Venom and Song (37 page)

“Even Grimwarden didn't know,” said Kat. “I saw his thoughts before he sent us away. Northeast of the Spine was all he could interpret from the prophecies.”

On and on they went, ducking low branches and leaping fallen trees. They went at full speed heedless of exhaustion and heedless of the possibility that the enemy could lurk nearby. Each of them drew strength—and courage—from their months of training under Guard-master Grimwarden. When before they would have fallen on their faces and begged for rest, now they gritted their teeth and charged forward. When before they would have quailed at the sight of a scouting party of Gwar, now they felt confident that working together they could strike down most any foe but, perhaps, the Spider King himself.

The Thousand-League Forest had lived up to its name and then some. From Nightwish Caverns, northwest to Whitehall, and now northeast . . . the deep forest seemed to have no end. Even Tommy and Kat, who had seen the end of the forest from the air, found themselves wondering if the woods would ever end. The forest floor had become uneven, too, making the run even more treacherous. Rising to steep hills, opening suddenly to reveal a swift-flowing stream, or falling away into little dells or hollows, the trail kept the Seven focused.

The afternoon turned to evening and the evening to night, but under the canopy it was much the same: greenish-blue twilight.

Tommy saw that a few of the Seven were lagging well behind, so he made the decision to stop and rest at the bottom of a dell—where by sheer chance, several trees had fallen forming a kind of ring of benches.

Eventually they all joined him, and with the exceptions of Jett, whose strength and healing abilities made exhaustion nearly impossible, and Autumn, who felt as though she were walking at any pace less than lightning-fast, the lords sat staring at each other and did nothing else at all but breathe. Jett and Autumn spent the time gathering logs for a cooking fire.

Jett threw an armful down in the center of their ring of fallen trees and said, “There you go, Johnny. Do your thing.”

“I don't think we should,” Johnny muttered.

“Why not?” asked Jett. “We gotta eat.”

“For one thing,” said Johnny, “a fire will show the enemy right where we are.”

“He's right,” said Kat. “You remember what Grimwarden told us. The Gwar have keen eyesight, especially at night. Remember on the Dark Veil?”

Tommy shivered. “That was close to the end for us. Still . . . I was looking forward to mixing up some of the stew ingredients Mumthers gave us. I thought I saw a stream back there.”

“Oh, stop,” said Kiri Lee. “You're making my stomach growl. I'm starving . . . just not enough to want us to risk a fire. It's not just the Gwar, you know. Who knows what kinds of creatures there might be this deep in the woods.”

“Creatures?” Jett laughed so hard he snorted. “Shoot, there's nothing out here but squirrels and owls.” As if on cue, an owl hooted loudly somewhere outside of their little hollow. “See?” said Jett.

“I don't know,” said Tommy. “We've already seen spiders a bit bigger than we're used to. Gwar, Drefids, Wisps, and Cragons, too. For all we know there could be patches of those awful trees right near here.”

At that, Jett fell silent. He'd had more intimate experience with Cragons than any of the Seven. Even with his great strength, something about those immense trees sent a chill down his spine. They were all silent for a time, nervously glancing up at the trees around them, just black silhouettes against the deep forest and the night sky.

“Okay,” said Jimmy. “Let's stop all this monsters-in-the-woods nonsense, right? Let's use our heads, not our imaginations.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tommy.

Jimmy grinned and tapped his temple with a finger. “Elementary, my dear Bowman. Yu can have yur stew without lighting a fire—or at least without lighting a fire that would bring enemies or beasties. Johnny's gotten quite controlled with his fire. What's say he just holds the pan in the palm of his hand and lets out just a bit of flame? Could yu do that now, Johnny, without it burnin' yu?”

“Yeah, sure . . . I guess,” he replied. “Why didn't I think of that?”

“Because,” said Jimmy, “I'm the brains of this operation.”

An awkward silence lingered. Then everyone but Jimmy burst out in hard laughter.

“Well, it's true,” Jimmy contended, but that only intensified the situation.

Johnny fell backward off his log and rolled in the dead leaves.

“That's enough,” said Tommy, wiping away a tear. “It's a great idea. Jett, you have the pans in your pack. Let me have a couple. I'm going to get some water.”

“I'll go with you,” said Kiri Lee.

Those same words were right on the tip of Kat's tongue, but she managed to be a few seconds too slow.

Tommy was grateful to have Kiri Lee's company. The stream was quite a bit farther back than he'd remembered and, powers or not, he didn't feel too comfortable being in the dark woods so far from his powerful friends. Shooting a bow with ridiculous accuracy was great for a battle, but not when you couldn't see.

“It's just a little farther,” he said.

“That's what you said five minutes ago,” said Kiri Lee.

“This time I'm sure,” he said with a chuckle.

Fortunately for Tommy, they found a dark ribbon of stream a few moments later. Tommy took one of the pans and knelt on the edge of the bank. He stretched every which way but couldn't reach all the way down to the water level. “Shoot!” he grumbled. “I'm gonna have to go down there.”

“No, I'll do it,” said Kiri Lee. She picked up the second pan and took the first one out of Tommy's hands. She stepped off the edge of the bank, trotted along the air until she was just above the water. She dipped and filled both pans and then walked on invisible steps back to Tommy's side.

“I wish I could do that,” Tommy said, shaking his head. “Looks like so much fun.”

“It is,” Kiri Lee replied. “But you have a gift.”

“Yeah, but archery, well . . . it's just not as cool.”

