The Ice Gate of Spyre (10 page)

Wingnut translated the signals slowly aloud. “Party … of … four … traveling … with … guide … Wingnut … Flange …” He broke off, clearly startled. “Hey, that’s me! What did I do wrong?”

“Tell us the rest of it,” said Esmeralda, standing now at his side.

“Too right I will!” declared Wingnut, peering down. “It says … Party of four traveling with guide Wingnut Flange … to be nabbed and taken to high lama without delay. Have a nice day. End of message.” He turned to them, his eyes like saucers. “Who are you?” he said crossly. “I’ve never been in trouble with high lama before. You’re bad news, and after all I do for you!”

“I think I know what’s happened,” said Esmeralda. “It’s that darned free Badger Block prophecy. It’s told them what we’re here for—and I don’t think they like it!”

“And here they come,” said Jack. “Dozens of them!”

He was right. Even as they stared down, they saw a whole posse of lamas streaming up the stairs toward them, their robes billowing as they ran.

“Oh, excellent,” groaned Esmeralda. “All this way only to be thwarted by a bunch of monks.”

“Not if we run for it!” said Trundle. “We still have time to escape if we jump off the platform and head up the mountain.”

“Yes, you’re right!” cried Jack. “Especially if they’re afraid of the snakes. Sword out, Trundle! Let’s go.”

He ran for the far side of the platform. For a second, Trundle saw his leaping shape silhouetted against the snow, and then he was gone. Grabbing Ishmael, Trundle followed, Esmeralda close behind.

A catch of the breath, a moment’s hesitation on the brink of the platform, and then Trundle was in the air and the snowbanks of the mountain were rushing up to meet him. He plunged up to his knees in crisp, crunchy snow. Jack was already ahead of him, floundering upward, leaving a deep trough in his wake.

“Ha!” whooped Esmeralda. “That’s outfoxed ’em! Come on, Trun—we’re almost there!”

The four of them waded up the mountain, keeping close together and helping one another out when the drifts got especially deep. Trundle could hear shouting from the platform, but he didn’t waste any time looking around. His sword was out and ready, and he was determined to get to the Ice Gate, no matter what. They were halfway to the ravine already; one last effort and they would be up there, despite the cold and the wet and the hard battle through deep snow.

“Nothing can stop us now,” panted Esmeralda. “Crown of Ice, here we come!”

Trundle felt a curious rumbling under his feet. Then he saw a long bulge lifting itself up in the snow, running quickly in their direction, as if something huge was tunneling toward them under the surface.

With startling suddenness, the snow ahead of them erupted, knocking them all off their feet. A frightful spiky, horned head emerged on the end of a long, sinuous, white-pelted neck. Yellow eyes gleamed and wide red jaws opened. A cruel and icy voice boomed out.

“Aha!” roared the giant snow snake. “Luncheon!”

“G
et behind me!” Trundle yelled to the others as he advanced bravely on the towering monster with his sword at the ready. “Listen up, snake!” he hollered, his knees knocking as he stared up at the hideous creature. “I think you ought to know we’re on a special quest, and that we’ve got the Fates on our side. So maybe you’d like to think twice about trying to eat us!”

“Thanks for the warning,” roared the gigantic snow snake. “But I think I’ll scarf you down anyway, if it’s all the same to you!”

“Big mistake, snake!” hollered Esmeralda. “Go get him, Trundle!”

“Poke him in the eye!” yelled Jack, swinging his fists.

“Curse his cutlets!” shouted Ishmael. “Auctions shriek louder than birds!”

Trundle glanced unhappily at them. His only real hope had been to bluff the snake into leaving them alone. The looming great thing must be fifty feet long!
Lawks!
Its teeth were longer than Trundle’s sword! He let out a yelp as the huge head of the monster came hurtling down toward him, jaws wide and eyes blazing.

At the same moment, half a dozen more snow snakes appeared on the scene, their ferocious heads shooting up from the snowfields all around them, their roars making the air shiver. Any one of them was big enough to swallow the four friends whole. They were utterly surrounded and really rather doomed.

Trundle winced as the snow snake’s head descended, its jaws gaping. He braced himself, holding the sword above his head in both hands. Closing his eyes, he offered a quick prayer to the Fates, wondering bleakly what life would be like inside the stomach of a gigantic snake.

But then something quite extraordinary happened.

Through the roaring of the snow snakes, he heard a series of high-pitched whoops and calls that seemed to be coming from farther down the mountain. And then, just a few seconds later, there were whizzing and thudding noises all around him, and he was suddenly surrounded by flying figures and yelling voices.

He stared around in disbelief.

It was the llama lamas coming to their rescue! Trundle had never seen anything like it! They came leaping and bounding through the snow like rubber balls, springing up to plant a hoof on a snow snake’s snout, then bouncing off, turning somersaults in the air, ready and eager to launch an attack on the next one.

“Weeeyaaah!”
yelled one llama, landing lightly on the head of the snow snake threatening Trundle. He crouched and raised one hoof above his head. “Bungi! Bungi!” the llama shrieked, bringing his hoof down between the snow snake’s eyes.

