The Curse of the Ice Serpent

by Jon Mayhew

  ‘So you know what to do,’ Dakkar said, tying the rope around Georgia’s waist. ‘You’ll have to move quickly to the top of the disc and see if you can tip it back before you fall off.’

  ‘And if I do fall off?’ Georgia said, looking pale.

  ‘We’ll drag you back up with this rope.’ Dakkar gave a tight smile. ‘But don’t worry – you’ll be fine!’

  Georgia backed down the tunnel, pushing Tingenek aside and trying to ignore the hissing Tizheruk.

  ‘Here we go!’ she yelled, sprinting down the tunnel towards the entrance to the room.

  With a grunt, she launched herself across the floor, landing just short of its centre. Dakkar could barely watch as the disc began to tilt down but Georgia scrabbled her feet on the floor and leapt forward again so that the disc began to return to a horizontal position.

  ‘Keep going, Georgia!’ Dakkar yelled.

  The disc would begin to tilt downward again as Georgia ran for the far door. He held his breath, watching as she neared the door and the floor began to sink.

  ‘Jump!’ he shouted.

  Georgia threw herself towards the exit as the ground beneath her sank and the water sloshed up over the edge. With a groan she hit the tunnel floor on the other side.

  Dakkar hissed with relief.

  ‘Now make the rope safe!’ Tingenek shouted across.

  ‘Thanks for your concern,’ Georgia grumbled as she dragged herself to her feet.

  She pulled one of the metal spikes and a mallet out of the small pouch slung around her shoulder. The sound of metal ringing on metal echoed in the tunnels as Dakkar watched her hammer the spike into the ice some distance into the far tunnel. She crouched over the spike, fumbling with the rope, then stood up with the rest of it coiled in her hand.

  ‘You think you can catch this?’ she said, taunting Tingenek with a few false swings of the rope. Then she let it fly across the cave without warning.

  Tingenek flailed his arms out to catch it but the coils smacked him in the face.

  Dakkar felt a gun barrel pressed against his neck.

  Igaluk stared at him. ‘No wrong move,’ he said.

  Dakkar shrugged. He picked up another metal spike and began driving it into the ground on their side.

  ‘How we going to get across?’ Tingenek snorted. ‘Walk on the rope?’

  ‘No,’ Dakkar said, not pausing in his mallet blows. ‘We’re going to tie the rope hard against the ground. It’ll stretch over the floor and stop the disc from flipping over.’ He looked up and stared Tingenek in the eye. ‘I hope.’

  He tied the other end of the rope securely, stood up and threw the remaining length across to Georgia, who tied it again on her side. Soon there were three lengths of rope stretched across the cave floor.

  Dakkar stepped on to the disc and watched as the other end rose up. The rope creaked as it went taut but it held as the disc pressed against it. He took another step but Tingenek barged past him, making the rope stretch and groan ominously.

  ‘You go after Igaluk but before Onartok,’ Tingenek said, striding across the room without looking down at the vibrating rope. He gave a little skip as he leapt into the doorway and next to Georgia.

  Igaluk shambled over after Tingenek without seeming concerned – he even gave the rope a little tap with his foot.

  ‘You need to be careful,’ Dakkar called over to him. The sharp glass edges of the disc were gradually sawing at the fibres of the rope as it vibrated to and fro.

  ‘No. You need to be careful.’ Onartok laughed, giving Dakkar a shove to the floor.

  The disc shivered as Dakkar inched across it. He could see loose strands of rope poking out from the main braid that held the floor level. Beneath him the dark shapes of the sharks swirled and circled in the water. Taking a breath, he half ran, half jumped across, Georgia grabbing him as he reached the threshold of the door.

  Onartok stood at the other entrance, completely dwarfed by the Tizheruk that filled the tunnel behind him. The creature swayed its head, eyes still fixed on Dakkar, twitching its tail like an angry cat. Onartok stepped on to the floor and began walking slowly across. Igaluk called something that was obviously insulting and laughed. Onartok ignored him, watching his feet.

  ‘Hurry!’ Georgia cried as more of the rope twanged and unwound.

  Onartok took three rapid steps then the rope gave a vicious snap and flew up into the air. The disc slid up behind Onartok, sending him slithering down into the hole. His scream ended abruptly as he hit the bubbling water. Then the floor closed over him.

