The Serpent of Eridor (12 page)

‘That's enough,' she said to Myth. ‘It's ready for Zorrin.'

Myth trotted over to place a paw on the transparent wall of her room. A hole appeared, edged by fire.

Flick balanced the ball on the very tips of her fingers.
‘Aeroflux Zorrin.'

A tunnel of wind sprang up from within the room behind her, ripping the souvent from her hands, blasting it into the night – a silver line carved across intense darkness. Within less time than the sweep of an eagle's wing, it had gone.

In the kitchen the goblins continued to act their part, seemingly tired and defeated. The fossilised servant of Zorrin's might have some form of seeing device – or the door could be of magical glass. They switched to speaking Siden, the ancient language of the goblins. No non-goblin now stood a whisper of a chance of understanding what they said.

The goblins and animals ate all that was there. Then, sleepy with food and beer, the animals dozed off – except for Smuddy Binks, who was too disturbed by his thoughts to sleep. Round like a whirlpool inside his head went the problem of how to break free from Tevo and his gang without it costing him his life.

He gazed angrily at the fire, the passion in its depths reflecting the mood of his soul. A log shifted and fell in the fire's heart. The sudden blaze lit up a dark corner beside the fireplace which had been in the shadow of a pile of logs. Buried in the gloom lay the outline of a door.

Smuddy Binks froze, his eyes fixed on the potential exit. In a second it had plunged back into darkness. Yet, now knowing it was there, he could still make out a faint rectangular outline etched on the wall.

The fates had offered him the escape route his heart burned for, yet would there be any point in running away? If he did manage to get out of the kitchen unnoticed he would never exit Ravenscraig alive. He'd either be killed as an invader or imprisoned by the old hag's guards. The riot of conflicting ideas in his head seemed as if they would drive him mad.

Tevo's cruel laugh cut across his thoughts. Smuddy Binks glanced up at him. Suddenly the decision was made. Smuddy Binks hated every line of that hard face. He loathed every move, every sound that the evil wart made. Shoving aside any doubts, Smuddy Binks focused on escape. He would figure out how to exit the fortress once he was free of Tevo.

He glanced at the other animals. All were asleep, brains numbed by the heat. Yet with the slightest unexpected noise they would instantly wake, ready to do battle… with him, if need be.

His eye moved on to Rectoria, listening to Tevo's lecture. Rectoria was staring at the floor, motionless, face rigid.

Smuddy Binks flattened his body, fur brushing the floor as he crept towards the black outline of the door. The infinitesimally soft scratching of his claws on the flagstones was masked by the crackling of the immense fire and the storm howling down the chimney.

‘Stop,' shouted Rycant.

Smuddy Binks dropped flat to the floor. He waited, hardly daring to breathe, expecting a harsh blow to the head. None came. Slowly, he turned to look at the pack leader. Rycant lay on his side, eyes closed, his legs beating the air.

‘Stop,' he muttered.

Smuddy Binks realised that he was deeply asleep, presumably chasing a dream rabbit. Tevo looked across, startled by the noise.

Cold sweat bathed Smuddy Binks. Eyes opened only a slit, he watched Tevo frown at Rycant then sweep his gaze across to the other animals. Tevo snorted, then swung back to continue lecturing Rectoria.

Nerves aflame, Smuddy Binks touched the centre of the dark outline. Noiselessly the hatch swung open. He slipped through the door.

A pitch-black narrow tunnel rose ahead of him. Unable to turn round in the space, he carefully pushed the door shut behind him with his back paws. Total darkness entombed him. Blindly, like a mole searching for the surface, he scrambled up the cold passageway. Muffled by the solid stone walls, the storm had a faraway unearthly tone.

After a dozen cautious steps Smuddy Binks banged his front paws on something hard. Trapped in a blind-ending tube, he felt as if it his pounding heart would split his chest open. Bracing his back paws on the walls, he placed his front claws on to the blockage and shoved. It shifted a tiny amount, enough for a crack of light to escape from the straight edges. Smuddy Binks took a huge breath, dropped his shoulder and rammed up against the door, pushing for all he was worth.

The trapdoor gave, yawning open in front of him. Moonlight flooded his world from a small window set high on the wall opposite him.
Not bad so far
, he thought, heaving himself out of the tunnel. He turned to look back down through the trapdoor. No furry nose could be seen following him up the shadow-filled tunnel. Seemingly, Rycant slept on and Tevo had yet to put a blood price on his head.

He swung the hatch back into place, feeling that although it wasn't much of a barrier it had delayed him for a few minutes. It might do the same if he were pursued.

