Eritopia

A Slice of Luck

'Rescue? That's a laugh. I rescued you.'

''Ow so?'

'You would have died of exposure under that tree.'

'Piffle. If that thug Jano hadn't followed me I would be 'aving an audience with the King now, instead of being stuck in 'ere.'

'In your imagination.'

'Despite your lack of respect.'

'Because of your treachery.'

'Your–'

Beetle saw his son stop and start lifting some of the boxes.

'Make yourself useful and help me with these,' Martin said.

Beetle shuffled over and took a large box from him.

'Put it over there. Hurry!'

They shifted boxes and pallets one by one. Rotten fruit juice oozed through the rough wooden slats.

'That stinks,' said Beetle.

When they'd moved the last box, Beetle brushed off the fruit mashings that had dripped on him. Martin was on his knees. He pulled on a metal ring. With a creak, a hatch opened in the floor. They stared into a dark hole with steps stretching down into it.

'Get that lamp.'

Beetle obeyed and hurried across to the lamp. Concentrating now, with Martin leading the way, they went down. There was a tunnel at the bottom. They could see a light at the far end. They crept towards it.

'Where are we?' Beetle asked.

'You'll see.'

They moved forward. At one stage the lamp flickered. A cool breeze wafted from ahead.

'Is that daylight?'

'Almost,' Martin said.

Moments later they were in another room. It stretched up high and light from two windows flooded the space. Martin put the lamp down.

'I thought I recognised that room back there. We used to bring stuff in here from the carts, for the King's dinner. Flour, water, fruit, potatoes.'

'Dog's breath,' Beetle murmured. 'We've escaped.'

****

Not-Bear and Jod weren't having the same good fortune; their cell was far more secure. It wasn't a former storeroom, and didn't have a concealed hatch in the floor.

'Nothing we can do but wait,' Jod said as he looked around.

'Don't you think this is strange?' asked Not-Bear. 'I thought the King would want to see me straight away, since he was already looking for me.'

'Trying to soften us up,' Jod told him. 'Weaken us. Bend our resolve.'

'And starve us,' said Not-Bear. He was well aware his stomach was empty. 'But we can't let him succeed. We need to find a way out.'

'The only way out is back through that door,' said Jod.

****

'King, King, King.'

It was Spume, Barnabas' Chancellor, who was speaking. Ever since Melos' arrival the Chancellor had been on the fringe of things. Once the King's ears and eyes in and around the city, he now found himself limited to small talk about Palace affairs. He didn't like it.

They sat in a tiny antechamber off the main hall of the Palace.

'Can you not see Melos is a danger to your state? He promises much but delivers little. Meanwhile your army grows restless and the threat from the Inside ever stronger.'

'How do you know that, Spume? Melos has said all along that with the wolf under our control the enemy will not attack.'

'That is what he says, King, but I suspect he thinks differently. Who had heard of this wolf until Melos came?'

'It's in the prophecy.'

'The prophecy doesn't mention a wolf. It doesn't mention animals at all.'

'It implies animals.'

'Then again, the prophecy has been around for generations. Your father knew of it, your father's father, and his before him. The One War was fought because of the prophecy. No one has ever deciphered it.'

Barnabas was thinking. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. 'Melos offers a solution. We cannot wait any longer, the City is dying. This is our last opportunity to wrest back the power we once had. Surely you agree with that, my friend?'

'I agree we need change. Practical solutions though, not fantasy.'

'The prophecy is real.'

'What is real, King, is that an army is gathering on our borders and we are ill prepared to fight it.'

'Melos has been training the troops, organising reinforcements. All the able men and youngsters are ready.'

'So he says. But where is he now?'

'He is around. When the wolf arrived he had him put in the dungeons.'

'Shouldn't you be the one to issue orders?'

'The prophecy has always been here. Maybe it is time.'

'Then you should choose the time, not Melos.'

'What would you have me do?'

'Seize the initiative. Order the prisoners before you. See what the wolf has to say.'

'Without Melos?'

'Yes, without Melos.'

The King started to twitch. 'I don't think I should do that,' he said.

****

In a corridor above the one Not-Bear and Jod found themselves in, Melos was pacing up and down. While Spume tried to convince the King he held command, Melos was facing a dilemma of his own. Truth was, he didn't know how to handle the wolf. That was why he had delayed a conversation with him. He didn't know whether to talk to him, or order his execution. All the while the first words of the prophecy went through his mind:

Two are matched in size and form

Met in a Circle, round like the worm.

He knew one of the two referred to was the wolf. Who then was the other?

He himself had the power to change his form. He had already become a hyena, had captured the wolf in the Forest. Had watched the other hyenas control him. Yet, bound and forced along, the wolf had retained his dignity. He was still young, who knew what powers he might have, powers Melos knew nothing of? Powers he wouldn't know until he discovered his true identity? Was Melos himself destined to fulfil the prophecy?

To kill, or to entreat, that was his dilemma. Melos had been sent to the Outside, but he was his own being, he acted alone.

What action best suited him now?