The Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King [116]
They crossed the open ground behind Frisky. The big husky moved slowly now, her nose constantly at the snow, puffing it up every now and again in cold little bursts. The bright-blue runner of scent was dimming, being covered by the white no smell stuff from the sky.
"We may have waited too long," Naomi said quietly beside him.
Ben said nothing. He knew it, and the knowledge gnawed at his heart like a rat.
Now a dark bulk loomed out of the whiteness-the castle wall. Naomi had moved slightly ahead. Ben reached out an grabbed her arm. "The moat," he said. "Don't forget that. It's up here somewhere. You'll go over the side and land on the ice and break your ne -"
He got just so far and then Naomi's eyes blazed with alarm. She pulled out of his grip. "Frisky!" she hissed. " Hai! Frisky! Danger! Drop-off! " She darted after the dog.
That girl is absolutely giddy bonkers, Ben thought with a certain admiration. Then he darted after her.
Naomi needn't have worried. Frisky had stopped at the edge of the moat. Her nose was buried in the snow and her tail was wagging happily. Now she bit down on something and dragged it out of the loose powder. She turned to Naomi, eyes asking: Now am I a good dog, or what? What do you think?
Naomi laughed and hugged her dog.
Ben glanced toward the castle wall. "Hush!" he whispered at her. "If the guards hear you, we're in the slate-cracker for sure! Where do you think we are? Your back garden?"
"Pooh! If they heard anything, they'd think it was snow sprites and run for their mommies." But she whispered, too. Then she buried her face in Frisky's fur and told her again what a good dog she was.
Ben scratched Frisky's head. Because of the snow, neither of them had the horribly exposed sense Dennis had had when he had sat in the same place, taking off the snowshoes Frisky had now found.
"Nose of the gods, all right," Ben said. "But what happened after he took off the snowshoes, Frisky? Did he grow wings and fly over West'rd Redan? Where did he go from here?"
As if in answer, Frisky broke away from both of them and went floundering and slipping down the steep bank to the frozen moat.
"Frisky!" Naomi called, her voice low but alarmed.
Frisky only stood on the ice looking up at them, hock-deep in new snow. Her tail was wagging slightly, and her eyes begged them to come. She did not bark; somehow she knew better, even though Naomi had not thought to warn her to silence. But she barked in her mind. The scent was still here, and she wanted to follow it before it disappeared completely, as it now would within minutes.
Naomi looked questioningly at Ben.
"Yes," he said. "Of course. We have to. Come on. But keep her to heel-don't let her range ahead. There's danger here. I feel it."
He held out his hand. Naomi grasped it, and they slid down to the moat together.
Frisky led them slowly across the ice toward the castle wall. She was now actually digging for the scent, her nose furrowing the snow. It had begun to be overlaid with a thick, unpleasant smell-dirty, warm water, garbage, ordure.
Dennis had known that the ice would begin to grow dangerously rotten as he got closer to the outflow pipe. Even if he hadn't known, he was able to see the three feet or so of open water next to the wall.
Things weren't so easy for Ben, Naomi, and Frisky. They had simply assumed that if the ice was thick along the moat's outer bank, it must be thick all the way across. And their eyes were of little use to them in the thickly falling snow.
Frisky's eyes were the weakest of the three, and she was in the lead. Her ears were sharp enough, and she had heard the ice groaning beneath the new snow but the scent was too much on her mind for her to take much notice of the faint creaks until the ice gave way beneath her and she plunged into the moat with a splash.
"Frisky! Fr-"
Ben clapped a hand over her mouth. She struggled to get away from him. Ben had now seen the danger, however, and held her fast.
Naomi needn't have worried. Of course all dogs can swim, and with her thick, oily