Arizona when he d slipped off a trail and slid down an incline, straight into
a rattlesnake nest. When the dust had cleared, he d realized he was lying
next to a six-foot-long snake. The creature had raised its wedge-shaped head
and stared at him with coal black eyes for what was probably no more than a
second though it felt like a lifetime before Josh had managed to scramble
out, too terrified and breathless even to scream. He d never been able to
work out why the snake hadn't attacked him, though his father told him that
rattlesnakes were actually shy and that it had probably just eaten. He d had
nightmares about the incident for weeks afterward, and after every one he
would wake up with that smell of serpent musk in his nostrils.
He was smelling it now.
And it was getting stronger.
Josh started backing up the steps. There was a sudden scrabbling sound, like
a squirrel running up the side of a tree. Then, directly in front of him, on
the other side of the small courtyard, claws, each one the length of his
hand, appeared over the top of the nine-foot-high wall. They moved around
slowly, almost delicately, questing for a hold, and then abruptly gripped
hard enough for the talons to bite deep into the old bricks. Josh froze, all
the breath leaving his body in one shocked exhalation.
The arms that followed were covered in thick knobbled hide and then the head
of a monster appeared over the wall. It was long and slablike, with two
rounded nostrils on the end of a blunt snout directly over its mouth and
solid black eyes sunk deep behind circular depressions on either side of its
skull. Unable to move, unable to breathe, his heart hammering so hard it was
physically shaking his body, Josh watched the huge head swivel lazily from
side to side, an immensely long, ghastly white forked tongue flickering in
the air. It froze, then slowly, very slowly, shifted its head and looked down
at Josh. The merest tip of its tongue tasted the air and then it opened its
mouth wide impossibly wide, enough to swallow him whole and the boy saw a
mouthful of teeth: sharp, ragged curved daggers.
Josh wanted to turn and run screaming, but he couldn't. There was something
mesmerizing about the appalling creature clambering over the wall. All his
life he d been fascinated by dinosaurs: he d collected fossils, eggs, bones
and teeth even dinosaur coprolites. And now he was looking at a living
dinosaur. There was even a part of his brain that identified the creature or
at least, what it resembled. It was a Komodo dragon. They didn't grow much
longer than ten feet in the wild, but he could already see that this creature
was at least three times that.
Stone cracked. An old brick exploded into dust, and then a second, a third.
Then there was a crunching, snapping, ripping sound, and almost in slow
motion Josh watched as the wall, with the creature draped over the top,
swayed, then crashed to the ground. The metal door buckled in two, popped off
its hinges and shattered against the water fountain, tearing a huge chunk out
of the basin. The monster smashed to the ground, unaffected by the stones
raining down around it. The noise jolted Josh free and he staggered back up
the steps just as the monster lumbered to its feet and shuffled forward,
heading straight for the house. The boy slammed the door closed and rammed
home the bolts. He was turning away when through the kitchen window he
spotted the figure in white, clutching what looked like a sword, step through
the gaping hole that had been the wall.
Josh grabbed the stone sword off the floor and dashed into the hall. Wake
up! he shouted, his voice so filled with terror even he didn't recognize it.
Sophie! Flamel! Anyone!
The door behind him shook in its frame. He snapped a quick glance over his
shoulder in time to see the monster s white tongue peel off the wood and
glass.
Help!
Glass shattered and the tongue shot into the kitchen, sweeping plates to the
floor, scattering pots and pans, knocking over a chair. Metal hissed where
the tongue brushed against it; wood turned black and burned; plastic melted.
A drop of the corrosive saliva dripped to the floor and bubbled on the tiles,
eating into the stone.
Instinctively, Josh lashed out at the tongue with Clarent. The sword barely
touched it, but it suddenly disappeared, darting back into the creature s
mouth. There was a single still moment, and then the monster rammed its
entire head at the door.
The door crumpled to matchwood; the supporting walls on either side cracked
as stones were knocked out. The creature drew its head back and slammed it
into the opening again, punching a large hole into the kitchen. The entire
house creaked ominously.
A hand fell on Josh s shoulder, almost stopping his heart. Now look what
you've done: you've just gone and made it mad.
Scathach strode into the wrecked kitchen and stood in the gaping hole created
by the creature s blows. Nidhogg, she said, and Josh was unsure whether she
was talking to him, which means the Disir are not far behind. She sounded
almost pleased with the news.
Scathach danced backward as Nidhogg s head slammed into the opening again.
Its huge nostrils opened wide and its white tongue slapped against the spot
where, an instant before, the Shadow had been standing. A glob of spittle
burned on the tile, turning it to a liquid sludge. Scathach s twin swords
darted out, flickering gray and silver, and two long cuts appeared on the
white flesh of the creature s forked tongue.
Without taking her eyes off the creature, Scathach said to Josh, almost
calmly, Get the others out of the house, I ll take care of this .
And then an enormous claw-tipped arm smashed through the window, wrapped
around the Warrior s body in a viselike grip and slammed her back against the
wall with enough force to crack the plaster. The Warrior s arms were trapped
against her body, her swords useless. Nighogg s huge head appeared in the
ruined side of the house, and then its mouth opened wide and its tongue
darted out toward Scathach. Once its sticky acid-coated tongue wrapped around
the defenseless Warrior, it would drag her into its cavernous maw.
CHAPTER THIRTY
her outstretched fingers.
