Kendra Kandlestar and the Crack in Kazah (23 page)

Mud. She opened her eyes and found herself in a mound of thick purple sludge. Heaps of the stuff were piled around them.

“What happened?” Oki asked woozily.

Kendra lifted her hand and looked down at the Kazah stone. The crack was so wide that it looked as if the ring might just crumble apart. “That jump nearly ripped Kazah in two,” she gasped, wiping perspiration from her forehead (she suddenly found it very hot).

Then, through the darkness, there was another sound.
Creeeeak!

“What was that?” Oki asked anxiously. “The ring again?”

Kendra shook her head and listened.

Creeeeack! Craaaack! Creeeeak!

“It sounds more like . . .
oh no,
” Kendra groaned. She began climbing the nearest mound of mud.

“What?” Oki asked, following after her.

Together, they reached the top of the slope, only to have the mud give way beneath their feet so that they slid down the other side. They landed with a plop amidst a cluster of giant, round . . . things.

Kendra gasped. They had arrived right smack in the middle of the Krake hatchery, and at the worst possible moment. Around them, as far as the eye could see, was an endless stretch of enormous eggs—and they were all about to hatch.

MONSTERS ARE BORN DANGEROUS. They’re hungry and vicious and they will rip you limb from limb if you so happen to be in their way. And when it comes to monsters, some say there are none more dangerous than a brood of freshly hatched Krakelings. They might not yet have their venom, but their beaks are still as sharp and jagged as saw blades. Add to this the fact that they hatch in the hundreds, and you can begin to picture the predicament of our heroes.

“It’s . . . it’s . . .
eggoriffic
,” Oki gulped.

“Oki,” Kendra whispered. “Please don’t tell me you were thinking of eggs when we jumped.”

Oki’s only reply was to nervously twitch his tail.

“Let me guess,” Kendra said. “You thought about Krake eggs, and then you thought about them hatching.”

“Well, actually, I was trying
not
to think about them hatching,” Oki said sheepishly.

“You can’t NOT think of something!” Kendra cried.

“I couldn’t help it!” Oki squealed. “Besides, we must have been in the hatchery all along—we were going to end up here no matter what I was thinking about.”

“It’s not the
where
I’m upset about so much as the
when,
” Kendra said. “Krake eggs probably only hatch every couple of years, and here we are at the worst possible moment.” Her frustration was punctuated by a loud shriek from the egg nearest to her.

“And just exactly
when
are we?” Oki fretted. “Did it work? Are we back in our own timeline?”

“I don’t know; I think we’ve got bigger worries right now,” Kendra replied, for now a large piece of the eggshell in front of her splintered away to reveal the beady yellow eye of a baby Krake. It looked ravenous.

Then, to make matters worse, an entire section of the wall behind the egg seemed to shift and move and—to her horror—Kendra realized it was no wall at all, but rather the gargantuan shape of Queen Krake.

The great bird-like beast towered over her eggs like a mountain next to a field of pebbles. She was so large, in fact, that all Kendra could really see of her was her massive head. This was covered in feathery purple fur, except at the top, where three long tendrils snaked upwards like crooked weather vanes. Then there was her beak, lined with serrated teeth and dripping with strings of drool. Worst of all were her eyes. She had one on each side of her head like a chicken, and they gleamed like mirrors.

Kendra could sense an “eek” building in Oki. Quickly, she cupped her hand over his mouth and pulled him back, searching desperately for the shadows.

But the queen didn’t spot them. Indeed, she seemed to have eyes only for her hatching babies. She lowered her giant head and chirped, “Erk erk erk! Mama Krake love little koochi-koos! Mama must go watchee Rumba Pit, but little hatcheez comezee watch after munchee-munchee!”

Then, with a cackle, she lumbered away into the darkness.

“Munchee-munchee?” Oki worried, pulling Kendra’s hand away from his mouth.

“I think she means
dinner,
” Kendra whispered.

“That means owie-owie for us,” Oki said.

“Krakes don’t eat Eens,” Kendra replied.

“Oh, good—I’ll make sure to tell these
hugongous
babies before they gobble us up,” Oki groaned.

“Come on. We better shake a braid.”

