Sword Mountain (30 page)

They cocked their heads. Frenzied, off-key chants echoed in the tunnel. “Look!” Dandelion said. “There's a patch of light over there!”

Turning to a widened tunnel to their left, they saw a huge patch of eerie, shifting light.

After a moment of hesitation, they changed their direction and moved slowly toward it. They worked through the tallest dune yet, emerging on the other side with a shower of the garbage, and the discovery that the drifts of pellets diminished here. Soon they were on a stretch of rock again.

A part of the tunnel floor had collapsed into a natural cavern below, and it was from this cavern that the firelight and the singing came. Smoke rose to sting their nostrils.

Silently the young raptors crept toward the jagged edge of the hole, flattened themselves on the cold stone, and peered down.

It was an underground celebration, twenty feet below. A crackling fire dominated the scene, roasting kabobs of meat. Around its flames danced a dozen eagle owls, kicking and prancing in a conga line. They flung out their wings toward the fire in time to a drum, sidling up close to the bright flames and skipping back. All of them wore dark glasses. Their beaks were curled in maniacal glee as they chanted:

To a proper owl

No accessory surpasses

Two glinting shields of crystal—

A pair of sunglasses!

They tone down all that's bright

So we'll fly out in the day.

All shines as clear as night
—

No more limits in our way!

One for you, and one for me.

Remember, keep your cool!

They'll see how wise are we.

And after all, who'd dare to call
—

A bespectacled owl a fool?

Other owls swaying in the shadows hooted in pleasure, raising wineglasses the size of fruit bowls in toasts at each stanza.

“Here you have it, the ultimate masterpiece of cunning: The king dead, the gem filched, the kingdom split, and still enough time for some jolly partying at day's end. To the folly of the hookbeaks upstairs! May it last indefinitely,” declared one owl as he burped loudly. The others cheered.

“Show us the prize. Show us the gemstone!” they shouted. They were calling to an unseen figure in an adjacent cavern.

“It's Tranglarhad!” Dandelion whispered.

Indeed, the former tutor appeared below the eagles, making modest gestures to calm the cheering crowd. “Since my friend Kawaka has departed from our castle, I have examined the stone carefully under a magnifying glass, and I must declare that it is what we have sought—the material to craft the best of sunglasses.” He displayed a deep purple stone to the onlookers. “It is as our ‘Chant of Sunglasses' says: ‘We'll fly out in the day!'”

Where was the scholarly dress of the tutor now? The true appearance of their teacher was revealed: twisted face mounted by dark glasses to keep off the glare of the fire, studded belt cinching a dirty coat, two gleaming square cleavers tucked one on each side.

Directly above, the young birds looked anxiously at one another.

“How many glasses will the stone yield?” asked one owl.

“Used sparingly, five pairs,” mused Tranglarhad. “And maybe some left over for a monocle. By the time the party is over, the furnace will have reached the correct heat for the final melting to begin!”

Dandelion realized that to retrieve the gem, and to find another way out, they would have to defeat the gathered mass below. Most of the owls did not appear to have weapons, yet they looked tough and dangerous, even with only wineglasses in their talons.

Tranglarhad clasped the gemstone with a pair of tongs. “See how it reveals the dark side of light!” he exclaimed as he lifted it skyward. His gaze rose with the gem.

And Cloud-wing dived, thrusting his claymore, reaching for the upraised gem.

“Wha—?” Tranglarhad shouted. Before Cloud-wing could get close, the tongs dropped out of the owl's claws. The gem skittered across the floor, blocked from sight by other owls fluttering toward Cloud-wing. Before their advantage of surprise wore off, Dandelion and the eagles attacked, shrieking raptor cries.

“Upon my pellet, the blasted gem! Conjured up hookbeaks from the bones in our garbage dump, it did.” Gargling curses, Tranglarhad leaped up high, swinging a cleaver at Cloud-wing's head.

Dandelion tore off a gold acorn from her collar and hurled it toward Tranglarhad just as he hacked. The heavy pin hit Tranglarhad's sunglasses, shattering one of the lenses and distracting him so that Cloud-wing could dodge away. Dandelion saw that broken glass had bloodied the owl's face. Tranglarhad blinked through the empty frame and screeched.

“Are you all right?” Dandelion cried to Cloud-wing.

“Yes,” he said. “Thanks.”

