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At close quarters, Nakal smelled as overpoweringly sweet as the kind of flower that eats flies. Or as if he had drenched his long-haired coat with perfume. Twigleg wanted to hold his nose, but Nakal was holding him so tightly that he couldn’t move a muscle. How could he and Lola have forgotten the proboscis monkey? They had thought of the jackal scorpions, the snakes, the other monkeys… but then again, who could have guessed that Kraa’s adjutant slept under his master’s wing?
Nakal sniffed at Twigleg’s hair as if to find out what it was made of. Twigleg felt like saying he wouldn’t mind knowing that himself, but Nakal’s teeth were too long and sharp, and there was evil in his eyes that could easily rival the evil of his master.
Of course Lola had made her getaway. Twigleg still couldn’t grasp the shameful way she had left him in the lurch. Although he had to admit that even such a bold rat as Lola couldn’t have changed much about the fix he was in. And even if she did come back with help – by then he’d probably be half digested in Kraa’s stomach. What a way to die! Were all homunculi doomed to end their lives in the belly of a monster? If only at least he had landed in the same belly as his brothers. Nonsense, Twigleg! If Nettlebrand had eaten him along with the others, he’d never have met Ben, and his master was far and away the best thing that had happened to him in his whole long life. Was he really never going to see him again?
Above him, the light of the glow-worms broke on Kraa’s sun-feathers, as if they were flames in his tawny yellow of his desert plumage. All for nothing! They had failed! He wouldn’t even be able to console himself by knowing that his death was saving the last Pegasi! ‘Oh, stop it, Humklupuss!’ He could just imagine Lola saying that. ‘Self-pity is the most dangerous way of wasting time when you’re in trouble!’
‘Do you know what I think, Tanunda? I think this is the creature we sold to the poachers!’ Nakal’s expression was as portentous as if he had solved all the mysteries of the world by making this discovery. ‘And if you ask me – the rat looked suspiciously familiar too! Why would the poachers have let those two go free? Right, so the rat certainly wouldn’t fetch a good price. But this – ‘he said, examining Twigleg from all sides as if he were a doll – ‘this is surely a very saleable item!’
How Twigleg would have liked to give the monkey’s enormous nose a good kicking. But then Nakal would surely bite his head off. ‘And that really wouldn’t be a good idea, Humklupuss!’ he could hear Lola saying. ‘After all, your head is the only useful part of your body!’
‘It still looks to me like a jenglot!’ growled Kraa, as he stared down at Twigleg with a disparaging expression. ‘When I last ate one of those, half my feathers fell out!’
Hang on a moment! That information could come in useful, Twigleg told himself.
‘Quite correct, O terrible, all-devouring Kraa!’ he cried. Why did fear always turn his voice to a shrill squeak? ‘I’m definitely a jenglot! In fact, I’m an unusually poisonous jenglot. From… from a distant kingdom where they’re all as pale as me.’
Unfortunately that didn’t seem to impress Kraa very much. He bent down to Twigleg and inspected him at close quarters. Twigleg felt that he would drown in those yellow eyes, the eyes of a bird of prey, like a beetle caught in amber. And
that beak! Even Sorrel would have fitted comfortably into it. Sorrel… suppose Lola was bringing the dragons to his aid? You could never tell with rats; they just loved fighting. No. No, he really hoped that idea hadn’t occurred to Lola. Or did he?
Kraa straightened up. ‘I think I’ll eat it later, Nakal!’ he growled. ‘Shut it up and find out where the scorpions are.’
Hmm, yes, the jackal scorpions. Not one of them had shown up when Nakal’s scream had awoken Kraa. (Twigleg was still surprised that his heart hadn’t stopped at once.) Obviously Barnabas had succeeded in his part of the plan.
Nakal turned with a portentous expression. Holding Twigleg, he strode to the way out of the palace nest. But he didn’t get far.
‘Wait, Nakal!’ Kraa called after him.
Nakal smiled unpleasantly at Twigleg as he turned. ‘Seems like he fancies eating you after all!’ he whispered. ‘I’m sure you’re nice and crunchy, like shellfish.’
But Kraa had something else in mind.
‘Ask the jenglot why he came back!’ he growled. ‘Maybe the poachers let him go so that he could spy on my treasure chamber!’
‘Hear that?’ Nakal shook Twigleg like a rattle. ‘Is that why they sent you back, jenglot?’
‘Yes! Oh yes, exactly!’ stammered Twigleg. ‘Those poachers… they want to steal all your gold, O terrible Kraa!’
‘Really?’
Kraa scratched the back of his eagle’s neck with one of his lion’s paws – and abruptly raised his head.
The cry of a griffin rang through the night.
And a second cry followed it.
‘Jackal scorpions!’ screeched Nakal. His nose was quivering in his face like an over-ripe fruit. ‘Where are those useless creatures?’
Kraa gave vent to a deep, a very deep growl. Coming from a beak, it sounded even more menacing than the roar from a lion’s mouth. His snake-tail writhed in the air, baring its venomous fangs.
‘What’s going on out there, jenglot?’
That gigantic, unspeakably horrible beak came so close to Twigleg that it touched his nose!
‘Nothing, nothing!’ he managed to say. ‘Or rather… no, wait, to be honest that’s not true. The other griffins are in league with the poachers. They’ve been making plans to steal your treasure for a long time. And they… they want to crown Shrii king!’
What luck that he had centuries of practice in telling lies to megalomaniac monsters!
