The Serpent of Eridor Read online

  Green eyes flecked with gold swivelled round to fix on him. ‘Don’t knock it. Power snoozing. We cold-blooders need a sun blast at times.’

  Skoodle’s body had gone rigid. Alex stuffed a finger under Skoodle’s nose, blocking his nostrils. As the hamster opened his mouth to breathe, Alex removed his finger and crammed more fentice into his mouth.

  ‘Eat. Chill out. It’s OK to be friends with a snake.’

  ‘Eating’s okay,’ mumbled Skoodle. ‘It’s the thought of being eaten that I find less relaxing.’

  ‘Then stand away from the snake. Go buddy up with the bear.’

  Tariq was lying stretched out on his back on a patch of thick grass, huge arm across his eyes. He looked perfectly content in the caress of the sun’s warmth. Thoughts unblocked, Alex wondered if he was asleep.

  ‘Asleep?’ asked Keeko. ‘We’ll soon fix that.’

  Shinning up a nearby tree, she picked a handful of nuts. Taking aim, she pelted the bear with them.

  ‘Stop, Keeko,’ Tariq said, not moving a millimetre.

  Ignoring him, Keeko continued the barrage. Tariq picked up a nut and threw it hard. It pinged off the monkey’s chest.

  ‘That hurt. I’ll get you.’

  Swinging through the branches above their heads Keeko flung herself on to Tariq, kicking and punching. Tariq play-wrestled back, pushing her fists away, groaning in overacted agony.

  ‘Great. A fight,’ shouted Skoodle, mimicking Keeko’s every move, ducking the phantom blows from Tariq. ‘Right hook. Unlucky. Slug with the left.’

  Wrapping his arms round his face, Tariq called out, ‘Get her off. She’ll hurt me.’

  Keeko bared her long teeth and bit him.

  ‘Not funny.’ Tariq stood up, grabbed Keeko by her feet and dangled her upside down – the other paw holding her upper spine to stop her twisting to bite him.

  Still acting as if he were Keeko, Skoodle was forced into a handstand. ‘Crisis,’ he said. ‘Bad vibes.’

  Keeko punched and kicked at Tariq, hitting only air, hanging screeching and wriggling.

  ‘No more biting or fighting. Pax?’ asked Tariq.

  ‘Fat chance.’

  Boxing the breeze Keeko fought on, not one paw finding bear flesh. Skoodle gave up, righted himself and changed sides, imitating Tariq waiting.

  Finally Keeko hung limply. ‘Pax,’ came a small voice.

  ‘Good.’

  Tariq tossed her up into the air in a broad arc, catching her in a hug.

  ‘Not happy, though. Don’t think you can get round me by being nice,’ she said, baring her teeth.

  Tariq growled loudly.

  ‘But that’ll work,’ she replied with a smile.

  Wearing Keeko on his chest like a small furry bib Tariq asked, ‘What news from the beach?’

  Before anyone had time to answer, a blast of wind ripped through the clearing. Jungle birds were flung out of the trees in a shrieking, multicoloured blizzard. Black clouds scudded across the sun as the temperature plummeted.

  The wind dropped, leaving an unnatural stillness in the polar air.

  ‘The news is… ’ thundered a voice, filling the clearing. It seemed to come from everywhere but nowhere. It paused ominously. For several seconds everyone froze, petrified. The suspense was agonising. Skoodle disappeared into Alex’s pocket.

  Into the terrified silence the voice spoke again. ‘Alex will die.’

  Time seemed to stop. The glade was silent. Alex’s heart was pumping fast as he struggled to work out if this could really be happening.

  Tariq stood up, handing Keeko to Alex. ‘Virida, O Powerful One. For what reason do you make such a dreadful statement?’

  A deafening clap of thunder answered him. In the same instant a column of swirling blue smoke rose from the centre of the clearing. Within seconds it towered as high as the treetops, spitting red, green and orange sparks. Alex sat transfixed, terrified by a force powerful enough to control nature.

  ‘Because, O Stupid One, the Weston boy must bear the sins of his parents. They wronged me deeply. For that he shall pay.’

  ‘Such is not justice,’ replied Tariq, facing the column without flinching. ‘The parents commit the crime, yet the son is to be punished?’

  The column of smoke rose higher, swelling thicker. ‘You question my judgement? Be careful, or those who defend him may also die.’