The door on the far side of the room gave on to a long corridor lit by balls of fire suspended below the ceiling. Old-fashioned furniture hugged the walls at intervals: dark, sinister, but potential shelter in a crisis.

The storm crashed beyond the thick stone walls, jangling his nerves. Rain-swept trees creaked eerily under the wind's punishment. Flickering light from the overhead fires created weirdly dancing shadows like disembodied spirits. Yet even his hunter's sixth sense couldn't pick up any sign of danger. Pressing his body as low as possible to the cold flagstones Smuddy Binks slunk on, passing like a ghost across the floor.

Without warning the corridor lit up as if by arc lights. Smuddy Binks halted, one paw frozen in the air, ears straining to pick up any noise.

Lightning. His pent-up breath sighed out of him.
Pull yourself together, stupid
, he told himself. By the time the answering bang of thunder reached the draughty passageway Smuddy Binks had sprinted to the staircase at the far end. Up two broad flights he raced, as if the goblins had already discovered his flight.

At the top of the stairs he paused for a moment, listening for any hint of life, his sensitive paws alert to any vibration in the floorboards: a sure indicator of anyone's approach. There was none. Marginally reassured, he slunk on at random until he saw an open door. From within flowed a welcoming pale yellow light.

Flick heard a faint scratching sound in the corridor, just audible above the muffled noise of the storm.

‘Discorpus,'
she mouthed.

Noiselessly she evaporated into a vague shapeless shadow floating across the room, rising swiftly to pass into the corridor high on the wall. She drifted over a badger crouching outside her door, staring into her room. As Flick's shapeless self slipped into the corridor he glanced up, startled. Without pausing, Flick slid slowly up the wall, remaining as thin and vague as possible. The badger's head swung round to peer over his shoulder, looking for the cause of the shadow. Clouds flitted across the face of the moon, casting many bizarre shapes on the walls. By the time the badger glanced back Flick had merged with the gloom of the high ceiling, becoming invisible.

Reassured by the moon shadows, Smuddy Binks crept up to the door. Immersed in the golden glow spilling from Flick's room he stood immobile, gazing at a massive opening at the far side of the room beyond which lay the jungle.

Smuddy Binks cantered across the star-patterned floor to the very edge of the hole. He paused and looked at what lay beyond.

A high jump, but probably not lethal if he ended up on the lilac bush that looked a softer landing than some of the rocks nearby. There might be a spell guarding the gap, but he didn't care. One brave jump would be escape or oblivion. Smuddy Binks took six steps back then sprinted at the hole. Eyes wide, legs outstretched, he launched himself into the air.

With a hard crack he crashed on to the magical glass floor. Astounded, he looked between his paws to see only space despite standing on something very solid. He eased forward on bruised paws, testing the ground as he moved, wondering where the invisible barrier would end. What kind of magic could this be? Some form of trap? he wondered.

A soft hiss came from in front of him. He edged forward. His front paw banged into the transparent wall which rose straight up out of the floor to arch back to the solid walls of Ravenscraig.

Standing on his back legs Smuddy Binks reached up as high as he could, but the magical substance in front of him remained unforgivingly hard.

Leaden-hearted he glared at the jungle, angry with the setback. Then the fighter in him cut in. He wasn't beaten. Not yet. ‘Stick with it,' he hissed to himself through clenched teeth. ‘I've not lost anything. I thought I'd cracked it; I was wrong. That's all.'

He turned his back on the glass wall and surveyed the room in front of him. The crystal wall silently spat sparks, its silvery depths constantly changing. Faint splashing came from the waterfall as it flowed through the floor.

The crystal wall looked very solid; unlikely to be a way out. He crouched on to his back paws, surveying the waterfall, wondering if it might have a cave behind it like some ordinary waterfalls. If so, it could be a hiding place until he worked out how to escape. He'd need to check it out before he searched the rest of the fortress.

As he crept towards the waterfall he heard soft animal noises coming from beyond a low wall close by. Flattening himself, he commando-crawled across the floor. Close to the wall he waited for a moment – not breathing, listening. His senses hadn't fooled him. Some of the animal voices were undoubtedly badger. Were they frightened or in pain? Even his extraordinary ears could not make sense of the words, masked by the waterfall flowing nearby.

Raising his forepaws cautiously on to the wall he peered over at the tiny world before him, astounded by the minute animals. Several of them gazed up at him with interest.

‘Are you real?' Smuddy Binks asked.

A rose flamingo looked at him scornfully. ‘Of course. You?'

