by Jon Mayhew
‘I’m sick of this,’ Dakkar growled. ‘I’m sick of losing anyone I care about. I’m sick of being chased. I’m sick of things trying to eat me. I’ve had enough! Do you hear me?’
With a howl that would have put a polar bear to flight, Dakkar launched himself on to the coils of the serpent. He sank the blade deep into its furred body, pulling it out and stabbing again, using the knife to climb up the snake towards its head.
The snake gave a maddened hiss and writhed around, trying to shake Dakkar off. Dakkar’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the handle of the knife, slamming it back into the body of the snake, climbing closer.
Blood slicked the matted fur now and the snake tried to turn right round to meet Dakkar’s attack but he stabbed the serpent in the eye. With an agonised squeal, the Tizheruk lurched round, sending Dakkar whirling across the cavern and crashing against the wall. The snake reared up and plunged down on top of him. Dakkar just had time to raise his knife and screw his eyes shut.
He felt the Tizheruk’s teeth tearing at the thick skin of his coat as if it were paper. A putrid, wet warmth engulfed his head, shoulders and arms, and he felt a pressure around his chest as he was lifted up. He stabbed forward into soft tissue again and again. Hot liquid gushed over him, stinging his eyes, choking him. Dakkar felt weightless. He felt the ground disappear as he rose up in the snake’s mouth.
Pain lanced through his ribs and shoulders as the snake tried to bite down, but suddenly Dakkar fell free, landing hard on the icy floor of the cavern.
Opening his eyes, he saw the Tizheruk above him, glassy eyed and swaying. Then it fell towards him. Summoning all his energy, Dakkar threw himself to one side, curling into a ball as the dead snake fell to the ground with a disgusting, wet thud.
For a moment, only the sloshing of the water could be heard as the serpent, still half in the water, twitched its tail once or twice, then lay still. Georgia appeared above him.
‘Dakkar, are you all right?’ she said, shaking his shoulders. ‘Eew!’ She let him drop back and he banged his head on the ground. Georgia put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh! Sorry, but you’re covered in snake blood!’
‘Ouch.’ Dakkar groaned, dragging himself to his feet. He gave the dead Tizheruk a savage kick in the snout and shuffled to the edge of the lake. ‘And don’t mention it.’
‘Mention what?’ Georgia gave a tight smile.
‘Me saving your life.’ Dakkar grinned back. He dragged the raft up out of the water and inspected it more closely. ‘This has runners on it too,’ he said, wincing at the ache in his muscles. ‘It’s a sledge as well as a raft.’
‘Do you think the water’s safe?’ Georgia said, staring at the black surface.
‘Hard to say,’ Dakkar murmured. ‘But I’ll bet the Tizheruk will have killed or frightened off whatever there was in the water to get here. It looks quite shallow so hopefully it’s too shallow for sharks.’
They paddled the raft across the lake, pushing away the floating coils of the dead serpent that lay half out of the water. The heat became stifling as they paddled nearer to the island and Dakkar had to squint against the harsh red glow from its centre. A square stone sarcophagus sat at the heart of the glow.
‘The Thermolith must be in there,’ Georgia said, pulling off her fur jacket as they got closer. ‘It’s so hot. I can hardly bear it.’
The water grew shallower and the raft scraped along the side of the island. Two rails poked out of the shingle and Dakkar eased the raft towards them, gliding it into position between the two rails with a loud click.
‘The rails lead up to that stone box,’ Dakkar said. ‘They must be for moving the Thermolith around.’
Dakkar could feel his eyebrows singeing and his skin burning as they approached the stone box. A brilliant orange and red light burned within. It was like looking into a furnace. The air they breathed burned their throats and lungs now that they were so close to the Heart of Vulcan. The fur inside Dakkar’s jacket was soaked with sweat and a foul-smelling steam rose off it.
Maybe this is why Borys’s protection is so easy to get around, he thought. The Thermolith kills you on its own.
‘We need to cover the box,’ Georgia said. ‘We can’t stand that heat for long.’
Dakkar pointed to a rectangle of stone that lay on the ground. ‘That looks like a lid. Can you get one end of it?’
