by S. F. Said
One day, Old Buckley came down to the cavern with some cats Varjak didn’t expect to see. Three lean, mean Siamese. The Scratch Sisters, walking tall as ever, knifing towards him through the gloom. Varjak’s heart thudded in his throat. Old Buckley had brought the Scratch Sisters into the safety of the sewers!
‘Varjak,’ gulped Buckley. ‘I ran into them, up on the streets. They got things to say, so I – I brought them down – no choice—’
Varjak stood up to meet them. Elyza and Malisha came first; Pernisha lurked in the shadows behind them. Their eyes were like points of pale green fire in the dimness. Their claws glittered, sharp and deadly. He could hear water dripping, echoing, running underground.
His paws tensed up. Why were they here? Beside him, Omar and Ozzie bristled. Malisha and Pernisha bristled right back. The tension was thick as the stench of sewage.
But Elyza greeted him like they were old friends. ‘Varjak Paw! You’ve become a famous outlaw since we met.’
‘So what?’ said Varjak, keeping his guard up.
‘Respect the Scratch Sisters when we talk to you!’ snapped Malisha.
‘Respect!’ echoed Pernisha, still lurking behind them, out of sight.
‘Don’t tell us what to do,’ growled Omar.
‘Omar and Ozzie,’ said Elyza. ‘What trouble are you two making now?’
‘You want trouble?’ said Omar. His eyes flared dangerously, and big Ozzie stuck out his barrel chest. ‘We’ll give you trouble – no one’s stronger than us!’
‘You might be strong,’ Elyza shot back, ‘but no one’s quicker than the Scratch Sisters. We’ll cut your throats before you can move!’ She flashed her claws at Omar – and then she laughed, and turned back to Varjak. ‘But you can relax, Paw. We didn’t come here to argue. We came to talk about you. Because you’re the cat who fights like Sally Bones.’
Varjak felt ice in his belly. Elyza didn’t know he’d lost the power. No one did. ‘What about it?’ he said, playing for time.
‘Where’s your friend Holly?’ said Elyza. ‘I always respected her. She’s clever and brave – almost good enough to be a Scratch Sister.’
‘She – she’s – Sally Bones’s gang got her.’
‘That’s what we heard,’ said Elyza. ‘So what are you doing about it?’
‘Doing? We’re staying alive—’
‘You’re hiding from the Bones, is what you’re doing! They killed your best friend, and you’re hiding in the sewers like a rat!’
Varjak clenched his paws tight. ‘What else can we do?’ he said. ‘I can’t beat Sally Bones – no one can!’
‘We heard different,’ said Malisha.
‘We heard you got to her,’ said Pernisha.
‘We heard you found some weakness in the Bones,’ said Elyza, ‘and you escaped!’
Varjak looked up. He could see moisture glistening on the ceiling, dripping down the walls, flowing steadily into the stream of sewage. ‘It’s true we escaped,’ he said at last. ‘But I didn’t find any weakness.’
Elyza’s ears flicked forward. ‘No one escapes from Sally Bones! We’ve been searching for her weakness for years, and we never found it! What did you do? How did you beat her?’
‘I didn’t beat her. I tried – and I failed.’
‘That’s not good enough,’ said Elyza. ‘You have to try and try again. You’re the first cat who ever found her weakness – and you’re throwing it away like a coward.’
‘But we’re safe down here,’ said Varjak.
‘Safe?’ spat Elyza. ‘No one’s safe! Me and my Sisters, we came looking for you. We ran into a Bones patrol. We beat them, but see what happened first?’
Varjak looked closer at the Scratch Sisters. Pernisha was still lurking behind the others, in the shadows.
‘Go on, Pernisha,’ said Elyza, sharpening her claws.
‘Don’t want to,’ muttered Pernisha.
‘I said, go on! Show him what they did to you!’
Pernisha Scratch stepped forwards – and the fur on Varjak’s neck prickled, for he realized why she’d been hiding. She only had one ear. The other had been ripped away.
‘Sally Bones has gone too far!’ thundered Elyza. ‘No one does this to a Scratch Sister and gets away with it! She has to be stopped. We’d do it ourselves, only we can’t touch her. We’re the fastest claws in town, but she – she’s the only one who knows that secret way of fighting.’ She looked at Varjak, eyes gleaming like fire. ‘But you can do it, Paw. You can beat Sally Bones. You’re the only one!’
