Jinx On The Divide (15 page)

146

Fuzzy swooped down and landed next to them. "I couldn't find anything," she said. "But I can eat the snagglefang. I don't suppose that you ... ?"

"No, thanks, Fuzzy," said Betony.

"I'm not sure
I'd
fancy eating a shadow-beast, either," said Pepperwort. "They smell terrible when they're alive. Goodness knows what they smell like once they're dead."

"Snagglefangs aren't shadow-beasts," said Felix. "Surely you know all shadow-beasts vanish when they die?"

"Will someone tell me what a shadow-beast
is?"
said Rhino, keeping his distance from the half-eagle-half-lion creature he had now realized was a griffin. Fuzzy was much too soft a name for something that looked capable of ripping his head off.

"Shadow-beasts are magical creatures created from spells that went wrong," said Betony. "They're all horrible."

"I've heard of sinistroms," said Rhino. "Is a sinistrom a shadow-beast?"

Betony nodded.

Fuzzy suddenly noticed Rhino, angled her head, and peered at him with an acid-yellow eye. "So you're the human that's been causing all the trouble, are you?" she said. "Is it the japegrin hair that makes you so unpleasant?"

Rhino seemed to lose his voice all of a sudden.

Betony snickered. Fuzzy could be every bit as intimidating as Thornbeak.

147

Fuzzy looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing," said Betony.

But Felix was smiling as well now. Fuzzy had sounded just like her mother -- severe and headmistressy, and not to be messed with.

Fuzzy turned to Felix. "What?"

"It's easy to see whose daughter
you
are," said Felix.

Fuzzy glared at him.

"Oh, look," said Betony tactfully. "The fire-breather's coming back."

They watched it land and skid to a halt in front of them, looking sheepish.

As if on cue, the door of the smallest hut banged open, dumping some snow from the roof onto the ground in a miniature avalanche. "Well, this is excellent," said the brandee, emerging from within and unsheathing his dagger. He surveyed Rhino for a moment -- then he said, "You're wearing my second-best cloak. Oh, well. Condemned being's last perk, if you like."

"Who are
you?"
asked Catchfly.

"Stephen Rheinhart's executioner."

There was complete silence while a few mouths dropped open.

Rhino is the only reason we're here,
thought Felix.
We've just found him; we
can't
lose him now. I may hate his guts, but I don't want him
dead.

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"Squill has taken possession of my lamp," explained the brandee. "He has ordered me to eliminate you."

Quick as a flash, Betony began to recite, "I command you in the name of..."

"Sorry," said the brandee. "I've already been commanded in the name of K'Faddle by Squill, so that won't work. Brandee law is awfully complicated. People do doctorates on it."

Rhino looked at Catchfly. Catchfly looked at Pepperwort. Pepperwort looked at the brandee. "But
why
does the thane want him dead?" he asked. "He sent us up here to collect sulfur to make that gunpowder stuff."

"The boy's a fraud. His science won't work because he isn't a scientist." The brandee felt among his flowing robes and pulled out a sheet of paper. "This is a death warrant."

Catchfly seized it and read it. He looked at Pepperwort. "It's genuine," he said.

Rhino had gone as white as a sheet. "You can't
kill
me for impersonating a scientist," he said.

"Of course I can," said the brandee.

Rhino looked at Catchfly. "You're not going to let him, are you? I thought we were friends." Catchfly didn't answer.

Rhino turned to the other japegrin. "Pepperwort? You were teaching me that song. 'Mallemaroking' ... remember? And you were going to show me how to play the bangithard."

Pepperwort wouldn't look at him.

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"You see, Rhino, I need a body," said the brandee, as though he were discussing an item of clothing. "Squill wants to put it on display. Only after that will I be free to continue my search to become a human being."

Everyone looked at everyone else. The brandee tested the edge of his knife, then wiped it on his clothing.

Suddenly, and without any sort of warning, Rhino surprised them all by leaping aboard the fire-breather and yelling "Move!" in its ear. And, equally surprisingly, the fire-breather did precisely as instructed and took off.