  Dakkar leapt forward but Tingenek grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

  Onartok broke the surface once, thumping on the glass that sealed his escape, gave a muffled cry and then vanished again in a cloud of crimson blood.

  The Tizheruk had been held back long enough. Onartok’s death and the scent of blood pushed the creature into a frenzy. It coiled forward across the room towards Dakkar.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  DEATH COUNT

  ‘Tingenek, stop that thing!’ Dakkar yelled, backing away from the charging serpent.

  But it was clear that Tingenek had lost control. The Inuit shouted and waved his hands, but the Tizheruk rose up with a deafening hiss, ready to strike. The floor began to tilt under it. The Tizheruk swung its head to and fro in confusion and snapped at the air as it slithered down the inclining floor into the splashing water.

  The floor closed over the thrashing serpent but it carried on thumping and smashing against the hard glass. The floor flew up once, exposing the Tizheruk with the brown body of a Greenland shark in its teeth. Then the disc slammed shut and stayed closed at a slight angle.

  ‘It’s snapped the axle,’ Dakkar said, pointing to the crooked floor. ‘That won’t open again. You’ve lost your pet.’

  Tingenek produced a pistol from within his coat and pulled back the hammer. ‘Tomasz still outside with your friend, Dakkar,’ he said. ‘We carry on.’ But his voice wavered and Dakkar thought he looked pale.

  The tunnels twisted a little further until they came to another chamber similar to the last one. This time, however, a grid had been drawn on to the ground with a number in each box.

  ‘I don’t think it’s another false floor,’ Dakkar said. ‘But what do these numbers mean?’

  ‘Look up there.’ Georgia pointed to the far side of the room above the opposite door. A small wooden sign hung there. ‘It says something.’

  It’s forty in English

  but cinq in French

  and more

  ‘What can that mean?’ Dakkar wondered. ‘It seems familiar somehow.’

  ‘Doesn’t make sense,’ Tingenek grumbled, poking his nose into the room but not stepping through the entrance.

  ‘Maybe it’s a code,’ Georgia said. ‘Perhaps each letter means something – maybe a number.’

  ‘The numbers aren’t in order,’ Dakkar said, looking over the squares. ‘But the highest number, one hundred, is by the other door there – look.’

  They stood staring at the floor. Dakkar couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew the answer. It flitted around the corners of his mind, just out of reach. Tingenek and Igaluk slumped against the wall in the tunnel, heaving the occasional sigh and then jumping up to pace back and forth.

  ‘Have you worked it out yet?’ Tingenek said at last.

  ‘Maybe,’ Dakkar said, not taking his eyes off the numbers. ‘But it takes time. This room requires a little more brainpower …’

  ‘Brainpower.’ Tingenek snorted and took a step into the room, planting his foot on the square with a number five carved into it. Nothing happened. ‘See?’ he said, taking another step on to a number eight.

  The stone tile sank a little and a metallic clink echoed around the chamber. Tingenek looked back at Dakkar, wide-eyed.

  ‘Don’t move,’ Dakkar said. He could hear cogs whirring behind the walls. He turned to Igaluk. ‘Don’t you move either …’

  Igaluk stared at h
im through dead eyes. A wicked spear had sprung from the wall and its tip protruded from the man’s chest, keeping him standing. Blood spread through the furs he wore and dripped to the floor. Dakkar gave a yell and fell back into Georgia, almost knocking her into the room. For a moment they stared in horror at the dead man.

  ‘Don’t look any more,’ Dakkar said eventually, pulling Georgia away and focusing on the wobbling Tingenek. ‘Very ingenious. Each of those square tiles must set off a spike in the walls, killing the people waiting to cross.’

  ‘That’s horrible,’ Georgia said.

  ‘Except tile number five didn’t set off a trap,’ Dakkar said. ‘Five in French is cinq.’

  ‘Right,’ Georgia said, her voice strained and dry. ‘Is this a good time for a language lesson?’

  ‘Forty is the only number in English whose letters run alphabetically. The letters in the word cinq are in alphabetical order too,’ Dakkar said. ‘C precedes I, which precedes N, which precedes Q, see? The safe tiles have numbers whose letters are in alphabetical order when you spell them in French. We just have to figure out which ones they are.’

  ‘Right,’ Georgia said. ‘I think I know what you mean but there are a hundred tiles out there!’

