In the Lair of the Mountain Beast

by James Moloney

  ‘The moths don’t eat anything, but the caterpillars that hatch out of those eggs — now they’re a different story altogether,’ Ferdinand said.

  The teasing tone was gone and Berrin’s dejection vanished too. ‘So what Malig Tumora said could be true. There might be a moth, or at least a caterpillar, that can destroy the purple flowers.’

  Ferdinand reached up and took his nephew’s hand, drawing him down onto the cushion again. ‘It’s not a question of could or might be, Berrin. There is such an insect. I’ve seen it myself.’

  ‘How could you have seen it?’ cried Dorian in disbelief. She shuffled forward on her cushion until her face was directly in front of his. ‘You’ve been trapped in here for years, and before that you crawled around underground, just like the rest of us. There are no moths in these tunnels.’

  ‘It was before I escaped into the storm-water pipes,’ said Ferdinand.

  Berrin wasn’t as surprised as Dorian by this news. ‘Before Malig Tumora was taken away from the menagerie, he told me other things,’ he said.

  ‘What did he tell you, Berrin? He mentioned my name, didn’t he?’

  ‘Your name!’ Dorian was finding each of Ferdinand’s revelations more astounding than the last. ‘How could Malig Tumora know you by name? You were just another boy in a dormer like the rest of us, weren’t you?’

  ‘No, Dorian, I was special. My older brother was a scientist working for Malig Tumora before he went mad with power and ambition.’

  Dorian knew this already. ‘That brother was Berrin’s father, wasn’t he?’

  Ferdinand nodded. ‘Though I was only ten years old, Malig Tumora saw great promise in me. He showed me things, taught me things, that he wouldn’t share with anyone else. He wanted me to be like him.’

  Dorian gasped. ‘Like him! I don’t believe it.’

  ‘It’s true, Dorian. How else could I have taught you all how to use electricity, how to build the Dodgems and the crossbows? I’ve never told any of the Rats in case you didn’t understand, but I was closer to Malig Tumora than any other human being. That closeness let me see his madness. By the time I guessed at his plans, Berrin’s parents and hundreds of others were already under his control. Rather than rebel, I pretended to share his dreams so I could learn how to defeat him, and that’s how I learned of the moth. Yes, it is real, Berrin, and Malig Tumora was worried that it would ruin his schemes. He invented chemicals to destroy it. It was when I tried to interfere that he realised I was working against him.’

  ‘You had to run away, hide underground,’ Dorian said.

  ‘Yes, and until today, I believed those chemicals had done their job.’

  ‘But they didn’t,’ said Berrin, interrupting with an eagerness that he could barely keep under control. ‘Some of the moths might still be alive, on a mountain called Windenbeck.’

  ‘Yes, but this time I’m afraid the word might is correct. There’s no way to be sure, and, as for this Mount Windenbeck, I’ve never heard of it,’ said Ferdinand.

  ‘But if there’s a chance then we have to search,’ insisted Dorian. She jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll go myself, and you, Berrin, you’ll come with me, won’t you?’

  ‘Of course,’ Berrin replied, already swept up in the exhilaration.

  ‘Then the decision is made,’ said Ferdinand. ‘You’ll have to slip out of the city, find this Mount Windenbeck and search for the moth that will save us. It may be our last hope.’

  Dorian and Berrin returned to the larger pipes the Rats referred to as their base. It was really a series of tunnels connected by smaller pipes. They had brought electrical wires down to the base from the surface, giving them power for the lights and to recharge the batteries for the all-important Dodgems and helmet lamps.

  As they emerged into a well-lit chamber, a voice called to them. ‘When’s lunch?’

  The question came from a boy who sat with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out across the floor.

  ‘You’re always hungry, Aden,’ said Dorian with a hint of exasperation. ‘I’ve told you before, there’s no such thing as lunch down here. We eat when there’s food. I’ve sent Vindy and Ruben to see what they can scrounge and you’ll get your share when they come back.’

  Aden made a face and picked up something from his lap. Berrin saw a tuft of white fur and a tiny inquisitive snout between the boy’s fingers.

  ‘Jasper could find you something to eat, Aden. He never goes hungry.’

