The Curse of the Ice Serpent

by Jon Mayhew

  ‘But they rose up and overthrew him,’ Dakkar added. ‘Their king, the Shoal Lord of Qualarium, declared us friends of the Qualar. They would never work against us.’

  ‘There’s a similar race of mermen,’ Borys said, taking a sip of port. ‘The Inuit natives of Greenland call them Qalupalik. They’re small and primitive – but vicious. They rely on their strength of numbers to overcome larger enemies. Tomasz has them under his control.’

  ‘If they’re out there,’ Dakkar muttered, wandering over to the window and peering out into the gloomy twilight, ‘the seas aren’t safe.’

  ‘Tomasz won’t give up,’ Borys said, narrowing his eyes. ‘Not until he has captured me and found the Thermolith.’

  ‘Then we should get the first punch in,’ Georgia said. ‘These mermen are another reason why we should go and get the Thermolith before Tomasz does.’

  ‘I have a map showing where the Heart of Vulcan is hidden,’ Borys said and hurried out of the study up to his room.

  A few moments later, he returned with a rolled-up tube. Slapping it down on the table, he unfurled it. Dakkar wrinkled his nose at the musty, faintly rotten smell.

  ‘It’s drawn on deer hide,’ Borys said with an apologetic smile. ‘I had to improvise in my haste.’ He traced his finger over the crudely drawn lines. ‘This is the port of Guthaven. I suggest we sail there first. The cave is several days’ march from the port.’

  ‘We’re going to have a battle to get through the seas if Tomasz has control of such monsters,’ Oginski said.

  ‘Then let us master another element,’ Borys said, raising his glass as if proposing a toast. ‘Let us conquer the skies!’

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE APPROACHING STORM

  The following weeks became a dizzying whirl of activity. Oginski and Dakkar thought Borys had gone mad when he first showed them what he proposed.

  ‘How can the Nautilus fly?’ Oginski scoffed. ‘She’s a seagoing vessel and too heavy for the skies.’

  ‘Such a closed mind, Frank,’ Borys had replied. ‘Didn’t I fly here? Besides, I’m not suggesting we transform the Nautilus into an aircraft, merely that we increase her capability.’

  Borys unrolled some plans that had lain hidden in the map tube.

  Oginski’s jaw fell slack as he looked at them. ‘But … but this is the Nautilus,’ he stuttered. ‘Where did you get such detailed plans?’

  ‘They were salvaged from the ruins of Kazmer’s volcanic base.’ Borys grinned. ‘You should have tidied up after yourselves. We picked this up off the ocean bed in a watertight tube.’

  ‘And you adapted them to …’

  ‘To turn the Nautilus into a flying machine!’ Borys beamed then his face fell. ‘I brought them here as a token of goodwill. I could have left them with Tomasz.’

  ‘Then let’s find what we need and get cracking,’ Oginski said, clapping his hands.

  After a hurried visit to the nearest town for tarpaulin, sailcloth, twine and all manner of strange equipment, Dakkar and Georgia found themselves stitching and gluing sections of oiled cloth for hours on end.

  ‘I’m an engineer, not a seamstress,’ Dakkar hissed, flexing his numbed fingers after one particularly hard session.

  ‘I’m with you there,’ Georgia muttered, sucking her pinpricked thumb. ‘I’d rather be working on the Nautilus down in the caves with Oginski.’

  ‘That worries me too,’ Dakkar muttered. ‘I’m still not sure about our friend Borys yet Oginski works so closely with him.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Georgia said, wincing as she pricked her finger. ‘But if we’re gonna stop Tomasz from getting the Heart of Vulcan and ruling the world, we have to go along with him.’

  Soon Dakkar and Georgia were called to help move huge lengths of piping, to solder and cut, hammer and tighten nuts and bolts. Oginski appeared to have forgotten that only a few days ago he was standing guard outside Borys’s room. Borys seemed happy for Oginski to lead the modifications to the Nautilus using his plans, waving any of Oginski’s queries away.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Borys said. ‘Do you think it will work?’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Oginski replied. ‘I just thought I’d check.’

  ‘You’re the genius, Frank.’ Borys would smile, handing the plans back.

  Dakkar watched uneasily as Oginski became more and more fixated on the work.

  ‘Blood is thicker than water, Dakkar,’ Borys said one day as they sat stitching more lengths of silk and canvas. ‘Franciszek knows in his heart that we are allies now.’

