“Snakes are cold-blooded like I am,” Rumi says. “It probably caught a chill from the water.”
The hoatzin flaps down from the top of the palm to join the fer-de-lance. They enter into conversation, too far away for Gogi to make anything out. Both of them hang their heads low, moving listlessly, in postures of defeat. “We need to find out what they’re saying,” Gogi says, “and we need to find out why they’re willing to betray all of us, what the Ant Queen might have offered them. It could be our best chance of figuring out what we can do to stop all this.”
“On it,” Mez says. She turns invisible, the air shimmering for a moment until even that glistening effect fades. Gogi can make out only the faintest signs of her stealing away toward their enemies, a leaf curling over here, a frog going silent there. Even though he knows Mez is in motion, he can still barely sense her.
“Now we have to wait for her to report back?” Lima says. “That’s too frustrating for words.”
“Say, Lima,” Rumi says. “You’re a bat, and it’s night. You could fly over there without it looking too suspicious.”
Gogi shakes his head. “Stay here, Lima. We only need one of us to eavesdrop, and I’d prefer the rest of us stay together, for safety’s sake. We don’t want to risk your getting noticed. You may be a bat, but you’re not invisible like Mez.”
“I agree,” Chumba says. “You stay here.”
“Okay, fine,” Lima huffs, lowering her head to her folded wings. “You don’t have to be so bossy about it.”
“I’d play whisker taunt with you if we could,” Chumba whispers.
“Thanks, Chum.”
The friends watch the hoatzin and fer-de-lance continue their whispered conversation.
“I really wish that had been Banu or Sorella out there instead,” Lima says, “and not some traitorous poisonous snake and a jungle chicken and—oh, wait, who’s that?”
Gogi leans forward, squinting. More creatures have joined them, four strange beings that look like they’re made of glittery mud. They almost look like branches that have come alive, standing vertically up from the ground, only they’re slowly moving forward. “What in the world are those?” Gogi asks.
“Most strange,” Rumi says. “Is it really possible that the ants are coming together to form larger creatures?”
“No,” Chumba says, her hackles standing straight up. “It’s Mez.”
“What do you mean, those little brown monsters are Mez—oh!” Gogi sees it now. Mez is still invisible. But the ants have begun to swarm her, like they would anything they came across. And the ants are not invisible. Those are Mez’s legs.
“She probably has no idea that this is happening,” Gogi says, dashing to his feet. More and more of the ants are swarming up. He can make out Mez’s underside now, and the broad outlines of her flank.
“If I’m not mistaken, those are army ants,” Rumi warns. “They swarm without stinging, until one of them sends the signal, and then they all sting at once. The combined poison is enough to bring down a buffalo.”
“We have to warn her!” Chumba says, getting to her paws and starting forward.
“On my way,” Lima says, and zooms into the air.
Gogi watches, breathless, as Lima soars into the twilight sky, outlined for a moment against the moon before she floats down toward Mez and the hoatzin and fer-de-lance some forty monkeylengths away. She slows and flutters down from the sky. It’s hard for Gogi to see well in the looming night, but it’s almost as if, as if—
“She’s not going to land on Mez, is she?” Gogi asks, hand over his mouth.
“Oh no,” Chumba moans. “That’s a terrible idea, Lima.”
Lima was never the greatest strategist of the group. She lands right on Mez’s invisible shoulder—or what would have been an invisible shoulder if it didn’t suddenly have a bat sitting on it.
If the bat perched in the middle of thin air wasn’t enough to warn the enemies, then Lima’s words definitely are. Gogi can just make them out. “Mez, watch out, you have ants on you!”
“Oh, Lima,” Rumi says, shaking his head.
“It’s like they always say: Never send a bat to do a panther’s work,” Chumba mutters as she stalks forward, smoothly falling into a sprint as she races toward Mez.
“Do they really always say that?” Gogi grumbles under his breath as he scampers up the nearest tree, running along the tops of branches so he can get a vantage point high above the inevitable fight. He always feels better when he’s up in the canopy. Rumi comes along for the ride, clutching one of Gogi’s ears.
