The Curse of the Ice Serpent

by Jon Mayhew

  ‘What’re they doing?’ Georgia said, frowning.

  ‘It’s as if they’re unscrewing huge bolts,’ Dakkar said. ‘Bolts that hold the metal floor on to the ice castle!’

  They clambered up the steps to the deck above. The cold wind stung Dakkar’s face and the whole deck lurched. Up here Cryptos guards rushed about too, lashing ropes and turning valves that dotted the railings along the side of the deck.

  ‘This whole platform reminds me of a ship,’ Dakkar said, glancing around. ‘We came through the base which was confined and full of cabins and then the second layer was like the gun deck of a frigate.’

  ‘A bit wider and squarer,’ Georgia agreed, ‘but yes.’

  Dakkar looked at the buildings at the front and rear of the platform. The rear platform looked like a poop deck – and there Tomasz stood like a captain, holding a ship’s wheel. A large cylindrical shape sat in the middle of the platform, lashed down and covered with tarpaulins.

  ‘The Nautilus!’ Dakkar said. ‘She’s here, Georgia!’

  The guards dragged Dakkar and Georgia across to the foot of this platform, where a flight of steps at either side led up to it.

  ‘We caught them below, your excellency,’ the guard said, saluting.

  ‘Prince Dakkar, Miss Fulton, your ability to survive astounds me,’ Tomasz said, looking down at them. ‘I thought you had surely died under all that ice and snow. I underestimated you.’

  ‘As long as I have breath, I’ll stop you,’ Dakkar spat, taking a step forward.

  ‘I admire your spirit, Dakkar, truly I do.’ Tomasz laughed. ‘And I’m grateful to you too. You delivered the Heart of Vulcan into my hands.’

  ‘I don’t want your admiration,’ Dakkar said sullenly. ‘Or your gratitude.’

  Tomasz gave a contemptuous snort. ‘Well, it saved the life of your friend Fletcher,’ he said, turning away.

  ‘Where is he?’ Georgia snapped.

  ‘He is safe for now,’ Tomasz said with a brief smile. ‘His attempts at flattery amused me. He bought himself some time, probably in the vain hope he could stop me. But there is nothing any of you can do to stop me. We’re ready to go. Observe!’

  The guard heaved back a sliding metal door in the wall of the platform before them. Dakkar screwed up his face as the heat hit him. The hissing of pipes and the clanking machinery filled his senses and he stared into the cavernous hall.

  Steam engines pumped pistons back and forth, and objects whirled on top of them in a confusing mass. At the centre sat the Heart of Vulcan, cradled in a metal throne, glowing beneath a huge tank. Pipes snaked in all directions from the tank.

  ‘Hot air is pumped from the tank along these pipes – and behold!’ Tomasz turned and gestured outside.

  All along the platform, a hundred silk spheres ballooned from the pipes that skirted its edge. They blossomed like rare flowers, white and delicate, held in place by thin steel cable.

  ‘My brother Borys would have been proud of his invention if he’d had the good sense to stay loyal to me.’

  Beneath them, metal grated against the hard ice. The whole platform lurched. Dakkar’s stomach jumped and he realised that they no longer rested on top of the castle.

  ‘We are airborne!’ Tomasz said, holding up his hands in a theatrical gesture. ‘The whole fortress is flying!’

  ‘That’s impossible!’ Georgia said. ‘The platform is too heavy. It’s made of metal –’

  ‘Aluminium, my dear Miss Fulton.’ Tomasz grinned. ‘A strong but light metal. With the many balloons heated by the Heart of Vulcan, I can fly a whole fortress across the world. I can attack ships and armies without being touched, reduce whole cities to ash and rubble at my leisure. I am invincible!’

  The ground swayed beneath them as the platform lifted into the air. The guards cheered and ran to the sides to look over, causing the whole craft to tilt gently.

  Realising his chance, Dakkar lunged past the nearest guard and sprinted into the engine room. The noise of the machines there deafened him.

  ‘Stop him, you fools!’ Tomasz bellowed.

  Dakkar could see the Thermolith glowing angrily in its seat. Its heat scorched his face.

  If I can rip out the tubes, lower the pressure …

  A searing pain burned through his skull and lights flashed before his eyes as his face struck the hard, metal floor. He lay stunned for a second then tried to stand. His legs felt like rubber. A guard had sprung from nowhere and hit Dakkar with a rifle butt in the back of the head. Two guards scooped him up under his armpits and dragged him back to Tomasz.