He grunted as they lifted the heavy lid between them. Sweat trickled down his neck and back. Georgia’s face grew red as they heaved the slab up on to the edge of the box.
A grating sound of stone on stone filled the cavern as they slid the lid across the top of the box. It was like turning off an oil lamp. The cavern became dull and gloomy and the suffocating heat evaporated. Dakkar and Georgia slumped, panting, to the ground.
‘I could … hardly … breathe,’ Georgia panted.
Dakkar dragged himself to his feet. ‘Help me get this on to the raft,’ he said, equally breathless. ‘Let’s get it outside.’
They pushed the stone box and it slid easily along the rails, although the heat of the Thermolith scorched them even through the stone and their gloves.
‘It moves so effortlessly,’ Georgia said as it rolled on to the raft.
‘It’s on metal rollers,’ Dakkar observed. He shook his head. ‘All too easy.’
‘Three men have died,’ Georgia said, looking appalled at Dakkar.
‘I know but we’re still alive,’ he said. ‘If you’d designed these traps, wouldn’t you have made them a bit deadlier?’
‘I’m not wicked enough to think up traps like these,’ Georgia said, looking disgusted. ‘I wouldn’t know.’
A distant boom above and a loud crack made them start. A huge shard of ice crashed into the lake. Water began to trickle down from the roof of the cave.
‘The cavern is collapsing,’ Georgia said. ‘Is that tricky enough for you?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE COLLAPSING CAVE
‘We must have tripped something when we moved the Thermolith,’ Dakkar said, staring back at the space where the Heart of Vulcan had rested. ‘Of course! Why destroy the Thermolith when you can use it to draw your enemy in and bury him with it?’
‘Can we go now?’ Georgia said, leaping on to the raft.
Dakkar followed her and pushed the raft away from the shore.
More shards of ice and rock tumbled from above, splashing into the lake and rocking the raft so that Dakkar feared the Thermolith might slide off into the water.
They bumped against land and pushed the Heart of Vulcan off the raft. It slid easily across the slick ice but the water cascading from above made them slip as they pushed it at breakneck speed towards the door.
‘The pendulum door!’ Dakkar yelled. ‘It’s a short cut. We won’t have time to get out if we go the longer way!’
‘But we’ll be crushed!’ Georgia replied above the constant rumbling around them.
‘Not if we time it,’ he said. ‘We can watch the swinging from this side. It won’t take us by surprise.’
They hurtled towards the pendulum doorway, the sledge gaining pace as the runners cut into the icy floor.
‘This thing is developing a life of its own!’ Georgia shouted.
She dug her heels into the ground and was almost pulled from the sledge. The ground hissed by in a blur of white.
‘Try and slow it down,’ Dakkar said from the other side of the sledge.
‘I just did and nearly came off,’ Georgia snapped back. ‘That door is coming up pretty fast!’
Dakkar’s heart thudded. The wall was dangerously close and the pendulum had reached its apex and begun its descent.
‘Get ready to leap off if we have to,’ Dakkar said, crouching low against the side of the stone box. ‘It’s going to be a close shave!’
Rock and ice chunks rained down on them, crashing into the floor and kicking up a mist of ice particles. The doorway became wider and wider as it drew close and Dakkar could see the huge steel
hammer swinging down.
We’ve got to stop – we’ll never make it!
Dakkar slammed his feet into the ground but the sledge, powered by the weight of the Thermolith, had a momentum of its own. He gave a yelp. The cave flipped over and he found himself clinging to the back of the sledge and being dragged along on his stomach. Meltwater and fragments of ice splattered up into his face and he was thankful for the thick fur jacket protecting his body.
The hammer fell and Georgia screamed. Dakkar sensed a huge weight passing overhead as the hammer swung over him and behind the sledge, forcing the very air aside. Then the doorway flashed by them and suddenly they were careering through the room and into the tunnel beyond.
The tunnel turned and they veered up the side of the wall as they flew round the corner. Gritting his teeth, Dakkar scrambled on to the back of the sledge. Desperate to regain control of it, he crouched behind the hot stone box and scraped his foot along the ice. Georgia leaned out and eased her foot on to the edge of the tunnel too.
