by John Kerry
“But I can’t latch on to fluids,” Sammy said. “We’ve tried before –”
“You have the power to do this. You just need to calm yourself and concentrate.”
“Can’t I fire the lightning staff?”
“No. If the leviathan is given enough time to locate us visually, we’re dead.”
Louis flicked an ear up.
“Now, Sammy!”
Sammy concentrated on the water, but couldn’t bring the molecules into focus.
“Sammy?”
She mentally teleported her microscopic self to the area of lake she was supposed to affect. But just the smallest of ripples on the surface were moving molecules vast distances on a relative scale. As soon as Sammy tried to latch onto one, she lost it. “I can’t do it!”
“I need a target, Sammy. You have to act now!”
Too much pressure! Sammy couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t think. And then she realised. The surface molecules remained mostly together. Hydrogen bonds creating a surface tension holding large groups of molecules together as they slid up and over the ripples. She took a mental step back and focused on a larger array. Then she latched on.
The water began to swirl. She was doing it!
A bigger ripple, then a splash.
The water exploded as the leviathan’s jaws burst through the surface. Just the top and bottom jaw at first, but rising, reaching high out of the water before clapping together with devastating force.
The resulting shockwave travelled across the lake and up through Eggie into Sammy’s feet.
The beast groaned, as lightning slammed into its head, and it dropped back beneath the water.
Hami extinguished his staff. “Good work,” he said. “You’ve bought us more time. But we need to go again. Make a splash off to the right this time.”
Sammy picked a spot and made the surface churn. Like He-Man, she did have the power. And she was getting good at it. They were going to make it!
The water burst upward again as the leviathan breached, and again Hami hit it in the head with searing lightning, forcing it back under.
“Again Sammy!”
Sammy splashed a patch of water off to the left. Nothing. She tried again, but no leviathan. “Why isn’t it working?”
Then she saw the silhouette. A way off from where she’d splashed the surface. The leviathan’s eyes and the top of its head were above the water. It hadn’t fallen for the decoy a third time. It was watching them. Hami blasted at the leviathan as it submerged, but it was too late. It had seen them.
“We have to get out of here, Louis. Now!” Hami shouted. “It’s coming.”
Louis started pumping his legs, heaving them backwards while intermittently submerging his head, presumably to keep bombarding the leviathan with underwater noise.
“I can see the top of the sandbank,” Mehrak shouted from behind. “We’re almost there!”
“Get ready to splash the water again,” Hami said. “Do it closer to Louis where we were a moment ago. The leviathan will still have to breach to confirm our location.”
Sammy focused on the water a little way off and churned it up.
There was a lull as Louis frantically back pedalled. Then the lake erupted as the leviathan launched its entire body out of the water. A cruise-liner-sized crocodile with flippers instead of legs. It roared with a deep vibrating bass that turned Sammy’s internal organs to trifle. Time seemed to slow as the leviathan hung in the air like a vast zeppelin. Sammy realised then how Princess Leia must have felt when the Star Destroyer descended on her rebel ship at the beginning of A New Hope.
Together, Sammy and Hami fired screaming arcs of lightning into the leviathan’s belly before it came down.
Even at a distance, the resulting lake displacement nearly sucked Golden Egg Cottage under. Swathes of water beat down on them, knocking the passengers to the floor, before a swell rose up and pushed Eggie on towards the sandbar.
Sammy dropped Victa’s staff when she hit the deck and for a frantic moment thought she’d lost it. She spotted it drifting through the balcony railings and caught it just before it went over the edge.
She pulled herself up, body battered and bruised, clutching Victa’s staff as the leviathan’s dorsal scales cut a line away through the water. “Why is it leaving?”
Louis raised himself up out of the water. They’d made it to the second sandbank!
Sammy let out a nervous giggle.
Louis staggered on shaky legs, shook water from his head and began signing frantically to Hami.
Mehrak came running through onto the front balcony. “We made it!”