  Guards pinned Georgia to the deck of the platform. Judging by the rifle on the floor and one guard’s bloody nose, she had tried to react too.

  ‘Give up, Dakkar,’ Tomasz said with a smile. Then he narrowed his eyes. ‘It’s too late.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  MISDIRECTION!

  ‘I’ll give up when I’ve made you pay for the deaths of Oginski, Borys and all those men out on the ice field,’ Dakkar snarled, straining against the grip of the guards.

  ‘That will never happen,’ Tomasz said coldly. ‘And if we’re talking about revenge, perhaps I should settle a few scores for my brothers Kazmer and Stefan. I’ll let you live until we reach London.’

  Georgia stared in horror at Tomasz. ‘London? You mean you’re going to attack a defenceless city?’

  ‘Of course, my dear girl,’ Tomasz said. He grinned and rubbed his hands together. ‘You can bear witness as I rain fire and shot down on the capital of one of the world’s proudest nations. I’ll destroy its dockyards and barracks, its slums and palaces. I’ll leave it a smouldering ruin and everyone will acknowledge that Tomasz Oginski is the most powerful of all!’

  ‘You’re a monster!’ Georgia yelled. She leapt forward but Tomasz swiped at her with the back of his hand, sending her reeling.

  ‘A monster?’ Tomasz laughed. ‘No, my dear. I’m a practical man. London will be merely an example. Other nations will make bargains with me – they’ll join me or perish. Imagine the world united under one banner – the banner of Oginski, the banner of Cryptos!’

  ‘You’re insane,’ Dakkar snarled. ‘We’ll find a way to stop you.’

  ‘Lock these two up,’ Tomasz bellowed to the guards. ‘Put them with the other boy. When we reach London, Prince Dakkar will witness my ultimate victory before perishing.’

  Dakkar and Georgia were bustled off down below and taken to a side room. One guard unlocked the door and then pushed them inside.

  A small pallet bed filled one corner but that was all. The metal walls and floor made the room seem even colder and more unwelcoming. Fletcher looked up from where he sat on the bed, his eyes widening.

  He jumped up. ‘You’re alive!’ He beamed, grabbing Georgia’s hands. ‘I thought … well, I thought the worst when the ice cave collapsed.’

  ‘We’re alive,’ Georgia said, hugging Fletcher. Dakkar felt a strange sting of envy and shook himself.

  ‘Tomasz let you live,’ Dakkar said, not quite posing the question why.

  ‘When the Heart of Vulcan came flying out of that avalanche of ice and snow, he forgot all about me,’ Fletcher said, rubbing his neck. ‘They loaded the thing on to their sledge smartish and then one of the guards remembered me. I gave old Tomasz a bit of blarney about wanting to see his great invention – what a great man he was – and he bought it!’

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure of your silver tongue,’ Georgia said. ‘You only bought yourself a few hours.’

  Dakkar paced up and down in the cell, stopping every now and then to grip the bars of the small window and peer out.

  ‘We have to get out,’ he said.

  ‘We can’t,’ Georgia said, slumping on the pallet bed in the corner. ‘The door is metal, the walls are metal. This whole room is metal. We couldn’t break out even if we had weapons!’

  ‘That’s it then?’ Fletcher said, squatting with his back to the door. ‘We just give up and wait for Tomas
z to come for us?’

  ‘No,’ Dakkar snapped. His head ached horribly. ‘I can’t think straight but I know there’s something I’ve forgotten.’ He rubbed his temples and his hand fell to his chest. A piece of paper scraped his skin and he rummaged in the folds of his jacket. ‘Of course, the note!’

  Georgia stared at Dakkar as if he were mad. ‘What note?’

  ‘When I found Borys’s body, he was holding a note,’ Dakkar explained, unfolding it. ‘I stuffed it inside my jacket when Tomasz appeared. It’s suffered from the damp and cold a little but I can still read some of it.’

  My dear brother,

  You gave me a choice of helping you or dying in this wasteland and I chose the latter … I hid the Heart of Vulcan in the ice cave for a reason … hope you never … past the defences I have laid … the path you have chosen leads to destruction. I hand to you the poisoned chalice. Rest assured I shall have the last laugh.

  Borys

  ‘What can that mean?’ Georgia said, snatching the soggy paper from Dakkar. It broke into pieces and she dropped it in disgust.

