Free Back To The Divide by Elizabeth Kay

solitude, which is why I came here. And you are?"
    Felix was momentarily at a loss for words. Snowdrift had been his friend, she had carried him through the Geddon forest the previous summer, only to be poisoned by Snakeweed's sinistrom. And this brittlehorn was Snowdrift's father? Just as
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    he was about to tell Pewtermane who he was, there was a distant rumble. Volume isn't everything, thought Felix fleetingly. Some sounds are just sounds -- but others hint at something more, like the rattle of a diamondback, or the hiss of an avalanche -- and this was one of those.
    A huge cloud of dust raced down the passageway, a tidal wave of it, billowing as it came. The brittlehorn started to cough. Its glowing horn faded into the haze and disappeared -- but strangely, there was more light now, not less. Once the dust was in the cavern, it spread out, thinned, swathed everything in mist, and then, after a minute or so, started to settle. Breathing became easier and things gradually came into focus -- there really was a lot more light, as though the sky had been allowed in somewhere. There's been a rock-fall farther back, thought Felix. I wonder what caused it?
    He didn't have to wonder for long, because the scruffy, dirt-encrusted brazzle that dashed out of the tunnel was undoubtedly Ironclaw. And the slightly cleaner one that followed him was almost certainly Thornbeak. And the tangle-child behind them was definitely Betony, carrying a lantern.
    "Busy down here all of a sudden," said the brittlehorn. He closed his eyes, rested a hind leg, and appeared to doze off.
    "Betony!" yelled Felix, wanting to jump for joy. "It's me!"
    He heard Thornbeak say, "What's this, Betony? I didn't know you were friends with a japegrin."
    Felix remembered his red hair.
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    Betony said, "I'm not. I don't know who he is."
    Ironclaw suddenly angled his head the way he did when he used his magnifying vision. "Well, knock me down with an eggshell," he said. "It's Felix! Just the person we need."
    Betony's mouth dropped open. Thornbeak picked up Betony unceremoniously in her beak, carried her across the water, and dumped her in front of Felix.
    She scrambled to her feet and just looked at him. Her face seemed older; she'd grown. But not as much as he had -- he was now taller than she was, by a couple of inches. He noticed she was still wearing the necklace he'd made her the previous year. Then she grinned and the smile was just as infectious as ever, and her eyes were just as green as he remembered. Green like chips of malachite, not a human color at all. "I've missed you," he said.
    "I've missed you, too."
    They both laughed.
    "You've turned up at exactly the right moment," said Ironclaw. "You see, the king and queen have been taken --"
    "There's no time for that now," said Thornbeak. "There's a sinistrom after us, and I don't think he's had anything to eat for a while."
    "About five centuries," said Felix. "His name's Harshak."
    "Slashes and gashes!" swore Thornbeak. "I thought that monster was just moonshine. They said his remains were somewhere in the library, but I didn't really believe it."
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    "Come on," said Ironclaw. "We ought to leg it. Even I know Harshak killed a brazzle in single combat, and history's hardly my strong point."
    "What about Pewtermane?" queried Felix, pointing to the brittlehorn.
    Pewtermane opened one eye. "Sinistroms don't mess with brittlehorns as a rule, and I'm only after Architrex," he said. Then he closed the eye again and went back to sleep.
    Although the final tunnel was big enough for a brittlehorn, it was a different matter for a brazzle. "You two go first," said Thornbeak, ushering them in. Felix and Betony started off down the passageway. They could see proper daylight ahead of them now and hear the faint rumble of the sea.
    "I'd better go last," said Ironclaw. "I'm the biggest and the most likely to get stuck."
    "How come you've suddenly acquired such good manners?" queried Thornbeak. "I'd have expected you to be