The Serpents of Arakesh (15 page)

Half an hour later a great shout went up from Kai's team,
and we watched as Richard was hoisted onto their shoulders and paraded round the village green. I couldn't help grinning, but I was wincing inwardly — this wasn't exactly the low profile we'd agreed to keep. Still, it was hardly surprising: not only had Rich stolen the show with his massive, accurate kicks, but he'd shown the strength and determination of a rhinoceros. Kai's team had scored a crushing victory, and it was almost entirely thanks to Richard.

The other boys straggled away, and Kai and Rich came over to the tree and flopped down, grinning all over their faces and smelling distinctly of sweat.

‘You have a permanent place in my team if you want one, Rich,' said Kai, wiping his damp face on his sleeve. ‘You are a fearsome adversary. And yet you say you ain't never played force-back before?' He shook his head in disbelief.

Richard reached for his bag, and, before I could stop him, pulled out his water bottle and took a long swig. ‘
Rich —
' I said, but it was too late.

Q had given us the most rugged, basic bottles he'd been able to find in any of the outdoor shops in Winterton — military-type canteens, complete with shoulder straps and camouflage netting. I reckoned they were pretty cool, and by the look on Kai's face, he thought so, too.

‘By Zephyr,' he breathed, and held out his hand. ‘I ain't seen nothing like
that
before. Where did you get it?'

Very reluctantly, with a sheepish glance at the rest of us, Richard handed it over.

Kai was clearly waiting for an answer, screwing and unscrewing the lid and tapping the sides.

‘From a merchant in our home town,' I mumbled.

Kai settled himself comfortably. He obviously had no intention of leaving for school, or trentice, or wherever his friends had gone. His gaze was friendly, curious and
open. ‘Your home town? And where is that?'

There was an awkward silence. Suddenly I had a brainwave. ‘Where we are from, it isn't polite to question strangers.'

But Kai wasn't having any of it. He pulled a face and gave me a friendly shove. ‘Oh, don't give me that glonk-widdle, Adam,' he said cheerfully. ‘Come on — where
are
you from? And where be your parents? And for what purpose have you come to Arakesh?'

He leaned back on one elbow, smiled broadly and waited for us to answer.

Gen made one last valiant attempt to deflect him. ‘Shouldn't you be at school?' she asked, sounding rather prim. ‘I mean — we wouldn't want you to get into trouble.'

‘You women be all the same. From cradle to grave, always yapping at us menfolk to be going about our business,' grumbled Kai good-naturedly. ‘In answer to your question, my lady: if I should be anywhere, it's at trentice, and not at
school
, whatever
that
may be. But this week I'm trenticed to my own pa at the inn, and I know the business well enough already, from the wine stains on the floor to the cobwebs in the thatch.'

‘Does your father own an inn?' asked Jamie. I could practically see visions of a square meal and a comfortable bed materialising in his head.

‘Indeed he does — the Brewer's Butt, in Bend Lane.'

Jamie sniggered. ‘Is it really called the Brewer's Butt?'

‘Aye, it is — brewer for he who brews the ale, and butt for the wooden cask it's brewed in,' retorted Kai, but there
was a mischievous twinkle in his eye, and I wondered whether the name had another meaning in his world, as well as ours. ‘And now, it be your turn. Where do you hail from?'

Thanks to Gen I'd had a moment to collect my thoughts. As I started to speak, taking it slowly and choosing my words with care, I hoped I'd made the right call.

‘We have journeyed from a town far away, in a distant land.'

Kai nodded. So far, so good, but he was watching me narrowly, and was clearly no fool. And that was partly why I'd decided to stick as closely to the truth as possible — that, and the fact that I liked him, and could tell the others did too.

‘Aye, and what be the name of this town?'

‘It's called … Winterton.'

Kai nodded again. ‘Well, I can see
that
be true enough, any road. It be the reason for your pale faces, like grubs that ain't never seen the sun. Well, go on.'