She turned in the mud, slipped, and fell. It was then she realized she was still wearing the Kazah stone. It was so fractured and delicate that she knew she needed to take extra care with it. Gently, she slipped it inside her robe.

You just need to last a little longer,
she thought.

“Eek!” Oki suddenly squealed.

Kendra looked up. In an explosion of shell and slimy green yolk a baby Krake burst from the nearest egg, followed by the next, and so on and so on, as if each one was triggering the next like a row of firecrackers. In only a matter of seconds they were surrounded by hundreds of squealing Krakelings. Then, suddenly, they went quiet. Every neck went erect as the creatures lifted their beaks to the air and sniffed.

“They can smell food,” Kendra guessed.

“Us?” Oki gasped.

It was something else; Kendra could smell it too, a disgusting, rotten stench wafting in from behind them. Then, as if on a signal, the Krakelings tore across the chamber in a stampede of claws and snapping beaks.

“We’re in their way!” Kendra screamed.

She desperately waved her wand to raise some sort of shield, but she wasn’t quick enough. They were caught up in the swell of baby Krakes, pushed ahead as if at the front of some dreadful tidal wave. They were bounced and jostled (it was all Kendra could do to hang onto her wand) until at last they found themselves pushed right into some sort of giant trough filled with what one could only describe as slop.

Whatever it was, the Krakelings found it delicious. Their sharp beaks zipped in and out of the trough, pecking for every last morsel. It seemed by miracle alone that Kendra and Oki weren’t torn to shreds. Kendra tucked her wand in her belt, grabbed Oki by the paw, and scrambled frantically towards the corner of the trough, trying to find safety. Down came the beak of another Krakeling—this time Kendra’s cloak caught on one of his jagged teeth, and the next thing she knew, she and Oki were jerked upwards and sent sailing through the air.

They landed right on the backs of a pair of Krakelings.

“EEK!” Oki screamed.

“Hang on,” Kendra told him. “This might be the safest place for us yet.”

She squeezed her knees into her Krakeling and now it seemed the feeding frenzy was over. The babies were on the move again, this time charging through an open doorway and down a dark passageway. The Krakelings they were riding squawked murderously, trying desperately to reach them with their claws and beaks. Kendra and Oki clung on for dear life and the Krakelings, not wanting to be left behind by their brood, had no choice but to keep moving.

Onwards and upwards they went through the network of castle passages. This took considerable time, but eventually they reached a large open gallery. Ahead of them, Kendra could see the metalwork of a giant, dome-shaped cage—and she knew at once where they had arrived.

The Rumble Pit.

Their Krakelings had fallen to the rear of the brood, so just as they reached the top of the arena seating gallery, Kendra and Oki jumped off and let the disgruntled babies rush after their fellow hatchlings.

“Thanks, little snappers,” Kendra muttered.

They could hear the roars and shrieks from the Rumble Pit and Kendra’s mind instantly flooded with a thousand terrifying memories. Desperately, she jerked on a braid.

“Kendra, we have to get out of here,” Oki implored, trembling head to foot.

“F-first, I have to see it,” Kendra said bravely. “If Kazah worked the way we wanted it to, then this should be the rumble we were at last time.”

She crept a few steps forward and found herself at the very top of the arena’s seating gallery. In front of her were rows of spectators—all Krakes—and past them, in the pit, was the terrible battle. But it wasn’t the action in the pit that caught Kendra’s attention—it was what was occurring on the royal balcony, where Queen Krake’s throne stood. For here was a far more tumultuous battle, and one that Kendra knew all too well. Because it was
her
battle.

There, standing right in front of her eyes, was herself. Trooogul—her brother in Unger form—was there too. She watched in stunned fascination as the events unfolded before her. She watched as Trooogul charged amidst a hail of arrows and knocked the Queen’s throne over in a crash of stone. She watched herself find the shard from Greeve lying on the ground and pick it up. She watched as Agent Lurk appeared and a fierce argument raged between Trooogul and Lurk, each of them clamoring to seize that dark piece of stone. Then Queen Krake rose from the wreckage of her throne and began pounding her tail against the pavilion, smashing it to bits.