Ant-covered Mez springs into motion, spreading out wide on all fours and shaking mightily from side to side. Plenty of ants remain to cover her, but Gogi hopes that she’s gotten rid of enough of them that if they all bite at once, it will no longer be fatal.
The hoatzin and fer-de-lance, though, have gotten over their surprise. Lima may have called it a “jungle chicken,” but Gogi has heard stories of hoatzin fighting off monitor lizards, and now he can see why: the hoatzin goes after Mez with its slashing beak, harassing the snarling cat, piercing the ground where her tail had just been, Mez dodging just in time to avoid the razor beak cutting through the air.
Mez has clearly decided that invisibility is no use anymore when she’s covered with ants, or maybe she can’t keep up her concentration under the onslaught. Either way, she’s gone fully visible, giving the hoatzin back as hard as it’s giving to her, teeth snapping and claws outstretched as she wheels and strikes.
Meanwhile, the fer-de-lance has worked its way around to Mez’s tail. The snake is thin as a vine and very agile, its bladed head threading easily through the uneven terrain. It will be on Mez’s unprotected backside in a moment.
All the while the ants throng around them, climbing back up Mez as quickly as she can throw them off.
“All right, Mez,” Gogi says under his breath. “I’m coming.” He’s still far away, but he doesn’t have time to get any closer before the fer-de-lance will be in attack position. He raises his hands. Shaking. He takes a deep breath to still them. Then Gogi creates a red flame in one palm and an orange one in the other. There’s a familiar surge along his spine, like there’s pepper juice flowing through his vertebrae. Slowing exhaling, he grows each flame into a tendril, then braids the tendrils, easing them forward. As if using a lasso, he flings the fire out toward Mez and the fer-de-lance. “Come on, come on,” he urges, sweat dripping into his eyes. He’s just not great at maintaining focus like this.
“Gogi, wait!” Rumi cries.
Gogi looks up, his flame wavering along with his concentration. He sees the problem: Lima is harassing the fer-de-lance. Her little fingers and toes can’t do much damage, but by arrowing at its eyes she’s managed to slow its progress. Unfortunately, she’s also gotten herself in the way of Gogi’s attack. He lets the flame drop. “Come on, Lima, come on, take off again,” Gogi whispers.
“My turn!” Rumi says, hopping off Gogi’s shoulder and into the fray.
Chumba arrives. The young panther makes it to the fight just as the hoatzin is bearing down on Mez, hooked beak glinting. Focused on its quarry, the hoatzin is totally unprepared for an attack coming from its flank, and it goes down in a cloud of feathers as Chumba digs her claws in, using her momentum to roll with the bird. They’re soon covered in ants, and now the insects must be biting freely; Chumba makes yips and yells of pain as she comes to a stop beside the now-motionless hoatzin. It’s been knocked out by the attack.
Mez, also shrieking and crying as the ants sting, bounds over to Chumba. Gogi knows from experience that each of the ants has a small amount of toxin, and with each dose the level of poison in the victim’s bloodstream increases—no animal can survive too much of it. They’re running out of time.
The sinewy fer-de-lance keeps an easy pace behind Mez, dodging Lima’s harrying attacks as it maintains striking distance from the panther. Its poison would be instantaneous—one envenomated bite would be the end of Mez. �
��Lima, out of the way! I need to use my fire!” Gogi yells across the distance.
Lima is too focused on her harrying strikes to hear.
Rumi bounces into view. The tree frog ricochets through the midst of the ant horde, a bright yellow speck within their shining red mass. The eclipse magic gave Rumi power over the wind, and he uses it now to send out a powerful stream of air, right at Lima. She shoots straight into the sky, whirling in surprise and then delight, little bat wings flung out wide.
Now Gogi can attack. He readies his braid of flame, keeping his focus on the distant fer-de-lance instead of his fire, so he doesn’t get dazzled by his own magic. Then he extends the line of flame, smoking the air, the searing braided rope gaining speed as it whips toward the viper. The snake rears back, mouth open wide, fangs extended, while Mez, totally vulnerable to its deadly strike, helps her sister to her feet.
A roar starts up between Gogi’s ears. It’s hard to keep his accuracy up over this distance, and the fire is smoking the air over the fer-de-lance’s head. Pointless. Tongue between his gritted teeth, Gogi adjusts his wrists so his hands point the flame lower, lower—there!
He traces a line down the snake’s head, until the fire is aimed right into its open mouth. The snake looks up in surprise, smoke clouding its features, and then drops to the ground, still.
Bitter figs! Gogi thinks. I’ve killed it. He’s never killed anything before. Well, except for a bunch of bugs and a worm, but those were mostly accidents. His concentration lapses, and the fire drops.
Mez whirls, clearly scenting the burning snake, then sees its lifeless body. She looks up and around before she spots Gogi. Then she yelps and starts digging through her fur, trying to bite the ants away. More and more of them are swarming. They’re all over Mez and Chumba, and even the bright yellow speck of Rumi has ants crawling over it.
Gogi shakes the sight of the lifeless viper from his mind as he bounds down the tree, plummeting sheer drops before catching onto a branch with a foot or his tail to swing around, controlling his descent so he lands beside his friends. Immediately he sends smoke up through his fur. Made groggy by the fumes, the ants around him quiet and go motionless.
Still, there are plenty more arriving, and Gogi can’t smoke them all. “Come to my side!” he cries. “We have to get out of here!”
Mez and Chumba limp to him, while Gogi wades them through the sea of smoking ants, toward Rumi. Gogi’s own smoke makes him choke and gag, makes his eyes water. He can only hope he’s kept his bearings, that he’s leading them out of the army of ants and not deeper into it.
He sees a bright yellow shape in front of him, and plucks Rumi up from the swarm. “Are you okay, friend?” he asks.
“Best as I can be under these conditions,” Rumi says, voice trembling and eyes streaming tears. He holds tight to Gogi’s elbow fur. “Ouch. This smoke is so painful on amphibian skin.”
Gogi turns his lope into a sprint. “Sorry about the smoke. We’ll get you out of here as soon as we can.”
He hears Lima’s voice, high above: “Straight ahead, but curve left a little, Gogi!”
Panting heavily, he continues across the ant horde, his scurrying feet and hands crunching insects with every heavy step. The ants start to thin. “Just a little more,” Lima calls, “then a stream cuts through. That should slow the ants for a while.”
Before he realizes it, Gogi is knee-deep in water. Rumi bounds off him and into the stream, making gurgling sighs of relief as he washes the smoke residue off.
“You there, Mez and Chumba?” Gogi calls as he sloshes forward.
“Right with you,” Mez says.
“Ouch, those ant bites hurt!” Chumba says.
Gogi pauses at the far bank and turns around. The line of ants has stopped at the bank. Maybe they’re waiting for further direction—direction that won’t be coming, of course, now that the companions have defeated the fer-de-lance and hoatzin. They’re safe. For now.
Gogi ducks under the water, running his hands over his fur to get any remaining ants off. Mez and Chumba do the same, dragging themselves out at the far bank and shaking the water free. “I’m going to have some really spectacular ant welts,” Mez says. “But with a little of Lima’s help, I’m going to be okay. Thanks to you guys.”
“Sorry I was getting in the way there,” Lima says. “I didn’t realize you could do that pretty flame-rope thing. That was amazing! I just wish you’d warned me first.”
“You weren’t getting in the way,” Gogi says. “You kept Mez alive, going after the viper like that. But yes, we should definitely work on battle strategies ahead of time.”
“I think the hoatzin survived,” Chumba says. “I saw it staggering away while we were fleeing.”
“I can’t look,” Gogi says, covering his eyes with a furry hand. “Is the fer-de-lance . . . ?”
“Dead as a rock,” Lima says.
Gogi shudders. “That’s a first for me.”
“It had to be done,” Chumba says quietly. “You’ll get used to it.”
They huddle at the bank, looking out at the milling ant army on the other side while they catch their breath.
“I don’t know if you were close enough to see, but both the hoatzin and the fer-de-lance had a ring of ants around their head. Like a circlet. All the ants were connected, one to the next, and they walked—into their ears and out,” Mez says.
“I thought that’s what I saw,” Rumi says. “Like the ants were walking into their brains.”
Mez shudders.
“Whatever the reason, it’s terrible what they’re doing to Caldera,” Chumba says. “It will take years for the forest to grow back.”
“If it grows back,” Gogi adds glumly.
“And assuming we can find a way to get rid of the ants at all,” Mez adds.
“Not to rush us,” Rumi says, “but the ants will eventually find a spot where they can cross the river to our side, even without those traitors helping them.”
They steal through the jungle, going far enough that the ants are out of view, and they’re all hidden from sight. Something about the leafy spot is familiar to Gogi, but he can’t quite remember why.
“We need to get going,” Rumi continues. “But where?”
“Did you get any more information from your eavesdropping?” Gogi asks Mez.
She pants for a moment, still catching her breath, then nods. “I was. It’s clear that those two were working as henchmen for the Ant Queen. They didn’t seem at all happy about working for her, but apparently she’s been allowing some animals to serve her in return for their survival, to assist the ant hordes as they make their way across Caldera.”
Lima shakes her head. “Despicable.”
It doesn’t seem as clear to Gogi. If the alternative is being stung to death by ants, or seeing their family die, he can see why animals would go along with the Ant Queen. “So the ants are just headed across Caldera, from east to west, destroying everything in their path?” he prompts Mez.
“You don’t have to make it sound so bleak,” Mez says dryly. “But yes.”
“And if they’ve made it here, they’ve already overrun half of Caldera. It’s hopeless,” Rumi says.
“Not exactly,” Mez says. “Here’s the one useful thing I found out. They kept saying that they were at the ‘target location.’ They’re on a special mission.”
“A special mission?” Rumi asks, still looking dejected but with a new gleam of curiosity to his eyes. “What’s their special mission?”
Mez’s ears droop. She looks from one of her friends to the next, obviously reluctant to say what she’s about to say.
“What is it, Mez?” Gogi says gently. “We can take it.”
“Okay, here goes, then. They’re here to destroy the eclipse-born. To destroy us.”
Twenty-Two Nights Until the Eclipse
LIMA GULPS. “THEY’RE going after . . . us, particularly? Like, not just because we happen to be in the way, but because we’re their target?”<
br />
Mez nods.
“Oh,” Lima says, bat nose wriggling. “That’s not good.”
“Definitely not good,” Chumba adds.
“I think it gets even worse,” Gogi says, fingers tapping on his lips. “How could they know we were going to be here? I mean, it’s not like all the animals across Caldera knew that we were meeting up here.”
“No, just the shadowwalkers,” Mez says, her ears perking as she ponders Gogi’s words. Then her ears go back down, and she bares her teeth. “Does that mean . . . ?”
“It can’t be,” Chumba gasps.
“Afraid so,” Gogi adds.
“Afraid what is so?” Lima asks, little clawed feet dancing in frustration.
“Someone told the traitors what our plans were,” Gogi says.
Lima looks back and forth between her friends. “Yes. I got that part. But what does it mean?”
“It means that one of the shadowwalkers has turned to the Ant Queen’s side,” Mez says.
“Oh,” Lima says. Her face crumples. Then it fills with fire. “How could they? I’ll show them! If I get my wings around them, just wait to see what I do. Why, I’ll—”
“Okay, okay,” Mez says. “Let’s keep thinking about what to do next. The Ant Queen knows about our plan to meet up, but that doesn’t mean she knows anything more than that.”
“That’s because we don’t know any more than that,” Chumba grumbles.
“Yeah, hard to think of that as a positive,” Gogi adds.
“Let’s keep looking forward, that’s all I’m trying to say,” Mez says. “At least we know that none of us gave away our plan to the Ant Queen, right?”
“Right,” Mez says.
“Right,” Chumba says at the same time as Lima. They look at each other, eyes wide in excitement. “Jinx!”
“And I didn’t,” Gogi says. He waits for Rumi to add his voice, but Rumi is staring off into the treetops. He hasn’t been listening.
The Lost Rainforest #2 Page 5