  Aden shuddered. ‘You might be turning me into one of your Rats, Berrin, but that doesn’t mean I’ll eat like a real rat.’

  He opened his hands and let Jasper jump to the ground. The rodent quickly scurried across to Berrin, who picked him up and placed him carefully on his shoulder. There weren’t many pleasures down here in the tunnels, but playing with Jasper was one of them.

  Dorian let the scowl slip from her face long enough to tickle the tuft of white hair. Then she was the hard-headed leader again. ‘Come on, Berrin, we’ve got things to do.’

  The pair crossed the chamber, ducked down onto hands and knees and disappeared into another tunnel. Dorian stopped after twenty metres.

  ‘That Aden is a pain in the butt, Berrin. He eats twice as much as anyone else and still moans about how hungry he is.’

  Berrin felt responsible. He was the one who’d brought Aden into the tunnels after they’d escaped together from Malig Tumora’s menagerie. There was more he should tell Dorian about Aden, before the truth became obvious. He couldn’t delay too much longer.

  Dorian started crawling again, but she was still angry. ‘It wouldn’t be so bad if Aden did something useful. He could have gone with Ruben and Vindy to look for food.’

  ‘Better to keep him out of things, Dorian. He hasn’t got much of a clue really.’

  ‘There’s no room for passengers down here,’ Dorian said, as she crawled out of the small pipe and found Olanda waiting for them.

  ‘Quinn’s going to be okay, but he won’t be wrecking any Dodgems for a few weeks,’ the dark-haired girl told them.

  ‘Too bad, we could have used his skill with a crossbow,’ said Dorian. She turned back to Berrin and nodded briefly towards Olanda, hoping the girl wouldn’t see.

  Berrin knew what silent question she was asking. ‘Yes, Olanda is the obvious choice,’ he said.

  ‘For what?’ Olanda demanded.

  ‘For the mission Ferdinand is sending us on.’ And there, in the open chamber, Berrin explained about the moths and Mount Windenbeck.

  Olanda didn’t hesitate. In fact, she was jigging anxiously from one foot to the other before Berrin had finished. ‘Of course I’ll come, but is three enough? What about Ruben?’

  ‘He’s a possibility, I suppose,’ said Dorian, ‘but he’s better at fixing damaged Dodgems than wielding a sword.’

  Before they could discuss any of the other Rats, echoes in the tunnel warned of a visitor. Aden’s head soon appeared out of the end of the narrow pipe.

  ‘Do you lot want something to eat? Vindy just came back with a load of bread.’

  He opened his shirt and took out three bread rolls. He kept one for himself, which meant that Olanda missed out. Berrin broke his own roll in two and passed one half to Olanda. Aden’s constant hunger meant he’d become greedy and this made Berrin despair. They’d spent a lot of time together since escaping the horrors of Malig Tumora’s menagerie. It would have been easier if Aden had made some other friends, but the truth was, Aden didn’t belong in these tunnels.

  ‘Here, take Jasper again,’ said Berrin. ‘Go see if Vindy has any bread to spare for him.’

  Aden left quickly, without realising that Berrin had sent him away so the others could talk. They needed to decide on the fourth member of their team.

  Before Dorian could mention a name, Berrin startled her by saying, ‘I want to take Aden with us.’

  ‘Aden! You’re not serious?’ hissed Olanda. ‘He’s the last one we want. We can’t even trust him with a sword, i
n case he cuts himself to pieces.’

  ‘He’s not as bad as all that. He showed a lot of courage in the menagerie, especially when we looked certain to die.’

  Dorian weighed into the argument. ‘This is a vital mission, Berrin. I agree with Olanda — taking Aden with us is crazy.’

  Two against one. Berrin wouldn’t be able to persuade them unless he told the whole story. The time he had dreaded was here. He sighed and said, ‘There’s a special reason we have to take him. In fact, Aden is special in all sorts of ways.’

  ‘Special?’

  ‘Yes, he’s not a real human being at all, not like us. He’s actually one of Malig Tumora’s experiments. He was created to learn things quickly, but most of all to grow faster than any human has ever done.’

  Dorian’s frown showed how closely she was listening. ‘An experiment. That’s awful.’

  ‘You haven’t heard the worst of it yet. How old do you think Aden is?’