‘Beat her!’ said Malisha.
‘Take her down!’ said Pernisha. ‘Do it for Holly!’
The anger in Varjak’s heart blazed up. Do it for Holly. For a moment, he almost believed he could. They were that convincing.
But they were wrong.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I wish I could. But I can’t fight her. I’m through with fighting.’
Tam spoke up. ‘I was there in the yard too, when we escaped from Sally Bones,’ she said. ‘Whatever you did to her, Varjak, it wasn’t about fighting. It was something else. It happened when she was looking into your eyes.’
‘That’s true,’ said Jess. ‘And you’d do it again, if you saw her – course you would!’
‘But I don’t even know what I did!’ he protested.
‘Anyway, it’s not so easy,’ said Omar. ‘How would he get close enough to try?’
‘You have to go to her place,’ said Elyza. ‘You have to go right up to that graveyard where she lives. It won’t be easy. A cat can’t do it alone. So you, Omar, and your brother Ozzie, and your friends – you have to help Varjak get there.’
‘There aren’t enough of us,’ said Omar. ‘Not for something like that.’
‘That’s why we’re coming with you,’ said Elyza. ‘We know how dangerous it is. Those who go to Sally Bones’s territory don’t come back. But they ripped my sister’s ear off. They disrespected us all. And for that, they will pay. We will fight to our last breath – because Scratch Sisters never, ever back down.’
Omar’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’d fight on our side? No tricks?’
‘For a chance of vengeance,’ whispered Pernisha, ‘we would fight beside you, all the way.’
Omar nodded slowly, taking it in. ‘That might be enough. It’ll be hard – but we’ll do our best, Varjak. We’ll get you right up to Sally Bones, to give you the chance to face her again. Because what she’s doing isn’t right. And you might not be sure of yourself – but it’s the only hope we’ve got.’
‘Yup,’ said big Ozzie stoutly. ‘Count me in.’
Varjak was torn. They were brave, and so were the Scratch Sisters. But Sally Bones – her ice-blue eye burning into his brain – to face her again, on her own territory . . .
‘You’re mad!’ cried Old Buckley. ‘There’s patrols all along the borders of Sally Bones’s territory – you’ll never get past them!’
‘We don’t have to,’ said big Ozzie. ‘The sewers come out deep inside her territory. We can get past the border without them even knowing.’
Omar’s eyes widened. He flexed his powerful paws. ‘Let’s do it! Let’s go now!’
Varjak turned to Tam and Jess, half hoping they’d put a stop to this, half hoping they wouldn’t.
Tam coughed. ‘Old Buckley’s right,’ she began. ‘This is mad. It’s stupid. I don’t like it; it scares me stiff. But remember when we were hiding in the crate, Varjak? Remember the things Holly said then? Well, if you’re going, I – I guess I’m coming with you. Because it’s just the kind of mad, stupid plan Holly would dream up – and she’d never let you go alone!’
Everyone stared at Tam.
Then Omar laughed: a rich, warm laugh that echoed round the sewers, easing the tension. ‘So it’s true!’ he said. ‘You really are fearless, Tam!’
‘And I’m coming too,’ said Jess. ‘Because my grandma, she believed in a free city for Free Cats. She believed Varjak was the one to make it happen. And she
– she died, so we’d have a chance to do this. You know she did, and Holly did too . . .’
That was it. In his mind, Varjak saw again that terrible moment when Holly fell into the void, as he screamed her name, over and over and over again.
‘All right,’ he said. It was like someone else was talking, someone braver and stronger than him. ‘I’ll do it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do – but get me to Sally Bones again, and I swear: I will do my best to beat her.’
Chapter Twenty-three
THEY SET OFF without further discussion, leaving Old Buckley and the Free Cats behind. Varjak looked at Tam and Jess, Omar and Ozzie, and the Scratch Sisters as they walked. He had only seven allies, against the whole of Sally Bones’s gang. It wasn’t much – but he was glad to have them.