A sudden realization struck Kendra. She remembered this moment in the Rumble Pit—and so do you, reader, if you were there the first time with Kendra. Something strange had happened, something that had spooked the Krake warriors and caused the queen to disappear. Kendra had never known what it was—until now.

“I’m here for a reason,” she declared. She spun around and looked at Oki. “Stay put.”

“What are you going to do?” he squealed. “Don’t interfere in the timeline again.”

“This time I have to,” she said. “Trust me.”

She bounded down the stairs and through the seating gallery, Krakes marking her progress with squawks of surprise. Then she jumped and landed on the crumbling pavilion, just as the other Kendra was sent sprawling backwards into the seats, surrounded by a swarm of Krakes. Kendra pulled out her wand and now everyone—Queen Krake, the drones, even Trooogul—was staring at her in surprise. Kendra knew they were all wondering the same thing. How could she be in two places at once?

And then, because Kendra knew she could do it—because, from her perspective, she
had already
done it—she performed magic beyond her humble means. Falling to her knees, she cast the words inside her mind and brought her tiny wand against the stone pavilion. There was a loud crack and a blinding flare of light—then the opposite end of the platform split into massive angular slabs. These toppled downwards, smashing through the dome over the Rumble Pit and into the fracas below. With them went the queen. For a desperate moment she clawed and scraped at the side of the pit, but all was in vain. She plunged into the middle of that terrible battle, now no longer a spectator, but one of the many fighting for survival.

The rest of the Krake drones—those surrounding the other Kendra or watching this whole scene unfold—now scattered in a terrified cacophony of shrieks and squawks.

The remaining part of the pavilion was tilting, threatening to follow the other half into the pit. Agent Lurk was nowhere to be found, but Kendra could see Trooogul balancing himself on a chunk of unstable stone. The great Unger was still staring at her with enormous eyes, bewildered beyond all belief.

Kendra didn’t wait for him to react. She knew he would save himself. She leapt back into the seating gallery, near to where her other self was still lying on her back. She didn’t give that Kendra a chance to see her; quickly she bounded up the stairs, back towards Oki. She knew her other self would be confused. She would pull herself to her feet to find the pavilion destroyed, Queen Krake gone, and her drones scattered.

Just as I remember it,
Kendra thought.

Two days later, Kendra and Oki were sitting on a mountain ridge, staring out across the Seas of Ire. They had found their way out of the castle (not without some difficulty) and had wandered across the craggy cliffs until their legs could carry them no further.

Even though she had not stayed to witness it, Kendra knew everything had unfolded in the arena as she remembered. Ratchet’s cloud ship had come with Uncle Griffinskitch to save the peryton—and herself—from death. Now, somewhere out there, the
Big Bang
was flying across the skies, headed for the City on the Storm in search of Trooogul. And eventually it would be attacked by Agent Lurk and his skarm.

That Kendra’s adventure is about to start,
Kendra thought.
Mine is coming to a finish.

“What now?” Oki asked.

“I think we have to go back in time and steal that letter from my mother,” Kendra said.

“Why?” Oki asked. “If we’re in this timeline, doesn’t that mean everything’s all right?”

“Maybe,” Kendra pondered. “Or maybe it’s just like what happened in the Rumble Pit. I saved myself. If I hadn’t, then everything might have turned out differently.”

“So we have to snatch the letter,” Oki said. “It’ll solidify the timeline.”

Just how my hundred-and-twelve-year-old self would put it,
Kendra thought. Then she sat cross-legged on the rocks, closed her eyes, raised her wand, and breathed deeply. Her mind settled, she sent a magic whisper across the wind:

Hear my call, one to reign

In time of need, time of pain

Then wing across wind and rain

Oh, come to me, Aurius Feyn.

“What was that about?” Oki asked after she had opened her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Kendra answered. “Everything is all right.”

“Not exactly,” Oki fretted. “If we’re going to get that letter from your mother, we have to find our way to the Forests of Wretch. And between us and where we need to go there’s an entire sea. How are we going to cross it?”

Kendra saw a small dot appear on the skyline. “Why, that’s simple,” she told Oki with a smile. “We’re going to fly.”