Jinx On The Divide (23 page)

227

was the brightest spark in the spell." He turned on his heel and left the office. Fortunately, he didn't close the door behind him.

Nimby emerged from his hiding place. He suddenly felt very frightened -- Snakeweed had that effect on people. Nimby left the building as surreptitiously as he could, then he flew at full speed for a while before the panic subsided and he was able to get his bearings. He needed to head back to the mountains and look for his mistress. He was carrying two pieces of devastating news. Magic plus science equaled big trouble -- and Snakeweed had returned. He tucked in his selvage and flew as though he were taking part in the Textile Trophy.

He hadn't gone far before he heard what sounded like thunder. A column of gray-and-white smoke rose slowly into the air, as though it were beginning some stately dance.

228

***

13

***

The nearer the brazzles and their passengers got to the volcano, the more alarming everything became. A thick plume of gray-and-white smoke was rising into the air, and the safety of Scoffit, Goodbody, and Grimspite hung in the balance.

"We've got to keep our eyes open for any
low
rolling clouds," warned Felix, gripping with his knees so that he could turn his head and speak to Rhino. "Pyroclastic flows are killers."

"Pyroclastic flows?" shouted Rhino. "Speak English!"

"Didn't you pay
any
attention in geography?"

"Get real," said Rhino. "I hardly ever went to geography."

Ironclaw banked to take advantage of an updraft, and Rhino tightened his hold around Felix's waist.

Felix felt smug. He was far more experienced at keeping his balance on the back of a brazzle. He decided it was time to be irritatingly superior. "When a volcano erupts," he threw

229

over his shoulder, "the hot air moves upward, and the heavier particles of rock and ash sink. You get this superheated cloud that races down the mountainside, killing everything in its path. Sometimes it reaches speeds of a hundred miles an hour."

"They're probably all dead by now, then," said Rhino, gripping Felix ever more tightly so that he could lean to one side and look down. "Let's turn back."

"There hasn't
been
a pyroclastic flow," said Felix, gritting his teeth. "It doesn't happen
every
time a volcano erupts. There's simply a small stream of lava at the moment. Look up there, you can see it. That red ribbon in the sky."

"I hate this place," said Rhino, with feeling. "Give me a fistfight in the projects any day."

"With pleasure," said Felix.

"You wouldn't stand a chance," said Rhino. "Oh, look. There's that crazy carpet."

"Nimby!" squealed Betony, as the carpet raced toward them.

"She's more fond of that carpet than she is of you, Felix," said Rhino. "Pretty weird, if you ask me."

"I
didn't
ask you," said Felix shortly.

"... got some nearly portant views!" yelled the carpet, the moment he was in range. "Silence and madness ..."

"You can't have a serious discussion in this wind!" shouted Ironclaw. "Can't it wait?"

"No!"

230

"All right! We'll land for a moment!" The two brazzles spiraled down, and Nimby landed beside them.

"I've got some really important news," said Nimby. "Science and magic together are big trouble.
Really
big trouble. And I've just seen Snakeweed."

"Snakeweed?"
said Betony, aghast. "You couldn't have!"

"I did," said the carpet.

Scoffit had tried to carry both Goodbody and Grimspite (in lickit form) to safety, but their combined weight had been too much, and she hadn't even been able to take off.

"I can probably outrun the lava on
four
legs," said Grimspite, reverting to his other guise. "It's moving quickly up here because the mountain's steep. Lower down, where the gradient's more gentle, it'll flow much more slowly."

"Falling ash is the greatest danger," said Scoffit, shaking some flakes of gray from her plumage. "I'll drop Goodbody off somewhere and come back for you."

"Quicksands and quaddiumps!"
yelled the nomad, as a tiny fragment of red-hot cinder landed on his arm.

"I've got the protection of a fur coat," said Grimspite, making light of the situation and sounding a lot more optimistic than he felt.

Scoffit managed to lurch into the air, gripping Goodbody with her talons, but she didn't climb very high. She went

231

into a long glide that required little energy and would take both her and her passenger safely to the foot of the mountain.

Grimspite didn't hang around -- he ran. The terrain wasn't easy. There had been eruptions here before, and beneath the snow, which was melting fast, the ground was ridged and sharp-edged and treacherous. At first, things went well. He outdistanced his fiery pursuer more easily than he'd expected, and he had to stop and roll in a patch of slush only once, when something hot landed on him. He was feeling pleased with himself -- he was good at making decisions these days, taking charge of situations, and being unselfish. It just took practice. You really could change yourself and your behavior if you wanted to.

Then he cut his paw. He yelped -- it really hurt. He sat down for a moment and licked it. The blood tasted salty and rather nice; his tongue was cool and wet, and it eased the pain. But as soon as he stopped licking, the pain returned. He couldn't run anymore; he could do only a three-legged hobble. This was not good news. He continued downhill -- but his progress was a lot slower now, and when he stepped on anything hot or sharp, it was agony. He glanced behind him. The stream of red treacly rock was closer now. It wasn't racing along; it was traveling at a gentle lope, but it was catching up with him. There was something almost hypnotic about it. Pieces of the lava stuck to the rocks as they passed; the red went out of them, and they scabbed into stone. Like water, the

232

molten rock was finding the swiftest route down the mountain, and the lower it got, the less steep the incline. Eventually, he would be able simply to sidestep it -- but not yet.

He carried on, trying not to think about the danger he was in. One paw here, one paw there; one paw here, one paw there. The lava was getting nearer; he could feel its heat. He didn't dare look up -- he didn't want to see how close it really was. One paw here, one paw there. Every now and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the dwarf trees burst into flame. It was as though someone was lighting flares for him, to show him the progress of the molten river. One paw here, one paw there. He" was concentrating so hard on the ground beneath his feet that he didn't see the shape zoom out of the ash-colored sky until it was almost on top of him.

