Max plotted an escape. He looked left and right.
“Is it my fault that I have to eat you?” Carol roared, raising his arms. His claws glowed in the firelight.
Max turned to run.
Carol lunged. Max dropped to all fours. Carol missed. Max rolled off the path and scampered off into the woods. He darted through a low, small opening in the dense thicket — too small for Carol to fit through — and now he had a head start. Max ran through the winding woods, Carol’s roaring and heavy footsteps close behind. As he ran, Max had to jump over logs and rocks and duck under low boughs, while he could hear Carol, just behind him, simply steamrolling through it all. Max could hear his breathing, raw and rasping. He was gaining ground.
“Come here!” said a voice, not Carol’s.
It was Katherine, standing in the hollow of a tree. She grabbed Max’s arm and yanked him off the path. She threw him on her back and scampered up the tree.
Carol ran by, growling ferociously. There was nothing left of the former Carol. He was only rage now, all heat and snarl, with the dull and murderous eyes of a shark.
Katherine reached the top of the tree in seconds and Max looked around, at the hills and shores of the island. He felt safe for a moment, but then the tree began shaking. Carol was climbing up, following them.
“Get inside!” Katherine whispered.
“What?”
Katherine had her mouth open, and was trying to shove Max inside.
“Get in!”
“I don’t—”
The shaking grew more violent as Carol grew closer. Max had no choice. He put his arms inside Katherine’s mouth, not unlike he’d done when helping Carol the first night. Immediately Katherine shoved Max the rest of the way in, swallowing him. Max let out a quick squeal and was gone, inside Katherine’s soft stomach.
It was like being dropped into a cloth bag full of wet food. The smell was musty and ripe, a mixture of rotten food and stomach acid. It was dark and stifling, with only the occasional gasp of air or light when Katherine opened her mouth.
Carol thundered close and soon he was on the platform, too, hovering over Katherine. Max felt her leaning back, trying to retain her balance.
“Where is he?” he roared.
Max tried to breathe as quietly as possible.
“Where’s who?” Katherine said.
“Don’t make this worse,” Carol bellowed, now even louder. “Where is he, Katherine?”
“I don’t know!” she shouted, defiant.
“You want me to eat you, too?”
“Go ahead!” she yelled.
Carol shoved her and, with a massive shaking of the platform, Max could tell that Carol had leapt off. But just as Max began to feel relief, there was an explosion of movement and screaming. Carol was back, and the platform creaked and groaned from the strain.
“Give him to me!” Carol yelled.
“He’s not here!” Katherine said, her teeth gritted.
“Wait,” he hissed. “I smell him.”
Max could hear Carol just outside the thin wall of skin and fur that separated the two of them.
“I can smell him on your breath!”
Carol’s huge claw plunged into Katherine’s stomach, grabbing for Max. Max dodged Carol’s paw, jostling around inside Katherine’s belly. Max felt something tense up inside Katherine and suddenly, with a deep grunt of pain, Carol’s hand was gone. Katherine had struck him, it seemed, with all her force, and he’d fallen from the top of the tree, easily two hundred feet down. Max could hear the cracking of branches as Carol descended, trying to break his fall. Finally there was a thump, and a low groan.
“Hold on,” Katherine said to Max, and he felt her leap from the platform and to another. Then another. She jumped high and away, again and again, until Max was sure they had found their way across the island and to safety.
CHAPTER XLVII
When they were still, Max could smell, faintly, the salt water of the sea. Katherine, with Max in her belly, had escaped all the way to her beach. He was relieved and tired and wanted only to get out and to sail away.
“Is he gone?” Max asked.
“He is,” Katherine said. “We’re safe.”
Max was dazed and short of breath. “I can’t breathe that well in here. Can you get me out?”
Katherine said nothing.
“Katherine?” Max said, louder.
There was no answer.
“Katherine!” he yelled, now pounding on the wall of her stomach.
He began to try to climb the walls of Katherine’s insides, but they were far too slippery. There was nothing to grab onto.
“Katherine?” he asked.
Finally she answered. “What is it, my darling?”
“What are you doing? I need to get out.”
Max heard nothing.
“Katherine?”
There was no response.
“Katherine? Where are you?”
“You’re safe inside,” she said. “I’ll protect you.”
“What?” Max said.
“Don’t you like it in there?” she asked.
“No. Let me out.”
There was another long pause before she spoke again.
“You were a bad king. I can’t let you go.”
“What? I was not a bad king. Katherine, I need to get out.” Max was short of breath and his head was pulsating. “I don’t think I’m supposed to be in here. I can’t breathe.”
“Yes you can,” she insisted. “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked, suddenly outraged. “You don’t love me!”
“That’s not true,” Max said. “Why would you say that?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed.
Max was growing weaker inside, his breathing shallower. He felt very faint.
“Please don’t go, Max. You’re a part of me.”
“I have to go,” he whispered.
There was a pause that seemed interminable. Max found himself growing numb, his fingers tingling, his heart fluttering.
Just as he felt himself dropping into something like sleep, he was lifted toward the light. It was Katherine. She had thrust her arm into her mouth, taking hold of Max by the scruff of his neck. She lifted Max from her stomach and into the air, and carefully deposited him on her lap.
The air felt so cold and clean, and he gulped at it. The ocean beyond them was bright and calm, and pulled at Max. But he felt so weak that he couldn’t keep his eyes open. As Katherine stroked his wet hair, he dropped into a shallow sleep.
CHAPTER XLVIII
When he awoke he saw all of the beasts, all but Carol, before him. They had untied his boat and had prepared it to sail. Max rose from Katherine’s lap and stood, still feeling light-headed.
“So you’re going,” Douglas said. His leg, half-eaten by the plant, was green and smelled like ham. There was a stick tied to his shoulder, in place of his missing arm.
Max nodded.
Douglas extended his left hand. Max shook it.
“You were the best thinker we ever had,” Douglas said.
Max tried to smile.
“I’m sorry for all this,” Ira said quietly. “I blame myself.”
Max hugged him. “Don’t.”
Judith and Max exchanged glances. She made a face that said Oops, sorry! then emitted a high nervous laugh. “I never know what to say in these situations,” she said.
Max and Katherine pushed the boat toward the water, and Douglas helped. Max remembered that he was still wearing the crown, and so removed it with great care and presented it to the Bull.
Max’s head felt lighter now, his thoughts clearer. Looking at the beasts, he tried to commit each of them to memory. He wished Carol were there, but at the same time he knew that goodbyes were seldom as tidy and timely as one would hope. He turned toward his boat and the sea beyond, squinting to the waves to see what challenges they would present to him.