The Curse of the Ice Serpent

by Jon Mayhew

  Georgia slipped on the sub’s tower ladder and almost fell. Fletcher ran to get on to the upper deck as the Nautilus slid towards the edge of the fortress.

  Summoning all his strength, Dakkar crawled towards the ship’s wheel, hauling himself up on to it. He pulled at it, trying to slow the mad whirl, so that Fletcher and Georgia could get into the submarine.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Tomasz roared, staggering across the platform towards him.

  ‘Borys is the one who brought us all on to this deathtrap,’ Dakkar said, heaving at the wheel. He could see the steely grey of the sea below now. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to live and get revenge on those who really betrayed you?’

  ‘My brother is dead.’ Tomasz charged towards Dakkar. ‘How can I get revenge on him?’

  Dakkar braced himself for the attack, but before Tomasz could reach him the fortress shook and a huge explosion deafened them. Dakkar saw the Heart of Vulcan thrown high into the air, streaking like a comet, then it plummeted over the side and into the sea. Smoke billowed up from the lower decks of the platform. Some balloons broke their moorings, causing the fortress to sag to one side again. Men screamed and tumbled over the side.

  ‘The ammunition has ignited in the storerooms below!’ someone screamed as another explosion rocked them, sending fragments of hot metal pinging and buzzing around their heads.

  ‘Borys even designed the fortress so that the gun­powder store lies directly under the engine room,’ Dakkar muttered to himself.

  The fortress tilted again and he slid straight towards Tomasz, who clung to the rails at the side of the platform, struggling to keep balance. He grinned as Dakkar slid nearer across the slick metal.

  The Nautilus gave an ominous groan and slipped over the side. Dakkar couldn’t see Georgia or Fletcher.

  ‘My only consolation is that I’m going to kill you before we all go down,’ Tomasz snarled, reaching out for him.

  Dakkar kicked his legs out, trying to slow his fall, but Tomasz drew nearer. At the last moment, just as Dakkar was about to slide under Tomasz, he rolled and grabbed the man’s leg, his momentum dragging Tomasz down.

  Tomasz fell heavily and the two of them continued to slide. Dakkar glimpsed boxes, ropes, bodies of guards racing past him. Then he saw stars as Tomasz’s fist struck him in the temple. All the while they slipped closer and closer to the edge of the falling fortress.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  DEATH FALL

  ‘This is for my brother Kazmer …’ Tomasz punched. ‘And this is for Stefan …’ He raised his fist again but then vanished from view.

  They had struck the railings at the perimeter of the fortress. Tomasz, being on top, fell backward over the edge. Dakkar slammed his feet against the pipes and stopped his fall. He dragged himself up, groaning.

  A gloved hand gripped the edge of the wall. Dakkar looked over at Tomasz, who held on by his fingertips.

  ‘Help me,’ Tomasz gasped from below.

  He tried to kill me, Dakkar thought. He killed Oginski.

  Tomasz glared up at him, his fingers slipping from the edge.

  ‘Are you going to let me die?’ Tomasz said, sweat dripping from his brow. ‘Then you’re no better than I am.’

  ‘Men can become so consumed by revenge that they become monsters,’ Oginski had once said to him when he was younger. ‘Are you a monster?’ Oginski’s voice echoed in his mind.

  Dakkar lunged over the side and grabbed Tomasz’s arm with both hands and tried to heave him up.

  ‘Fool!’ Tomasz spat and gripped Dakkar’s jacket.

  ‘Tomasz, no!’ Dakkar yelled, but it was too late.

  Once more he felt weightless as he and Tomasz plunged from the side of the fortress.

  ‘Bad luck, Prince Dakkar,’ Tomasz yelled over the wind that rushed through their ears. The sea waited for them below. ‘In the end you lost!’

  This is it, Dakkar thought. I’m going to die.

  Something pale and round bobbed and fluttered beneath them. It was a balloon from the fortress that had lost hot air and gas. It drifted at a lower level but still had some buoyancy.

  Dakkar twisted his head and sank his teeth into Tomasz’s chubby arm. With a yell of surprise, he released Dakkar.

  Kicking away from Tomasz and twisting his aching body, Dakkar saw that the balloon had floated directly below him. As the rippling silk came level with him, he spotted a cable that trailed beneath the canopy of the balloon and made a grab for it. The steel burned his palms even through his gloves, making him scream, but he gripped tightly. As the balloon slowed his fall, he felt as if his shoulder muscles would burst. Breath rushed from his lungs and he groaned as he swung from the cables.

  He watched as Tomasz gradually vanished beneath him, looking up with an expression of wide-eyed disbelief.

  Dakkar knew he should have felt triumphant. Oginski’s killer had been paid back. But Oginski was still dead and Dakkar felt empty.

  Nausea pressed at Dakkar’s throat and every muscle in his body pulsed but he hung on as the balloon slowly descended under his weight, bringing the sea nearer and nearer.