  ‘The deeper laws of Eridor do not permit such injustice,’ said Tariq, taking a step closer to the swirling smoke, apparently unmoved by the fear that paralysed the rest of them. ‘It’s against Core Justice.’

  ‘A death for a death is permitted,’ spat out the voice. ‘Blood has been shed by the Westons. The evil in them is embedded in the kinfolk also. The boy must be eliminated. I have spoken.’

  The wind whipped up again, bending trees, snapping vines, tearing branches off bushes. Flattened by the force Alex grabbed on to a tree, arms scraped by branches hurtling past, Keeko clinging to him. He caught Ikara as she blew towards him in a bruised tangle. Holding the tree with one arm he clung to Ikara until she wriggled up his chest, wrapped herself around the tree and anchored all three of them.

  Only Tariq stood unmoved, his great weight and courage fixing him to the spot. The column started to fall as the cascade of smoke turned in on itself. Within moments, the pillar stood at barely half its peak height.

  ‘Wait, Virida,’ growled Tariq. ‘Is there anything you would accept other than the life of such a miserable creature?’

  The wind dropped. The column halted, hanging swirling in the air, internal lights sparking. The centre glowed red, a poker of heat straight through the smoke’s heart. The whole column pulsated as if a life force beat within it.

  Seconds passed. Sparks spitting and hissing were the only sounds in the terrifying silence. Then the voice came again. ‘There is a price I would accept.’

  ‘Name it.’

  ‘The Sapphire of Akan. Bring it to me and Alex goes free. Fail and you all die with him. Unless you speak now, you have all agreed.’ With not even half a second’s pause to allow an answer, Virida swept on. ‘The pact is made. You are bound by its terms.’

  The column started to fall once more.

  ‘Stop, Virida.’

  The column paused, centre glowing darker, pulsating heat. Red sparks like long nails rained on to the ground, scorching moss, setting tufts of grass alight.

  I hope he knows what he’s doing, thought Alex, mind blocked. The column looks as reasonable and as safe as the core of a nuclear reactor.

  Tariq’s face remained expressionless. ‘Where can we find the crystal?’

  ‘Ask Zorrin.’

  ‘No one knows where to find him, except the elemental wizards,’ replied Tariq.

  ‘Tough.’ The column began to shrink again.

  ‘If you help us we have more chance of getting the sapphire for you. If we die finding him we’re only a pile of corpses, no use to you.’

  The column quietened, apparently thinking. ‘Try the Single Redwood. Zorrin sometimes goes there.’

  A wild gust of wind swept the smoke straight up into the sky where it hung for a moment, then vanished in an explosion of purple and red sparks. The black clouds slid away from the face of the sun, yet the atmosphere remained icy.

  Alex frowned at the space where the column had been, stunned. Could this be possible? Had he really been condemned to death? Who would have this much power, even controlling the weather? In a cold sweat he let go of Ikara’s tail as she unwound herself from the tree. He pulled himself to sitting.

  Keeko’s sobs broke the horrendous silence. ‘We’re all to die. Nothing can save us.’

  CHAPTER 6

  ‘We’ll just find the crystal and hand it over. Then everything will be all right,’ said Alex, trying to sound calm.

  The temperature had risen, the birdsong returning, but the glade still felt sinister.

  ‘The sapphire may not even exist,’ said Ikara. ‘It’s probably only a legend.’
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  ‘She’s being cruel,’ cried Keeko, rocking back and forth, arms round her knees. ‘We’ll run around trying to find a mythical gem then, when she’s bored of the game, she’ll kill us.’

  Tariq shambled over to join them. ‘Yet we have to assume it exists and search for it if we want to stay alive.’

  ‘Alive is good,’ said Skoodle. ‘I go with that.’

  ‘Surely she cannot kill the rest of us. Our death sentences must be an empty threat,’ said Ikara, looking at Tariq for confirmation.

  Tariq shook his head, deep sadness in his eyes. ‘Unfortunately not. She’ll execute us unless we get the sapphire. Evil witches are not known for compassion. The pact, although unfairly made, will be binding.’

  Shuddering, Keeko buried her face in her hands. Alex lifted her on to his lap. Skoodle started biting his toenails.

  ‘But what if Zorrin’s not at the Redwood? How are we going to find his hideout?’ asked Ikara.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Tariq said.

  ‘I know where Zorrin lives,’ said Alex.

