in a leather satchel. Then he took something out of his pocket, placed it on the palm of his hand, rubbed it between his fingers, and laughed.

Nimby gave an involuntary gasp of horror. He would know Snakeweed's chuckle anywhere.

The sound of the gasp took Snakeweed by surprise -- he had obviously thought he was alone -- and he dropped what he was holding. A shiny black pebble rolled across the floor and wobbled on the spot a couple of times before coming to a halt.

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[Image: Snakeweed.]

In two strides, Snakeweed was behind the desk. He didn't realize that Nimby was anything but an ordinary carpet, and after a perfunctory search, he shook his head and slapped his ear, as though he'd just been on a long flight that had affected his hearing. He retrieved the pebble, polished it on his tunic, and dropped it into his pocket. It was clearly just an ordinary pebble, although it looked very much like a sinistrom stone. "Excellent," he said aloud. "Time to overthrow the thane, I think. Shouldn't be too difficult. He never