‘This whole cavern will collapse in on us if we don’t get out soon!’ Georgia said above the roar.
The white walls of the tunnel flashed by as they pushed the Heart of Vulcan out of the cave.
And what will we do when we get to the surface? Dakkar thought. He hadn’t had time to think about that since entering the cave. Will we just hand the Heart of Vulcan over to Tomasz? He still has Fletcher!
Dakkar’s lungs burned and his breath clouded in front of him despite the warmth of the Thermolith. The sledge felt heavier and his legs were weakening. More and more ice fell, wet and clinging, matting his hair and clogging his eyes.
‘I can see daylight,’ Georgia yelled.
She stumbled and Dakkar had to pull her to her feet. The main entrance to the cavern appeared before them. Georgia slipped and fell again. Dakkar glimpsed figures silhouetted by the light ahead and Borys’s body at the side of the tunnel. He gave the sledge one final push towards the outside world and turned to grab Georgia. Then the roaring filled his ears as ice and rock and snow poured down, slamming him to the ground. He heard Georgia scream, then all went black.
Dakkar sat in a darkened room. Oginski watched him across the huge oak table while Borys sat at the far end. Other shadowy characters muttered and shifted in their seats around him. Dakkar glimpsed Kazmer and Stefan, all deathly pale, eyes red and bloodshot. A metal cup was passed from one to the other until it came to Oginski, who sipped it and offered it to Dakkar.
‘It’s poison,’ Oginski said, his voice distant and echoing. ‘It’s a poisoned chalice, Dakkar.’
‘Nonsense,’ Borys said, chuckling cruelly. ‘It’s a Trojan Horse, a feint. But poor stupid Tomasz needed it on a plate.’
The room erupted with laughter. Wicked, uproarious laughter …
Dakkar woke with a start. Something wet and foul-smelling slithered across his eyes and nose, making him cough. A huge black nose and a pink tongue surrounded in fur filled his vision. Claws scraped around him. He groaned, looking up. The dogs were digging him out of the snow.
Tomasz! The Thermolith!
Dakkar sat bolt upright, only to find himself buried up to the waist in snow. He heaved and rolled out of the hole that the dogs had made with their paws. Georgia was in a similar position so he crawled over and dragged her out. The dogs jumped around them, barking noisily and wagging their tails.
‘Where have Tomasz and the others gone?’ she said, shaking the snow and ice from her jacket. ‘Where’s the Heart of Vulcan?’
‘They must have taken the Heart and left us for dead,’ Dakkar said. ‘But they can’t have got far. Tomasz said his castle was close by.’
‘Fletcher is still with them,’ Georgia said, scanning the ground. ‘Look – sled tracks. We can follow them. We’ve got to go after them.’
One last sledge stood abandoned, harnesses by its side, a dumb monument to Tingenek and his men who had been so casually sacrificed by Tomasz. Dakkar picked up the harness and turned it over in his hands while Georgia gathered the dogs together. Soon they had them ready to pull the sledge.
‘Shout something to the dogs,’ Georgia said, climbing on to the sledge.
‘Go!’ Dakkar said, pointing ahead where the tracks led.
‘They aren’t going to go anywhere like that.’ Georgia snorted. ‘SHOUT something, like … HEE-YAH!’
The dogs gave a yap and started off, almost throwing Dakkar from his perch at the back of the sledge. As the sledge picked up speed, it began to bounce and skip. The remaining dogs hurried after them, barking.
‘If we can keep the tracks in sight,’ Dakkar shouted over the yelping of the dogs and the swish of the sledge, ‘then we can get to Tomasz and the Heart of Vulcan.’ His strange dream came back to him, haunting him. ‘What does the phrase “a poisoned chalice” mean to you?’
‘Something that’s passed to you and you think it’s a wonderful thing, but it turns out to be bad,’ Georgia called. ‘Why?’
‘I don’t know but I’ve got a bad feeling about the Thermolith,’ Dakkar said. ‘We could be heading into terrible danger.’
‘You mean Tomasz isn’t terrible enough for you?’ Georgia said, raising her eyebrows.
