Amos Daragon_ The Mask Wearer - Bryan Perro [49]
Karmakas continued his incantation. A strong wind rose over Bratel-la-Grande and pushed the dark cloud toward the army. Suddenly, midway between the walls of the city and the spot where the Berrion men were, the cloud exploded in a deafening thunder. Hundreds of asps and cobras fell from the sky like a rain of swarming and slimy pieces of rope. The horses reared up and several knights were about to run off.
“Keep your position! Keep your position!” Junos shouted as he galloped in front of his men.
The army remained in place as the snakes crawled toward them upon touching the ground. They moved through the high grass in the fields like an ocean wave coming quickly to shore.
“Prepare the cages!” Junos ordered.
Every knight reached for the cage doors containing the starving mongooses. The snakes were arriving rapidly and were now only a few yards away from the horses. From the top of his perch, Karmakas looked at the sight with glee. He sniggered and rubbed his hands, sure that his snakes would quickly destroy these conceited humans.
“Free the mongooses!” Junos shouted when the time was right.
The doors of four hundred cages, containing one or two mongooses each, opened in unison. Seven hundred and seventy-seven small mammals that had been starved for days pounced onto the reptiles. The knights bolted away at full gallop. Being more agile than the snakes, the mongooses were jumping through the air, avoiding the fangs of their enemies and inflicting them with deadly wounds at each attack. As quick as lightning, their paws immobilized the cobras on the ground, while their strong teeth crushed the cobras’ heads. The mongooses caught the asps by their tail and twirled them in the air. Dizzy, the small snakes lost their reflexes, which allowed the mongooses to pin them to the ground and inflict a deadly bite. Although superior in number, the reptiles were completely overwhelmed. There was no escape, no place to hide.
The battle lasted hardly ten minutes. About twenty mongooses lost their lives. Around the surviving ones, thousands of snakes lay lifeless in the grass. The mongooses began to feast under Karmakas’s eyes.
The sorcerer seethed with rage. He stamped his feet, howling insults in his naga language and shaking his head in disbelief. How had the Berrion army known that he was going to send a cloud of snakes to rain over them? He had used this magic trick often, and few had ever managed to survive! As he looked at the unscathed men of Berrion, who were returning to their position in the fields, he smiled a tight smile.
“You’ve now, ssss, met your end!” he shouted.
Karmakas opened the cage of the basilisk and took the horrible creature in his hands.
“Go and shred, ssss, this band of buffoons!” Karmakas ordered it.
Amos and Medusa were hiding in the tall grass, not far from the walls of Bratel-la-Grande. From this strategic spot, the mask wearer could easily see the city gates through a telescope. He was happy with what the mongooses had accomplished and waited confidently for the rest to unfold. He knew that Karmakas would be enraged and would unleash his basilisk. Amos had his rooster on his knees and was ready for the next round.
He had evaluated the situation and sent his orders to Junos in a sphere of wind. Suddenly the gates of the city opened. The basilisk—the size of a large hen—came out. He was exactly as described in the book that Amos had read: His body was snakelike, but he had the head of a rooster and the beak of a vulture. He walked on two thin, featherless legs much like those of a chicken.
Amos and Medusa blocked their ears with a thick paste made of ferns. Then Amos uttered a few words that the wind carried away to Junos.
“Stop your ears!” Junos shouted to his men.
Wasting no time, all the knights blocked their ears with the fern paste. So far everything was going according to plan. Nothing had been left to chance. But when the basilisk took flight, Amos was stunned to see the creature’s body grow tenfold. He then saw the basilisk open its beak. Right away Amos