Shapeshifter's Guide to Running Away by Lari Don

Author:Lari Don [Don, Lari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782503415
Publisher: Floris Books
Published: 2017-02-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“Ssssuch a fascinating announcement, young kelpie. Do tell us more.”

“I am a curse-caster.” Innes’s voice rang round the cave. “Did everyone hear that? I’m a curse-caster. I cursed someone who thoroughly needed cursing, but in doing so I let one of those vicious crows hatch from a stone egg. Now the crows are capturing casters to protect their young and… and I’m afraid they might come for me next.”

“Innes, what have you done?” whispered Beth “Who have you cursed?”

“Shhh,” said Atacama. “Not here. Not now.”

The snake laughed inside their heads. “Sssso your friends are not happy with your honesty! But I enjoyed it. I’m too old to play with toys; I prefer to play with my visitors. You have amused me, particularly your faces as this pretty little pony spoke the truth. So I will give you my rainbow-maker, because you have entertained me and because what happens next might entertain me too. But I will also give you a warning: restoring balance is not easy; sometimes the helix twists the other way. Are you prepared to risk adding the complication of an ancient and powerful artefact to your problem?”

“Yes,” said Theo.

The snake laughed again, then the tip of his black galaxy-dotted tail pointed at the cave wall to their left.

They looked over. On a small shelf of dark rock, Molly saw a glint of light.

“Ssssnakes shed possessions like skins, but I have kept this all my life. You may take it.”

Molly was nearest, so she walked across the cave towards the shelf. As she got closer, she saw a long fang-shaped crystal, bending even the faint light in the cave into all the colours of the spectrum, creating pale rainbows on the wall behind.

She picked the crystal up, holding its icy smoothness carefully in the palm of her hand.

“Ssssad to see it go,” hissed the snake. “But eager to watch, from here and from everywhere I am, to see what will happen when you take that relic of my hatchling-hood out into the world. Farewell, little ones.”

“Thank you,” said Beth.

“We’re grateful, noble snake,” said Atacama.

Theo said, “It’s been an honour—”

“Sssstop now. I am weary of you. Take the trinket and go.” The snake closed his eyelids, slowly, like black moons eclipsing dark suns.

They walked out of the snake’s cave, through the tunnel and into the smaller cave. The rock-wall door slid shut as soon as Innes, walking half a pace behind the rest, stepped through.

Beth dropped her torch on the floor, slammed both hands into Innes’s chest and pushed him up against the cave wall. “You cast a curse? After all we’ve been through, you cursed someone? How could you?”

Innes didn’t push back. He just stood there and let her shove at him. But he answered quietly, “It’s complicated.”

“It’s not complicated!” Beth yelled. “It’s simple. Curses are dark and evil, and you don’t use them. It’s simple.”

Molly heard laughter hissing in her head. “Atacama’s right about not arguing in the cave. Let’s get out.”

Beth pushed at Innes again, slamming him harder into the wall.

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