  Dakkar said nothing but continued to tug at the seam he sewed.

  ‘Frank trusts me,’ Borys continued. ‘Even if you don’t.’

  Mealtimes were hurried and Dakkar tried to talk to Oginski about Borys but he was always close by. Finally, when Dakkar did manage to take his mentor to one side, he was clearly distracted.

  ‘There isn’t time for this, Dakkar,’ Oginski had said dismissively, frowning at him. ‘Tomasz is coming. Time is of the essence. We must strike first!’

  ‘If you’re expecting Tomasz to attack us,’ Dakkar said, ‘can’t we call on Cutter and his men?’

  ‘If it comes to it, I will,’ Oginski said with an impatient wave of his hand. ‘But we must concentrate on modifying the Nautilus first.’

  ‘I’ve never seen him so intense,’ Georgia whispered as Oginski stalked back down to the cavern to help his brother. ‘He’s like a man possessed.’

  Once they had finished the sewing and stitching, Dakkar and Georgia had to coat each sheet with a molten rubber solution. It was hot and smelly work. Dakkar often felt dizzy and nauseous and had to take regular fresh-air breaks.

  ‘This is worse than the sewing,’ he complained to Georgia.

  Finally, they found themselves down in the Nautilus fitting a small furnace into the engine room. It reminded Dakkar of the black stove that glowed away in the kitchen. Pipes ran from the furnace and disappeared into the hollow hull of the craft. Outside, wooden pods housed the fabric they had spent so long stitching.

  ‘The furnace is specially designed to superheat the air through those pipes,’ Borys explained. ‘To begin with, gas in the pods will fill the balloons that you’ve made. Then we shall use a mixture of hot air and gas. If our calculations are correct, the balloons should be able to lift the Nautilus high into the sky.’

  ‘If your calculations are correct?’ Dakkar said, frowning. ‘What if it all blows up in our faces?’

  Borys gave a shrug and a grimace. ‘The furnace and the pipes will also heat the Nautilus,’ he said, hurriedly distracting Dakkar from his doubts. ‘We’ve insulated the sub’s walls with a thin layer of duck down. The icy waters of the Arctic won’t chill us!’

  ‘But how will you stop the furnace from using up all the oxygen in the Nautilus?’ Dakkar said, undeterred.

  ‘You are a clever young man. The furnace is so efficient that it uses very little oxygen,’ Oginski said. ‘In addition, this device helps!’ He pointed to a box on top of the furnace. The box had windows cut into it that were covered in steel mesh. Dakkar could see a white powder inside.

  ‘Saltpetre?’ Dakkar said, recognising the powder.

  ‘When heated, it absorbs the stale air that we breathe out and gives off fresh oxygen,’ Borys said. ‘With this, we can reuse the air we breathe.’

  ‘But we’ll still have to refresh our air supply from outside at regular intervals,’ Georgia said, narrowing her eyes.

  ‘Of course,’ Borys murmured, looking a little crestfallen. ‘It’s not perfect.’

  ‘And what’s this for?’ Georgia asked, holding up a steel spike with a handle on one end.

  ‘Fish or fowl,’ Borys grinned, patting his ample belly. ‘Anything we can slide on to it and cook over the flames of the furnace!’

  ‘Enough of this,’ Oginski said impatiently. ‘Are we going to stand around debating the merits of this and that, or are we going to finish the work and get ready to test her?’
/>   Later that night, Dakkar stood at the top of the castle, peering out to sea. Georgia stood next to him.

  ‘I’m exhausted,’ she said, leaning on the battlements that lined the edge of the roof. ‘Oginski says that the modifications are done and we can test her tomorrow.’

  ‘He seems so feverish, so eager to begin this quest,’ Dakkar said. ‘Yet he was the most sceptical when Borys first appeared. I don’t understand why he’s changed.’

  ‘Maybe he’s realised,’ Georgia pointed out.

  ‘Realised what?’

  ‘That Tomasz isn’t going to leave us alone while we’re harbouring Borys,’ Georgia said, pulling her coat closer about her. ‘And that the sooner we find the Thermolith, the sooner we can be rid of both of them.’

  ‘You could be right …’ Dakkar began. ‘Shh! Listen!’

  ‘What?’ Georgia whispered. ‘I can’t hear anything.’

