The Chimera's Curse Page 17

  “The chimera?” Col asked Connie.

  “It’ll be back once the other two regain control from the goat. We’ve got to get to safety,” she said. There was no more she could do against the chimera. Surprise would work only once.

  Over to the south, the roar of an angry creature reverberated in the air.

  “Let’s go then,” said Rat. Gathering himself for the leap, he jumped to the firm ground where the chimera had so recently stood, the grass blackened by its flame. Col followed him.

  “Come on, Connie!” Col called, holding out a hand to help her. It was a good thing he did for, without the benefit of a running jump, Connie fell a pace short and was thigh-deep in the bog before he and Rat hauled her out.

  “It’s blocking our way to the cottages,” she panted, sliding in her shoes as she ran up the hill. She felt exhausted but knew she couldn’t give in to tiredness now. “Make for the Mastersons’.”

  The three of them ran back the way they had come, hitting the track and making faster progress on the clear path. But they could not hope to outrun a chimera.

  “Where are the dragons when you need them!” cursed Col, stumbling over a boulder in the dark but managing to stay on his feet.

  “I can’t summon help on the move,” Connie said. “Let’s get to the Devil’s Tooth. It’ll buy us some time, and I can call Gard from there.” The thought darted into her mind that after this, she would be in serious trouble: ignoring warnings, going on the moor, using forbidden weapons. But that seemed the last of her worries just now.

  With limbs like lead, Connie clambered up the hill to the base of the tor. Col gave her a leg-up onto the summit of the granite rock and pulled himself after her. Rat scrambled up the other side. The top of the Tooth formed a flat platform in the burnt-out patch of moor. It provided just enough room for the three of them to crouch.

  All were silent while Connie concentrated on sending out her distress call.

  Gard! Help!

  Nothing.

  Please talk to me! Help!

  But there was no answer. There was going to be no second lucky escape from the Devil’s Tooth.

  “The stone sprites are blocking me,” she explained to the others. “There’s hundreds of them in the ground between us and the road. Even if we ran for it, they’d get us first.”

  “Can they reach us here?” Col asked.

  Connie nodded. “But I think I can use my shield to stop them if you stick close to me.” Connie immediately found herself squeezed in the middle of a tight embrace from both boys. Rat was even stepping on her toes. “But not that close!”

  Rat gave a forced laugh and stepped back a little. “Sorry,” he said, “but just now you seem the only thing between me and my death.”

  There was little anyone could say to that. Connie bowed her head, concentrating her energies on holding up the shield. Rat crouched down beside her. Despite everything, Col felt a surge of warmth just looking at his friends being so brave in the face of such dire danger. It didn’t matter what others thought of them; he knew there was no one else he’d rather be with in a crisis.

  “So, we’re trapped,” Col said, his voice calm as he faced the truth. He also found comfort in standing so close to his friends. Especially to Connie. If the end was coming, at least it was good to be with them. “Is there no way of getting a message through?”

  Connie shook her head. “Not to Gard. Not unless someone comes close enough to hear me, but all I can sense are our enemies.”

  “You forget we’ve got the technology,” said Rat, not yet downhearted. He pulled out Connie’s phone from his hip pocket. It was wet and black with mud. He wiped it clean and punched the buttons. Nothing happened. “But it broke.”

  Col swore softly.

  “But you’ve still got the universal with you,” Connie said determinedly. “I’m not beaten, yet.”

  Col felt very proud of her at that moment. Connie was right. They were not giving up yet. “What’s the plan?” he asked, confident she would come up with something.

  “I’m working on it.” Connie hunched forward, gazing over the edge of the platform.

  Without warning, the chimera leapt out of the darkness. Connie screamed as it attempted to mount the tor, swiping at her with its razor-sharp claws. Moving with quick reactions, Col and Rat heaved her out of its path just in time. The chimera gave a deafening roar of disappointment and fell heavily back to the ground, its claws skittering on the bare granite. Col could feel Connie shaking in his arms.

  “I think the lion’s back in charge,” said Rat grimly.