  ‘A bit younger than me maybe. Eleven or twelve.’

  Berrin still couldn’t quite believe what he was about to tell them. But it was true. Malig Tumora had confirmed it. ‘Aden is one year old.’

  Dorian’s gasp could be heard all the way along the tunnel. ‘A year! But he’s as big as me.’

  ‘And he’s getting bigger every day. Can you see now why he eats so much?’

  Despite her dislike for Aden, Olanda was as dismayed as the other two. ‘If he keeps growing like that, he won’t measure down any more.’

  This was a serious matter. When a Rat didn’t measure down, he or she couldn’t fit through the smaller pipes. It was a fate that all of the Rats faced as they grew older.

  ‘He’ll have to go. He’ll have to escape from the city, out to the countryside, like all the other Rats before us,’ said Dorian.

  ‘That’s what I mean,’ Berrin said. ‘And poor Aden won’t stand a chance, not unless he comes with us on this mission. There are grown-ups in the countryside. We’ll find them and ask them to take Aden under their wing.’

  Dorian didn’t like it, but she was respected by the Rats she led because she cared about every one of them. ‘All right, Aden comes with us, but once we’ve found somewhere safe for him beyond the city, he’s got to fend for himself.’

  FOUR

  Beyond the City

  THE NEXT TWO DAYS WERE HECTIC for Berrin and Dorian as they prepared for their vital mission. Ferdinand made a sketch on a piece of cloth showing the moth he remembered. It looked like any other except for a crescent-shaped mark at the lower edge of each wing. Dorian folded the material and slipped it carefully into her pocket for safekeeping.

  They would need as much food as they could gather, of course. But how would they carry it when they needed their hands free? One of the other Rats, a girl named Agatha, came up with a solution.

  ‘I’ll make each of you a special bag to strap onto your back.’

  Berrin tried on the first one Agatha stitched together from old clothes and the twine they used to make their hammocks. It fitted comfortably and still left his sword free to be drawn at a moment’s notice. They called it a ratpack.

  Dorian decided that too many weapons would weigh them down. ‘The best strategy is to avoid trouble, anyway. Olanda, you take care of the crossbow. Berrin and I will make do with our swords.’

  Over the years, the Rats had collected (some would say stolen) a range of other useful things: a length of rope, a sharp knife, a hat that Ferdinand called a baseball cap, wire cutters, plastic bottles. Dorian chose what they would need, and shared it out among the four travellers to carry in their new packs.

  Aden hadn’t looked very happy when Berrin told him that he had to come with them. ‘You’re going to leave me out there! How will I find enough to eat?’ he’d said.

  There he goes, thinking about his stomach again, Berrin had sighed to himself. ‘There will be former Rats living outside the city, kids who have grown up. We’re pretty sure some have survived. They’ll take care of you.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like much of a life, Berrin. And what if there isn’t anyone to help me near this Mount Windenbeck? Where is it, anyway?’

  ‘We don’t know yet. Ferdinand’s never heard of it. We’re hoping the grown-ups in the countryside can tell us.’

  Yet for all his complaints and unhappiness, Aden helped the mission before it had even started.

  ‘How are you going to catch these moths?’ he asked. ‘And once you’ve caught them, how will you carry them back here?’

  Dorian and Berrin glanced at each other in embarrassment. In all their planning, they had not thought to solve this most vital of problems.

  ‘You’ll need a butterfly net,’ Aden told them and, with Agatha’s help, he made one using information he had learned from the observation ball when he was no more than an experiment in Malig Tumora’s menagerie. They made a large sack too, which could be tied at the top with string.

  By the end of the second day, all was ready. The four travellers piled their ratpacks, their weapons and finally themselves into a pair of Dodgems and sped as far towards the outskirts of the city as the system of pipes extended.

  ‘We’ll leave the Dodgems here for the others to collect,’ said Dorian, then led them cautiously up through an access hole and into the moonlit night. There were no dangers in sight. In fact, as they threaded a path through the streets during the hours that followed, they saw no Gadges and not even the Rhino Dogs often used to patrol the suburbs.

  ‘I thought we’d come across some at least,’ said Dorian.

  ‘Malig Tumora must have called them all in to protect the glasshouses.’ Yet even as Berrin gave this explanation, he silently admitted the same surprise. It was all too easy.