Hami waited for Louis to finish. “Go then!” he called down. “And don’t stop!”
Louis turned to face the islands and surged past a drenched Indomit, and shivering and ragged Narok and Calven. He plunged back into the water and began pulling towards shore.
“What’s going on?” Mehrak asked.
“The sandbank was a long crescent,” Hami replied. “We’ve just crossed the middle. The leviathan will have to swim around. If Louis’s quick we can make it to the island before the leviathan can get all the way around and back to us.”
The oasis of sand, beach huts and lights lay ahead. A few of the islanders had stopped what they were doing to watch Louis and crew approach.
“Can we make it?” Sammy asked. It seemed too good to be true.
“I don’t know,” Hami said. “It’ll be close. We should be ready to defend Louis just in case.”
Sammy followed him through the bedroom and onto the back balcony. Mehrak went with them.
The three of them stood together watching a distant shimmer of ripples out in the darkness.
“Is it turning?” Mehrak asked. He paused. “It is. It’s turning. It’s rounded the sandbank already! We aren’t going to make it.”
Hami shook his head in disbelief. “It’s too fast.”
Sammy clutched the railing. “It’s gone under!”
Louis’s swimming became frantic. Golden Egg Cottage creaked as it dragged through the water. A wide ‘V’ shaped wake rolled out to the sides. Narok was struggling to turn Indomit forwards, but the beast was floundering and creating drag. Louis’s breathing was becoming laboured.
Sammy’s mind was numb. She couldn’t think, couldn’t call anything to come into her head. Her brain had shut itself down to protect itself from impending doom.
Out in the water the surface bulged. A hill of water steadily grew as it raced towards them.
Sammy and Hami lit their staffs.
The bulge in the lake grew bigger still, higher and broader, like a foothill growing into a volcano.
It erupted as the leviathan’s top jaw lanced out of the water, and over Indomit. The creature’s mouth yawned wide as multiple rows of teeth sailed over Sammy’s head, dripping water onto the balcony.
This was it. The jaws would snap shut over the cottage and they’d all be dragged to the bottom of the lake. Sammy hoped it would be quick. No pain. No drowning.
She concentrated on the leviathan, raised her hand and reached out. She felt the confidence the beast exuded, the satisfaction of knowing it had won, that it would be consuming its prey imminently. She tried to send calming thoughts to stop it, but it was too powerful. It paused, but that was all. Its brain had decided on a course of action and it was carrying it through. But she was confusing it. She sent more sensations, conflicting thoughts. Sowed seeds of doubt, and told the leviathan they’d moved, that they were behind it, that it should turn around.
The leviathan slowed. Turned. The jaw swung off to the left.
“Now!” Hami shouted, and let forth a screaming blast of lightning down the beast’s throat.
Sammy let rip too, firing directly into the mouth.
The jaws slammed shut, barely missing Indomit. The karkadann got caught in the surge of water, spinning him wide. Louis stalled, caught in the eddy, then carried on,
taking them forward. And then they were slowing.
The leviathan had stopped.
Golden Egg Cottage rose slowly from the water.
Louis pulled them up the beach. He kept going, dragging Indomit, Narok and Calven up the shore, then sunk to the ground, dropping his head to the sand.
The leviathan screamed behind them, churning the lake into foam. Sammy could feel the rage boiling off it. It roared and brought down its tail with a sound-barrier-bursting crack. She giggled nervously. They were alive!
Hami was white-faced, shaking. Mehrak, too. The strain of the journey had taken its toll on them. And when she saw Mehrak failing to keep it together, she burst into tears.
