Eldritch Manor (14 page)

The Mouth

T
he
great black snake scraped across the office. Cats and spiders spilled out of its mouth. The cats spread over the floor and the spiders covered the walls and ceiling, turning the entire room black. Dinah thrust her head in, bellowing. The spiders skittered, the cats backed away, but the snake paid no attention.

Willa dashed to the back door, nearly tripping over the two-headed lizard fleeing the house to disappear in the long grass. Inside she found the old folks staring at the office door as Dinah's roaring sounded from within.

“Get back!” hollered Willa, running up. “Get away from the door!”

They were just beginning to move when the office door exploded into pieces around them. Tengu and Baz fell toward the front door, Belle and Horace to the stairs. The dark shape flowed through them into the parlour, a rippling blackness six feet high blocking the hallway. Tengu and Baz disappeared outside. Horace stood halfway up the stairs in total shock. Belle's wheelchair had tipped over at the foot of the stairs, where she lay, her face agape in horror.

The cats and spiders appeared next. The spiders streamed across the ceiling. The cats scrambled over the back of the seemingly endless form of the snake, grinning evilly. Willa scrambled over the broken bannister onto the stairs.

“Get upstairs, Horace! We're right behind you!” She slid her hands under Belle's arms and dragged her out of the fallen chair. It sounded like the parlour was being smashed to dust.

Willa inched her way backwards, heaving Belle up the stairs, step by step. The cats swarmed over the empty chair and dropped onto Belle's tail, which she swung back and forth energetically, sweeping them off the stairs but causing Willa to stumble. She struggled to keep a grip on Belle and nearly dropped her again when she backed into Horace.

“Horace! Move!” Willa looked back over her shoulder. Her blood froze. His face was blank and confused, his eyes darting about.

“Have you ... have you seen my glasses? I seem to have misplaced them,” he stammered. Above them spiders rushed over the ceiling, heading to the second floor ahead of them.

“They're in the library, old man. MOVE IT!” hollered Belle.

Horace blinked and retreated up the stairs. The noise in the parlour suddenly abated. The thing glinted in the dim light, retracting. Willa heaved and tugged Belle up the stairs, slipping and stumbling with every step.

The snakehead pulled back into the hallway. Belle gasped. The cats withdrew silently as the head swung over to the stairs. The mouth gaped open toward them. Willa held her breath. The interior of the thing went on and on forever, and there were shapes in there, voices, howling wind, and great cold space. There was a whole universe inside, just waiting to come out.

Then the tongue snapped out, slapping and bumping up the stairs. They both shrieked, their cries lost in the screech of the golden bird, diving at the tongue with claws outstretched. One talon thunked into a stair, but the tongue had simply split in two to escape being impaled; now two tongues whipped blindly about the stairs. The bird struggled to extract its claw and dodge them.

Willa gave a great lunge backward and sprawled on the second floor landing. She and Belle crawled and scrambled to the library door. There was a sickening thud as Fadi was thrown into a wall behind them.

“Come!” screamed Willa.

Dragging one limp wing, the bird hopped after them into the library and they slammed the door shut.

Willa's breath came in painful gasps; she felt tears flowing down her cheeks. Belle pulled herself across the floor, still gripping her poker, wheezing and cursing as she went. Fadiyah shook herself, stretching her hurt wing and gurgling with great agitation.

Horace sat in an armchair, watching them blankly. Belle opened her mouth, but Willa stopped her.

“He's gone, Belle. There's no use.”

Belle said nothing. In the hall they could hear the slither of the tongue and the skitter of cats.

A sudden sharp rap made Willa jump out of her skin. It was Tengu, outside the window. Willa slid the window open.

“May we join you?” he asked cheerfully. He and Baz had come up the fire escape. They tumbled into the room and everyone turned expectantly to Willa. Why did they look to her? She just wanted to fall apart and weep, but something about that swish-swish in the hallway caused her to take a deep breath. She began to pace, mostly to stamp out the shaking in her knees.

“It's like a snake, but it has no eyes,” she explained. “It can't see, but its tongue is trying to feel out what it's looking for: the knitting needles. It doesn't care about us, it just wants the needles. And if it gets them ...” She fell silent, at a loss.