“The princess, is it?” said the owl, enraged. “Little weed! But sharp eyes and ears won't save your life.” He spun around and sliced down with his other cleaver. Dandelion pulled out Wind-voice's sword from her belt and met his lunge. Tranglarhad growled.

“You thief! And you lectured us against stealing!” Dandelion yelled.

“The classroom is not the world,” the owl returned.

Just then, one of Tranglarhad's minions called out, “High Owl, that filthy hookbeak's got the gem!”

Tranglarhad spun around, joining the rest of the owls as they crowded around Pandey, who had dived under the mob of owls to snatch the Leasorn gem from the floor.

“Catch!” shouted the osprey, frantic. He flung the gemstone over the owls' heads. Cloud-wing caught it and the owls surged toward him. The young raptors flew out of the cavern into a tunnel, trying to distance themselves from their enemies.

“You think you can steal from me, the master thief? You aren't going anywhere,” hollered Tranglarhad. “This labyrinth has you trapped.”

“Keep going, hurry!” said Cloud-wing. “Don't panic. There must be another exit in these caverns—one that the owls use. There must be another way out!”

They followed tunnel after tunnel, breathing hard. Then, in front of them, they saw a gate. They could hear sounds of wind and falling water just beyond. This was the owls' main door. It was ajar.

They strained their wings, the owls pursuing, others swooping in from side tunnels. Cloud-wing, using the glowing gemstone to light their way, sped toward the gate. Just as he was about to pull open the door, it flung wide of its own accord. An archaeopteryx entered, wielding a torch in one foot, a cutlass in the other. Kawaka gave a rattling cry and attacked Cloud-wing with his torch as three more archaeopteryxes poured in, blocking the only exit.

“We've got you now!” said Tranglarhad from behind.

Where shall you flee the flame of my fury?

—
FROM THE
B
OOK OF
H
ERESY

C
loud-wing cried out sharply as Kawaka's torch blazed in his face but managed to rejoin the group. They swung around, not knowing where they were going. At the first side tunnel, they turned and flew.

“The laboratory!” Tranglarhad was screaming in glee. “They're heading for the laboratory. Quick, quick! Go around them, cut them off!”

With no more side tunnels along the way, they were forced to fly straight on, toward someplace that seemed hotter and hotter, as if the lava from the center of the earth bubbled to the surface there. Bursting into a large cavern, they saw that owls had already taken other shortcuts and poured in from other doors.

Dandelion glanced back, recognizing with terror Kawaka's disfigured beak. The archaeopteryx was gaining on them speedily. In the heat, Kawaka's shout of triumph seemed to crack their eardrums. There was no place to fly anymore. Cloud-wing, the last in their group, lost his balance and tumbled in the air. Kawaka overcame him, knocked away his claymore, and snatched up the gemstone. Five owls surrounded Cloud-wing immediately and caught hold of his wings.

Tranglarhad entered the laboratory. “Don't you dare move. Drop your weapons!” he warned Dandelion and the academy students. He pointed at Cloud-wing, writhing in the clutches of his captors. “Or he gets killed.”

Tranglarhad raised a cleaver to Cloud-wing's throat.

“No matter what, we'll all stay together, Cloud-wing,” whispered Dandelion.

All fell silent except the alchemist's furnace, a glowing monster in the middle of the laboratory that sputtered and spat metallic heat. From behind its latched mouth, flames clawed. Dandelion, Blitz and Blaze, Pandey, and Isobello surrendered. The owls tossed their weapons into a pile in a corner, then wrenched their wings and held them tight.

Cloud-wing stared wide-eyed at them as Tranglarhad pressed the cleaver closer to his throat. Slowly, a drop of blood, then another, rolled down along the silver edge of the blade. It was then that Dandelion noticed something different about Cloud-wing's eyes. Fresh scorch marks charred the feathers near them. He was blinking as if he was having trouble seeing.

“Why not just slay them all?” growled Kawaka, tossing the gemstone from one set of claws to the other.

“They'll be useful,” said Tranglarhad. “With a top-notch catch like this, some royalty and nobility, we might gain whatever we want without bloodshed. Eagles will relinquish anything rather than let their little ones be hurt. But anyhow—” Tranglarhad abruptly left Cloud-wing, motioning to two other owls to guard him. Cloud-wing shuddered and drooped, clutching his throat. The other owls squinted, keeping a respectful distance from the furnace as Tranglarhad went forward and threw open the hatch.