“Cool,” said Kiri Lee. “What a silly concept. Here we are in the middle of a thousand leagues of forest in a mysterious world, and you're worried about being cool.”

“Well, when you put it that way.”

“Ah, it was that way on Earth, too. We all worried so much about being cool, but no one really knew what cool was there, either. It's all made up, in people's heads. Like I said, silly.”

Tommy chewed on that for a moment, listening to the gurgle of the stream and the chorus of night frogs. Then Kiri Lee spoke again. “When I said you had a gift, I wasn't talking about your skill with the bow.”

“Okay,” said Tommy, “now I'm lost. Where's Jimmy and his brains when I need him?”

“You're a leader, Tommy. A natural. People look to you for decisions . . . advice. That's kind of why I wanted to come with you to get the water.”

The hair on the back of Tommy's neck prickled. “You wanted to come with me because I'm a leader?”

“No,” said Kiri Lee. “I need some advice. See, I really like one of the members of our team, but I'm not sure how to tell him.”

“You mean LIKE like?”

Kiri Lee nodded.

“Oh,” said Tommy, feeling suddenly very warm. He thought that perhaps he could boil the water with the palms of his hands. “I, um . . . I don't know much about romance.”

“He's that way, too,” said Kiri Lee.

Could she be more obvious?
Tommy wondered.
What do I tell her?
He decided on the direct approach. “I figure the only thing that can mess you up is if you keep quiet about it. If he's got any interest in you, then you telling him would be a good thing, right? And if not, you still need to know, right?”

“Thanks, Tommy,” she said. “I knew I could count on—what was that?”

Tommy's heart raced as he strained to listen. He'd heard something tramping around in the leaves. “Probably just a squirrel,” he said.

“What you are doing in our woods?” came a high, squeaky voice from the darkness.

“That's no squirrel,” said Kiri Lee, drawing twin daggers.

Tommy's sword flashed out with a loud ring. “Who are you?” he demanded. “Show yourself!”

“Aiieeeeeee! ”
squealed the same voice, followed by diminishing footfalls in the leaves.

“Should I go after it?” Tommy asked.

“I think you scared it away,” said Kiri Lee. “Besides, it didn't sound all that threatening. We need to get back to the others.”

“So what do you think it was?” asked Johnny, a pot of stew simmering in each of his hands.

Tommy and Kiri Lee shrugged. “No idea,” said Tommy. “But it said we're in its woods.”

“That doesn't make much sense,” said Jett.

“Could it have been a Gwar?” asked Autumn. “Like a spy?”

“I've never heard a Gwar speak like that,” said Kiri Lee.

“And a Gwar spy wouldn't give away its position,” said Tommy.

“Probably wouldn't run away, either,” said Jett. “Ah, I wouldn't worry about it, man, you did the right thing.”

“Thanks, Jett,” Tommy replied. “But I wonder.”

“Hey, how long on the stew?” Jett turned to Johnny.

“I think it's done,” Johnny replied, shaking his head. “You know, with my gift, I thought I could get a cool superhero nickname. Maybe the
Man of Fire
or
Flame Man
. Now”—he glanced at the simmering pots—“now, they're going to call me the
Elf Stove
.”

That started up a chain reaction of furious laughter, amplified again and again as each of the lords took a turn teasing Johnny.

“How about
Potman
,” suggested Jett.

“No,” giggled Autumn. “He's not a man yet.”

“Hey!” complained Johnny, but he took no insult. “Of course I'm not a man. I'm an Elf!”

“
Skillet Boy
!” suggested Kat, smiling at last.

“That's good,” said Tommy. “I was thinking
Stew-pendous Guy
!”

“Oh,” said Jimmy, “that's horrible. Really. I think we should call him
Captain Crockpot
.”

“You guys should stop,” said Kiri Lee, trying hard not to laugh. “We should be encouraging each other, not insulting.”

“No big deal,” said Johnny. “It's actually kind of cheering me up.”

“Well,” said Kiri Lee. “In that case . . . I dub thee
Sir Soups-a-lot
.”

“Booo,” hooted Jett. “That's worse than—”

A rumbling sound rolled out of the darkness, followed by a shrieking,
“Aiieeeeeee!”

“It's that voice!” shouted Tommy, stringing his bow.

“And something else,” said Kat.

“It's not far away,” said Jett.

The growl intensified to a roar. The shriek became desperate.

“Come on!” urged Tommy, and he fled into the trees. Autumn whooshed by Tommy. “Wish she wouldn't do that!” he grumbled. He broke into a clearing and stumbled to a stop right next to Autumn. Jett and Johnny ripped through next with Kat, Kiri Lee, and Jimmy close behind.

“We're not going to like this,” said Jimmy.

They looked up and saw what Jimmy had glimpsed with his inner foresight seconds earlier. Half crouched in a thatch of crushed bushes and shrubs, a massive four-legged beast scratched and clawed at a tree on the far side of the clearing.

Thick bodied, with a long neck and tail, powerful limbs with long, slothlike talons, and an arrowhead-shaped skull—the creature's form was that of a dragon such as each of the lords had read about in storybooks on Earth.

But this beast had no wings, and its glistening scale armor looked something like shingles of wet tree bark. Down the center of its neck and tail grew a whitish ridge of cartilage, and it was covered with irregular patches of dark green moss. The creature looked as if it had been knit together from the forest floor and risen like a woodland nightmare to terrify all who beheld it.