فصل 40

CHAPTER 40

A VOICE IN THE SKY

WHATEVER TINK WAS DOING with Molly’s locket, it was taking her quite a while. George and Molly grew increasingly hot and thirsty as they sat on the sand, trying to get some shade from the camel.

“What do we do when she gets back?” said George. “Make the camel fly again?”

“I don’t know,” said Molly. “We need to find Maknar, because that’s where Father was going, and that’s where Peter is. But I don’t know how far it is, or which direction. I’m hoping Tink will take us there.”

“What about the starstuff?” said George, nodding toward the glow at the crest of the dune, still brighter than the desert sun.

“We need to tell Father about that,” said Molly. “He’ll want to…Here comes Tink!”

Tink was streaking over the crest of the dune, clutching the locket, which she dropped into Molly’s waiting hands. The locket felt warm; Molly could sense the power it contained.

“Thank you, Tink,” she said. “Now we need to get to Maknar as qu—”

Tink interrupted with a burst of chimes, shaking her head urgently.

“What?” said Molly. “You don’t want us to go to Maknar?”

Tink nodded vigorously.

“But why not?” said Molly.

Tink pointed toward the crest of the dune. She made a soft chiming sound, pointed to her own heart, and then pointed to Molly’s heart.

“Oh,” said Molly. “I see.”

“What is it?” said George.

“It’s Peter,” said Molly, her face brightening. “He’s close.”

They were within two miles of the starstuff now; Peter could feel it and could see the radiant glow ahead, turning the blue sky nearly white. The caravan had skirted around the huge dune from which he had viewed the starstuff Fall; it now towered over them, to the right. Ahead, in the valley, lay the starstuff.

The caravan kept moving until the glare became too bright for it to continue. There it stopped, and under Glotz’s supervision, the soldiers unstrapped the gold-hinged chest from the camel and lowered it to the ground. Glotz then came back to the wagon carrying the boys, both caged and uncaged.

“Put on the suits,” he said.

With no enthusiasm, Slightly and three of the other slave boys picked up the gold-mesh suits and began putting them on. One suit was considerably larger than the others; Glotz put this on himself. He checked the boys’ suits to make sure that they had their headpieces fastened tightly, with no open seams at their necks. They now looked like strange golden beings, their faces covered with fine gold mesh.

“You will keep your suits on until I tell you to remove them,” said Glotz. “If you remove them any sooner, you will die. Do you understand?”

The four gold-covered heads nodded.

Glotz led them over to the trunk, which was sitting on the sand next to the camel. Glotz unlatched it and opened the lid; Peter could see that, as he suspected, the trunk was lined with gold. Glotz reached inside and lifted out two small golden shovels. He inspected these, nodded, and put them back into the trunk.

“Pick it up,” he said to the boys. They lifted the trunk, grunting at the formidable weight.

“Oddly enough, it will be lighter once it is full,” said Glotz, chuckling at his own statement. He turned toward Zarboff and said, “We should be back within the hour.”

Peter watched through the bars until the tall, gleaming figure of Glotz disappeared into the brilliant glow of the valley, with the golden-garbed boys trudging behind, carrying the chest. His attention then shifted to Zarboff, who was directing his men to remove the throne and carpet from his carriage and carry them back toward the wagon. They unrolled the carpet onto the sand next to the cage containing Peter and the others, and they set the throne down on top of it, facing the boys. Zarboff then sat on the throne. The guard with the umbrella stood behind, shading him.

Zarboff looked at the boys for a few moments, his eyes lingering on Peter. Then he clapped his hands and said something in the Rundoon language. Two soldiers trotted over to the king’s carriage. As the boys watched in horror, they picked up the big basket and carried it over to the carpet, setting it next to the king. He reached out his hand, resting it on the basket lid, gently drumming his fingers, clearly enjoying the look on the boys’ faces.

Then he began to whistle. The basket lid lifted.

Peter, struggling to sound calm as the enormous head emerged from the basket, said, “You told me if I came back, you wouldn’t hurt my friends.”

“No, stupid boy,” said Zarboff. “I said if you didn’t return, I would feed your friends to Kundalini. And I would have. It just so happens that I planned to do the same thing whether you returned or not.”

“But that’s not fair!” pleaded Peter.

“Fair?” sneered Zarboff. “Do you think it matters to me what is fair?”

The snake eased out of the basket, its massive head sliding across the carpet toward the cage. James, Prentiss, Thomas, and Tubby Ted backed against the far wall of the cage. Peter’s mind raced, looking for arguments.

“If you kill me,” he said, “you won’t have anyone to find the starstuff.”

Zarboff smiled. He gestured toward the glow in the sky. “You’ve already told us where to find it. And have no fear: we will use that starstuff to get even more—all we want—more starstuff than the Starcatchers ever dreamed of. We don’t need you anymore.”