  ‘It was too easy,’ Dakkar said. ‘A poisoned chalice. That’s what the Heart of Vulcan is!’

  Fletcher shook his head. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Borys wanted Tomasz to get the Thermolith,’ Dakkar said. ‘He wanted him to have it and to install it in this fortress.’

  ‘Talk sense, Dakkar,’ Georgia said. ‘We nearly died getting the Heart of Vulcan. It was well protected.’

  ‘Misdirection,’ Dakkar said. ‘Can’t you see?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Borys and Tomasz hated each other – Oginski said that back at the castle. Borys wanted to get rid of his not-so-bright but evil brother, you see?’ Dakkar said slowly. ‘But he came to realise that he could never be free of him.’

  ‘Why didn’t he just kill him?’ Fletcher said.

  ‘Because Tomasz is wary of Borys and Oginskis are hard to kill,’ Dakkar said. ‘Borys had to think up a clever ploy to finish him off.’

  ‘So Borys built a huge ice cave and hid the Heart of Vulcan in it?’ Georgia looked blankly at Dakkar.

  ‘No!’ Dakkar said, shaking his hands in frustration. ‘Yes, Borys helped build a huge flying fortress but he knew it would never fly. Tomasz should be suspicious. He should be asking himself, “Why is my evil twin building me a super weapon?” ’

  ‘But we’re flying now,’ Fletcher said, scratching his head. ‘It flies …’

  ‘Borys said he put the Thermolith in the ice cave for a reason,’ Dakkar said.

  ‘To keep it safe from Tomasz, of course,’ Georgia said, shrugging.

  ‘No. To keep it cool,’ Dakkar said. ‘Once it’s out of the ice cave, it’ll begin to heat up even more.’

  ‘Oh my stars,’ Georgia whispered. ‘It’ll get hotter and hotter until it melts through the floor of the fortress itself.’

  ‘Sending it crashing to the ground,’ Dakkar finished, folding his arms.

  Fletcher heaved a frustrated sigh. ‘But surely Tomasz would suspect Borys of something like this?’

  ‘No, because when Borys hid the Heart of Vulcan,’ Georgia said slowly, ‘Tomasz became so involved with finding the Thermolith and getting it out of its little hiding place that he forgot not to trust Borys.’

  ‘Misdirection,’ Dakkar said. ‘The Heart of Vulcan is the trap, not all the blades and weapons set to protect it!’

  ‘And when the trap springs,’ Fletcher said miserably, ‘we’ll be caught in it too.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  SKY WRECK

  ‘We should tell Tomasz,’ Georgia said. ‘Reason with him.’

  ‘Good luck with that,’ Dakkar said, rolling his eyes. ‘Do you honestly think he’d believe us? Even if he did, would his wounded pride let him admit it’s true?’

  ‘All we can do is wait for the moment and be prepared to get away,’ Fletcher said. ‘We have to have a plan.’

  Georgia threw her hands up. ‘How can we have a plan when we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or when? And in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re locked in a cell.’

  But Dakkar nodded. ‘Fletcher’s right,’ he said. ‘We know that the Nautilus is sitting on the deck. We know she has the capability of flight. The first sign of trouble, we break out of here and head for the sub.’

  Georgia opened her mouth to say something but the whole room tilted and shook, sending them tumbling against the wall. Outside the guard screamed as he fell the length of the passageway. The floor righted itself and they got to their feet.

  ‘Now’s our chance,’ Dakkar said, peering through the grille in the door. ‘We’ve got to get out.’

  ‘But we’re still locked in,’ Fletcher said. ‘What’s changed?’

  ‘The guard’s unconscious,’ Dakkar said, hurrying to the bed. ‘We can try to pick the lock.’

  ‘With what?’ Georgia said, frowning.

  Dakkar lifted the bed up and smashed it on the ground. The wooden frame splintered, revealing the sharp points of nails.

  ‘We could try these for a start,’ he said, worming a nail out of the wood.

  Dakkar stooped at the keyhole and began to work the nail into the lock. The whole room shuddered, telling them that things weren’t going well in the engine room.

  ‘I thought you’d be a dab hand at this kind of thing, Fletcher,’ he said, wiggling the nail and pushing a second one in.

  ‘What, me? A house-breaker? Nah!’ Fletcher snorted, watching over Dakkar’s shoulder. ‘I was an honest-to-goodness pickpocket. I only took what I needed – wasn’t greedy.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Dakkar said, grinning at the metallic clunk from the lock. He stood up and pushed the door open.