  Ikara stared at him.‘How?’ she asked, tone suspicious. ‘That would be impossible if you’d really only just arrived.’ Her head rose, the sides of her neck winging out like a cobra. ‘We were wrong to trust you. We were safe before you turned up. You’re the cause of our death sentence.’

  A sense of injustice boiled up inside Alex. ‘It’s not my fault,’ he shouted. ‘You can’t blame me for something my parents may or may not have done. Furthermore, it’s in your country where all this magic and death-binding stuff occurs. It doesn’t happen in mine.’ Spitting out each word, he continued. ‘This has nothing to do with me.’

  ‘Go, Alex,’ yelled Skoodle.

  Ikara glared at Alex. ‘Thinking about it, you must be one of Virida’s spies.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Alex replied, furious. ‘You heard her. I’m under the death penalty too.’

  ‘And me,’ shouted Skoodle.

  ‘It could be a cover,’ said Ikara, sounding increasingly hostile. ‘Virida threatens you, but only intends to kill us. If we travel together she’ll know exactly where we are going and what we are doing, with you acting as her informant. Perhaps the plan is for us to lead her to Zorrin, then the sapphire. Doubtless she’ll destroy us once we hand over the stone, sparing you of course.’

  ‘And me,’ yelled a squeaky voice.

  ‘Not helping,’ Alex muttered.

  ‘That can’t happen,’ Tariq cut in. ‘She couldn’t kill us if we give her the sapphire. Even the witch cannot override the deeper magic that governs the pact she has thrust upon us.’

  ‘It seems weird to me,’ continued Ikara, as if she hadn’t heard Tariq. ‘This human claims he has just arrived on the beach. From where? Then he says he knows how to find Zorrin when he has been here for only one rising of the sun – whereas I, who have lived here all my life, don’t know. How? He appears, then bang – the witch comes and curses all of us. Too much of a coincidence. I say he works for her.’

  ‘I don’t work for her,’ said Skoodle.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Nor does he,’ added Skoodle.

  Keeko wriggled off Alex’s lap and slipped across to Tariq. The bear’s face remained unreadable, but his honey-brown eyes looked troubled.

  Getting up, Alex stood eye to eye with the uncoiled snake. ‘There’s a map showing Zorrin’s hideout in something I brought with me.’

  ‘Virida could have planted that on him,’ hissed Ikara, unmoved.

  Anger exploded in Alex’s head again. ‘All I’ve done is follow my parents, nearly getting myself drowned in the process. It wasn’t my fault that she landed us with a death sentence. That’s Virida’s doing. So why am I suddenly the bad guy?’

  ‘The time has come for you to tell us how you got here and why,’ said Tariq calmly.

  Alex turned his back on Ikara.

  ‘Tell them,’ said Skoodle.

  ‘Why should I?’

  ‘If it comes to a fight we’re dead meat.’

  ‘So we leave.’

  ‘We need their help to get the stupid sapphire, break the curse, then get on with finding out what your parents were doing here.’

  Alex walked away a few paces and stood looking at the jungle, trying to regain calm. ‘OK, you’re right. I’ll explain.’ He returned to the others and motioned for them to sit down.

  Tariq and Keeko sank on to the grass nearby. Ikara remained upright, towering above him.

  ‘My parents were explorers, often away for months at a time,’ said Alex, tone surly. ‘So I live with my aunt Lisa in England. A few days ago I received an email. An electronic letter.’

  He dug in his rucksack. Pulling out the netbook, he found his father’s email and handed the computer to Tariq. ‘Read it.’

  Alex paused as they read the email. ‘Yes, you can read it calmly. I couldn’t. That day I booked a ticket to Tikopia.’

  On Tariq’s and Keeko’s faces Alex could see interest: on Ikara’s, frank disbelief and impatience. Skoodle caught his eye and shrugged.

  Settling himself more comfortably on the ground, Alex went on. ‘However, on the boat, a man in black threatened to kill me.’

  ‘Can you describe him?’ asked Tariq.

  Alex described the man in detail, ending with, ‘Oddly enough, he had violet eyes.’

  Tariq nodded as if he had been half expecting this last piece of information. ‘What happened next?’

  Alex told them about casting himself adrift in the lifeboat, ending up on the beach. Silence fell on the group as he finished. Keeko sat twisting her tail, frowning.

