Aenir by Garth Nix, Steve Rawlings

scalp.
     

 

     
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     

    Tal awoke to the sound of strange rumbling, and a sun that was low in the sky. He sat up a little straighter and scratched his head. Something sticky came off on his hand and Tal jerked his fingers back down to look.
    "Errrch!" he yelled, and stood up. Some disgusting tree sap or something had dropped on his head while he was asleep. He rushed over to the spring and washed his hand off, then stuck his head in and gave that a good wash as well.
    The level of the spring had sunk a good hand's breadth, and it was easy to see where it had gone, and where the strange rumbling sound was coming from. Adras was floating just above Tal's head, snoring. He had taken in so much water he was a fat butterball of a cloud, all fluffy white, without a streak of the lean, mean darkness of a storm.
    "Call yourself a Storm Shepherd!" said Tal, but he didn't say it too loud. He could hardly blame Adras for falling asleep. He was disgusted that he had himself, though they probably would not have been able to set out any earlier anyway.
    Mind you, he thought, it was lucky nothing happened. Aenir was not a world where it paid to sleep unguarded.
    He was just thinking that when he saw the hideous creature with two heads. It was on the ground only a few stretches away, wriggling toward him, a trail of the hideous green slime dribbling from its mouth.
    Tal raised his hand and focused on the Sunstone. He would blast it with a Red Ray of Fiery Destruction.
    The Sunstone flashed red and began to shine. But before the Red Ray was complete, Tal blinked and lowered his hand.
    The grotesque two-headed worm or snake or whatever it was had left a trail of its own bright saliva in particular patterns. It had scribed a whole series of characters onto the ground under the trees.
    Tal stared at the writing. At first he couldn't work it out. Then he realized that he was looking at everything upside down. So he walked around, taking care to give plenty of space to the two-headed snake, which was still writing.
    There was the letter C again, and an arrow pointing east. But there was also a picture of something. A key, Tal thought. And then several letters, which spelled out H-A-Z-R-O-R.
    "Who are you?" asked Tal, talking to the snake. "How do you communicate through creatures?"
    The snake twitched and began to drip another letter onto the ground. Tal walked a bit closer, keen to work out what the letter was going to be. It looked like the first part of a C.
    He was only a stretch away when there was a titanic explosion of air. Tal was thrown backward and a great spray of dirt shot into the sky, accompanied by pieces of two-headed snake.
    "I got it!" roared Adras, punching the air with one huge cloud-fist. "I've saved you!"
    Tal picked himself up and counted to ten. Adras was worse than Gref. At least Gref knew he was annoying when he interfered with whatever Tal was doing.
    "Why did you do that?" Tal asked slowly, when he could get the words out without screaming.
    "It was a Two-Headed Gulper," said Adras, as if that was explanation enough. "Lucky I was keeping an eye open."
    This was too much for Tal.
    "You were sound asleep, you idiot!" he shouted. "And it was writing me a message. A message from the Codex!"
    "It wasn't a Two-Headed Gulper?" asked Adras innocently.
    "Yes, it was," agreed Tal. "But it wasn't… I don't know… being one right at that second."
    "What have you done to your hair?" asked Adras, tilting his puffy head to one side as if he couldn't work it out.
    "What?" asked Tal. "What?" "Your hair," said Adras. "It's changed color."
    Tal forgot about telling the Storm Shepherd exactly how stupid he was and rushed over to the spring. But it was bubbling too much to be a useful mirror.
    "Green," added Adras. "In streaks."
    Tal touched his hair again. It seemed all right, but when he pulled out a few hairs they were bright green.
    As green as the saliva of the Two-Headed Gulper, he realized. It must have been