  “But I don’t think it can reach us up here,” Col added, looking hurriedly around to see where the beast had gone.

  “But they can.” Rat pointed to the ground below.

  Looking down, they saw movement in the rocky earth at the base of the Devil’s Tooth. It seemed to be bubbling and seething like a hot spring. Bursting out of the surface of the rock were many pairs of long-fingered, emaciated hands. Creeping, crawling hands that made flesh shrink just to look at them.

  “Stone sprites,” breathed Connie, her face creased in concentration. “I’m keeping them off with my shield.”

  The hands grew into long, spindly arms, flailing around in the air like plants in a gale. They seemed to be snatching, feeling for something. For warm flesh. Next, the crust of the rock split and rounded humps emerged, like the backs of whales rising above the sea. The rest of the sprites surfaced: heads slung low on scrawny chests, skeletal jaws and teeth, angular legs and arms. When they scuttled free of the rock, they resembled giant pale spiders, luminous body hanging down like some obscene cradle held up by four long limbs. Their joints clicked like pebbles grating on stone each time they moved.

  “I guess now we know how they reached me on Mag’s back,” Col said with a shudder.

  Hundreds of these foul creatures scratched at the base of the tor, looking with hungry eyes up at the three warm bodies that Connie was keeping out of their range.

  Universal. Universal. We want the universal! they chanted in thin, bloodless voices, battering on the shield already damaged by the encounter with the chimera’s fire.

  Connie could also hear the hysterical voices of the chimera hissing, roaring, and bleating against her defenses.

  Come down! the lion roared. Face us!

  He wants you! bleated the goat.

  It’s you he’s after, hissed the snake.

  We’ll take you to him, growled the lion.

  The three friends had reached a desperate dead end. Connie was tired, at a loss for how to save them from this trap. Without much hope, she wondered what words could do. She raised her hand for parley. Col and Rat saw her lift her right hand and stand up straight. They looked at each other, wondering what was going on. In Connie’s mind, the voices of the creatures relented, giving her space to speak.

  Who wants me? she asked, though she could guess the answer.

  Your companion. He has come to claim you, tittered the snake.

  Connie said nothing, ending the parley to think.

  “Any ideas?” asked Col hopefully when he realized that Connie was back with them from the inner world of her gift.

  “Yes, but you’re not going to like it.”

  “If it’s better than being frozen or eaten, I’m listening,” said Rat.

  “It’s better than that.” Connie took a deep breath, knowing before she spoke that Col would refuse. But she wasn’t going to lead them into a hopeless fight with creatures far more powerful than them. That was what George Brewer had done. “We can make a deal.”

  “That sounds good,” said Rat quickly.

  “What kind of deal?” asked Col, his suspicions aroused. “You don’t mean—?”

  “It’s me they want. If I go down to them, they might let you go.”

  “But they’ll eat you alive, Connie! You can’t do this.” Col grabbed hold of the back of her jacket as if she’d been about to throw herself off the rock.

  �
��They won’t. They’re working for Kullervo. They’ll take me to him.”

  Col let go of her and sat back. “And that’s better, is it?”

  “I promise I won’t let him take me over like last time. I’m prepared for him,” Connie pleaded, begging Col to understand, to give her his support. She was finding it hard enough to stick to her purpose and had no energy to fight him, too.

  “But he’ll kill you,” Col said in a monotone.

  “He might. Or I might defeat him.”

  A spark of understanding ignited in the depths of Col’s eyes. “You’re not thinking of challenging him, Connie? You’re not still thinking of that?”

  She said nothing. Rat stirred uneasily. Time was running out. They could not sit up here all night. Sooner or later, one of those creatures would break through the shield and get them.

  “Col,” said Rat, “listen to her. She’s right: either she goes down and we have a chance to get away and find help, or we all get killed for sure.”

  Col cursed and kicked the rock. He knew they were telling the truth; he just didn’t want to hear it. He grabbed Connie and pulled her toward him.

  “Don’t give in. Don’t challenge him,” he whispered furiously in her ear. “Just hold him off until we can get help.”