Belle thrust one hand into her sweater pocket and brandished her poker with the other. Her face was so pale it looked blue, but her eyes blazed.

“It won't get them,” she growled.

In the hall the tongue slapped around, and as they watched, spiders began squeezing in under the door. Baz sprang across the room, pouncing on them. Willa looked around wildly.

“Out the window!”

Tengu jumped forward and slung Belle over his shoulders, fireman-style.

“Aaack! Watch it, you hooligan,” she hissed, but he just grinned and hopped out the window. Willa coaxed Horace to the window. He was like a small, frightened child.

Baz was losing the battle, even though the bird had joined her. The spiders just kept coming. Out in the hall the sound of shattering glass and splintering wood was getting louder. Horace was finally gripping the fire escape ladder and Willa started to follow.

“If anyone has a spell up their sleeves, this would be a good time to pull it out!” she shouted.

Baz gave her a grim nod and turned to face the door. Willa paused on the ladder, watching as the old woman began to mutter and howl weirdly. Then she danced, spinning and hopping to the door and back a few times. Her footprints on the floor glowed in two parallel lines running the length of the room toward the door. There was a loud CRACK and the floor between the lines sagged a little. Baz jumped back, scurrying to the window just as the black head crashed through the library door.

Everyone clambered down the fire escape ladder. Tengu led the way with Belle over his shoulder, then Horace and Willa, and finally Baz. Willa looked up to see tendrils of gossiping hibiscus twining out the window as well.

Somewhere inside the library the bird screeched and the snake's two tongues smashed through the window after them. Glass showered down and the fire escape swung away from the wall. Everyone hung on, shielding their faces. Baz grabbed Willa's arm, her eyes wild with glee.

“Listen! The floor's going!”

Indeed, Willa could hear a great groaning of wood now. The tongues were curving down after them. One flicked sharply at Baz. She swung out of reach, hanging on to the ladder with one hand.

Just then the house, the ladder, the very air vibrated with a tremendous crash. Both tongues zipped back up into the window. Baz cackled crazily as the parlour windows blasted out below their dangling feet.

At the bottom of the ladder Belle slipped from Tengu's grip, but he dove, grabbing hold of her arms and hooking his knees on the bottom rung. They hung there for a moment, like trapeze artists. Then blackness began to ooze out of the broken parlour windows below them.

“Climb up! Climb up!” hollered Tengu, struggling to pull himself and Belle back up.

Horace hugged the ladder, staring at the spiders exiting the library window and covering the front of the house. Willa reached down to tug on his sleeve with her free hand. Baz clambered down the other side of the ladder to grab the old man across the chest and start pulling him up.

“Willa!” screeched Belle.

Willa looked down. Spiders were crawling all over Belle. She was straining, reaching upward with the needles in her hand. Below her blackness filled the yard. Tengu boosted Belle as high as he could, swaying precariously as she handed the needles up to Baz.

Baz grabbed them and swung around to pass them to Willa. As Willa reached for them the ladder swung back against the house with a jolting clang. The needles jumped from her hand. She fumbled, made a last desperate grab. The needles fell.

“NO!”

She stared as they dropped, tiny silver slivers landing on the shiny black back of the beast. The head twisted around and the needles slid off the snake.

Everything fell silent as the tongue ventured out like a dowsing wand, combing back and forth. Willa strained to see. She could just make out a tiny glint on the front walk. She and Belle exchanged frantic looks.

“I'm sorry,” Belle mouthed then buried her face in her hands.

Below them the tongue stopped. Willa held her breath, her chest tight. Then the tongue moved on, sliding through the grass in the yard as the beast slithered right past them.

Belle stared up at Willa, who shook her head in amazement. Below them the body of the snake was twining around the corner of the house, the head now out of sight.

“Everybody! Jump down!” Willa called.

Spiders now covered the ladder, but they seemed like the least of their troubles right now. Tengu hung from the bottom rung with one hand, the other arm still wrapped around Belle, and dropped onto the snake's back. They both slid off, landing heavily on the ground. Tengu leaped to his feet, spinning around expectantly, but there was no sign that the snake had even noticed them. Its head was still far out of sight.