–FORTY-ONE–
ARCHIPELAGO CITY
Thousands of tiny lanterns illuminated the island. Each sat atop a pole planted in the sand surrounding the beach hut dwellings that huddled further up the beach. The huts were basic structures, fabricated from mushroom staves and braced with circular steel bands at the top and bottom like barrels. The roofs were mushroom canopies. Some were dead and dark. Sammy figured those were the sleeping quarters. Other huts had live, fully-lit mushrooms growing up through the centre. Those buildings seemed to house most of the activity, and it was out of them that islanders were cautiously exiting to come and stare. First at the strange menagerie of travellers that had washed up on their beach, and then at the leviathan writhing offshore.
“You crossed the lake,” one of the men stated as he came down the beach. “I don’t know whether to applaud your bravery or mock your foolishness.”
Indomit snorted at the man, making him jump and stumble away up the sand.
“Do whatever you feel is most appropriate,” Narok said as he jumped down and walked Indomit up the beach. He held up a hand to Calven.
Calven ignored it and leapt off himself, landing in the sand and rolling over onto his back. The sand stuck to his wet clothes, but he didn’t seem to care as he made sand angels and whooped loudly.
Leiss and Eva staggered out onto the balcony. Leiss burst into half-laughter, half-tears and scooped Eva up into a hug. Eva seemed initially startled, then beamed and hugged him back.
Hami led Sammy into the dimly lit bedroom. “We don’t want any of these people to know we’re magi,” he said as he took Victa’s staff off her.
“Why not?”
“Yeah, why not?” Mehrak asked as he followed them into the room.
“Sagus Virgil lives here, he’s an ex–master magus. He retired to these islands a number of years ago, but he’s remained on the network as a magus point of contact. It won’t be long before he finds out we’re here, if he doesn’t know already.”
Mehrak climbed onto the bed and, holding on to one of the bed posts, stood on his toes to fetch a candle from the chandelier.
He held it out to Hami.
Hami lit the candle with a fine beam from his staff orb. “Aegis will inform Master Virgil about us so he’ll be on the lookout.”
Mehrak began lighting the other candles in the chandelier from the first.
“Mehrak?” Hami asked.
Mehrak paused.
“Will you do me a favour and go out there and explain to the islanders that you were being pursued by crabmen and you had to escape across the water. Say you’ve lost several days travel because of it and now you’re in a hurry to move on. Sammy and I will remain in here while you get rid of them.”
Mehrak stopped what he was doing.
“Please.”
Mehrak climbed down and handed Hami the candle. “Fine. But can you light the other candles for me?” And he went back out onto the balcony.
There was a muffled exchange outside at which Hami rolled his eyes. He could obviously hear a lot better than Sammy could.
Mehrak came back into the tower. “All sorted. All we have to do is meet their leader Duke Boyanta, then we’re free to go.”
“We can’t do that. Master Virgil has retired from magi duty but still keeps council with the Duke. The Duke will know why we’re here. We can’t see him.”
“Well that’s going to be a problem,” Mehrak said. “Because we aren’t allowed off the islands until we’ve met him.”
“I didn’t risk our lives crossing the lake only to get captured as soon as we dragged ourselves back onto dry land,” Hami said.
“What then?”
“The islanders know we’re in a hurry. We’ll agree to see him and head towards the Duke’s island, but at speed. It won’t take long to leave these guys behind, then we’ll take a detour and escape.” Hami paused. “Although we aren’t exactly inconspicuous, are we? We’ll just have to move quickly and hope for the best.”
A horn rang out. Then another further away, and another further still.
“They’re calling ahead!” Hami said. “We’d better go.”
“Shall I tell Narok?” Mehrak asked.
“He’ll figure out what’s going on soon enough. Can you cut the rope at the back?” Hami said. “Louis! Let’s get moving.”
It still amazed Sammy how good Louis’s hearing was, as the floor pitched and Louis shakily got to his feet. She could feel his feet unsteady as he moved forward, could feel him. Her breath caught as they connected. She experienced the fatigue that racked his body as he straightened his legs, and the accumulation of each physical hardship he’d endured on the journey to get them to this point. But there was no unhappiness. When Sammy dug deeper she experienced a warmth, a contentedness that he was with his family, and that they were safe because he’d protected them. A flush of shame reminded her how often she’d taken Louis for granted as he tolerantly carried her wherever he was told. He wasn’t just their mode of transportation, their pet. He was a compassionate, intelligent creature. He was their friend.