  ‘I bet there aren’t that many,’ Dakkar said, peering out.

  The sight of Igaluk behind Dakkar and Georgia made Tingenek nearly fall over. He wobbled, trying to keep his balance. ‘Shall I jump back?’ he said.

  ‘No.’ Dakkar pointed to the next tile a few feet ahead of him. ‘Jump to that one – number ten, dix in French.’

  ‘You better be right,’ Tingenek said.

  ‘I’ve a feeling we’ll be more sorry than you if I’m wrong,’ Dakkar muttered, eyeing the walls nervously.

  Tingenek jumped and managed to land his fur boots on the number ten.

  ‘How about eleven?’ Georgia said, frowning.

  ‘Onze. No,’ Dakkar said. ‘Number two is next – deux. Can you see it, Tingenek?’

  Tingenek nodded. ‘It miles away.’ But he leapt and managed to scramble on to it.

  ‘The last one is by the door,’ Dakkar said. ‘Cent, a hundred. You should be safe then.’

  Tingenek hopped to tile one hundred and then leapt into the exit, heaving a sigh of relief.

  ‘Come on, Georgia. You next,’ Dakkar said, pointing at the first tile. Georgia leapt on to it and then the next easily, with Dakkar following.

  Tingenek waited for them, his pistol still drawn. ‘We carry on.’

  ‘You don’t need the gun, Tingenek,’ Dakkar sighed, pushing the barrel away. ‘Tomasz has our friend out there. Right now we should work together.’

  ‘Don’t you realise there’s a reason that Tomasz sent you down here?’ Georgia said. ‘You’re expendable. He doesn’t care if you live or die. You said yourself, “never trust an Oginski”, didn’t you?’

  Tingenek nodded and looked sorry for himself. ‘I worked for Borys first.’ He shook his head. ‘We carried so much. Mechanical things, cables, pulleys. Everything for traps. Then Borys sent me away. But Tomasz knew. He made me work for him.’

  ‘You could have turned the Tizheruk on him,’ Dakkar murmured. ‘Like you did to Sergeant Baines and his men.’

  ‘Oginskis are hard to kill,’ Tingenek said, his voice rising with fear. ‘You don’t know. Tomasz has more control over Tizheruk than me. I tell you, all Oginskis are mad dogs.’

  ‘I never felt compelled to do their dirty work,’ Dakkar said, curling his lip and turning away.

  ‘Sometimes you not know whose dirty work you’re doing,’ Tingenek muttered after him.

  Two simple tripwires blocked their way a little further down the tunnel. Dakkar cut them carefully and watched two blades swing uselessly into the path ahead.

  The light didn’t dim, staying constant despite the absence of torches or lamps.

  ‘Mirrors must reflect what little daylight there is through these,’ Georgia suggested, pointing to the circular holes in the ceiling. ‘Clever.’

  ‘Borys went to a lot of trouble to build this place,’ Dakkar said, frowning as they walked on. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘He wanted to protect the Thermolith,’ Georgia said with a shrug. ‘He seems to have done a good job.’

  ‘But this is so elaborate,’ Dakkar said. ‘Why not just bury the Heart and then destroy it at a later date? It’s almost as if …’

  ‘As if what?’ Georgia said, rolling her eyes.

  ‘As if he wanted us to get it,’ Dakkar said. He gave a little laugh at the idea.

  Georgia sighed. ‘Dakkar, you always have to look for a more complicated answer than the one that’s staring you in the face. Borys had just about enough time to hide the Heart of Vulcan, so he protected it. Maybe he thought he’d tell you about it himself then come and get it? Who knows?’

  ‘Another room.’ Tingenek nodded to the doorway at the end of the tunnel.

  The room had two exits apart from the one in which they stood. One led to a tunnel that stretched off into shadow. The other, next to it, opened on to another chamber, lit by a warm glow. A sign above this entrance declared:

  ONLY ONE DOOR, LEFT.

  ‘There it is,’ Tingenek said, hurrying towards the doorway. ‘That warmth. It is Thermolith!’

  ‘Tingenek, wait!’ Dakkar shouted. ‘That door is on our right. The sign, it says …’

  Dakkar tried to drag Tingenek back but he was out of reach and stepping through the doorway. Something swept past the door, displacing the air and making a heavy whooshing sound. Tingenek gave a startled scream. He was smashed aside like a rag doll by something solid and weighty, then vanished from sight.