The stricken snake toppled forward so abruptly that Trundle had to leap aside so as not to get squashed underneath.

The llama jumped on high, performing a nifty head-over-heels in midair and coming down on one knee right in front of Trundle. He gave a dashing grin as he rose to his feet.

“That was Crouching Tiger to Leaping Mantis,” he said, bowing to Trundle. “Textbook example of Professor Yip’s Third Stratagem!”

“Oh! Really?” Trundle gasped. “I thought you were thinkers, not fighters.”

“We’re both!” exclaimed the lama. “Philosophy and fisticuffs. Good for mind and body!”

The fight was going very well for the monks. Trundle could see that the bewildered snow snakes were getting a severe beating. Esmeralda and Jack cheered on the leaping llamas as, one by one, the snow snakes were brought down or sent packing, slithering up the mountain, weeping and wailing and dragging their bruised tails behind them. Ishmael was turning cartwheels in the snow, cheering at the top of his cracked old voice.

“Ow!” groaned a loud voice. Trundle’s snow snake opened an angry eye. “That hurt!” it roared. “You’ll pay for that, you meddling monk!”

The llama spun around, extending one foreleg toward the slowly rising snake.

“Begone, foul fiend,” warned the llama. “Flee while you still can, else I will apply the deadly force of the Quivering Hoof!”

The snake glared down at him for a few moments, as though considering its options. Then, with a mighty snort of rage, it turned and sped off up the mountain, sending up great sheets of snow in its wake.

“The Quivering Hoof, eh?” chortled Esmeralda, helping to dig Trundle out of the avalanche the departing snake had set off. “I’d like to learn that one.”

“A difficult technique to master without
hooves
,” remarked the llama. He eyed Esmeralda and Trundle sternly. “But to more serious matters.”

Now that the last of the snakes had been dispatched, the rest of the llamas formed a circle, herding Ishmael and Jack in to stand alongside Trundle and Esmeralda. They folded their forehooves into the long sleeves of their robes and stood looking at the four adventurers with grave and solemn expressions on their long faces.

“We’re in trouble with the high lama, then?” said Esmeralda.

“Trouble?” said the first llama. “Not at all! He wishes to speak with you and share with you the findings of the Badger Block reading.”

“You mean about the crown?” asked Trundle. “We can explain that.”

The llama shook his head. “The Badger Blocks have foretold that one of your number is the Absent Oracle, for whom we have waited time out of mind!”

“Is that a fact?” said Esmeralda, sounding surprised and relieved. “Well, I’m a Roamany princess,” she continued. “I know how to use the Badger Blocks and I can do magic and stuff. So I imagine I must be the Absent Oracle you’ve all been waiting for.” She lifted a wary eyebrow. “Um … is that a
good
thing to be?”

“It is a most wonderful thing to be,” declared the llama.

“Good, then,” said Esmeralda. “And as I’m this Absent Oracle of yours, I imagine you won’t mind me and my pals borrowing the Crown of Ice.” She pointed up to the ravine. “I take it we’ll find it up there?”

“The Crown of Ice is a most sacred artifact,” said the llama. “The blessed Ramalama himself placed it there for safekeeping.”

“Yes, we know,” said Jack. “But we’re on a bit of a quest, you see—and we really need that crown.”

“Wait a moment!” said the llama. He beckoned to his companions, and the whole group of them went into a huddle together.

“Er, where’s Ishmael going?” asked Trundle. While the llamas were busy conferring, the old hare had gone skipping up through the snow, heading for the ravine.

“Get after him!” yelled Esmeralda. “Who knows what he’s capable of doing?”

They chased after him, snow flying as they went. Ishmael made it all the way to the mouth of the ravine before Jack finally got close enough to grab him. But his cold fingers couldn’t do more than catch Ishmael’s foot for a moment, tripping the hare so he went bowling off through the melted Ice Gate, all arms and legs and revolving ears. There was a thud and a crack. Ishmael sat up, rubbing his head and looking even less with it than usual.

The others ran up to him.

“I’m so sorry,” said Jack. “Did you bang your head?”

“Unhand me, sir! I know the smell of chickens when I see it.”

They helped the woozy hare to his feet. Then Trundle noticed what Ishmael had hit his head on. It was a low pillar of ice set in the very middle of the ravine—and the impact had cracked it open from top to bottom.

“Look what he found!” gasped Trundle, pulling chunks of ice away.

The pillar of ice was quite hollow. Seated on a small stone plinth within it was the lovely and elegant Crown of Ice. And carved into the stone plinth were the words:

I, R
AMALAMA, PUT THIS HERE TILL THE COMING OF THE
A
BSENT
O
RACLE
. W
HY NOT
?

Esmeralda reached in and picked up the crown. “Ooh!” she said. “Chilly!”

At that moment, the llamas arrived in the ravine. They took one look at the inscription, and then, before Trundle knew what was happening, all four of the adventurers were lifted shoulder high by the cheering creatures and carried in triumph down through the snow and back to the monastery.