  This was the signal she had been waiting for. Connie knew she had to go now while she still had the courage. She gave Col a wan smile, touched Rat on the arm in a gesture of farewell, and then slid her way down the rock. Seeing their quarry approach, the stone sprites scuttled to her side, following her like the rats after the Pied Piper. But none of them could touch her: her shield surrounded her now like a silver mist, placing her beyond their cold reach.

  Col watched her walk forward to where the chimera was pacing, its tail flicking with an angry twitch. He realized that he was watching the bravest person he knew risk her life for him. The knowledge was almost unbearable.

  Down among the stone sprites, Connie looked through the silver haze of her shield into the implacable eyes of the chimera.

  I’ll come with you, if you let the others go free, Connie said, her voice firm despite her fear.

  You will drop your shield? yawned the lion, displaying its row of yellowed teeth and ridged red maw.

  Yes, I’ll drop my shield. You’ll be able to take me without a struggle. But you must promise to let my friends go free.

  The snake’s head slithered forward to the edge of her shield and stared in at her, its eyes gleaming with malice in the silvery light. Slowly, the cobra nodded.

  You agree? Connie asked.

  The snake’s head nodded again; the lion face smiled enigmatically.

  Connie wasn’t sure if she could trust this promise, but what choice did she have? With great reluctance, she dropped her shield, leaving herself unprotected, within reach of the jaws of the chimera. As soon as her guard was down, the snake’s head lashed around and struck her to the ground. Her head hit the earth, her mouth full of dirt. The chimera paced lazily forward and bent its lion’s face to her. A rough tongue licked her bloodied cheek, its breath hot and reeking.

  You taste good, the creature said.

  Connie closed her eyes, anticipating the bite of teeth into her flesh. She nearly screamed, but she knew that the chimera fed on her fear and would be goaded into tormenting her further if she showed weakness. But it had no intention of eating her: it opened its jaws and once more Connie found herself in the grip of its mouth as it carried her away.

  In the pale glow coming from the stone sprites, Col and Rat watched in horrified, impotent silence. Rat had to haul Col back as the chimera struck Connie. “Don’t be stupid!” he hissed. “Don’t waste the chance she’s bought us!”

  Once the chimera had disappeared into the darkness with their friend dangling from its mouth, and the stone sprites in pursuit like an army of gray crabs, Col grabbed Rat. “Let’s run for it. Get help.”

  A downdraft of wings hit Col as he was about to slide down the smooth-sided tor. Rat yelled. Looking up, Col saw Rat caught in the claws of a black dragon that had swooped in from the west. Col cried out in protest, but then felt his own jacket pierced by talons, and he was torn off the rock face. Above, he saw a white dragon. Its pink eyes glared down at him as if it considered him a very pitiful prey.

  Hanging limp in the clutch of the dragons, Col and Rat were carried away into the night sky.

  14

  Challenge

  Connie thought the nightmare of the journey in the chimera’s mouth would never end. The creature was running eastward across open moor, jumping streams, clattering across roads, intent on reaching its goal. Each leap, each bound seemed to punch a little more air out of her struggling lungs and dig deeper bruises in her ribs. All Connie could tell was that they were heading toward Chartmouth. A flash of a car headlight and the chimera cowered for a moment in the shelter of a hedge. Once the noise of the engine had faded, it leapt onto the tarmac and loped swiftly down the hill. To her right, Connie could hear the whisper of the trees in Mallins Wood.

  Help! she cried out to any friendly wood sprite that might be listening but no answering voice met hers. Why was no one around to hear her?

  The chimera’s sharp sense of hearing sent it bounding into the shelter of the trees as another vehicle approached, this time a truck grumbling its way slowly up the steep hill out of Chartmouth. Had the creature lost its senses? Connie wondered. It seemed intent on dragging her into the heart of a human settlement. Even the chimera, as insane and divided against itself as it was, must realize that it stood no chance in these surroundings. Connie felt a faint glimmer of hope that they would be spotted and she might be saved.

