The Rightful Heir (24 page)

“Benjamin, what's wrong?” She leaned over and put a soft hand on his shoulder.

Benjamin said the first thing that came to him, “Mrs. Crane, Mom! She's dead!” he bawled, and his mom sympathized.

“Ben…I'm…I'm sorry you had to see that. I didn't realize it had affected you so much.”

He started reverse hiccupping, unable to believe the incredible luck he was having on that kitchen floor. “I tried to make it to the school bus but I just couldn't do it, Mom!” He cried and cried for two whole minutes in Carol's arms.

“It's okay, Benjamin. I'm sure she wasn't in pain very long.” That hit him like a ton of bricks.
She was in pain! She was bitten by a rattlesnake!
Then he had the horrible thought of his parents being eaten by that monstrous snake out there. “Where were you when I got home?”

“Across the road. I needed some time to think.” He couldn't look her in the eye.

“I don't want
you to go across the road anymore, okay? There are snakes out there and I'm sure you don't want to run across any, either.” Benjamin heaved a short breath at the obvious statement. “I can understand your needing a day off to recover, but I'm punishing you. You're not to go outside to play or watch TV for the rest of the day. You should've called me to let me know you were home.”

“I didn't know what to do, Mom.” He wiped the tears from his almost-dry eyes.

“Well, since you're here you can help me unload the trunk of the car. I have some groceries for the reunion Sunday that need to be brought in.”

He followed her out to the car. She opened the trunk and he grabbed a couple of paper sacks with both arms. He almost dropped them both when he glanced down the driveway and saw a fat pig, two pugs, a raccoon, a fox, and a Doberman pincher walking out of the fox den.

“Ben!” his mom shouted. He looked up. She was facing him…and the road.

Oh no!
he thought.

“Don't carry both of them! It's not good for your back!” He let out a long breath of relief and put one sack on the ground. Walking inside, where thankfully his mother now was, he turned to see the tail end of Jonah disappear through the hedge trees. They had started their journey to Persly's Woods to bring back an uncountable number of creatures who now lived in fear—a fear that Benjamin personally knew too well.
They won't be able to kill that monster. There's no way if she's as big as Malcolm says
. He knew what he had to do. He grabbed the other sack beside the car and went inside to make an important phone call…to his cousin Jon in Arkansas.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

U
NLIKE THE LAST JOURNEY
he'd undertaken, Clementine now led the group. “Felix, do you know exactly where we need to go?”

“For the most part,
I think.” Felix wasn't fully confident but tried not to show it.

They walked along in the tall grass. Mac and Jonah couldn't see anything in front of them. Zeus laughed at the two stumpy pugs. “Am I the only one who can see ahead?”

“Well,” Mac said, “I could get on top of you and ride the whole way.”

Jonah shook his head in disbelief, then started to hop over the tall grass heads. Mac imitated his brother, but couldn't jump as high. “Now what's this?” Jonah panted. “My little brother's trying to imitate me?”

“Well I would think as your king, you would be honored that I am noticing you.”

Malcolm rolled his eyes. “This is gonna be a long trip.”

The sun started to set. Clementine was glad they didn't have to worry about buzzards spying on them. Or did they? Farangis's mother now roamed the woods—could she be using buzzards, too?
We already had a snapping turtle spying on us
, he thought. He looked over at Malcolm, who appeared to be in thought, too. They exchanged a quick glance but didn't say anything.

B
ENJAMIN PUT HIS PHONE BACK IN HIS POCKET,
satisfied. He'd just talked to his cousin and
got what he'd hoped for. Jon would bring fireworks to the family reunion on Sunday. But what made Benjamin happiest was Jon's reply when he asked for
three
homemade cherry bombs. “Why, Benny boy, are you planning on blowing up a dinosaur or something?” Jon had no idea how right he might be.

“Ben?” Carol shouted from the top of the stairs.

Benjamin zoomed out of his room. He didn't want to upset her any more than he already had. He stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Benjamin, you need to get started on your homework assignment. I wrote down what Mrs. Dyer wants done by Monday. You're not to do anything else tonight. Understood?” Benjamin tried not to stomp up the stairs sighing, but he couldn't help it. Taking the piece of scratch paper from his mother's cold hand, he looked it over as he stood on the top step.

“Get started…now.” Her look said she meant business.

Benjamin descended the stairs to his room, deciphering her handwriting. “Class project – social studies. Make up your own item that was used in the Trojan War. Present it in class. Due Monday!!” He groaned as he sat at his desk. He'd forgotten how cold and hard the metal folding chair felt, since homework wasn't one of his priorities after school. He preferred the seat he was used to sitting on, although it was much colder and harder. He preferred the throne in the cave.

Benjamin brainstormed as he tapped his pencil repeatedly on the desk. His study lamp put out a small glow in the otherwise darkened room.
Trojan War…Trojan Army…Trojans
. He started thinking about Farangis's mother.
Malcolm is right. We need to kill it. And soon. But how am I gonna blow it up this time? Or can I? I couldn't even blow up Farangis, Paco had to do it and he gave his
life for that.…
He sighed. He knew killing this new threat would be extremely more difficult.
Homework, homework…need to focus now. I could make a Trojan sword… nah. But it would be pretty easy. All I need to do is get a piece of cardboard and cut it into a sword. Then I could wrap aluminum foil around it and voila! I mean, that's what Mrs. Dyer did with that
—He gasped. Benjamin slowly spoke the words quietly in the darkness, “Stupid…Trojan…Horse!” His eyes widened and his mouth hung open. “Yes! It could work!”

Ah, the genius of it! “The Trojan Horse could be the Trojan Bomb!” Excitement rushed through him as he conjured up his remarkable plan. “Okay, okay…I-I build this Trojan Horse, only it's not a horse. It's a…pig! Yeah, a pig. A
big
one. Well, as big as Clementine.” He spoke quickly as his anxious thoughts came out of his almost-shaking mouth. “And…I could fill this
Trojan Pig,”
he laughed at that, “with Cousin Jon's fireworks, especially cherry bombs, and take it to the spring where the Snapper said she drinks.”

Benjamin leaned over and put his hands on his forehead in concentration. “So I'll have a…bomb disguised as a pig and the snake comes along thinking it's food and eats it. But…it'll need a really long fuse so we can hide far away. It could…it could
work!”

He shot up in his chair when he heard the front door open overhead. His dad shouted, “Lucy, I'm home!” Tom had used that greeting at least twice a week for years.

“That got old after the twentieth time,
Dad!”
Benjamin said, then refocused. “Okay. Back to…the part where she eats it. We have a really long fuse.” His eyes darted back and forth rapidly. “And while she slithers away, we light the fuse and…BOOM! She's blown up!” It all seemed so simple, yet, not.… “Okay, what could go wrong?” He leaned back in the chair and balanced it on its back legs. “Well, sh-she could eat us!” The thought made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He already had a good idea of what that would be like. “No, we'll be
really
far away from her. She could…throw it back up like she did with the turtle.” Benjamin frowned.
No, it's going to work. This is going to work. I should wait until Malcolm and the others get back with the… oh boy…thousand other animals! Wow!

Benjamin again rested
his head in his hands. He thought about the cave with that many more residents. He thought about a pug sitting on the throne, wearing the collar he had in his back pocket, and being the new protector and leader of the secret kingdom his old dog used to rule, before he was assassinated by the giant python Farangis. Then he thought about the snake out there, nearly twice as big as the one he encountered a month ago…mother and son. In the darkness of his room it occurred to him there was one question he'd never bothered to ask. “Where did they come from?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO