A flicker of courage, p.14
A Flicker of Courage, page 14
An acorn hits Henry’s foot.
“Good morning, children,” Mr. Reese the squirrel says.
Imagine the worst thing you could ever wake up to in the whole world, and then imagine something even worse yet.
It’s over.
They’ve been found.
CHAPTER 32
The Untrustworthy Mr. Reese
Except . . . Maybe it’s not over.
“Wait,” Pirate Girl says. “You’re talking.”
“Of course I’m talking,” Mr. Reese says.
“What about chee chee chee?” Apollo asks. He’s quite skilled at squirrel impersonation on top of everything else.
“That’s what squirrels say. I, however, am a man.”
“Where’s Needleman?” Pirate Girl asks. “Is he right behind you, coming any second?”
“Of course not. He’s snug in his narrow little bed. I came out here to find you on my own.”
“Why?” Apollo says. “So you can tell Needleman you found us? Or report back to Vlad Luxor?”
“Good gracious, no! I don’t want either of them finding you! I’m here to guide you down the mountain! Do you know how much danger you’re in?”
“Of course we know how much danger we’re in!” Pirate Girl snaps. “Do you think we slept in a forest to enjoy the majesties of nature?”
“Why are you really here?” Apollo asks. “What do you want from us?”
“What do I want? I can’t believe I have to spell this out to spell breakers!” Mr. Reese sits on his creepy squirrel haunches. “I want you to get off this mountain. I want you to stay away from Needleman so that you can break spells and eventually defeat Vlad Luxor.”
“No one can defeat Vlad Luxor!” Apollo says.
“It is possible.”
“How?” Henry asks.
“I don’t know how! I assume it has something to do with goodness and bravery. Goodness is always the biggest threat to evil. But don’t ask me. Ask your grandfather! He not only broke spells, he also defeated Avar Slaven,” Mr. Reese says.
“He did?” Henry feels a swell of pride.
“He did. And before him, there were the spell breakers who conquered Dread Quill, and Cad Devon, and Gradion Fortrex—”
“If we’re able to defeat him, does this mean we have nothing to fear from Vlad Luxor?” Jo asks.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You have plenty to fear! He may zap you for a regular offense that annoys him, even if he doesn’t find out who you are. And if he does find out who you are? Well, first Needleman will be swiftly dealt with, and then each of you will. Poof, poof, poof, poof, and POOF. No one will be left to undo anything. Your best chance is to get out of here immediately and to make sure you never find yourselves alone with Needleman again. Gather your things and let’s get going.”
“You’re going to guide us down the mountain,” Jo says. She doesn’t sound too sure.
“I am.”
“It’s a trap,” Apollo says. “I know a trap when I hear one.”
“Trap.” Rocco’s muffled voice comes from the inside of Henry’s shirt.
“Why would you help us?” Pirate Girl says. “Out of the goodness of your revolting and disgusting little rodent heart?”
Revolting and Disgusting Little Rodent Heart, Fig. 1 and 2
“Of course not!” Mr. Reese says. “I was Vlad Luxor’s left-hand man! You shouldn’t even trust me! I have very little goodness in my heart. I am only helping you so that you can help me. You are the only ones who can turn me from a squirrel back into a man.”
“That’s right. We are,” Pirate Girl says, as if there were a hundred other things she’d rather turn him into.
“As soon as you find out how, you’re going to return me to the handsome, intelligent, quick-witted, agile, athletic, and bushy-haired gent I was. Unless you’d rather that I scurry off right now and tell Needleman that I found you . . .”
“We’ll do it, Mr. Reese!” Henry says.
“Good. Now, will you all please hurry it up? Be quick like little squirrels.” Mr. Reese claps his creepy little hands. “Chee chee chee.”
CHAPTER 33
The Nasty Surprise in the Center of the Road
As the sun rises in the sky, the forest leaves turn a yellowish pink and then a lush green, and the boughs of the trees glisten and twinkle with morning dew. Henry feels in his pocket to make sure his rock is still there as Mr. Reese leads them down the bank of the creek. They step across fallen logs and leap from boulder to boulder so as not to get their shoes wet. They follow the curves and bends of the flowing water, which catches the morning rays and makes the river a sea of diamonds. They stop only to get a drink. Button gulps for a good, long time. The water is cold and delicious. It feels like drinking the just-melted ice from the grand peaks of the world’s tallest mountain, somewhere in the Jaggeds.
Rocco rides on the back of Button. Apollo’s cheekbones are high, and he’s handsome even at this early hour, and Henry swears Apollo’s shoulders have broadened overnight. Jo keeps up with Mr. Reese, eager to get home to let her mother know she’s safe. Pirate Girl stays with Henry, bringing up the rear. She looks like something is worrying her.
The World’s Tallest Mountain, Somewhere in the Jaggeds
“Rocco—” she finally says.
Henry has the same worry. “I know.”
“He hasn’t hidden in plain sight of Vlad Luxor yet,” she says.
“How can we be spell breakers if he’s still a naked lizard?”
“I have no idea, Henry.” Pirate Girl shakes her head. It’s good to have a friend to share your troubles with.
In spite of their concerns, Henry can tell that they’re getting closer to the ground. The slope levels, and even his surroundings begin to look familiar. In the far-off distance, he recognizes a certain hill of their town. He’d know that hill anywhere. Henry always thought it resembled the side view of a buffalo.
And then, Mr. Reese stops.
“Wait here,” he says. “We’re approaching the iron wall and the gate. Vlad’s men are lazy and they sleep late, but let me make sure the coast is clear. When I give the signal, go! Run! Head back to your houses. And back to your grandfather, Henry Every, so the lot of you can learn how to return me to manhood.”
The Side View of a Buffalo
They hide in a thick patch of trees near the road, standing close enough together that Henry can almost hear their hearts beating. Or maybe that’s just his own, thumping away in his chest with the deepest hope that this horrible mountain will soon be behind them.
“I’m scared,” Jo says.
“We’re almost home,” Pirate Girl tells her.
In a moment, Mr. Reese returns, waving his little arms.
“All right. Now,” Jo says.
They run. Henry’s thin legs pump hard. Button flies as Rocco holds tight to her collar. Pirate Girl’s pockets clang and bang with the last of her stuff. The gate is up ahead. It seems so long ago that they first passed through it. They just need to get to the other side, and then through the Y and the meadow, and back into town.
Mr. Reese is gesturing madly.
But then, he does something strange. Just before they reach the gates, Mr. Reese veers off the path and scurries frantically up a cypress, as if he’s avoiding an oncoming truck.
It is not an oncoming truck.
It’s Vlad Luxor, standing right in the center of the road.
CHAPTER 34
Two Most Unfortunate Misunderstandings
Chee chee chee,” Mr. Reese says from the tree branch above them. “CHEE CHEE CHEE!”
“You traitor!” Pirate Girl hisses.
“I’m not a traitor,” Mr. Reese hiss-whispers back. “I am plenty of other things, but not that! You were supposed to wait for the signal!”
“Wasn’t that the signal?” Apollo says.
“Of course that wasn’t the signal! Do you think that would be the signal when YOU KNOW WHO is right there?”
“Oh no,” Jo says. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.”
“What is he doing?” Apollo asks.
It is strange. Vlad Luxor is walking back and forth, back and forth, across the road in front of the open gate. He seems to be looking for something and speaking to someone.
He’s clad in only his boxers, which are lime green and decorated with many little images of Vlad. On his feet, he is wearing a pair of lovely slippers made out of yarn.
Lovely Slippers Made Out of Yarn
While it’s true that Vlad looks a little silly, with his white flesh and his large tummy and his mouth turned down in a pout, there is nothing silly, nothing funny at all, about the horrific damage he’s done and the hurt he’s caused. And the additional damage he can do right this minute. Henry gets that same curling feeling of fear and disgust. Once again, he is suddenly cold. So cold that the chill seems to sink into the farthest reaches of his body. Apollo whimpers. Pirate Girl rubs her arms and shivers as if it’s winter.
“Good MORNING,” Vlad Luxor says. “GOOD morning. Good mooorning. Gooood morning!”
He’s practicing, Henry realizes. Talking to an imaginary audience. And then Henry realizes something else. Pirate Girl meets his eyes, because she does, too.
“Rocco,” they both whisper in Button’s direction, where Rocco sits on the dog’s back.
“Now is your chance, Rocco,” Henry whispers. “Now is really your chance. Be very good and very quiet and hide in plain sight. All we have to do is walk respectfully by. Can you do this?”
Rocco’s small green head nods.
Jo’s hand slips into Apollo’s. Pirate Girl takes Henry’s. Henry’s head begins to throb. His stomach has knotted up like the worst tangle of Christmas lights.
The Worst Tangle of Christmas Lights
As the children step forward, Henry feels the sparks of panic all the way to his fingers and toes. They walk humbly and politely to the other side of the gate, their side, where Vlad Luxor paces. At least they’re past those horrible looming doors of iron leaves and vines.
“Where is my newspaper?” Vlad Luxor says to them.
“Newspaper, sir?” Henry thinks maybe it’s best if he speaks. He’s the one who’s most used to talking to large and frightening people.
“Newspaper! That heavy, folded lump of lies printed on pulp! It is going to have lots of words and pictures about my parade and fair of yesterday.”
“I don’t know, sir. I’ve never seen one of those before.”
“Hmph,” he says. “Maybe I got rid of them.”
Vlad looks at Henry. And then he looks at the other children. “Who are you happy little ones? You look familiar to me. Do you look familiar to me?”
“We were at your wonderful fair yesterday. And your astonishing parade,” Henry says.
“Yes?” Vlad beams. His white skin quivers like raw chicken.
“It was incredible,” Henry says. “And glorious. And magnificent.” He’s trying to think of all the biggest and best words.
“It was the best day of your life, I’m certain,” Vlad Luxor says.
“Oh, definitely.” Please don’t notice Button, Henry silently begs. Please don’t notice Rocco.
“And who is this very small unshaven man?” Vlad Luxor asks.
“That’s Button, my dog,” Henry says.
Pirate Girl makes that terrible, terrible ckkk sound in her throat. Henry knows it’s a nervous laugh, but still! He shoots her a warning look. If she cracks up with uncontrollable hilarity now, it’s over for all of them.
“He’s an awfully silent small unshaven man,” Vlad Luxor says. “How rude.”
“He’s just too awed by your presence to speak, sir. I’m barely able to do it myself,” Henry says.
“What is that spot?” Vlad Luxor says. “I believe there’s something crawling on the furry man! Uck! Horror of horrors! It’s a blechy little reptile!”
It’s over. It’s really, really over. Vlad Luxor is staring straight at Rocco. Now he leans down to look right into Rocco’s tiny face.
And that’s when the worst of all the worst things happens.
Rocco’s tongue slips out of his mouth.
“Did you see that?” Vlad says in shock.
Of course Henry saw that! “I’m not sure what you mean, sir.”
“He stuck his tongue out at me.”
Apollo drops Jo’s hand and steps forward. “It wasn’t a sign of disrespect, sir,” he butts in nervously. “He’s a lizard. Lizards use their tongues to smell things. They catch scent particles all along here—” Apollo sticks out his own tongue and points to its sides.
“HE STUCK OUT HIS TONGUE, TOO!” Vlad booms. “I will not tolerate PEOPLE MAKING FUN OF ME! I will not stand for LITTLE BRATS TRYING TO GET ATTENTION!”
Henry flinches at the shrill fury in Vlad Luxor’s voice. His shoulders hunch in self-protection, same as when his father explodes in rage, and he turns away and shuts his eyes hard in fear.
And when Henry finally opens them again and sees what he sees, he feels like his life is over.