‘Tomasz could be the least of our worries,’ Dakkar muttered as he guided the sledge along the tracks left behind in the snow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE ICE CASTLE
At first the rocking and shaking of the sledge alarmed Dakkar. It slewed sideways and he couldn’t control it. But as they moved on, he grew accustomed to the bucks and kicks it gave across the ice and he felt confident enough to shout the dogs on to greater efforts. Fatigue pressed down on him but he couldn’t afford to think about it.
The land became rockier. Stone outcrops broke through the ice and Dakkar had to be careful not to crash the sledge.
The mouth of a deep ravine yawned before them, vanishing into shadows as the steep sides rose up and swallowed the feeble light. It grew darker the further they went inside and the dogs’ baying echoed off the high walls.
They rattled around a sharp bend and Dakkar forgot his weariness.
‘Tomasz’s residence,’ Georgia gasped.
A huge wall of white glacial ice filled the ravine ahead of them, blocking it completely. It rose high into the dark sky, making them feel tiny and insignificant. Towers and windows had been carved into the ice. One central tower was higher than the others, its top spreading out into a strange fortified platform like some some kind of giant metallic hammer.
A huge, arched gateway opened into the face of the glacier like a gaping mouth eager to devour them. Narrow windows, only wide enough for a musket barrel, dotted the walls either side. The wooden gate hung open and swung slightly in the wind that whistled up the ravine.
‘It looks deserted,’ Dakkar said as they approached the gateway.
‘It could be a trap,’ Georgia whispered back.
Dakkar stopped the sledge and began to unhitch the dogs. ‘I doubt it,’ he murmured.
Georgia helped him collect provisions from the sledge. They found some backpacks, which they filled with things that might prove useful.
‘Why leave the castle unguarded?’ she said, swinging her pack on to her shoulder.
‘Only one way to find out,’ he said and jogged in under the arch.
‘I’m not so sure,’ Georgia said. She hesitated for a second, then pursed her lips and hurried after him.
The darkness inside the castle gates brought Dakkar to a halt. He listened as he stared into the thick, inky blackness. The only noise was some banging and clanking above them.
‘Everyone’s up there.’ Georgia’s whispers echoed in the shadowy doorway.
‘We need light,’ Dakkar said. ‘Do we have any lamps or a tinderbox in our pack?’
‘Would this do?’ Georgia said, pulling a small oil lamp from her pack. ‘It’s full of whale oil but I don’t know how long it’ll last.’
The yellow light of the lamp
bounced off the polished icy surfaces of the wall.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Georgia gasped.
‘It’s cold,’ Dakkar muttered. ‘Georgia?’
He looked round to see Georgia standing with her hands up. Two armed guards stood in a side doorway. One pressed a rifle barrel to her cheek.
‘Put your hands up,’ the other guard said, pulling back the hammer on his rifle. ‘And get inside quickly. Count Tomasz will want to talk to you.’
Dakkar stared stubbornly, meeting the gaze of the guard.
‘Do as he says, Dakkar,’ Georgia said quietly. ‘It might just get us closer to the Thermolith.’
‘Very well,’ Dakkar spat, putting his hands in the air.
With the gun barrels at their backs, Dakkar and Georgia made their way up flight after flight of icy stairs. Then the ice gave way to metal and their footsteps clanged noisily.
‘We must be in the top part of the castle,’ Dakkar said. ‘Why is it made of metal?’
‘Quiet!’ One of the guards shoved him.
They stumbled along a passage through the belly of the metal platform. The ground shook gently beneath them as if it were trying to break free from the rest of the castle.
‘Tell Count Tomasz we have prisoners and that we’re ready to move,’ the guard shouted.
A man ran ahead while three others appeared beside Dakkar, all dressed in the black Cryptos uniform. He could see the emblem on the shoulder and chest, a snake twisted around a large C with a trident behind them.
Accompanied by the three guards, they climbed another metal staircase and emerged on the mid deck of the building.
‘This must be the flat metal top of the tower we saw from down below,’ Dakkar said quietly as he gazed in wonder at the scene.
The huge space bustled with men lashing down boxes and struggling with massive metal bars driven into the floor. Each bar had three handles poking out of its sides and the men pushed at these handles, turning them slowly around.