Lair of the Beast Page 7

  All of the other Roamabouts stood silently, taking in this surprising revelation. Even the monsoonodon seemed to be listening to every word.

  “I needed everyone to believe I was dead,” Lumina explained. “If the Infernal King thought I was still alive, I was worried he would hold the Roamabouts hostage until I turned myself in.”

  “You could have told me,” Valor said. “I could have kept a secret.”

  “The Infernal King’s rust fairies were everywhere. Spying.”

  “I thought you were dead,” Valor said, tightening her jaw.

  “I knew that you would become the strong girl you are today.”

  Valor looked over to Wily with scorn. All the warmth and kindness she had shown upon first meeting him dissipated instantly. Valor stared at him as if he were the Infernal King himself.

  “You will get no help from me,” Valor said. “And I will strongly discourage any other member of the tribe from helping you. Go back to your castle of stone and metal. Leave the trees and rivers to us. We’ll do just fine without you.”

  Valor turned away from Wily and his companions. “Stalkeer!” she shouted.

  Her black-and-gold mountain lion bounded up to her side. She jumped on the great cat’s back, and together they disappeared into the trees.

  A tall elf riding on the back of a great stag was the first to speak. “You are welcome to come to our camp and rest. But then you must swiftly continue on your way.”

  Wily could see that his mother was too choked up with emotion to say anything at all. Despite his own tumultuous feelings, he spoke in her place. “Thank you,” Wily replied. “We would appreciate that.”

  The tall elf turned to the Roamabouts on the back of the giant snake. “Take Henrietta back to Pago-Pago Valley.”

  The three Roamabouts nodded and approached the monsoonodon. They gently nudged it to its feet and started leading it toward a break in the forest. The tall elf on the stag rode in a different direction. She beckoned Wily and the others to follow her.

  “Why did Valor call you Auntie?” Wily asked his mother once they had mounted their horses and were following the strange cavalcade of animals and their Roamabout riders through the pathless woods.

  “Her mother and father died when she was little. She was raised by the tribe. But our relationship was always especially close. Until I left. I’d rather not talk about it.” Lumina rode ahead without another word.

  As the procession twisted through the mighty trees, Wily watched as the woodling animals peeked out of their burrows and down from their nests. They chirped, tweeted, and hissed their respect for the passing quellers.

  After an hour’s ride, the companions emerged from the woods into a field of saplings no taller than a horse’s head. Wily was now able to get a much clearer view of the mountain known as the Web. While it was a magnificent sight to behold, the large rock formation at its base was even more breathtaking. It was shaped like a giant spider. Eight pillars of stone held aloft an enormous boulder high above the lush mountainside. Mossy trees and thick shrubs grew in the shade of the great tower of stone shaped by wind and erosion.

  Wily couldn’t take his eyes off the giant spider as they crossed through the field of saplings. Only after his view was blocked by a cluster of gargantuan elms did he notice the smell of roasting vegetables wafting through the air. The scent grew stronger as they approached the clearing, which held the campsite of the Roamabout tribe.

  Wily discovered quickly that there wasn’t much to the campsite. There were no cabins or tents or even sleeping mats, just pillows laid out on the soft grass and small bonfires set up to cook food and provide warmth. There were at least three times as many animals wandering the camp as there were people. A stream passed through the far side of the clearing, where a trio of beavers was busy building a dam as squatlings fished in the waters.

  Wily could now see the source of the fragrant smell of roasting vegetables. A group of tinder frogs had been gathered in the middle of a ring of rocks. Their backs crackled with a warm fire. Spits of mushrooms and crispy crickets cooked on skewers above them. The tinder frogs happily snatched curious mosquitoes and gnats from the air with their long tongues as the food cooked.

  Roamabouts looked up as Wily and his companions passed. Not a single one offered a smile to the newly arriving visitors.

  “Find yourself a rock or patch of grass to sit upon,” the tall elf said to Wily and his companions. “Or if you are hungry, there is plenty to eat. Once you have rested, you can make your way to a town with your kind.”