They made their way in silence through the sewers, along dark tunnels, and up to the point where Varjak, Ozzie and Jess had been before – the point of no return. He stood on the edge of the platform, looking down into the stream of sewage. He could hear it roaring past; he could smell it, in all its stinking wetness. A series of steps led back into the churning brown froth.
‘Here we go again,’ he said. He held his breath and padded down the steps, into the sewage. He felt it slop up his paws, his legs, his belly –
‘Ugh!’ spat Malisha Scratch, behind him. ‘This is disgusting!’
‘Revolting!’ said Pernisha.
‘And dangerous!’ said Elyza. ‘Why’s the current so strong, Paw?’
She was right. The stream felt much swifter here than at the entrance to the sewers. And the level was rising. The sound of the flow was getting louder: a rushing, crushing, whooshing sound that filled Varjak’s ears and would have made his fur prickle, if it hadn’t been plastered down with slime.
‘I don’t like this,’ said Tam. ‘I’m scared!’
‘It’s all right,’ said Varjak, trying to give her courage. ‘We can’t be far from the river. It won’t be long.’
He kept going, and they followed him; but there seemed to be no end to it. The level was rising, rising all the time. The sewage was up around his neck, and it wasn’t just sticky slop any more. It was a hard, fast current that pressed against him like a force of nature. He was in deeper than ever, and it was all he could do to keep upright.
Without warning, the ground beneath his paws gave way. There was no ground any more. He was in free-fall, suspended in the stream, and it was the stream that was moving him along: he was out of control. He kicked with his back legs, trying to steer himself away from the tunnel walls, for if he hit them at this speed, it would knock him out. But even his strongest kick was nothing to the force of the flow.
The tunnel curved round suddenly, in a violent bend, and Varjak felt his insides come loose.
‘Watch out!’ he yelled; but his mouth filled with sewage the instant he opened it. The stream sloshed over his nose, his eyes, his ears.
It was a torrent now, and Varjak was lost in it. He was at its mercy – him and all his friends. He heard Tam scream behind him. Saw Ozzie, the strongest of them, swept up ahead of him, head over paws. The sewage turned him upside down. Varjak gulped a breath of air. He kicked and clawed, panic rising, rising.
They hit another bend, and were swept round a corner at terrifying speed. As he rounded it, Varjak saw an arc of light, curving crescent-shaped above him, like the moon.
It was the mouth of the sewer. The exit. The end. He was flung through it with tremendous force: hurled bodily out of the sewers, and finally into the river.
The water felt hard as concrete as he hit it. Stunned, gasping for breath, he kicked out with all his force – but the water here was shallow. His paws touched down easily on the river bed. He stood up. He was shaking all over; he was battered and bruised – but he was safe.
Behind him, a torrent of sewage frothed into the river, shooting out a stream of soaking wet cats. Varjak saw them spat out, bewildered, from the darkness into daylight.
He blinked. It was daytime. The light hurt his eyes. The winter wind whipped into his face. But he grinned. They’d made it. This is it, he thought. I’m back in my city!
He looked around. He wasn’t far from the riverbank where he’d once fought Luger and the rest. High above, he could see the railway bridge. Further down river was a road bridge. On the opposite bank, he could see those great glass towers, reaching up to the sky. In among them, the smoke-dark tower of the graveyard. Sally Bones’s place.
One by one, Varjak and the others hauled themselves out of the river and onto the muddy bank. They were deep behind enemy lines. They were in Sally Bones’s territory, and Sally Bones knew nothing of it.
Varjak shook the water and sewage from his fur. It was freezing cold. His paws were numb. Snow lay thick on the ground. It was tight-packed, as if it had lain there for days and it might never be warm enough to melt. He kept looking over to the other side of the river, to that single, solitary tower of darkness. It was as if it was beckoning to him. Sally Bones’s place.
‘I can’t swim this river,’ said Tam, teeth chattering. ‘I can’t swim at all.’ She looked like a drowned rat. ‘Let’s go back, we’re never going to make it.’
‘I can’t swim either,’ said Omar. ‘But we don’t have to. We’ll cross the bridge—’
‘Which bridge?’ said Elyza Scratch, shaking out great showers of liquid. ‘We’ll never make it over the road bridge, it’ll be too heavily guarded. The railway bridge won’t be – but only because no cat in their right mind tries to cross a railway bridge.’
