He stopped suddenly and his eyes grew large and afraid. Had Fox and Fibber known the rainforest better, they would have realised, along with Iggy, that the tree frogs were no longer croaking, the insects were no longer whirring and the silver monkeys had fallen silent.
An eerie hush had fallen over the jungle.
‘Climb!’ Iggy yelled. ‘Up the tree after me – now!’
The twins, used to being chauffeured out of situations when the going got tough, stared at Iggy as he pulled himself up through the branches.
‘COME ON!’ Iggy cried. ‘If the jungle goes quiet, it means danger’s close!’
‘What kind of danger?’ Fox called up the tree. ‘Because I really need to get on with finding this Forever Fern and heading back home and—’
A thunder of hooves sounded. The kind of noise you feel in the ground as a tremble before it fills your ears and rocks through your bones. The stampeding grew louder and the leaves on the trees shook.
Both the twins flung themselves at the tree Iggy had climbed.
‘Get out of my way!’ Fox cried as she barged past Fibber and scrambled onto the first branch.
Her tie caught on the next branch and by the third she’d torn her blazer. She was doing better than Fibber, though, who was yelling about being terrified of heights and – in his attempt to climb a tree at speed while still holding a briefcase – had lost a shoe. But they hurried on up the tree anyway, as fast as their inexperienced legs could take them, because the jungle was on the move and it seemed to be coming for them from every direction.
‘Climb faster!’ Iggy yelled. ‘There are spare unicycles parked up in the trees!’
‘UNICYCLES?’ Fibber cried. ‘I can’t even ride a bike!’
But Iggy had already mounted his unicycle on a creeper and disappeared inside the foliage. Fox and Fibber froze on the tree they were climbing as the stampede of hooves grew louder, and left, right and centre plants tucked themselves away and animals hid. Was this a herd of Midnights rampaging towards them? And had Iggy abandoned the twins to be eaten by these creatures?!
Seconds later, the little Unmapper zoomed back into view with Heckle on his shoulder. He was still riding his unicycle and behind him, following obediently, were two more unicycles.
‘Hurry!’ he called. ‘There’s dark magic nearby and, though the Midnights have only stolen berries and animals before, the Lofty Husks warned that they may start snatching people away, too. We’re outside the Boundary for Safe Keeping so the protection charms don’t work here!’
The twins edged onto the bough where Iggy was waiting. ‘Just sit in the saddle and say Timbernook, then the unicycle will take you to my village where it’s safe.’
Fibber gulped as he took in the drop below. ‘But what’s to stop us falling off and – and dying?’
‘Magic,’ Iggy replied firmly. ‘The unicycles are powered by junglespit, so you only need to say the name of the place you want to get to and they’ll take you there by the fastest route! You don’t even need to peddle!’
The stampeding hooves advanced and the leaves on the tree they had climbed trembled. Fibber, wild-eyed with terror, barged past Fox and Iggy. ‘Out of my way! Stampeding things always eat the stragglers first!’
Iggy shook his head. ‘Wait! You don’t understand! The stampeding things are on—’
‘—A mission to devour the whole jungle!’ Fibber wedged his briefcase into the basket on the front of his unicycle, climbed on, then shrieked, ‘Timbernook!’ and hurtled over the creepers into the understorey.
Fox shoved Iggy aside, mounted the second unicycle, yelled her destination, then took off after her brother. Her unicycle darted along the turquoise creepers and zigzagged further into the trees.
‘The stampede has got nothing to do with the Midnights!’ Iggy shouted at the twins. ‘What you can hear are the swiftwings! They’re on our side and the whole herd is running because they’re just as scared as we are by the jungle going quiet!’
‘Impossible!’ Fibber howled from the Hustleway ahead. ‘No one could be as scared as me!’
Fox glanced down to see a herd of extraordinary creatures bounding through the rainforest: they looked like stallions, except these stallions had wings tucked either side of their bodies and eagle heads.
‘Once we’re back inside the Boundary for Safe Keeping, the canopy opens a little and the swiftwings will have room to fly off up to the clouds where they sleep!’ Iggy cried. ‘See – look ahead! There goes Sprinter, followed by Lightning, and I think that’s Flash with the silver wings.’
The unicycles hurried along the creepers beneath the moonlight where the canopy opened and Fox gasped, in fear and awe, as the swiftwings rose up all around them – a rush of swishing tails, gleaming bodies, feathered wings and sharp, proud beaks. Then the trees folded over the sky again as the unicycles hurried on.
‘The protection charms will keep us safe now,’ Iggy panted. ‘Morg knows there are several phoenix tears in the Faraway. She must have Midnights on the lookout to drag any newcomers in Jungledrop to the Bonelands and that’s why the jungle fell quiet earlier.’ His voice brightened the further into the trees they went. ‘Dark magic can’t cross over into the heart of the kingdom where we live because these parts are still steeped in the oldest kind of magic.’ Iggy’s eyes glittered. ‘Phoenix magic.’
Fibber twisted round in his seat as far as he dared and looked at his sister. ‘Have you still got that phoenix tear?’
Fox thought fast. She wasn’t about to lose her only advantage in this quest. ‘I –’ she paused – ‘left it on the train.’
‘Typical,’ Fibber muttered.
The unicycles kept moving, wiggling their way over the creepers, as the rest of the swiftwings soared up through the