Sammy closed the connection. Reading Louis was wrong. She made a promise to herself that she wasn’t going to invade his privacy again. He’d put up with enough from her already. Looking into his head was way beyond the line.
Golden Egg Cottage moved forward, picking up pace.
There were a few raised voices outside. Sammy guessed the islanders were complaining that they couldn’t keep up. But it wasn’t long before the clamour faded and Louis began crossing solid ground that reverberated with his footsteps. Probably the first of the bridges to the other islands.
“Can I go outside?” Sammy asked.
“Not yet,” Hami replied.
Louis’s footsteps returned to sand.
“Come on! We’re past the first island.”
Hami sighed, but didn’t say no. Which was practically a yes.
Sammy went outside.
The first several outlying islands had giant mushrooms growing in their centres. They were surrounded by huts, lanterns on poles, and beach. The further they travelled, the larger the islands became, each containing larger groups of buildings and more mushrooms. Some islands held pens and livestock. Some were devoid of houses and had fields of wheat growing under uniformly spaced lines of mushrooms that appeared to have been planted to provide light for the crops to grow.
Mehrak explained that the islands accounted for much of the agriculture in Perseopia due to being protected against crabmen attacks from the mainland by fortified gate houses, and from the lake due to the fact it was freshwater. Crabmen needed a high saline concentration, apparently. Another of Mehrak’s hugely fascinating facts.
Islanders leapt out of the way as Louis and Indomit charged past. The elderly peered out from their beach huts. Parents snatched up their children. And all were wide eyed as the alien creatures tore through their neighbourhoods.
The bigger islands had multiple bridges branching off and Hami would call out directions as they went. The terrain became rockier as they traversed the archipelago. The first of the rocky islands possessed stone outcrops between beach huts, but the further Louis went, the more these rock formations transitioned into small mountains, with mushrooms sprouting from
their peaks and dwellings clinging to their sides.
“Head to the right,” Hami called down as they reached the black shale beach of the first significantly mountainous island.
It was dark in the shadow of the shear rock faces with only small patches of mushroom light illuminating the narrow strip of beach.
They travelled around the island in near darkness until a towering mountain island came into view, linked by a stone bridge. Before the bridge sat a gatehouse complete with portcullis and guards positioned at the top.
“Keep going, Louis,” Hami said. He spoke the words softly but with urgency. “Go for the gate.”
The lookouts clearly expected challengers to rush the gatehouse from outside the archipelago, because no one reacted to Golden Egg Cottage until the top of Eggie clipped the keystone of the gatehouse archway.
The guards flew to the walls as the sound rang out, but they were too late. Louis and Indomit were halfway across the bridge when the portcullis dropped.
“Halt!” one of the men called after them. “In the name of the Duke, I command it!”
Horns were blown. Distant horns echoed back, but no one came running.
Louis led the way across the stone bridge, over the water between the two islands and up the beach, joining a narrow track carved into the side of the rock and through the mushrooms that blanketed the lower slopes of the island.
The clamour of horns had quietened by the time they left the mushroom cover and the remaining trek to the summit was a silent one. It was a long climb on uneven ground, and Louis was shaky by the time he reached the peak. He staggered to a halt at the top to catch his breath.
Below, the whole of Archipelago City lay beneath them. A glittering mosaic of light against the black lake. Each island linked to its neighbours by thin bridges, appearing string-like from the heights of the mountain as if the islands were balloons that would float away if the lines were severed.
“I can see why that magus chose to retire here,” Leiss said to no one in particular. “I think I would have done the same.”
“It’s certainly beautiful,” Eva said. “I didn’t know places like this existed in our realm.”