The snake’s tail slipped out of the basket now; its long, thick body slithered easily across the carpet. It raised its head to the cage bars, flicking its tongue toward Peter’s bare legs. Peter jerked backward, away from the probing tongue.

“I think Kundalini likes you,” said Zarboff. “Perhaps if you’re lucky he will eat you first and spare you the agony of seeing your friends consumed.”

The snake, trying to get to Peter, pressed against the cage bars, but its head was too large to fit through. Zarboff barked some orders, and three soldiers came running over. One of them, keeping a wary eye on Kundalini, opened the cage door; the other two stood next to the opening with swords drawn, to prevent the boys from escaping.

The soldiers stepped back as Kundalini thrust his massive head through the opening. Peter backed against the far wall of the cage with the other boys. They watched in horror as the snake entered the cage. Prentiss screamed. Zarboff, seeking a better view, rose from his throne and stepped forward.

Neither Zarboff nor his soldiers, intent on watching the drama in the cage, saw what Peter saw: a shadow flying toward them across the sand. None of them looked up until the sound came from overhead—the sound of a young man and a young woman shouting. Peter thought the voices sounded familiar. He glanced up, but in the glare of the sun he couldn’t see anything more than a dark, flying shape. Quite a large flying shape, in fact.

Some of the soldiers looked up, too. They began shouting and pointing as they realized that the flying shape was, impossible though it seemed…a camel.

For a moment, Kundalini was forgotten, as all faces turned skyward, including the face of King Zarboff the Third, whose mouth fell open in amazement. This was unfortunate for him, for it was at exactly that moment that the flying camel, on Tink’s chimed command, released a long pent-up load of camel dung, which fell directly and massively onto His Royal Highness’s upturned face. He roared in rage and began to stagger around blindly, screaming for someone to wipe his face; his men raced to help him but were hindered by the flying camel, which was making low swoops back and forth across the area, continuing to emit dung bombs.

“Tink!” shouted Peter, hearing the familiar bells. She answered with a chime and swooped down to him, darting through the cage bars and dropping something into his hand. He looked down: it was Molly’s locket. Tink was at his ear, chiming as loud as she could.

The snake!

Peter looked and saw that Kundalini, who was not going to be distracted from a tasty meal by a flying camel, was only inches away, preparing to wrap its first deadly coil around Peter.

Peter flipped open Molly’s locket. His hand was instantly enveloped in a radiant sphere of golden light. He reached down and poured some starstuff onto Kundalini’s head. The effect was immediate: the huge snake reared back like a snake charmer’s cobra and began to rise with a spiraling motion. In a moment its entire body had lifted off the floor of the cage. The head turned slowly until it found the still-open cage door, and then it spiraled out of the cage. The appearance of a flying snake had the effect of further disconcerting the soldiers, who were still dodging the flying camel while trying to assist their king, who was wandering blindly into the desert, screaming for somebody to wipe his face.

With Kundalini gone, there was nothing between the boys and the open, unguarded cage door. Peter grabbed the still-stunned Prentiss and Thomas and shoved them toward the opening; James did the same for Tubby Ted. The boys clambered out and jumped from the wagon onto the carpet where Zarboff had been sitting on his throne. Peter looked around: the soldiers were all preoccupied with the swooping camel, the flying snake, and their highly irate king. But the moment would not last. They had to get out of there. But how?

“Get them!” screamed Zarboff. The king was pointing at Peter and the others. Soldiers were running toward them.

Peter looked down at Molly’s locket. And the carpet.

The carpet.

With a flick of his wrist, Peter dumped the locket’s contents onto the carpet. In the next second, it was six feet off the ground and rising so fast that all the boys, even Peter, lost their balance and fell.

“Help!” yelled Ted, who was falling off the edge. Peter lunged and grabbed him, managing to pull him back onto the flying carpet just as a soldier’s sword sliced the air where his legs had been. Soon the carpet was well out of reach, rising weightlessly, balloonlike, into the desert sky. They passed by the sinking Kundalini and left behind the furious, frustrated screams of His Royal—and currently quite smelly—Highness King Zarboff the Third.

“Hello, Peter!” called a voice, a very familiar voice, one that made Peter’s stomach flutter in a way that was not at all unpleasant. Peter looked up and saw her, looking quite self-assured on the back of a flying camel, and such was the joy in Peter’s heart that he even managed to muster a lukewarm fondness at the sight of George.

“Hello, Molly,” he called back.

“I suppose we should get out of here, before we start to come down,” she said.

“Yes,” said Peter. “I suppose we should.”

They stared at each other for a few more seconds, which was longer than Tink could tolerate.

I’m the one who rescued you, remember? she chimed unnecessarily loudly into Peter’s ear.

“Of course, Tink,” said Peter, still looking at Molly.

“What did she say?” said Molly.

“She says it’s wonderful to see you again,” said Peter.