"Stop him!" shouted Catchfly, making a grab for Nimby. The carpet fluttered feebly and fell back onto the snow. There was a moment of complete chaos as everyone fell over everyone else.

In the midst of all this, the brandee suddenly and inexplicably turned to gas and streamed off into the distance, apparently becoming one with the Sky-mold.

"Quick," said Fuzzy to Felix and Betony, crouching for a moment to enable them to climb aboard. Then she took off and hovered over Catchfly, snatching Nimby from him with a flick of her beak and transferring him to her talons.

"No energy," said Nimby weakly. "It's all this night flying."

"I know," said Fuzzy, rising higher into the air. "Hold tight, humans. We're going to catch that fire-breather!"

The japegrins watched Fuzzy rise above the snowy landscape, the carpet held securely in her talons like a furled flag.

"What now?" said Pepperwort.

150

Catchfly drew his wand.

"Why didn't you use that earlier?" asked Pepperwort.

"Because it's going to be far more effective once they're all up in the air," said Catchfly. "There's a warrant out for Rhino. If we bring him back, there'll be a promotion in it, you mark my words."

"Dead or alive?"

"Oh, dead," said Catchfly. "He's never going to survive this. It's a long-distance plummeting spell I learned from a carrionwing."

151

***

9

***

Ironclaw circled above Yergud, looking for the perching rocks. He couldn't see anything that fit the bill, although he did spot a carrionwing sitting on a rocky outcrop on the outskirts of the town. He homed in with his magnifying vision. There was a battered old sign, which read: one silver piece per night, paid in advance . The rocks themselves had obviously seen better days, and there was a sort of blackened crater in the middle of them.

Ironclaw spiraled down and landed on the rock next to the sole occupant. It was numbered, the way rocks always were when they were rented out. Ironclaw glanced around. No one was collecting any money.

The carrionwing looked Ironclaw up and down and said, "Don't you have any manners? There are plenty of vacant perches farther away."

"I'm not here to roost," said Ironclaw irritably. "I'm looking for my daughter."

152

"Oh," said the carrionwing. "As it happens, I did meet a young female in the fly-in restaurant on the cliff face. Spiky black feathers and pink-and-orange talons?"

"I don't think so," said Ironclaw.

"She's the only one I've seen around here. Fuzzy, her name was. Into squawk music in a big way."

"Where is she?"

"I thought you said she wasn't your daughter?"

"I made a mistake. Where is she?"

"She's been to a talon salon without telling you, hasn't she?" cackled the carrionwing. "Adventurous in the food department as well. Tried the rotted fish, and it's not everyone'll do that."

"Yes, but
where is she?"

"Talking of dinner," continued the carrionwing, "that restaurant I mentioned serves a very good fermented fertle juice. The name's Scoffit, by the way. And you are?"

"Ironclaw," said Ironclaw, clenching his toes in annoyance. It looked as though the information he wanted was going to cost him at least a couple of drinks, if not a whole meal. "Lead the way, then," he said bitterly.

"Jolly decent of you," said the carrionwing, and they took off.

It took three whole buckets of fertle juice and two portions of cadaver à la carte before Scoffit seemed inclined to talk. By this stage, both parties were rather less coherent than they'd been when they arrived.

153

"So where is she?" asked Ironclaw eventually, punctuating his sentence with a hiccup.

"Gone to the spitfire mountains, to find a tangle-child and a couple of mythical beings. A human and a rhinocerosh."

"Oh," said Ironclaw, wondering what a rhinocerosh was, though he'd be plucked before he'd ask.

"You'd better pay the bill if you're to get off before nightfall," said the carrionwing.

"Yes, all right," said Ironclaw irritably. He had a slight case of indigestion, and an uphill flight was definitely not appealing.

The meal turned out to be quite expensive. He passed over two gold coins from his leg pouch. Then he jumped off the precipice in what he hoped was an
l-do-this-all-the-time
sort of way, and opened his wings.

Scoffit watched him bank sharply, nearly hit the cliff face, turn to the north, and fly off into the distance.