I took a deep breath, and a huge gamble. ‘We have travelled here alone, without our parents' knowledge,' I told him. ‘You see, we have a sick friend — a friend who is going to die. And we have come to Arakesh to seek a potion that might heal her.' I didn't say the word
magic
— I didn't want to sound like a complete idiot.

Kai's eyes widened, and he glanced round warily. ‘Well, my friends, if you seek the Healing Potion, you seek in vain,' he said quietly. ‘Unless you bring with you a wagonload of gelden.'

Excitement rippled through our little group like an electric current. Jamie sat bolt upright, his eyes bright. ‘You mean it does exist?' he hissed.

‘Exist? Of course it exists — as even a hoo-hoo grub from Winterton must surely know,' snorted Kai.

‘See the tower up yonder?' He pointed off across the
green; sure enough, the tall tower Gen had noticed was just visible above the houses. ‘That be the temple — the Sacred Temple of Arakesh. But you'll know this — that's why you're here.'

‘No, we
don't
know,' said Richard. ‘We didn't even know for sure the potion was real.'

Kai raised his eyebrows, and shook his head. ‘Winterton must be distant indeed. Well, then: in the days of yore, more than fifty spans ago' — he dropped his voice again, and glanced back over his shoulder — ‘when good King Zane was on his throne, the Potions of Power were at hand to all who needed them.

‘There were still the Curators, to hear the applicants and weigh the need, and even in those days, you would only be granted the Potion of Insight if you were a mage, and the Potion of Power if you were a warrior of a certain level. The Healing Potion was for the apothecaries, of course, and those who could afford to paid to use it, according to their means. But it was freely given to us humble folk.' He sighed. ‘They say in those distant days common people wore what clothes they pleased, and music and laughter rang through the streets of Arakesh.'

Well, things sure had changed. ‘Aren't you allowed to wear whatever you want?' asked Jamie in amazement. ‘Do you have to wear, like, uniforms, or something?'

Kai looked at him blankly. ‘
Uniforms?
Nay, Pinky — unless the uniform colours of the earth be what you mean. For the wearing of colour is a privilege reserved only for Curators and those of noble blood. Within the borders of Karazan, even a lass of three summers playing in a meadow don't dare place a bright flower in her hair, lest it be noted. Yet they say the king wears a cloak of cloth woven like a rainbow and his queens have entire chambers for their gowns alone, with not a single one of the selfsame hue.'

I exchanged a glance with Rich. Thank goodness Q had insisted on keeping our costumes as close as possible to the ones worn by the villagers in
Quest for the Golden Goblet
!

‘The gulf between those of high birth and us humble folk is as great as that between the soil and the stars,' Kai was telling us bitterly. ‘And what holds the two apart is not free air and the four winds, but fear and pain. Now that King Karazeel rules Karazan, gelden have mouths, and their language is the only one the king or the Curators hear. And it is their weight, more than the weight of need, that sways the balance at the temple.'

Well, I couldn't make sense of much of what he'd said, and by their blank looks I could see the others were also struggling. But even I could tell it wasn't good news. There was a gloomy silence.

‘So what it all boils down to is this,' said Kenta slowly. ‘The magic potions
do
exist, and you can get them from the temple — that building over there — but only if you have enough money.'

‘Aye — ain't that what I just said?'

‘How much is enough?' Richard asked bluntly.

Kai gave a short laugh. ‘A king's ransom, that be how much — more than I, or you, or even Pa, would ever have, if we worked night and day and spent not a single cobbler more our whole lives long.'

‘Do you know anyone who has the potion?' Gen asked hopefully. ‘Who might be able to spare us — you know — just a tiny
drop
?'

Kai must have heard the desperation in her voice, because for once he kept a curb on his tongue, and simply smiled at her, shaking his head.