The others followed. Willa was the last to slide down from the snake, landing in the grass. Belle was lying on the ground, winded, while the others gazed about them, wide-eyed. Baz dropped to her knees, searching for the needles.

“No, Baz, don't worry about the needles,” panted Willa. “It doesn't want them.” She looked around. The snake's head was still out of sight. “We need someplace safe ... we need to think....”

“The stable,” Tengu ventured. “We can go that way.” Willa nodded. Tengu turned toward Belle, who grimaced.

“Here we go again.”

Tengu grinned and hoisted her up onto his shoulders once more. The group started off, heading around the corner of the house — the opposite way from where the snake had gone.

Willa brought up the rear, leading Horace. He still looked bewildered and so, so frail. She struggled to get her thoughts straight.

“It doesn't want the needles. But we know for sure that the knitting was regulating our time ... so if the needles weren't doing it ...” She stopped and reached into her pocket. The tiny ball of yarn was still there. “Of course!”

As she gripped the yarn tightly, a gurgling call came from the library above. Willa jumped.

“Fadiyah!”

The Return

W
illa
handed Horace over to Baz. “Go on ahead. I'll meet you in the stable!” Then she dashed back, jumping, scrambling up the snake and leaping to grab the ladder.

Willa climbed cautiously into the library. Most of the floor had collapsed into the parlour below. Only fragments remained around the room's perimeter. Clouds of dust hung in the air. The cats had gathered in one corner, surrounding and advancing on the bird. Fadiyah had squeezed into a bookshelf, one wing still hanging awkwardly as she glared and squawked at her attackers.

Willa couldn't get to them. But she grabbed books and pieces of wood, flinging them at the cats until they fell, slipping and tumbling into the hole. Fadiyah hopped painfully across the shelves until Willa could reach and gather her up, whispering and gently smoothing her feathers.

The snake's body still coiled through the library doorway, disappearing down into the parlour. Willa peered down into the hole and saw the cats scrambling over the rubble and out the windows. The parlour was completely destroyed; not a stick of furniture was intact.

Hugging the bird, Willa climbed backwards out the window, but as she felt for the ladder with her foot, something snapped at her ankle. Willa let out a shriek. The head of the snake had doubled back around the house and now the black tongue was flicking up at her. She flung herself and the bird back into the library, nearly falling into the hole. Clutching the bird to her chest, she edged around the room to the door. The black head appeared at the window as she gingerly climbed over its body and out into the hall. She looked back to see the head drop from sight. Where was it going now?

The snake's body took up the entire hallway back to the stairs, down them, and into the office from where it had come. Willa felt certain the thing had no end and would just keep coming and coming after them. Out the smashed hallway windows she could see Tengu leading the others through the overgrown yard to the stable, barely visible through the greenery. The pack of cats rounded the house, dashing toward them. Tengu, Baz, and Belle turned to face them.

Then there was a roar, and to her right she saw Dinah rear up as the snakehead rounded the house. It paused for a moment, then slithered up the wall and across the house, heading straight for the windows ... and Willa!

Willa sprinted down the hallway to the second staircase, and up to her little room. The windows opened to the roof and the fire escape ladder. She might be able to climb down to the ground before the snake realized where she was. But as Willa ran to the nearest window it suddenly turned black. She whirled around. One by one, every window in the circular room went dark, covered by the snake's body.

Behind her the tongue was flapping up the stairs. She dashed about the room in panic. The bird struggled out of her arms, flapping up to perch in the rafters. Willa suddenly remembered there was something that looked like a trapdoor up there, at the peak of the roof. She threw a chair onto her bed and climbed precariously onto it. She heard a slap. The tongue shot across the floor, lashing around a bedpost. It pulled, the bed jerked, and the chair fell. She leaped, grabbing on to a rafter. Pulling herself up, she kicked furiously at the trapdoor. A hot breeze hit the room as the snakehead filled the doorway.

With a last desperate kick, the trapdoor finally came loose and tumbled out of sight. Willa pushed Fadi up through the hole, then followed. She could just barely fit her head and shoulders through the opening.