  Barrels and boxes lay scattered across the lower deck of the platform. Guards rushed backward and forward, trying to secure cannon and ammunition that had broken free. The platform shook again and tilted to port. Nobody even looked at Dakkar or the others as they raced along to the upper deck.

  The wind whipped at their faces as they stepped up into the open air and Dakkar almost fell over as the fortress pitched again. The balloons rattled against each other in the gale. Dakkar noticed some had deflated. Men staggered from side to side on the platform, trying to stay on their feet as it rolled like a ship in a storm.

  Dakkar turned to Georgia and Fletcher. ‘Quickly,’ he said. ‘Find something to cut the ropes on the Nautilus.’

  Fletcher hurried around the back of the sub. Dakkar and Georgia crept between bellowing men who tried to keep their balance on the foundering platform. Someone screamed and fell over the side.

  An axe slid past Dakkar and he made to grab it but a foot ground painfully on to his fingers. Tomasz stood, glowering down at him.

  ‘What have you done to the Thermolith?’ he demanded, grabbing Dakkar by the throat. ‘It’s melting through its cradle, becoming hotter and hotter. What have you done? Tell me!’

  Dakkar couldn’t believe the man’s strength. Tomasz’s fingers closed like a noose around his neck, choking him. He grappled with the strong hands, trying to break free.

  ‘It wasn’t us!’ Georgia shouted, running over and pulling at Tomasz’s arm. ‘It was Borys. He tricked you.’ She beat at his shoulders. ‘Borys knew the Thermolith would overheat. He knew it would do this.’

  Dakkar couldn’t breathe. His head felt as though it would explode. The world around him began to fade and go black. He felt weightless, then his breath rushed from his body and a stabbing pain shot up his back as he hit the ground.

  Georgia had leapt on to Tomasz’s back and was clawing at his face. Dakkar had been thrown aside.

  Tomasz struck out, sending Georgia staggering. Dakkar leapt forward, jabbing at the count with his fist.

  ‘Georgia, help Fletcher get the Nautilus ready,’ Dakkar said. ‘I’ll deal with this.’

  ‘But, Dakkar!’ Georgia shouted.

  ‘Go!’ Dakkar yelled as the fortress whirled around, s
ending more men screaming to their deaths.

  Georgia fell away, grabbing hold of crates and boxes for stability.

  ‘The Heart of Vulcan is overheating! It’s melting through the deck of the fortress,’ Tomasz panted, circling the deck with his fists raised. ‘We’re doomed but I’ll take you down with me.’

  Dakkar lashed out with a punch but Tomasz, surprisingly fast for so portly a man, ducked and landed a fist on Dakkar’s cheek. They fell back towards the engine room. Dakkar launched himself at Tomasz’s ankles, tackling him to the ground, but Tomasz kicked out. The hours without sleep and the stresses of the previous few days weighed heavily on Dakkar. He fell back and Tomasz clambered to his feet.

  At the centre of the fortress’s deck, Fletcher struggled with the ropes that held the Nautilus down.

  Tomasz climbed up the steps to the back of the platform and grabbed the huge ship’s wheel, spinning it to the left. The whole fortress groaned as it turned, sending everyone staggering across the floor.

  ‘If we’re going to die then let’s all go together, eh, Dakkar?’ Tomasz cackled, his eyes wide.

  Dakkar dragged himself up the steps. ‘Tomasz, no!’ he cried.

  ‘Borys thought he could trick me, did he?’ Tomasz growled. ‘Well, I’ll show him! I’ll ditch this whole fortress into the sea. At least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing I’ve had revenge on you, Prince Dakkar.’

  Dakkar staggered over to the cradle that had once held the Heart of Vulcan and stared down the gaping hole in the middle of the melted heap. He had to shield his eyes from the glare below as the rock scorched its way through metal.

  ‘The Thermolith is no longer supplying hot air to the balloons!’ Georgia yelled, pointing to the sagging silk bags that were becoming softer by the second.

  She was on the Nautilus now. Fletcher had dragged the ropes and tarpaulins free but she was starting to slide across the deck.

  ‘Georgia, Fletcher, get inside!’ Dakkar yelled. ‘Start the engines!’

  The fortress whirled round faster, sending everyone stumbling. Even Tomasz lost his hold and fell, sliding across the slippery metal floor. Guards screamed as they hurtled towards the low pipework wall that edged the platform and tumbled over it.