‘There must be a way,' I said slowly. ‘There
has
to be. At the very least, we should go to the temple and look. Maybe we could — I don't know — sneak in somehow, and …'

I didn't say it. I didn't have to. The others were all
looking down, picking at the grass. Only Kai seemed unperturbed. ‘Aye, there's a thought,' he said, sounding more cheerful. ‘To take from the coffers of King Karazeel, the coffers fat with gelden from merchants and farmers … and
innkeepers
— aye, that would be no crime in my eyes.' The dimple disappeared. ‘But if you were caught …' He shook his head. ‘King Karazeel makes an example of all who steal from him. It would be the axe and entrails on the walls of Shakesh, children or no. That — or worse.'

None of us asked Kai what he meant — none of us wanted to know.

‘Maybe we should just go home.' Jamie's voice wasn't much more than a whisper.

Kai glanced across at him. ‘Nay,' he said kindly, ‘you should not despair.
Let your boat go with the river's flow; the tide may yet turn.
' He jumped to his feet. ‘And now, I'm away to Hob's to tell him of our force-back victory.' His eyes gleamed. ‘Will you come with me? He will not forgive me if I deny him the chance to clasp the wrist of such a master of the fob, Rich. And who knows? Hob has a heavy head on his shoulders, and may be able to help you in your quest — and I swear you can trust him as far as an arrow flies.'

Somehow it didn't surprise me that Kai knew the byways of Arakesh like the back of his hand. We followed him through the cobbled streets in the golden sunshine, ducking occasionally down narrow alleyways, and taking a number of shortcuts through what I suspected were private courtyards.

In no time at all he was pushing open the door below a faded wooden sign reading
Second Sight
, and had disappeared inside. I paused outside for a moment to wait for the
others, curious to see what kind of place it would be.

The windows fronting onto the narrow lane were of thick, irregular glass, making it virtually impossible to see inside. The fact that they were none too clean didn't help. The others straggled up, and we stood in a cluster round the window, all pretending to admire the invisible merchandise, but really having a whispered conference.

‘You shouldn't have told him so much,' hissed Jamie.

‘Well, I think Adam did the right thing.'

‘It is clear we are unlikely to make any progress without assistance.'

‘I like Kai, and I think we should trust him,' chipped in Gen. ‘I think we should go on in, meet this Hob, and see where it takes us.'

I looked round at the four faces: Jamie's clouded with worry; Kenta silent and alert; Rich as laid-back as ever; and Gen earnest and intense, her wild hair tangled and a smudge of dirt on her long nose.

I gave them all what I hoped was an encouraging grin, and we headed in.

My first impression was that Second Sight was some kind of a junk shop. Shelves and dusty display cabinets lined the walls, a chaotic assortment of merchandise cluttering every surface. Somehow the light filtering through the window and from one or two lanterns managed to make the whole place seem even darker.

The jingle of the bell above the door was followed almost immediately by a loud crash as Jamie knocked over a suit of armour standing in the shadows.

A skinny, red-haired boy appeared from the back of the shop, Kai in his wake. To my relief, he didn't seem too fussed about the jumble of metal scattered over the floor.
‘Happens all the time,' he said casually, giving it a kick. ‘Designed to take knocks a lot worse than this. Can't see why Pa don't put it over on the other side with the rest of the weaponry.' He held out his hand to Richard. ‘I'm Hob — and I'll wager you're Rich. Thanks for taking my place at force-back.'

He clasped wrists solemnly with each of us in turn, and then led us to the back of the shop, after flipping the sign on the door to read ‘Closed'. As he did, he winked at Kai, and I wondered what his absent pa would have felt about such flexible opening hours.

‘Now,' said Hob, with the confidence of one on his own turf, ‘Kai has told me who you are, and why you have come to Arakesh.
I
think the whole thing's really
tempered
—'

‘
And
honed!' added Kai, giving him a nudge.

‘Aye, tempered
and
honed. And because any friend of Kai's is a friend of mine, and because you won the force-back final for us, I'll help you all I can.' He stuck his hands through the belt of his jerkin, and beamed at us.

We grinned back. Even though it was hard to see how this scrawny urchin would be able to help, it felt good to have another friend.