The roof tiles were damp and cold. Willa could hear shouts from below. She crawled and pulled herself up to look over the peak of the roof into the backyard. Belle lay beside Horace, who seemed to have rallied a bit. He was kicking at the cats as Belle swung her poker. Tengu and Baz were charging the snake from below, stabbing at it with rake and pitchfork. Dinah was sinking her teeth into the snake with no apparent effect.

Suddenly the tongues poked out from the trapdoor. Willa shrieked and scrambled down the roof. There was a tremendous smashing and shaking. The snake's head burst through the roof, its great mouth gulping at the sky. Tiles rained down. Willa slid down the roof, falling. Reaching out blindly, she felt the fire escape ladder and grabbed on.

When she opened her eyes she saw, in a flash, Horace and Belle far below, pointing up at her in horror. She felt a sharp pang of something like regret, and the air was filled with wings and buzzing.

Willa blinked against the light, squinting. Her heart leapt. A host of fairies circled the beast's head. In the lead was Mab, perched in a walnut shell drawn by dragon-flies. She sparkled fiercely, her hair snaking out on all sides. She let out the sharpest, highest screech Willa had ever heard.

The snakehead paused, hovering. Mab raised a large shining needle above her head. The fairies flew boldly at the face of the beast. Mab drew back her arm and flung the needle like a spear. It left a shimmering trail as it pierced the lip of the snake. Mab waved her arms like a symphony conductor and the needle zigzagged across the gaping maw, blazing through a lip on each side and leaving in its wake a shimmering golden thread-trail.

Mab was sewing the beast's mouth closed!

Willa clambered down, but her feet soon hit the snake's body, the ladder crushed beneath it. She could do nothing now but hang on.

Mab's needle had travelled across the mouth's expanse once and started back again. The fairies circled, fearlessly pulling on the thread, which tightened slightly, closing the mouth just the tiniest bit. Then the beast snapped out of its reverie and thrashed, flinging fairies all about. It snapped its mouth open wide, shattering the golden line. Mab's chariot fell back and the fairies started to regroup at a distance, but they looked shaken.

Willa glanced down to see Baz and Tengu rejoining Horace and Belle. They were gathering around a large shape. Tengu lifted Belle up onto its back. It was Robert! Robert! Did that mean ... Willa craned around, looking for Miss Trang.

There she was, standing very still in the middle of the yard, hands on hips and gazing calmly up at the snake. Then she lifted a foot and stomped. The ground rumbled beneath her and the house rattled. The snakehead turned toward Miss Trang as she stomped a second time. This time the house jumped on its foundation. From somewhere inside came the sound of breaking glass.

Hanging on tightly, Willa couldn't take her eyes off Miss Trang. She was getting larger, just like that even-ing in the parlour so long ago. Her hulking shape rose quickly. She was now two storeys tall. Her scowl grew more and more terrible. Willa felt the same cold fear she had felt that night, even though the anger wasn't directed at her this time.

Miss Trang took one last great stomp. Trees toppled. One end of the stable collapsed with a crash. Everyone below dove for cover. Willa stared. Miss Trang's face rose above her like a parade balloon, the features huge, stretched, and distorted. Her face began to rearrange itself. A snout poked out. The skin glittered, hardened into scales. The eyes sunk back in the head, flames leaping within them.

In a few moments the change was complete. Miss Trang stood over the entire scene in her full glory, up on her hind legs, front talons resting on the roof and wings filling the sky. She was an enormous, steely dragon.

With a shattering, raspy cry, the dragon's head darted at the snake. The huge teeth gnashed mere feet above Willa's head. The snake reared back, dodging the dragon's lunges, but it was laced inextricably throughout the house and had little mobility. As it writhed, its body tightened. The house creaked and groaned, its very bones cracking.

The snake coil below Willa tightened too, wrenching the ladder from the roof. Willa screamed, sliding down the roof, picking up speed. She grabbed desperately at roof shingles, but under the pressure of the snake the shingles were popping off and plummeting as well. Willa finally slid into the snake's body and hung on.

Above her Miss Trang and the snake were now partially entwined. The snake had circled once but the dragon had finally sunk its teeth into the snake and began shaking it violently. The massive form thrashed and writhed.

