The Spell of Undoing (18 page)

Without hesitating she threw herself into the cavity.

‘Get her!’ yelled a guard. His fingertips grabbed for Tab's pigtails but missed. A knife thudded into the wall, just missing her ear as she scrambled into the chute.

Up or down? she thought frantically.

Then she was straining to haul herself up the ropes. She was tempted to slide down but if they cut the ropes, she might have fallen to her death. And at this depth, there might only be a cellar – an instant death trap. So up it was.

‘Stop her!’ Kull roared.

The guards tried to obey their king but none could fit into the chute. One poked his sword at her but it fell short. Through all the yells and oaths, Tab heard Florian's squeaking exclamation: ‘I can fit! The rest of you – up those stairs. She can't get far!’

Sure enough, Florian squeezed into the shaft. Tab could hear the little toad's wheezing as he strained to follow her.

Tab climbed faster. She kicked at a panel on the next floor, but could hear the guards charging into the room on the other side. Up she went to the next floor, then the next. At that point she could go no further.

She booted open the dumb waiter's panel and found herself in a meeting hall. An arched window and balcony took up most of the north wall. Her arms aching, she swung out of the shaft and pulled a dagger from her boot.

Clasping the dumb waiter ropes with one hand, she started slicing.

‘No!’ Florian screamed. His whining voice echoed up the shaft.

Tab hesitated. Could she really kill someone in cold blood? The rope trembled in her hand. Florian had almost reached her.

‘Don't cut the rope!’ he wailed. ‘I'll give you anything. You can rule by my side!’

But Tab had hesitated too long. The chamber door shattered like kindling. A guard rolled across the lush carpet.

Kull Vladis strode into the room, looking slightly out of breath. ‘Back,’ he told his men. ‘I'll handle the riftling. Sit,’ he told his wolfhound as he drew his sword.

Tab tried mind-melding with the wolfhound, but it was too agitated and she flinched from its dark angry mind. Automatically she cast about for anything that might aid her. But there was nothing in the room. Outside, yes, a strange mind, long enslaved, welcomed the touch of her mind … and she sensed a kind of release …

‘Time to teach the meddler not to meddle,’ said Kull. He lunged for Tab.

Tab ducked, parrying. The blades clanged, but she had been lucky. A dagger was no match for a sword. Already her arm was numb and that was just the first blow. Unable to tightly grip the dagger with her injured hand, she flipped it to her other hand and threw it at Kull.

The boy-king, taken completely by surprise, instinctively brought his right hand up and howled as the dagger sliced through his forearm. He dropped his sword. ‘Kill her!’ he screamed. ‘Sherma!’

Florian had meanwhile clambered from the dumb waiter. He picked up Kull's sword. ‘I'll get her!’ he crowed.

But Tab was already dashing across the room. With not a second to spare, she curled into a ball and hurled herself through the leadlight window.

The next moment she was plummeting to the ground.

Then came a loud ‘Oomph!’ as she landed on something. She looked down. She was sitting astride a dragon. Tab clutched wildly at its neck spines, frightened she would fall off.

>>> I won't let you fall, Tab Vidler

Awestruck, Tab's eyes widened. She'd never encountered a talking beast before. She didn't know what to say, or how to say it.

>>> My name is Melprin. Speak to me with your mind and I will hear. I thank you for freeing me

‘I fre … freed you?’ stuttered Tab. ‘How?’

>>>I do not know. The moment your mind touched mine, the enslavement was broken. Thus, I am in your debt. What would you have me do, Tab Vidler?

Tab's mind raced. Florian was going to have the icefire stolen. That would spell Quentaris’ doom. The only thing to do, Tab realised, was to even the odds.

>>>I understand

Melprin banked hard, giving Tab a sudden fright. She squealed and clutched the mane even tighter. She sensed rather than heard a deep throaty chuckle from her mount.

‘Not funny,’ she muttered, hoping the dragon couldn't hear everything she was thinking.

The dragon soared across Quentaris. Several lizards came near and Melprin's gushing breath vaporised them all. After that, the lizards kept a wary distance.

Then Melprin veered out from Quentaris and flapped swiftly towards Tolrush. Since the air was full of so many lizards and dragons, none paid Tab and her mount any heed, and they made it unscathed to the outskirts of the enemy city.

‘I must find their icefire gem,’ Tab shouted into the wind.

>>>The icefire is kept in the Tower of Storms. I will take you there

Melprin flew like an arrow towards one of a cluster of towers in the castle complex that Kull called his palace. The entire building jutted from the forward portside of the city and was ringed by a low wall. Steps led down to a platform that bordered the void and was tinged a deep red.