Catchfly held his wand out in front of him, pointed it at the distant speck that was Squill's fire-breather, and waved it rather theatrically in a figure eight. Then he declaimed the spell as though he were taking his Level Thirteen Magical Elocution Exam. After a moment or two, his expression darkened. "What?" said Pepperwort.

"Nearly out of range." He tried again -- but he was in a hurry, and his aim was not what it could have been.

The wand fired its spell at Fuzzy instead, who was a lot

154

closer. She had been having a hard time gaining height because she was carrying both Felix and Betony on her back, as well as a rolled-up carpet in her talons. The Sky-mold seemed to gather itself together into a streak of green lightning, which hurtled down and enveloped her in a blaze of shimmering emerald. For a moment, Fuzzy's dark shape was silhouetted, and then it disappeared behind a billowing cloud of green smoke.

"Nice," said Pepperwort admiringly. He glanced sideways at his superior. To his surprise, Catchfly had dropped his wand as though it had bitten him and was just standing there with his mouth open. He looked sort of silly. "What?" said Pepperwort.

"That wasn't supposed to happen."

"I thought you said it was a plummeting spell?"

"It is. And that's all she was supposed to do -- plummet. I don't know where all that green fire came from."

Pepperwort shrugged. "It doesn't matter, does it?"

"Of course it does," said Catchfly. "I was after Rheinhart, not them. What good are their deaths going to do us?"

When the green fire enveloped them, Felix thought they were all done for. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rhino's fire-breather turn to a small speck and disappear. Then Fuzzy let out a strangled squawk, Betony screamed, and Nimby made a noise like wet laundry flapping in a hurricane. The emerald flames were all around them, weaving about in a

155

crazy tarantella, but they didn't burn at all. The flames felt more like a cool breeze licking against damp skin, hinting at winter. The heat came from elsewhere -- somewhere much closer to Felix's heart. He felt something start to scorch a hole in his pocket. Hot, hot, hot -- he turned the fabric inside out in an attempt to escape it. There was a sudden beam of light. He must have knocked the switch of his flashlight into the on position. It rolled out, hit him on the knee, and then tumbled away like a parachutist leaving an airplane. He caught one last glimpse of it as it fell, glowing like a live coal.

Fuzzy was spiraling slowly down, autumn leaf-style, and as long as her rate of descent remained the same, none of them risked much more than a twisted ankle. Nevertheless, Betony was clinging on for dear life. Nimby was unable to do likewise, and after a moment, as Fuzzy's talons relaxed their grip, he drifted away from them like a skydiver in free fall, and Felix lost sight of him.

The snow-covered ground rose to meet them -- not in a great rush, but certainly fast enough. Before Felix had a chance to collect himself, they had all landed
plop
in a deep drift, and he was struggling to breathe. He wiped the snow from his face and fought his way out. Betony joined him a moment later. Fuzzy shook herself and looked disoriented.

"Are you OK?" Betony asked her, her voice filled with concern.

Fuzzy shook her head. "I've chipped a couple of talons."

156

"No harm done, then," said Betony.

Fuzzy glared at her. Then she stretched out a wing and peered at it.

"Where's Nimby?" asked Betony, looking around.

Felix looked around, too, but he couldn't see him.

Fuzzy stretched out her other wing and gave both of them an experimental flap. Nothing much happened -- she should have lifted a couple of feet off the ground, but she didn't. "I feel dead craggy," she said. "I think we should try and get some sleep."

Felix peered into the distance, but he couldn't remember exactly where the fire-breather had gone. They'd lost Rhino
again.
He wanted to scream -- but to be honest, he was simply too exhausted.

"I'm going to look for Nimby," said Betony, and she wandered off.

Felix remembered the time he and Betony had been crossing the mountains with Ironclaw and they'd dug a shelter in the snow. He started to dig, and Fuzzy joined him. After a while, Betony came back empty-handed, but they were all too tired to do anything further. The three of them curled up in the shelter they'd dug, and fell asleep immediately.

When Felix woke up the next morning, the sky was blushing a delicate coral-pink at the horizon. Dawn was so different here -- a long, lazy, unhurried procedure. For a moment he lay there, watching it through the opening in the ice cave --