‘Small doesn't mean imaginary, you know,' said a minuscule badger. ‘Ants are real. Furthermore, I'm your size or,' he continued, eyeing Smuddy Binks up, ‘perhaps a little bigger, when I'm outside Mondia.'

‘You change size?'

‘Of course,' replied the badger. ‘We wouldn't all fit in here if we were normal size, would we?'

Smuddy Binks stared, horrified. ‘Is that what happens if they catch you here? They shrink you down and imprison you?'

A larger blue-black badger spat, ‘Captured, my front paw. We're not trapped. We live here because we choose to. What kind of—'

‘Who are you?' cut in the smaller badger. ‘You're not one of us. Why don't you know anything about this compound? If Flick had brought you here to join us, you would know about Mondia. Come to think of it, have you even met Flick?'

Two pairs of eyes glared at Smuddy Binks with increasing hostility.

‘He has now,' said a soft voice, as Flick reparticulated behind him.

Smuddy Binks almost jumped out of his fur. He peered around, expecting other bodies to appear out of nowhere.

Flick grinned. ‘Don't be spooked. I won't hurt you. Come and see the compound with me. It's feeding time.'

‘What do I do
?' Smuddy Binks asked himself.
If I bolt for the door I'll never make it. She could probably fell me with some sort of spell, like a flaming arrow or a badger-eating dragon. So say ‘Yes.' I've nothing to lose. Also, I'll live for a bit longer.

‘OK,' he agreed, heart pounding.

Flick reached up to the shelves beside Mondia. She selected a few jars, which looked as if they contained bits of dead animals, and placed them in a flat silver basket.

Perhaps that's her game
, Smuddy Binks thought.
In a second I'll be chopped up and tossed over the walls to the lions. If my body remains the same size when I'm chucked over I could feed every carnivore in Mondia for about a month.
Smuddy Binks swallowed hard, but stood his ground.
If she has already decided to kill me I'm lunch for the lions, anyway.

‘Where do you come from?' Flick asked, as she opened a jar of dead mice and started sprinkling some close to the vultures.

‘Rantorf,' he said in a tight voice, mind running at the speed of a cheetah.

‘Are you part of the Handeen group?'

Smuddy Binks stared at her, stunned. How could a human, even a wizardess, know any detail about badger tribal groups? Only four lived in that area, Handeen being the biggest. Tevo or Rectoria wouldn't have known that badgers even had tribes. ‘Yes,' he replied.

‘Are you from the North or South Bank?' called the smaller badger.

‘South Bank.'

‘Me also. Name is Sibik.'

‘I'm Grolf,' called the large blue-black badger.

‘Smuddy Binks.'

‘You and I played together as cubs,' said Sibik. ‘I couldn't forget such a stupid name.'

‘Thanks. Don't you have an older brother – Mullox?'

‘Yup. Good memory.'

‘When did you last visit Rantorf?' asked Flick, sprinkling the contents of a blue bottle on to the plains.

‘Ages ago.'

‘Hey, that's cold,' yelled a lion.

‘Flipping freezing,' roared another.

Flick glanced down at the bottle in her hand. The label said Hail.

She laughed. ‘Sorry. Although it's a life experience for you. Everyone should feel ice some time, even wild kitty-cats like you. I've picked up the wrong jar. Should have been Hares.'

Smuddy Binks screwed up his face. Flick spotted his expression as she replaced the hail in her basket.

‘All the food is magically produced. None of these ‘animals' ever lived. I create them out of various plants and herbs. Go on: tell me about your early life.'

‘All we did was play: in muddy tunnels, by the river, in piles of autumn leaves, eating fallen apples until our bellies ached.'

‘Seems lovely. Why did you leave?'

‘My grandfather's death. Savaged by pinglots.'

‘How awful.'

‘My childhood ended very suddenly. Reality struck home. I left to seek justice for him.'

‘Did you find it?'

‘Yes, but the mental scars remain. Why are you asking?'

‘Interested.'

‘Like you believe I have feelings, or hope or even a brain? The goblins don't. They think I'm stupid.'

‘Which makes them stupid, not you. Why did you come to Ravenscraig?'

Smuddy Binks panicked. He couldn't tell her. ‘Sorry, I'd better go now,' he said, backing away.

‘Catch you later,' yelled Grolf.

‘Yeah… maybe. Bye, Grolf. Bye, Sibik.'

Sibik didn't reply. He lay snoring, stuffed with dandelion shoots, half buried in a lavender bush.

‘See you again some time,' said Flick as she watched him bolt for the door.