"Grimspite!" shouted a silky little voice. "Jump on! Quick! I dare not land. I'll just hover!"

Nimby.
Grimspite felt a lump come to his throat.
What a carpet!
He scrambled on board -- with some difficulty -- and lay down. The pain in his paw eased as soon as he didn't have to put any weight on it.

"All the others are waiting for us," said the rug, doing a flashy but unnecessary three-point turn in midair, then heading back the way he'd come.

"Others?" said Grimspite. He sniffed himself. The peribott cologne really had worn off this time, no doubt about it. He wouldn't be very presentable to strangers.

"Ironclaw, Fuzzy, and Felix," chirped Nimby. "Betony,

233

Rhino, Scoffit, and Goodbody ... They let
me
come and rescue you, because if I get ash on me, all I have to do is turn upside down and ..."

"Don't demonstrate," said Grimspite hurriedly. "I believe you."

"And what's more," said the carpet, "I've made a really important discovery about science and magic. Ironclaw said it was a groundbreaking theory.
Ironclaw
said that. And Snakeweed's come back."

"What?"

"I saw him," said Nimby.

When the carpet landed triumphantly at the foot of the mountain, with Grimspite safely on board, Betony greeted him: "Nimby, we're
all
going to nominate you for the Magical Objects Bravery Award. You're a hero."

"Do you know about Snakeweed?" asked Grimspite.

The others nodded -- apart from Rhino. The color drained from his face as he took in the powerful jaws and the saber-like teeth of their new companion, and he took a couple of steps backward.

"Oh," said Betony, thoroughly enjoying the moment, "I forgot. You've never met a sinistrom before, have you? Grimspite, this is Rhino. Rhino, this is Grimspite."

"Can we go home now?" said Rhino faintly.

"First things first," said Grimspite. "Our friend the brandee here is now a nomad, with a name of his own --

234

Brad Goodbody -- so he can't turn to gas anymore and go inside the lamp. And someone has to get inside that lamp to get hold of the jinx box."

"The fact that my greenhouse, where the box languishes, is inaccessible to me now is as sad to me as a sunny day," agreed Goodbody.

"Jinx box?" said Felix, suddenly remembering about the eyeglass case in his bag. "But we brought it with us. I've got it in my backpack."

"Well, that solves
my
problem, then," said Goodbody. "If you've got the jinx box already, you don't need my lamp. If I take the lamp back to K'Faddle and Offspring at Kaflabad, they'll open it up and salvage my books."

"Why is the box so important?" asked Felix. He'd read something about it somewhere ... Whatever it was, it seemed to have slipped his mind.

Grimspite explained about the powerwords, and how the box would try to get people to speak them, and that if it succeeded, the consequences could be dire. It was, for instance, highly likely that Snakeweed's return was a result of the
abra
word being spoken.

"So how do we destroy it?" asked Felix.

"I'm not sure," said Grimspite. "The box is cunning, and it will try to save itself.... Could be dangerous."

"Count me out," said Rhino. "I just want to go home."

"If it hadn't been for you, human, there wouldn't have
been

235

a problem," said Grimspite. "Your fireworks inside the lamp enabled the box to remember the powerwords."

"How was I supposed to know that?" said Rhino sulkily.

"I've had enough of the north," said Scoffit suddenly.
"I'll
take Goodbody to Kaflabad."

"Will you be safe there, Scoffit?" asked Grimspite.

"Squill won't chase after them," said Betony, "because he won't want to mess with the king. Kaflabad law is different from Yergud law; Felix and I fell afoul of it once. The king is completely bonkers, and he wouldn't like Squill trying to tell him what to do one little bit."

"You are as kind as a palm tree, Scoffit," said Goodbody, "and an example of helpfulness beyond compare."

"How touching," said Rhino. "Can we go home now?"

"I think Nimby should take Betony and the humans to the Divide," said Ironclaw. "Grimspite and I will head for Yergud, to see what we can do about Snakeweed."

Fuzzy's eyes narrowed. "Are you sending me straight back to Andria, then?"

"No. I want you to escort Nimby, in case there's any trouble with the jinx box. I think the best course of action would be to drop it down a spitfire fissure when you reach the Divide."

"Good idea," said Grimspite.

Fuzzy perked up. "Smooth."

"And after
that,
I want you to fly straight back to Andria."

"But ..."

236

"No buts."

Goodbody climbed onto Scoffit's back, turned to Ironclaw, and offered to call in to the library to speak to Thornbeak.

"Why?" asked Ironclaw.

"To tell her that Fuzzy's fine, of course."

"Oh," said Ironclaw vaguely. "Right."

They prepared to part company. Betony gave Ironclaw a hug, which, as usual, embarrassed him enormously. Just before he took off, he turned to Felix. "Fermat's Last Theorem," he said thoughtfully. "Is that a real puzzle or not?"

Felix laughed. "You can take a stab at solving it yourself, if you like. It's based on Pythagorean triplets. Bronzepinion triplets, to you."

"Oh, yes?" said Ironclaw.

"Prove that there are no whole-number solutions to the equation x
ⁿ
+ y
ⁿ
= z
ⁿ
, when
n
is greater than 2."

"Sounds like fun," said Ironclaw.

Scoffit flew the first part of the journey very gently. The spitfire eruption had stopped almost as suddenly as it had started, and she soon left its effects far behind. Before long, she was descending on the other side of the mountains, and she came to a very pleasant valley with caves at one end. The snow was melting here, and purple flowers were pushing their way through what remained of it, although there were curious wisps of smoke curling up everywhere.