Chimera Book One

Chapter Three

Only he didn’t fall.

The tentacle that had attacked him in the labyrinth had encircled his waist. It shook Kyp violently then yanked him up out of the chasm and stood him on his feet.

‘Promise me you won’t run away again,’ said a cross-sounding voice.

Its owner was an enormous snake, the tentacle its tail.  The snake was metres long and as thick through the middle as Kyp’s waist.  Its markings were unlike any Kyp had seen, even those amongst the more exotic varieties at Professor Pettifog’s.  It was patterned with overlapping diamonds of every colour.

‘Don’t eat me!’ Kyp begged.

‘Now why would I want to eat you?’

‘You’re a snake! A talking snake!’

‘Yes, yes, all of this must be a terrible shock, but you being all goggle-eyed is only wasting time.  I’m not going to eat you, but I have neither the inclination nor the energy to convince you otherwise.  I’m here to look after you, but I can’t if you run away.  Understood?’

Kyp nodded dumbly.

‘Can I let you go now?’

Kyp mumbled in agreement and the snake uncoiled its tail from his waist.

‘Good. Now you and I need to get moving if we’re going to get you there in time.   The Cavalcade won’t wait. It’s gathering at the Temple of Miscellany even now.’

‘Wait,’ said Kyp, as the snake slithered away along the edge of ravine.

‘There’s no time.  They’re coming.’

They arrived at another bridge spanning the ravine. This one looked sturdier, made as it was from ironing boards and cricket bats.

‘What’s over there?’ demanded Kyp. ‘Where are you taking me?’

The snake gave no answer and started out across the bridge.  Kyp noticed the snake was leaking soft white fluff from a tear in its side.  When Kyp still didn’t follow, the snake twisted around and said, ‘Do get a move on!’

Kyp eyed the bridge uneasily.

‘It’s perfectly safe.’

‘Maybe,’ said Kyp.  ‘Are you?’

The snake ignored his question, continuing across the bridge and into the labyrinth.   Kyp followed, chasing its tail as it disappeared around corners.

A final corridor ended at a barricade of wooden chairs as high as a house that extended to the left and right as far as Kyp could see.

‘In there?’ he balked, as the snake slithered through it.

Kyp shook his head.  Enough, he thought crossly.  He wouldn’t be taking another step until someone told him what was going on.  He turned from the wall, only to find the three figures from the tea-tray bridge advancing upon him.

The first was a baby as big as a grown-up.  It was wearing a bear suit with a zip up its middle.  Its big, fat face was the angry red of a grazed knee and the giant pink rattle it carried, it wielded like a mace.

The second figure was maggot-grey, with great long arms and legs, and hands like lawn rakes.  Its face, pointed and narrow, had eyes as round and bulging as blackcurrant jellies.  There was something more horrible still about the creature’s mouth, which was long and quivery, like a length of rubber-hose.

But it was to the third of the advancing trio that Kyp’s attention was riveted.

It was his mum, who was holding out her hands to him, her pointed fingernails the colour of beetles.        

‘Who are you?’

The woman hushed him, but Kyp could see now that she was nothing like his mum.  She was tall and sharp, clothed in a long black dress with a high neck and puffed sleeves.  She wore an enormous black wig that glistened with garlands of moss-green beads, her face ghostly with powder.

‘Who are you?’

‘You know who I am.’

‘Mum!’ said Kyp, or nearly said.

Smiling, the woman in the wig glided towards him.

Certain of it now, Kyp said, ‘You’re not my mother.’

The woman looked rather sad.  Then something happened to her eyes. They began to glow with a green light that started deep within them, as if coals were being fanned at the back of her skull. Kyp told himself not to look but found it difficult to resist.

A distant voice was shouting, ‘Where are you?’

Not listening, Kyp opened his arms out in an embrace.

At that moment, the snake shot out of the wall of chairs, and biting down on Kyp’s collar, dragged him off his feet and through the barricade.