  ‘There,’ Dakkar hissed. Above the rumble of the waves against the cliffs and the buffeting of the wind there came a shrill screech like a seabird, but Dakkar could have sworn it sounded like words.

  ‘You’ve got the hearing of a bloodhound,’ Georgia smiled. ‘And the common sense. There’s nothing there. Maybe just gulls or something.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Dakkar shrugged. ‘But I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Georgia said, shivering a little.

  ‘I don’t see why Oginski doesn’t just call for Cutter,’ Dakkar said. He looked out into the darkness.

  ‘From what you’ve said, Cutter’s men aren’t reliable,’ Georgia replied. ‘They’d protect Oginski but would let Tomasz take Borys if they had to.’

  ‘I hate just sitting here, waiting,’ Dakkar said, slapping his hand on the stone wall.

  ‘You see? Oginski isn’t the only one who’s impatient,’ Georgia said, turning to go downstairs. ‘Come on – time to get some sleep.’

  Dakkar followed her but another noise made him freeze on the spot. This time a whisper drifted up from the darkness. He ran back to the edge of the roof and stared over. All he could see were the black outlines of the outhouses and the distant horizon.

  ‘I’m sure there’s someone down there,’ he muttered.

  ‘Dakkar, what are you doing?’ Georgia snapped as he barged past her and down the stairs.

  ‘Come with me,’ he hissed. ‘And grab a rifle.’

  The building was cloaked in darkness apart from the odd oil lamp sitting in a wall alcove and on the table in the main hall. Georgia and Dakkar snatched up a rifle each from the rack that stood at the bottom of the stairs and hurriedly loaded them.

  ‘What did you hear?’ Georgia whispered, ramming the bullet down the barrel and cocking the hammer.

  Dakkar put a finger to his lips and pointed his other hand to the front door.

  As if to answer Georgia’s question, a sharp hissing echoed around the shadowy hall. She pulled back the hammer of her rifle and inched forward.

  Dakkar’s eyes widened as he realised that the hissing was continuous, not like the hissing of a snake … more like the hissing of a fuse.

  ‘It’s a bomb!’ he yelled.

  Dakkar hurled himself at Georgia, bundling her through the door of Oginski’s study and landing in a heap on the carpet.

  The roar of the explosion filled the hall, accompanied by the rending of wood and metal as the planks of the door crashed inwards, bounced across the hall and smashed into the table. Smoke and flame consumed the hallway.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  INVASION!

  The rumble of the explosion died, leaving a buzzing in Dakkar’s ears. Muffled footsteps echoed in the gutted hall. Orders were shouted. Men hurried through the fog of brick dust and smoke – dressed in black uniform with the Cryptos emblem emblazoned on the shoulder.

  ‘Tomasz’s men!’ Georgia whispered, scrambling to her feet and retrieving her rifle.

  Dakkar leapt up after her, gripping her shoulder.

  ‘Wait!’ he hissed. ‘If you run out there all guns blazing, you’ll be dead in seconds!’

  ‘What do you suggest?’

  ‘This.’ Dakkar grinned, producing another small clockwork dog. ‘It’s a flash bomb. It’ll stun anyone in that hall and give us a chance to find Oginski. He can’t have missed that explosion, no matter how busy he is down in the cave!’

  Georgia nodded her agreement.

  Dakkar wound the toy dog up, setting it on the floor. It waddled out of Oginski’s study and into the hall. The smoke and dust had begun to thin and Dakkar counted at least six men in the hall. One looked down as the dog approached.

  ‘Cover your eyes and ears,’ Dakkar said, ducking behind a sofa with Georgia.

  ‘What the …?’ the guard began, but his words were lost in the second explosion.

  Even with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears, Dakkar could hear the boom and see the flash. He blinked once and hurried out into the hall, followed by Georgia.

  Men lay groaning on the floor, stunned by the blast of the explosives hidden in the toy dog.

  ‘Clever.’ Georgia grinned but then yelped as a rifle ball smacked into the wall right next to Dakkar.

  More guards appeared at the wrecked doorway.

  Georgia ran up the stairs on their right and Dakkar followed.

  ‘Why did you come up here?’ Dakkar said, chasing her two steps at a time.

  ‘It’s narrow and we have the advantage of height,’ Georgia panted.

  Dakkar glanced back. The guards peered cautiously after them.