  Once the truck had gone, the chimera set off again, undaunted by any fears of being discovered. The time was late. Traffic was light on the roads, and the chimera slipped into the outskirts of Chartmouth unseen. It turned away from the houses onto the half-built industrial site, deserted at this hour. Connie’s hopes of being rescued faded as she realized it knew exactly where it was going. She was bumped along tarmac, her dangling hands grazed by the grit. Then the terrain changed: she was being dragged over weeds, half bricks, dirt, and litter. Bounding along a perimeter fence, the chimera paused at a break in the wire and went down on its belly to squeeze through, trailing Connie on the ground as it did so.

  Gard! begged Connie. But still no reply. A cold tide of stone sprites was flowing through the bedrock, freezing all communication.

  The chimera loped across the empty parking lot to a huge white building which was surrounded by storage tanks, ranging from turret-like cigar-shaped cisterns to two vast drum containers. The building itself was floodlit, gleaming against the night sky like the white castle of a modern giant. A gas flare burned perpetually in the sky above: a fiery flag marking the home of Axoil. The chimera had brought her to the oil refinery.

  The chimera slipped in through an open door. Connie glimpsed a guard slumped in the shadows outside; his dog whimpered pleadingly at her, but there was nothing she could do to help. She could feel her jacket beginning to split at the seams as the creature clattered up several flights of iron stairs, through some hanging plastic strips, and into the central hall of the processing plant. It padded along a walkway, the steel structure ringing under the hooves of the goat, to drop Connie at the feet of Kullervo.

  The shape-shifter had assumed his favorite form, a midnight blue eagle, and was perched on the railing, his dark shape a black void against the clinical white light bouncing off the walls. His shoulders were hunched as he brooded, hooked beak glinting like a scythe waiting to cut down anyone who came in reach.

  Connie lay face down with a horrid sense of déjà vu, remembering how they had first met.

  “You have hurt my companion.” Kullervo’s voice echoed harshly in the cavernous room. “How is this possible?”

  Pleased by its successful labors for its master, the chimera sat on its haunches and licked its paws. Kullervo shifted shape, melting briefly into a dens
e dark mist before resolving into the form of a gigantic chimera; he stood so that Connie was between his forepaws and could see in minute detail the ebony sharpness of his claws close to her own skin. Watching the second chimera appear, Connie’s abductor shivered with pleasure. The cobra-headed tail slithered to curl around its fellow, an intertwined knot of snakes. The lion-head sniffed the scent of its brother, recognizing the dominant male in its pride.

  She gave her word to drop her shield, it purred subserviently.

  Ah. Being selfless no doubt. A human weakness, Kullervo sneered.

  Connie scrambled to her feet, away from the claws, and raised her shield. It shone brightly even in this light, the four points of the universal’s sign glittering like diamonds. With lightning swiftness, the chimera leapt away from Kullervo to block her escape, landing on the steel walkway with a clang.

  “Well,” rumbled Kullervo in amusement, “that promise did not last long.”

  “I never promised how long.” Connie staggered backward so that she was pressed against the railings. She stood between the chimeras, a mouse caught by two cruel cats intent on playing with her before the end. The Kullervochimera yawned and settled down on the walkway, rear hooves tucked to one side, snake tail undulating lazily over its back caressing its conjoined elements. Kullervo raised a paw to his mismatched eyes and studied it.

  “A most intriguing shape,” he mused. “I like adopting this form. It has an enticing sense of danger as the three natures try to tear each other apart. Do you like it?” He turned his gaze to Connie. She said nothing. “You’ve experienced an encounter with our friend here, I believe,” continued Kullervo. “I was most jealous to hear about it. I would have enjoyed seeing you share this form. But there is still time for that.”

  “Time?” said Connie, amazed to find that she could speak despite her terror. “The Society will find out where I am. They’ll come for me. Hadn’t you better run before they get here?” But she knew her threats were hollow—and so did Kullervo. The refinery was the last place anyone would look for her even if Col and Rat did succeed in raising the alarm.