  He looked around for Aden, whose eyes betrayed his terror. ‘So far so good,’ Berrin whispered. ‘Once we’re free of the streets and houses, you’ll feel much safer.’

  By sunrise, they had left the city behind altogether.

  ‘It’s so green,’ said Olanda.

  Berrin had been thinking the very same thing only moments before his friend spoke. ‘Yes, green, every kind of green you can imagine. It’s strange, don’t you think. We’ve always known what trees were, we’ve just never seen so many of them at once. And the grass too, long and thick.’ He reached down and, pulling a stem from an overgrown clump, crushed it between his teeth to taste the sweet juiciness of the sap on his tongue.

  ‘You know what this is,’ said Dorian, waving her hand at the open countryside that invited them into its brightening colours. ‘This is how life’s supposed to be. Kids like us shouldn’t have to live in mud and darkness underground. This is our land, not Malig Tumora’s. That sun is for us, not for his Gadges and other monsters.’

  But if their mission was to succeed, they must avoid that sun for a while yet.

  They slept through the day in a well-hidden thicket, then set out again as soon as it was dark. In the distance, a range of hills made a black outline against the stars. The highest hill might even be called a mountain.

  ‘Do you think that’s Mount Windenbeck?’ Olanda asked.

  ‘Could be,’ Berrin replied, though he doubted it. Somehow, he knew this journey would not be over so quickly.

  As dawn approached they climbed the hills, reaching the highest point as the sun opened its eye on the wide lands around them.

  ‘Look at that,’ Dorian breathed in awe.

  They put down their ratpacks and the crossbow and stood beside her on the ridge.

  ‘It’s so far away, yet look how high it is. Now that’s a mountain,’ Berrin said.

  ‘Why is it such an odd shape at the top?’ Olanda asked. ‘I thought all mountains came to a point, you know, a peak. That one looks like a giant has taken a huge bite out of it.’

  ‘The top has been blown off, that’s why,’ said Aden.

  They all turned to stare at him. ‘Blown off!’ Dorian scoffed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. There’s not a power in the world that could blow
away that much rock.’

  ‘Oh yes there is,’ Aden continued in a droning voice that said he didn’t really care whether they believed him. ‘It’s a volcano.’

  With the light strengthening, they looked for a place to wait out the day. In amongst a tight circle of trees, Dorian opened her ratpack and shared out the rations. Aden was first in line. He kept his pack beside him as he ate and Olanda noticed that he was slipping little morsels under the flap.

  ‘What are you up to?’ she said.

  Aden couldn’t hide the guilty look on his face and by now the other two were watching him. The truth was soon revealed when whiskers and a tiny black nose poked out from Aden’s pack.

  ‘Jasper, what are you doing here?’ Berrin cried. He leaned across and took the rat onto the palm of his hand. ‘You stowed away.’

  ‘No, he didn’t,’ snapped Olanda. ‘Aden was feeding him. He knew he was there. He brought him along on purpose.’

  They stared at Aden. ‘You were going to steal Jasper from me!’ Berrin said.

  What could Aden say? A tear pooled in the corner of his eye. ‘I’m sorry, Berrin. I thought, if I’m going to live out here alone …’

  He got up suddenly and walked off into the bushes.

  Berrin was angry but the cold hand of guilt seized his chest. They were planning to leave Aden out here, once they made contact with the grown-ups. Was it really any wonder that Aden was afraid and in need of the comfort Jasper offered?

  ‘Aden, Aden, come back,’ he called, but there was no response.

  Berrin went after him and found the boy sitting against a tree with his head pressed down onto his knees. ‘It’s all right. I understand why you did it. But Jasper’s special to me. I can’t let you have him.’

  Aden remained silent. Didn’t move.

  ‘Look, it will be different when we meet the grown-ups. Remember my parents back in the menagerie? Once the flowers’ smell wore off, they started to become different people.’

  ‘At least you’ve got parents,’ snapped Aden, finding his tongue at last, even if only to spill out his bitterness and anger. ‘I was made out of experimental DNA. I might not even have been born in the normal way. Malig Tumora probably hatched me out of an incubator. What will these grown-ups think of me when they realise what a freak I am?’