  Impish and Gremlin bounded from Lumina’s saddlebag and scampered over to a family of ferrets. Whether they knew each other from before or were making introductions was unclear to Wily, but either way they all seemed happy to be together.

  The tall elf turned to Lumina. “I can think of only one person who will be happy to see you again. And here he comes now.”

  As the tall elf walked off, a broad-shouldered man with a face that resembled not only Lumina’s, but Wily’s, bounded up to the just-arriving group.

  “My goodness!” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe it! But then again, when were you not full of surprises?”

  Lumina gently descended from her mount, and the two embraced. The man looked up and saw Wily, still on his horse. “So you found each other,” the man said with a smile. He released Lumina and came over to Wily’s horse. “I’m your uncle Talleywin. You look just like your grandfather did. Same chin, same hair, and same ears. Just the eyes are different. Those must be from the other side of the family.”

  “I’m very glad to meet you,” Wily said. “We haven’t had the warmest welcome so far.”

  “It’s to be expected,” Talleywin said. “No one here trusts a wall-dweller. Much less a member of the royal family. Not after what the Infernal King did to the land.”

  “I would never destroy the forests,” Wily said. “Or any other part of nature.”

  “You’ll have a tough time convincing anyone here of that,” Talleywin replied. “Your kind believes in order and control. We believe in freedom and the beautiful chaos of the wild.”

  Talleywin gave a wide smile, but Wily could tell that, despite them being blood relatives, his uncle eyed him with a sense of caution.

  “Now tell me what you are doing in the shadow of the Web,” Talleywin asked Lumina.

  She proceeded to explain in great detail. Talleywin listened carefully until she finished.

  “Tame Palojax?” Talleywin had to restrain himself from laughing. “Only Valor has been trained in the ancient art. And she won’t even speak with you, let alone journey to the Below by your side.”

  “I’ll change her mind,” Wily said. “I have to.”

  “That’s a task even more unlikely than reaching the lair beast alive,” Talleywin stated. “Once Valor makes up her mind, the conversation is over.”

  “What about Olgara?” Lumina asked. “Is she still well? Perhaps she would go with us.”

  “She spends all her time now in her perch,” Talleywin replied. “Not sure she would be able to do much adventuring. She can barely see. But you can ask her yourself.”

  Lumina turned to Odette, Roveeka, Moshul, Righteous, and Pryvyd.

  “I think it would be best if you stayed here,” she said. “We don’t want to give her any extra reason to say no.”

  The others settled in as Talleywin guided Wily and Lumina across the clearing to the edge of the stream and hopped across the rocks. He stepped into the woods on the other side.

  “Olgara doesn’t live here with you?” Wily asked, confused.

  “She doesn’t like people much anymore,” Talleywin answered. “Not that she ever did. She only cares about discovering new breeds of birds and bugs.”

  Talleywin continued into the woods as Wily and Lumina crossed the stream to catch up. They were rather curious woods; all around, Wily could hear chirps and squeaks of rodents and birds, yet when he peered through the dense foliage, he couldn’t see a
ny animals at all. He wondered if they blended into the surroundings like the camouflaging lizards that stuck to the walls of Carrion Tomb. He heard the forest noises grow louder as they approached a large elm, but when he peeked around the other side of the tree, once again he saw nothing at all. Wily concluded that either a powerful magic was at work or these animals were practically invisible.

  Talleywin slowed as he approached a giant tree with a waist-tall hole in the trunk.

  “She lives in there?” Wily asked.

  “No,” Talleywin answered. “She lives up high.” He pointed into the branches above. “This is just how we get there.”

  Talleywin ducked and crept into the base of the tree, disappearing inside. Wily hesitated briefly, then followed behind.

  Once inside, he was treated to a wondrous sight. The giant tree was hollow from its base to the sky. And it was teeming with life. Birds flew loops from one side to the other. Squirrels and tree rats scampered up the inner bark. Wily suddenly realized where all the sounds had been coming from.