Willa struggled to hang on, wrapping her arms around as much of it as she could. She closed her eyes. Every second she held on might mean that Miss Trang would defeat it. Every second was a second in which she wasn't falling off the roof.

Her thoughts flashed to the tiny ball of yarn, tucked in the inner pocket of her jacket, and as soon as she thought of it she could feel heat radiating from it, warmth right against her heart.

There was a sudden ripping sound very close by. Willa opened her eyes. There was a rip in the snake's body, inches from her face. A long black tear that lengthened, pulling wider and wider. For a brief, glorious moment she wondered if the snake was coming to pieces. Then a black shape moved within, slowly emerging. It was another snakehead, just like the big one, but only a couple of feet across. Its mouth gaped at Willa, advancing on her steadily.

A whooshing sounded in her ears as the air around her was sucked into the maw. Willa backed away, shrieking, but she couldn't hear herself for the rushing air. She felt the yarn burning hot inside her pocket. She swung her body around, kicking viciously at the snake with all her strength. She screamed, roaring at it with every ounce of energy she had left. And kicking, kicking.

The snake wavered for a moment, then snapped its jaws around her foot. Cold shot up her leg, stabbing through her entire body. The yarn was the only point of heat she could feel. She felt numb and unreal as fingers of ice crept through her brain. She kept kicking with her free foot but the snake latched on to it as well. She felt herself slipping, felt her hands slipping as the snake drew her slowly into its mouth. She tried to reach for the yarn in her pocket, thinking to fling it down to the others, but her fingers were frozen and useless.

She glimpsed Miss Trang fighting far above her and tried to call out but no sound came. Her vision became cloudy, sounds muffled. In the fog a shape loomed, hovering over her. She bowed her head, thinking it was another snake ready to finish her off, but the shape emitted a familiar screech. Fadiyah!

The scene snapped back into focus. The bird rose majestically with wings outstretched, though one still hung at a crazy angle. Fadiyah rose without flapping her wings. As the bird ascended above them, all fell silent. Even Miss Trang and the great snake seemed to pause, but all Willa could see was that bird, silhouetted above and looking down at her.

What would it do? What
could
it do?

Fadiyah turned her head to the side, raised her wings even higher, and with a mighty effort swung them down again. It was like lighting a match. The feathers burst into flame as if from the friction of the air. Willa stared in horror, her eyes filling with tears. The flames spread quickly. The bird did not struggle or cry out. The fire bloomed suddenly and Fadiyah disintegrated within it. Gone.

The ball of flame dropped onto the head of the smaller snake, which shrivelled away like a melting plastic bag. Willa pulled her legs free and kicked the burning embers away. The loose shingles smoked and smouldered, and a wall of heat spread across the roof.

Willa slipped off the snake and scrambled down and across the roof, coughing in the smoke. Picking up speed, she slid from the tower roof. Dropping onto the main roof, she kept sliding, farther and faster, but at last out of the heat and smoke. Her feet finally hit the eavestroughing, which bent but held. She looked up.

The fire spread quickly, as if the house had been doused in gasoline. Flames licked up around Miss Trang. The snake was coiled around the tower room, which was now lost in flame. Losing support, the coils collapsed and the snake faltered, dropping in upon itself. Miss Trang leapt upon it then, tearing viciously with tooth and claw. The snake began to withdraw. It retracted, disappearing into and through the house.

Below Willa could see cats and masses of spiders streaming back into the burning house. As the snake withdrew it continued to tighten, squeezing the house. Walls fell. Rooms collapsed. Flames flickered.

The eavestrough below Willa was creaking again, bending precariously. She tried to grab at the shingles but could not get a hold. Her shouts were lost in the roar of the fire.

Above her the dragon lunged furiously at the snake. The two beasts shook the house with their every movement. The eavestrough jittered under Willa's feet until, finally, it snapped.

With a scream Willa dropped onto something, something dry and leathery beneath her fingers. She was on Dinah's snout, staring up into her huge eyes, but before she could breathe a sigh of relief the eyes rolled back in Dinah's head and they both plummeted into the billowing smoke.