  ‘But we’re trapped now!’ he groaned, hurling his empty rifle down at the men.

  A loud explosion above Dakkar and Georgia made them start. Together they ran up another flight of stairs, only to be met by more smoke.

  ‘That came from the roof,’ Georgia said. ‘They’ve set fire to it!’

  They stood on the second floor landing now, smoke billowing in from above and the Cryptos Guard shouting at the foot of the stairs. The men knew that Dakkar and Georgia had nowhere to run.

  ‘Follow me,’ Dakkar said, darting into his bedroom and over to the window.

  The night was lit up by the blaze above them. Dakkar could see as if it were daylight. Black-clad guards hurried between the outhouses that dotted the tower’s grounds. With a gasp, they noticed three balloons floating, pale and ghostly, in the sky. Something flared in one of the baskets and a streak of sparks shot from it.

  ‘They’re firing rockets into the tower,’ Dakkar murmured. ‘The castle will be a pile of rubble if we don’t stop them.’ Another blast shook the tower as he spoke. ‘We have to get down!’

  ‘Do you have any rope?’ Georgia said, gripping his arm.

  ‘Yes, I always keep a supply of rope hidden in my wardrobe for just such an eventuality,’ Dakkar said, stepping away from the window.

  ‘There’s no need to be sarcastic,’ Georgia began. ‘I just thought that maybe –’

  ‘I’m not being sarcastic,’ Dakkar said, grinning despite the chaos that surrounded them. ‘I do have some rope. It’s long enough for us to get out of the window here. I used it all the time when I was younger – I was always running away from Oginski.’

  He opened the wooden wardrobe and rummaged in the contents at the bottom, pulling out several boxes and, finally, a rope.

  ‘There’s ammunition in the small boxes there,’ he said as he uncoiled the rope and tied one end to the bed. ‘And another rifle. You give me covering fire as I descend then I’ll cover you.’

  ‘All right,’ Georgia said, loading her rifle while Dakkar threw open the little window.

  ‘It’s a bit of a squeeze,’ he grunted, climbing on to the sill. ‘I’m a bit bigger than when I used to slide out of here in the middle of the night.’

  The outhouses were on fire now and dark figures flitted between them. Another explosion lit up the night sky and punctuated the crackling and snapping that came from the blazing roof above.

&n
bsp; Georgia passed him the rifle and the powder and shot in a small satchel. Dakkar gave her a grin and, gripping the rope with both hands, began to walk his way backward down the side of the castle. His heart pounded. Nobody has spotted me yet but it’s only a matter of time!

  No sooner had Dakkar thought this than a bullet smacked into the stone next to his shoulder. He looked down to see one of Tomasz’s men reloading his musket. A shot from the window above sent the man slumping to the ground, clutching his arm.

  Dakkar half slid and half fell down the remaining distance as a second guard raised his gun. Using his downward momentum, Dakkar released the rope and landed feet first on the guard’s head, sending him sprawling to the ground, unconscious. He snatched up the man’s rifle and spun round, scanning for any threats.

  Georgia inched out of the window and began her descent. A rifle shot cracked beside to her, this time from a hot-air balloon that floated close to the blazing roof.

  Raising the rifle to his shoulder, Dakkar aimed at the guard in the balloon’s basket and fired. His shot missed but struck something else inside the basket. A tongue of flame leapt into the air and Dakkar could hear cries of alarm. The balloon began to lose height, drifting towards the roof of the castle.

  Dakkar watched in horror as the balloon became engulfed in the inferno of the castle. Men screamed and jumped from the basket only to plummet to the hard ground.

  ‘I didn’t mean for that –’ he began.

  ‘No time, Dax,’ Georgia said, landing beside him and grabbing his arm. ‘We can get back into the castle through the kitchen door. Maybe we can sneak into the cave and get to Oginski.’

  They hurried around the side of the tower and through the back door. The kitchen lay dark and cool. It was almost as if nothing was happening outside. The thick walls muffled the sounds but the acrid smoke scented the air and the spit and pop of guns and rockets still drifted in through the cracked windows.

  ‘Quickly!’ Georgia said.

  They rushed for the door to Oginski’s workshop and threw themselves inside.

  Dakkar scanned the workshop. The familiar clutter of cogs, springs, levers and old plans all remained untouched but the door to the sea cave was open.