  Georgia and Dakkar hurried forward to the edge of the door. The heavy object swept past again, making them flinch back. Dakkar glimpsed Tingenek’s shattered body smashed against the far wall.

  ‘It’s a giant pendulum,’ Georgia whispered, looking pale and shocked. ‘Swinging back and forth across the door. He should have listened.’

  ‘Borys counted on our weariness to let us down,’ Dakkar said heavily. ‘Seeing the glow of the Thermolith clouded Tingenek’s judgement.’

  ‘I wish I could say he got what he deserved,’ Georgia said, ‘but I don’t feel like that. This whole place is hor­­rible. If Borys wanted to turn his back on evil ways, why make such a wicked place?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Dakkar sighed. ‘Maybe he thought he could fight evil with evil?’

  ‘Who’d have thought a simple comma could make the difference between life or death?’ Georgia said quietly.

  They walked down the other tunnel in silence. It curved round and doubled back on itself then ran straight for what seemed like ages. All Dakkar could hear was their breathing and the echo of their fur boots slapping on the floor.

  The tunnel opened out into a huge chamber. Dakkar and Georgia exhaled in unison as they took in the awesome sight.

  The roof of the cavern stretched high above them, vanishing into shadow. A black lake filled the centre of the cavern and a warm, red light spilled from a small island at the heart of the lake. The glassy walls reflected the ruby glow, illuminating the water and the cavern, making it feel warmer than it actually was. In the far corner they could see the pendulum, like a giant’s hammer swinging back and forth across the tiny entrance. Tingenek’s body looked small and distant against the wall.

  ‘The Heart of Vulcan must be on that island,’ Dakkar said, dragging his eyes away from the pendulum.

  They hurried across to the lake. A small, wooden raft big enough for three people lay at the water’s edge.

  ‘There’s our way across to the island,’ Dakkar said, giving the raft a tap with his foot.

  ‘The water’s warm!’ Georgia said, dabbling her fingertips into the glassy water. Ripples pooled out and lapped on the distant island, echoing around the cavern.

  ‘It might not be wise to put your hand in the water,’ Dakkar said. ‘This place could still be full of traps.’


  ‘You’re right,’ she said, pulling her hand away quickly. ‘How do we get across the water?’

  A sudden splash ahead of them stopped Dakkar’s answer in his throat. The black water boiled and frothed as white coils rose to the surface, then it exploded and a huge snout burst up into the air above them.

  ‘The Tizheruk!’ Georgia screamed as the huge, hissing serpent shot up out of the lake.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  RAGE AND REVENGE

  The Tizheruk stabbed its long head at Dakkar, who hopped back, windmilling his arms as he tried not to fall into the water. He grabbed a knife from his belt and slashed at the creature.

  ‘How did it get here?’ Georgia said, pulling her own blade from its scabbard. ‘I thought it had fallen into the pit.’

  ‘The pit and this lake must be connected!’ Dakkar yelled.

  The Tizheruk jabbed its long snout forward again and Dakkar managed to cut a line across its nose, making the creature hiss and pull back.

  ‘It doesn’t look pleased to see us, that’s for sure!’ Georgia said, stabbing with her own dagger.

  The Tizheruk glided around them and swung towards Georgia, opening its mouth wide. At the same time a tail snaked over the edge of the lake and swept Dakkar off his feet. He fell with a thump on the icy floor.

  The Tizheruk bit down at Georgia. With a scream, she rolled sideways as the Tizheruk’s long snout and teeth grazed the ice where she had stood. Dakkar leapt forward but the Tizheruk’s tail sent him reeling back. He watched in horror as it snapped at Georgia again and again, pushing her against a rocky outcrop. The creature gave a triumphant hiss and closed in on Georgia, who stood with her dagger trembling in her hand.

  Georgia gave a yell of defiance and stabbed at the Tizheruk’s snout. It pulled back slightly and then jabbed forward, knocking Georgia against the rock. She slid to the floor stunned.

  Dakkar stood helplessly, his knife in his hand. Georgia was his friend. He couldn’t let her die. He thought of Oginski falling from the castle, Baines and his men disappearing in the storm. He thought of Tingenek and his hunters slain mercilessly in the tunnels of this place and a cold fury built up inside him. His heart pounded and he gritted his teeth.