Next to Button and Rocco, where Apollo had been standing, there is a second naked lizard.
CHAPTER 35
What Happens Next
That’ll teach you, you nasty child,” Vlad Luxor says. He steps to the other side of the gate and flings it shut, where it rattles with an enormous and final banging clang. He shuffles back up the road in his slippers. A sob escapes Jo’s throat. Henry looks and sees tears streaming down her lovely face.
“This is awful,” Pirate Girl says. “Awful, awful, awful! This situation cannot get worse.”
“And Rocco was doing such a terrific job, too,” Jo cries. “And Apollo was only trying to explain!”
“When the lizard puts his tongue back in,” Apollo says in the tiniest naked lizard voice, “it hits the roof of his mouth, where there is an organ that acts essentially like a nose—Wait. My hands. My legs. You are all suddenly so very tall.”
“Oh, Apollo,” Henry cries.
“You children!” Mr. Reese shouts from the tree. Henry had forgotten all about him. “Get out of here! Hurry, before Needleman arrives and finishes off the rest of you! Don’t stand here crying like a bunch of weenies!”
A Bunch of Weenies
“He’s right,” Pirate Girl says. “We’ve got to go.”
“I am so sorry, Henry!” tiny Apollo says. “Vlad Luxor turned Button into a GIANT DOG!”
“Poor Apollo,” Jo says.
“Stop whining and GET A MOVE ON,” Mr. Reese yells.
Henry scoops up Apollo and sets him next to his brother. “Come on,” he says. “We have to hurry.”
Button takes off, and the children run and run, too, until Henry doesn’t think he can run anymore. He is so, so tired. He has never been so tired in all his life, and may never be as tired again. He sees the Y up ahead. The familiar Y, where one road leads down to the sea, one up the mountain, and the other into town. He sees their bikes. It feels like it’s been months and months since they saw them last.
They shouldn’t stop. Needleman could be anywhere. He could be coming down the mountain right now, his pointed nose sniffing them out, the men with their scary faces and mutton-chop sideburns at his heels. But they are so exhausted and so defeated that nothing seems to matter. Henry drops to the grass. Jo drops next to him, and then Pirate Girl does, and so does Button. Through Huge Meadow, in the distance, Henry can see the little lights of their town coming on, meaning that everyone is rising, meaning that it’s a new day.
He wants to cry. He has failed so badly. Instead of returning to town with a naked lizard who’s been turned back into a boy, he will be returning with two boys who’ve become naked lizards. He can only imagine the sorrow of Apollo’s kind mother and good father. He can only imagine the silence that will come from their house in the evenings, when there used to be laughter.
“Wait,” Apollo says. “Vlad Luxor has made all of you enormous, too.”
“Apollo . . . ,” Jo begins, but she can’t bear to finish.
“Oh no,” Apollo says. He flicks his tongue out. “Oh no. I do believe I just smelled a dandelion with the roof of my mouth. No. No, no, no, no, NO!” Apollo begins to cry. Tears fall from the globes of his reptile eyes and down his green triangle face.
And then, Rocco begins to cry. They are clutching each other and sobbing, two brothers, two naked lizards, and it is the saddest sight you could ever see in your life.
“Bad,” Rocco cries. “I’m a bad, bad boy.”
Oh, it’s awful. It makes Henry feel so terrible that he puts his hand in his pocket for the most beautiful rock in the world. He holds it in his palm. Everything seems lost. If he ever needed a reminder that everything is never lost, it’s now.
“No, Rocco,” Pirate Girl says. “No you’re not.”
“No you’re not, Rocco,” Jo says, too.
“Bad boy,” he cries.
To see Rocco like that . . . Henry has no words for it. It crushes him. He’s felt this same way himself before—small and ashamed. Like this is all his fault, when it’s really only Vlad Luxor’s fault. He knows how much it hurts. And he thinks, too, about why Rocco has been trying so hard to get attention lately. It’s maybe even understandable.
