Page 74 of Earthbound

‘What could they do with us in here?’ Yeeran said.

Malak opened his mouth as though to answer but then closed it again. So, she left.

Pila, I think this is going to be a very long day.

Yes, but at least you have already slept through half of it.

Yeeran laughed. True.

Something small dashed across the path ahead of them. It moved too fast for Yeeran to recognise what it was. But then another followed the first, and then another.

It was only when the fourth rodent ran past Pila’s paws that Yeeran realised they were rats.

Pila didn’t react. Her ears had pricked up and she looked to the cavern wall.

What is it? Yeeran asked.

Can’t you hear that?

It took Yeeran a while to pick up the sound. It sounded like the patter of rain. She looked to the stairs that led to the tunnel in the distance. A black mass of dots covered the steps. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Coming closer and closer with every second.

Yeeran stopped, her feet frozen to the spot. ‘Are those…?’

Rats, Pila confirmed.

Yeeran lurched onto Pila’s back as the obeah spun around, away from the incoming tide of vermin. In her haste Yeeran nearly fell, but Pila lunged to the right to steady her.

Yeeran looked back. The sea of rats spread like water through the streets, churning her stomach.

Fly fast, Pila. Take us to the palace.

Chapter Fifteen

Yeeran

Malak knew this was going to happen,’ Yeeran said as she paced up and down.

‘We must take it as a sign that the war has begun,’ Rayan said. They were back in the clutter of his rooms. Golan was there when Yeeran arrived, his eyes red as though he’d been crying.

Furi had already sent soldiers out to rid the city of the vermin–‘target practice’, she’d called it. Now she was curled up on the couch, the tomcat mewling in her arms. She stroked it tenderly, her eyes skittering to the door, anxious for Jay’s arrival.

Yeeran smiled despite how fraught the moment was. Mosima might be overrun with rats, but Furi’s compassion knows no bounds.

‘What did Malak say exactly?’ Rayan asked.

Yeeran sighed, her smile dropping. ‘He tried to warn me; he said that the coalition had contingency plans for everything.’

‘Rats are barely a contingency plan,’ Furi said with a sneer.

‘What I want to know is how did they manage it? There can’t be this many rats in the whole of the Wasted Marshes,’ Rayan said.

Yeeran’s realisation was sudden. ‘Of course, the tent.’

‘The tent?’ Rayan said.

‘There was a tent guarded by soldiers that I saw on my way out of the camp. I heard strange noises coming from it.’

‘You think the rats were in there?’