Melprin overshot the tower, banked hard, and came back in a swirl of wings and fire to settle on the slippery rooftop.

>>>I can blast this place to smithereens if you wish it

Tab would like nothing better but there was always the possibility that there were innocent people inside. She must warn them first. As before, the dragon knew her thoughts immediately.

>>>You must hurry. They come

Tab looked back towards Quentaris and saw a battery of lizards clawing the air in their effort to gain height as swiftly as possible. On one rode a figure that she guessed was Kull.

>>>Climb down my tail

Tab paled. Despite all her recent adventures – or maybe because of them – she still wasn't very fond of heights, and here was a dragon's tail drooping over the edge of a building some two hundred feet above the ground. Uh-oh.

But time was of the essence.

Tab crawled along the dragon's spiny back, reached the tail and, holding on tight, slid slowly over the edge. She risked one glance down. The good news was, yes, there was a balcony. The bad news was, if she missed it then she had a long drop ahead of her.

Dropping lightly onto the balcony, Tab ducked into the room. In the centre was a complicated machine, a pulsating icefire clutched in a metal fist. Tending the machine was a white-haired magician, possibly Kull's master magician himself. With him in attendance was a young woman.

Tab didn't waste any time. ‘There's a dragon on the roof,’ she said. ‘And in about ten seconds she's going to blast this tower to vapour, so my advice is that you run, fast!’

The young woman turned and fled at once, but the white-haired magician just laughed. ‘A ridiculous bit of foolery,’ he said. ‘As if any dragon could escape from the mind-lock which only I control! Get you gone, child, before I blast
you
into vapour!’

‘Very well,’ said Tab. ‘Have it your way.’

Tab rushed back out. As she did so Kull's lizard rose into view and swiped at her with one bat-winged claw. She ducked, then felt something pluck her from the balcony. It was Melprin. The dragon lifted Tab onto her back, leapt into the air, performed an amazing half-twist, and vomited a fiery torrent at the tower. In seconds, it was an inferno.

Kull, nearby on his lizard, roared, ‘NOOO!’

But it was far too late, and a moment later the tower exploded, raining molten chunks of rock down on the palace grounds.

Kull sent his lizard in a sharp dive towards Tab's dragon, clearly oblivious to the danger, his eyes wild with fury.

As Melprin sideslipped away from the palace and into clearer air, her right wing-tip caught Kull in the chest and lifted him out of his seat. He howled, then plummeted.

Tab watched him fall with mixed feelings. Meanwhile, his lizard dived after him. Whether it reached him in time or not, Tab did not see. A pall of smoke from the fires on Quentaris cut off her view.

Like a trail left by a ship at sea, Tab followed the smoke, and gasped. ‘Quentaris!’ she cried. ‘It's heading for the vortex!’

>>>It's too far, child. We will never make it

‘But I must – it's my home!’

>>>The great mouth is angry

‘It's a vortex,’ Tab explained. ‘It takes things … elsewhere. To other worlds.’

>>>It swallows all. I have lost loved ones thus

‘No! How do you think we got here? It's like a door – a door to other places, other … planes.’

>>>None return

‘Your loved ones still live, but not in this world,’ said Tab. ‘Please, please … I
must
get back.’

Melprin said nothing. Then, very slowly, she folded back her wings, and dived …

Tab tried not to scream.

The dragon was soaring at tremendous speed. Below, Quentaris was revolving faster and faster as it moved deeper into the mouth of the vortex. Her mainsail was double-reefed; sails from the flying jib right through to the spanker were torn asunder. Her skysails were tattered ribbons. And most of the city's rigging was tangled and snarled like a bird's nest.

Down and down into the voracious mouth fell the city, riding the whirlpool walls round and round. High above, falling like an arrow, came the dragon with the tiny speck on her back.

The smoke trail from the fires on Quentaris corkscrewed down after the city. Melprin shot through the centre of the trails. Tab watched, fearful. If Quentaris reached the bottom of the vortex and went through into another world, there was no guarantee that the vortex wouldn't close immediately behind it. Some did, some didn't.

‘Faster!’ yelled Tab frantically.

At the last second, just as the city hit the bottom of the vortex, Melprin and Tab plunged amongst the masts and rigging of upside. Tab whooped and hollered.

>>>Hold tight
>>I cannot pull up in time

As the city shivered, preparatory to transition, Tab's eyes widened. The harbour was rushing up at them awfully fast. Fortunately – or not – at that precise moment, the city and its surrounds blacked out …

Tab woke. For a moment she had absolutely no idea where or who she was.

Then a face swam in and out of focus. She blinked and squinted. It was Torby. He dabbed her forehead with a damp cloth, and grinned when he saw that she was awake.