  “By the look on your face,” Talleywin said, “I’m guessing you’ve never been inside a hollow tree before. The whole forest is full of them.”

  Wily peered up at the sky through the hole at the top of the tree. Then he looked around for ladders or steps to climb.

  “How do we get up there?” Wily asked, puzzled.

  Talleywin pointed to discs of blue fungus sticking out from the inside tree bark. They trailed up and around the tree like a giant spiral staircase—but with no banister.

  “Are those strong enough to hold our weight?” Wily asked with a healthy amount of skepticism.

  “I wouldn’t jump on them,” Talleywin replied, an answer that didn’t exactly put Wily at ease.

  “You’ll be fine,” Lumina said, “as long as you take each one slowly.”

  Talleywin started to climb the fungus steps, Wily and Lumina following. Wily was not afraid of heights. He had run along the edge of the bottomless pits of Carrion Tomb without fear. These steps, however, were far more nerve-racking. Each plate of fungus bent gently when weight was put on it. It gave Wily the sickly sensation that they could break off at any moment.

  “Just keep looking up,” Lumina said to him as she climbed cautiously, favoring her injured leg. Wily took her advice and tried to focus on the colorful birds that fluttered past his head as they circled to the top of the tree.

  When they finally reached the top, they were not treated to the incredible view Wily had expected. Instead, they found themselves in a dense canopy of branches that blocked any kind of vista.

  Talleywin stopped and tweeted to a small bird. It tweeted back a response.

  “This way,” he said, walking along a slender branch and using other, higher branches to help keep his balance.

  Wily followed behind. After a short distance, he could see an old woman sitting on a limb with her bare feet dangling. This had to be Olgara!

  She was weaving a small nest of twigs and straw. As they approached, she looked up and pulled a slice of wet straw from her cracked lips. “You stay there,” she called out. “I’ll come to you.”

  Olgara dropped from the limb. Wily gasped as she grabbed the branch with her hands and climbed underneath it. For someone old and wrinkled, it was startling to see her move with such agility. With a powerful swing, she hoisted herself back to the top of the branch.

  “Just built a new pollenpuffer nest,” Olgara said. “Don’t need you knocking it over.”

  “This is Lumina’s son,” Talleywin said. “Wily Snare.”

  “Hmmm,” Olgara said, “the future King of Panthasos. Was wondering when you’d crawl up my tree. Was sure you were not dead.”

  Olgara bounded forward and grabbed Wily by the hands and pulled them close to her eyes. She examined his fingers as if there were words written on his skin.

  “You’ve already done your fair share of beast quelling,” Olgara said, as she slid the tips of her knobby fingers along the palms of his hands.

  “What makes you say that?” Wily said as her fingernails tickled his skin.

  “I recognize many of these scars and nicks,” Olgara said as she pressed his hands so close to her nose that his knuckles rubbed up against her bushy eyebrows. “This looks like the bite of a ghost spider. Here is the burn mark from a hungry ooze beast. And I noticed the ink stains beneath your fingernails. What was that from? A lake octopus?”

  “A giant cave squid, actually,” Wily said, impressed by her many accurate guesses.

  “A particularly grumpy breed,” she said as she rubbed his forearm along her cheek. “I’m surprised I don’t feel suction cup scars all down your arms.”

  “You mean like these?” Wily asked.

  Wily rolled up his pant leg to reveal a very faint trail of circles that extended from his inner thigh down to his ankle.

  She bent down and pressed her eyes up to them. “Where did you encounter all of these strange creatures?”

  “I spent my whole childhood underground in a dungeon known as Carrion Tomb.”

  “Very dangerous beasts for an untrained boy to be dealing with,” Olgara said. “You must have your mother’s natural touch.”

  “Olgara,” Lumina said. “We need you to come with us to quell the lair beast Palojax.”

  The blind woman shook her head and brushed off the request. “Oh no,” she mumbled. “No more quelling for me. Just making nests and teaching young quellers. You’ll need to find someone else.”

  “There is nobody else,” Lumina said. “The safety of Panthasos is at stake.”

