All eyes shifted to her.
“Well?” Sophie bellowed.
“MONGOOSES, for God’s sake,” Nicola blared. “It’s always the mongoose that kills a snake at the end of the tale! Haven’t you heard of ‘Rikki-Tikki–Tavi’ or Indira and the Mongoose or The Tales of Panchatantra? Don’t any of you know anything besides Snow White and Rapunzel and stories about creamy fair princesses?”
“No mongoose,” Bogden quipped.
“Wait! Yes, mongoose!” Agatha said, spinning to Sophie. “Where is he!”
“On the boat, obviously. He’s steam-cleaning my boudoir. After the storm, it smelt of fish,” Sophie said.
The whole crew groaned.
“So we have no weapons, no mongoose, and no plan. What do we have?” said Agatha.
“Hello, little chickadees!” a singsong voice called.
Jolted, Agatha and Sophie put their eyes to the door crack and saw a vision of Princess Uma’s olive-skinned face floating in the cave.
“Professor Dovey asked me to let you know she’s running late,” said Uma, framed by the Dean’s alarmingly messy office. “She’s dealing with a few Neverboys who tried to feed Professor Manley to a stymph. I only just got back to school myself. Had to miss the first weeks of class because . . . well, it’s personal. But I’m here now and . . . Why do you all look so grim? And why are you hanging from lanterns? And is that licorice under your feet? Sorry, it’s quite blurry from my side. . . . This crystal ball is ancient. . . .” Her face distorted, turning upside down. “Sometimes if you give it a good joggle—”
She was flung out of the way by Professor Dovey, more disheveled than ever. “Those are snakes!” she squawked, peering through the rip in the air. “And the children are hanging from—dear God! Uma, you speak reptile! Put them to sleep or something!”
“Princesses don’t speak snake, Clarissa,” Uma huffed, tugging at her smooth black hair. “But I do speak a great many other animal languages, including—”
“I don’t need your résumé, Uma! And please get out of my way!” Professor Dovey scolded, clawing spellbooks off her shelf. “Surely there’s a sleeping hex in here that will work on snakes!”
Uma started to wail loudly. Sophie could see Agatha gnashing her teeth. If there’s one thing they both hated, it was thin-skinned princesses.
“I can’t hold on!” Dot howled, backside sagging two inches above the snakes.
“Hurry, Professor!” Agatha shouted into the cave.
“What’s that, Agatha?” Dovey said, hand to ear.
But Uma was mewling more than ever.
“It has my pants!” Dot shrieked, an asp’s fangs digging into her breeches.
“HURRY, PROFESSOR!” Sophie hollered.
“Uma, I can’t hear a word!” Dovey yelled. “If you don’t stop your crying—”
“Crying?” Uma scoffed. “I’m not crying. I’m calling a friend.”
“Friend!” Dovey wheeled to her. “Our students are about to die, you ninny, and you’re calling a friend—”
Suddenly, behind Dovey’s bubble, a fleet of tiny furry heads poked over the cave hole in a perfect circle like synchronized swimmers, echoing Uma’s wailful call. A white one with beady eyes took in the scene.
“Hardeep,” he squeaked. “Uma friend.”
“Moti-Lal,” said the next. “Uma friend.”
“Ganeshanathan. Uma friend.”
“Pushpa. Uma friend.”
“Ramanujan. Uma friend.”
“Gutloo. Uma friend.”
“Santanam. Uma friend.”
And finally, one black as night, smiling pearly sharp teeth . . .
“Boobeshwar. Uma friend.”
Princess Uma smiled into the crystal ball. “Close your eyes, children. This could get messy.”
The snakes unleashed a panicked hiss—
Like cyclones, eight mongooses swung into the cave, screeching so loudly that Sophie and the crew not only closed their eyes, but also plugged their ears.
Five minutes later, Hort and Willam swept bloody asp and cobra carcasses out of the cave while Bogden sliced fresh apples with the tip of an icicle and fed them to the exhausted mongooses. Princess Uma thanked her friends with a few short wails (and promised to officiate Boobeshwar’s wedding to Pushpa later that month).
Then Professor Dovey’s face, already beginning to fade, looked down at Sophie and Agatha, who had finished explaining everything they’d faced in Avalon.
“Girls, our connection will end soon,” said the Dean quickly. “From what you’ve told me, this Snake has trespassed into Avalon, killed one of our own, and wants Tedros’ crown. And he’s throwing the entire Woods into upheaval along the way. He’s attacking kingdoms. He’s attacking our students. Just this morning, Kiko’s team didn’t appear for its check-in with me, nor did Ravan’s team in Akgul, and I’m quite sure the Snake has something to do with it. Luckily, both teams are still alive on my map in their respective kingdoms, so they could just be hiding. I’m looking into it. But whoever this Snake is, he’s the worst kind of villain: he’s a terrorist.” She took a deep breath. “And all you know is we’re searching for a man in a green mask?”
“Or a woman,” Sophie ventured.
“And you’re sure they’ve left Avalon?” Dovey pressed.
Agatha and Sophie exchanged looks. “Can’t be sure of anything anymore,” said Agatha. “But the beaver made it sound like he was long gone.”
“The Lady of the Lake would have never let him or the Snake in,” said Dovey, dismayed. “Have you gone to her—”
“Wait a second,” said Hester.
She was crouching near one of the chests. Inside it was a single, ragged gold coin. Hester held it up to the daylight.
A skull with crossbones glimmered on its face.
“Pirate gold,” said Anadil. Her rats sniffed at the chests and tittered at her. “They say all of these were filled with pirate gold. Those asps must have been protecting it.”
“Pirate numbers are growing in Jaunt Jolie,” Hester said, remembering the newspaper she’d seen in Eternal Springs. “Snake has to be paying them.”
Anadil swiveled to Hester. “Jaunt Jolie is one of the kingdoms bordering the Four Point. Didn’t the Vizier in Kyrgios mention pirates lurking about sacred land?”
“If the Snake is planning something at the Four Point, you need to head him off at once,” said Professor Dovey urgently. “The Four Point is where Arthur intervened to end a war between four kingdoms over a small piece of land. He gave his life to bring peace. Since then, the land belongs to Camelot as a symbol of its leadership of the Woods, beyond Good and Evil. Any breach would be a declaration of war on Camelot, not to mention a shattering of the truce. The Lady of the Lake vigilantly protects the Four Point, but it sounds like the Snake has his eyes on it. You must find out what these pirates are up to.”
“Then we’re off to Jaunt Jolie,” Agatha said, eyeing the vial on Sophie’s necklace. “Whose quest is stationed there?”