Omar grinned, and his eyes flashed. ‘Who said we were in our right minds? We’re going to Sally Bones’s place! What’s a little railway bridge, compared to that?’
No one spoke for a moment. Then Varjak nodded. ‘Good point,’ he said.
Elyza Scratch glared at the Twins. ‘You’ve got more muscles than brains, Omar. You always were a trouble-maker. Never had any respect.’
‘Respect,’ said Omar, ‘is something you have to earn.’
‘Is that a challenge?’ Elyza and her Sisters unsheathed their deadly claws. The Twins stuck out their big, strong chests. The two groups faced each other, neither backing down, as the wind lashed the water, making it churn and seethe even more.
‘What’s wrong with you all?’ said Varjak. ‘We’ve got enough to worry about without fighting each other! Now come on.’
Neither group backed down – but they looked away from each other, and followed him. The confrontation was over. For now.
Chapter Twenty-four
VARJAK AND HIS allies padded up the riverbank, dripping wet. They climbed onto the pavement. The sky was darkening. It looked empty and hollow. There was no sun up there. No moon. No stars.
Before them now was a huge main road. On the other side of the road loomed the railway bridge. Around it, there were black iron street lamps, with monstrous carvings of fish coiled round them.
‘Nice,’ said Tam, shivering. ‘Ah-ah-atchooo!’ She sneezed. ‘This is miserable – we’re filthy and soaking and I’m scared! I want to go back! I wish Cludge was here . . .’
‘Don’t worry, Fearless Tam,’ said Omar.
‘Stop calling me that! I never was fearless! I don’t even like crossing roads this big!’
Cars, buses and trucks roared past in continuous flow. Their headlights were blinding, their exhaust fumes choking. There were no gaps in the traffic. The road was too dangerous to cross; but there was an underpass running beneath it to the other side. Varjak headed down there. The others followed.
The underpass was full of rusty metal bins. It was lit only by a red strip light on the ceiling. There were puddles on the ground, giving off sharp, acrid odours. The red light buzzed with electric tension as they entered; and Varjak’s heart skipped a beat, for at the other end of the underpass, there was a patrol from Sally Bones’s gang.
Oh no, he thought. Not already.
Varjak and his friends took cover behind a bank of bins. From there, he
watched the Bones patrol. There were five of them: big, battle-scarred cats, gathered around something at the far end, taking turns to kick it. It looked like a bloody heap of bones and fur; something barely alive.
But then its scent reached him: the ghostly scent of a cat with no ears or tail. It raised its head and hissed at the Bones patrol, the desperate hiss of a cat with nowhere left to go.
‘Don’t you hiss at us!’ they spat, as they hit it again. ‘You’re nothing any more! You’re not even a cat!’
‘I – I was your captain. You can’t do this!’ croaked the cat. Varjak’s fur prickled, for he knew that voice. It was Razor. The tiger-striped tomcat had been beaten beyond endurance; his ears and tail had been ripped off; but it was Razor, and he was in terrible trouble.
‘We can do anything we like to you, Razor,’ said the patrol leader. ‘You’re not in our gang any more.’
‘I’d rather be in Varjak Paw’s gang!’ groaned Razor, as their claws cut him. ‘At least he never slashed me – not like her!’
‘We’ll get that outlaw in the end,’ said the leader. ‘And he’ll look just as pretty as you, when the Boss gets through with him.’
They all laughed. In his hiding place, Varjak’s scalp prickled. He was feeling something he never thought he’d feel. He felt sorry for Razor. The big cat had been so cocky, so sure of himself. Now all his pride and power was stripped from him. Cowering in the rubbish, without his ears and tail, Razor looked pitifully naked. He was still hissing, trying to fend them off with the last of his strength, but he didn’t stand a chance – unless someone stepped in to help.
‘That cat needs back-up!’ whispered Varjak.
‘No!’ shivered Tam. ‘Don’t do it.’
‘Why not? There’s five of them, but there’s more of us.’
‘Maybe, but this is only the beginning.’ Tam bit her paws and frowned. ‘We’re never going to make it to Sally Bones’s place at this rate – there aren’t enough of us.’
Varjak shook his head. ‘Razor needs help.’ As the patrol closed in to finish Razor off, Varjak readied himself for action.