  “Cities may crumble. Towns may burn. But grass will grow in the ashes.”

  She was about to swing away when Wily spoke up. “You don’t need to go. Train me.”

  “Train you to quell a lair beast! Impossible.”

  “You just said yourself he has natural talent,” Lumina reminded her.

  “But natural talent alone is not a replacement for practice.” Olgara grabbed a big leaf of a tree branch and shoved it in her mouth. After some noisy chewing, she spoke again. “You would need ten years of lessons every day to even have a chance.”

  “We only have until tomorrow,” Lumina said. “Or the next day at the most.”

  Olgara spat out the leaf.

  “I might surprise you,” Wily added timidly, not really believing it himself.

  “What exactly have you been told about Palojax?” Olgara asked as bits of mulch flew from her lips.

  It suddenly occurred to Wily that he didn’t know much at all about the lair beast. “I know that lair beasts are very large.”

  “Yes, they are big,” Olgara said. “Much bigger than the largest dragon. But it is not size that makes them so difficult to quell. Palojax is not just one beast but a stew of many. It has the body of a giant lizard and the wings of a bat. It has six legs of a giant insect and a tail of an ankylosaur. But most important to the quelling process is that lair beasts have three heads—that of a snake, a bear, and a frightclops. Each head needs to be quelled without upsetting the other two. The tricks that work on one won’t work on the others. You can’t use song or hand motions or command words to calm them.”

  “But there is a way?” Wily asked.

  “Yes,” Olgara said after a long pause. “There is a way. Direct pressure to the spot where the necks join up to form one spine. But that requires being on top of them. And if you get it wrong, Palojax will only grow angrier. The heads will rip you to pieces, each wishing to devour you on its own.”

  “I need to try,” Wily begged, despite the sudden feeling that he wanted to run back to the royal palace. “Stone golems are already marching across Panthasos. Palojax is the only way to stop them.”

  “Even if I showed you the technique,” Olgara scoffed, “there are no lair beasts to practice on. It would be impossible to know if you’re even doing it right.”

  “What about the manticorn?” Lumina asked. “It has more than one head just like the lair beast. Is there s
till one that lives above Spider Rock?”

  Talleywin nodded. “As far as I know.”

  “Please,” Wily said. “Teach me. I’m begging you.”

  Olgara snapped off a slender branch and stuck it in her mouth. She crunched on it until the pulp filled the gaps between her teeth. “I will give you one day of training. Only to prove how little you know.”

  9

  PRESSURE POINTS

  “The beasts of the wild are like mirrors that peer into your heart,” Olgara said as she shuffled along an elm branch that extended into a neighboring tree’s foliage. “If you are angry, they will return that anger. If fear is in your heart, you will see a reflection of that same trepidation in the beast’s eyes.”

  Wily had been following Olgara through the treetops for the last hour as she talked. As far as Wily could tell, she had yet to give him a single piece of practical advice on how to quell a lair beast or any creature at all for that matter.

  Olgara stepped off the elm branch into a curtain of pine needles and continued, “A beast responds to strength, but not the kind of strength found in your arms or legs or chest. It searches for a deeper strength.”

  As Wily joined Olgara in the pine tree, she poked him in the shoulder. “What is this?” she questioned.

  “My shoulder?” Wily asked, flinching from the jab.

  “Why is it so tight?” she replied, poking him again.

  “Maybe I need to stretch?”

  “No,” she snapped back. “That is not what makes them tight. Tell me about your life. What worries you?”

  “Normal stuff, I guess,” Wily said, not understanding at all what she was getting at.

  “No,” she grabbed his shoulders, squeezing them. “I can feel this is new. Tell me about life in the palace.”

  “It’s wonderful,” Wily said. “Everyone cares about me. I have many friends. I don’t have to sweep the floor all day.” Then, after a pause, he added, “Although, I do have responsibilities.”

  “There,” Olgara said victoriously. “Your shoulders just raised an inch. Tell me more about these responsibilities.”