  ‘Lies,’ Ikara said, rising higher, tension in every muscle of her body. Skoodle ran and hid behind Alex.

  ‘I think not.’ The bear motioned for Ikara to coil up again. ‘Don’t you recognise the man?’

  Ikara shook her head remaining rigidly upright.

  ‘It was Karlan.’

  Ikara sank back on to the ground, resting her head on a wide coil as Keeko started tying and untying knots in her tail. Skoodle stuck his nose out from behind Alex’s jeans.

  ‘Who?’ asked Alex.

  Tariq looked worried as he sat with his huge golden-brown arms resting on his knees. ‘A powerful, evil wizard. But he would have had little magic away from the circumferential forces of the island, which is why he had to resort to threatening you with a knife.’

  ‘Before we get too carried away with this belief business,’ said Ikara, ‘we should have a little proof. Where is this map of Eridor?’

  Anger ignited within Alex again. He turned a hostile pair of eyes towards Ikara. ‘I’ve nearly been killed hiding my netbook. The information’s mine. I no longer trust that you’re on my side.’

  ‘Our side,’ said Skoodle.

  ‘He’s right. There are two of us.’ It sounded good to be a team, but Alex couldn’t help thinking that an added couple of ounces of hamster didn’t make him the strongest fighting unit on Eridor.

  ‘Yet,’ replied Tariq placidly, ‘if you try to escape the death sentence alone, you won’t live long in the jungle. The rest of us will also be as good as dead. If you show it to us so that we can work together, we may find the sapphire. We have to trust each other for survival.’

  ‘Like that’s going to be easy. She’s just attacked me.’

  ‘It was only words,’ said Skoodle.

  ‘Provoked by anger, which you felt too,’ said Tariq. ‘And since when has something become impossible just because it’s difficult? An animal survives or dies on instinct. What was your impression, Ikara, when you first met Alex and Skoodle?’

  Ikara dropped her eyes. ‘I liked Alex. The rodent took longer to accept.’

  ‘You, Keeko?’

  Keeko was absent-mindedly pulling a leaf to pieces. ‘I took to them. They seemed fun, if a little strange.’

  ‘For me the connection was also good,’ said Tariq. ‘You’re an animal too, Alex. What were your feelings?’

  Alex’s wrath was drai
ning away as he recognised Ikara’s honesty, doubtless at considerable cost to her pride. He owed them the truth, however wound up he felt. ‘You all seemed OK. Well… great, really.’

  ‘Skoodle?’

  ‘Fine, once I got over my fear of the legless one.’

  ‘Then there must be a pact between us,’ said Tariq, ‘Ensuring openness, trust and honesty. When we fight, as we surely shall, we’ll be victorious together or die defending each other. Salute.’

  Tariq held his paw out, back uppermost, so that his flesh-shredding claws pointed downwards. Without hesitation, Keeko reached out and placed her small red and brown paw on top of the heavy golden one. Ikara paused, looking at Alex long and hard. Finally she uncoiled her heavy tail and placed the tip on top of the paws.

  Decision time. If Alex failed to reach for the others, he would be alone in a hostile jungle. But did he truly trust Ikara? Just now she had turned against him, so how could he believe that she could become totally loyal to him? It needed to be a two-way confidence. Still uncertain, Alex hesitated.

  Skoodle scrambled on to Keeko’s arm and placed his small paw on Ikara’s tail.

  Decision made. The final hand reached out and joined the heap.

  ‘Until the sun implodes,’ said the Eridor three.

  ‘Until the sun implodes,’ echoed Alex and Skoodle.

  ‘Right,’ said Ikara, pulling her tail away. ‘That binds us. Tariq, what do we do next?’

  Before Tariq could answer, Alex made a decision. They were now bound together, like blood brothers. ‘I’ll show you my map, but not here. I’m worried about this clearing. It feels evil to me.’

  ‘That’s interesting,’ Tariq said. ‘This could be useful. You may have the power of predor.’

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘Predor. The ability to detect evil when there is no visible sign. You’re right about the atmosphere here. This clearing has been used for the ceremonies of the forces of evil. Let’s get back to the beach,’ said Tariq.

  No one spoke as they strolled back down the jungle path. On arrival, Alex pulled out his parents’ netbook and found the map. ‘Over here up in the north east is Zorrin’s place, Ravenscraig, with an eagle sign above it.’