  He looked up at the fortress, a massive square meteorite dragging a trail of smoke and flame across the cloudy skies. Chunks of metal, boxes, sacks and bodies all cascaded down into the waters as it fell.

  Dakkar watched as the glowing Heart of Vulcan seared a path through the cold air and into the freezing waters, its extreme heat reacting violently with the icy sea. It was gone.

  And the Nautilus was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Georgia!’ Dakkar whispered.

  Tears pricked his eyes as the fortress crashed into the sea, throwing up a huge wave of water. A thick fog of steam coiled up into the sky, hissing and crackling, as the sea extinguished the fires raging in the lower decks. The Oginski twins’ fortress upended and slipped into the waves, leaving a slick of oil and debris.

  ‘Georgia!’ Dakkar yelled.

  He knew that nothing could survive the crash – and where was the Nautilus?

  ‘What’re you yelling about?’ a voice above him asked.

  A shadow blotted out the sun. Dakkar twisted his head around to see the familiar shape of the Nautilus, her balloons inflated.

  ‘Georgia, thank goodness!’ Dakkar just had time to say, then he hit the water hard.

  The sea filled his ears and nostrils as he sank into the freezing depths. For a moment he wasn’t sure which way was up and which was down. Bubbles surged around him and he kicked his way to the top, ignoring the stabbing pain in his legs and arms. The cold gnawed into his body, stealing his breath and making his teeth chatter almost instantly. He could barely kick his legs and the weight of the heavy furs he wore dragged him below the surface.

  The Nautilus bellyflopped into the water with an undignified splash. The balloons hadn’t had a chance to inflate fully and had only served to slow the craft’s rapid descent.

  Dakkar felt a numbness creeping over him. He felt so tired after all his adventures. It really would be pleasant to close his eyes and sleep …

  Something splashed close to his face but he wasn’t sure what it was.

  ‘Dakkar!’ Georgia called.

  But Dakkar decided to ignore her and roll over. Whatever it was, it would keep until the morning. All he needed to do now was sleep.

  Then something pulled at the hood of his jacket and Dakkar let himself be dragged through the water. Georgia looked down at him. She had a bargepole in her hands. She threw it aside and reached down, pulling him up.

  Dakkar reached up but his arms felt like wet string and flopped back into the cold water with a splash. Then darkness took him.

  Something flicked Dakkar’s cheek hard. He groaned and turned over, relishing the delicious warmth that enveloped him. After weeks of skin-biting cold, it felt glorious to be bathed in heat, not having to worry about wearing gloves or furs or extra layers. But something flicked his face again. Dakkar waved his fingers across his face and winced. He ached – and that
meant he was still alive. He opened one eye.

  Georgia loomed over him, her red hair catching the glow of the Voltalith and the furnace that seemed to hum in unison inside the Nautilus’s engine room.

  ‘What am I doing here?’ Dakkar croaked, wincing as he tried to sit up. He looked down at the makeshift bed and the pile of damp furs that lay a few feet away.

  ‘This was the warmest place to bring you,’ Georgia said, smiling, but Dakkar could see the strain on her face. ‘You were freezing when we pulled you out of the water. I didn’t think you’d ever warm up again.’

  ‘How long have I been asleep?’ Dakkar said. His throat felt like sandpaper.

  ‘Asleep?’ Georgia said. ‘Unconscious more than asleep. Nothing could rouse you. You’ve been out more than a day. We’re heading back to Guthaven. Blizzard needs to know what’s happened.’

  Dakkar swallowed. ‘How are we going to tell him that all his men are dead?’

  Georgia just passed him a bottle of water. ‘This is a bit stale but it’s all we have,’ she said.

  It tasted like nectar to Dakkar and he had to be careful not to drink it all. She handed him some dried meat which he chewed on gratefully.

  ‘Tomasz fell,’ Dakkar said at last. ‘It wasn’t … I didn’t feel any … victory.’

  Georgia gave a brief smile, her face sad. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I know.’

  Fletcher appeared with a fresh set of clothes – breeches, a shirt and a thick woollen jumper. He gave Dakkar a grin.

  ‘Good to see you up and about, Dax,’ he said, throwing the clothes at Dakkar. ‘I reckon we’ve got a couple of days before we get to Guthaven so we should have your furs dried out by then if we keep them down here by the stove.’

  Dakkar grinned back. ‘Thanks. It’s good to be warm again. I don’t think I’ll ever leave this room!’

  ‘I’d better go and steer the Nautilus,’ Georgia said, her cheeks reddening as Dakkar stretched out of the pile of blankets to reach the clothes. ‘It would be a shame to crash and sink after all we’ve been through.’

  She jumped up and bustled out of the engine room while Dakkar and Fletcher grinned at each other.

  ‘Thanks for saving me,’ Dakkar said quietly. ‘I misjudged you when we first met. I’m sorry.’

  ‘That’s all right, Dax,’ Fletcher said, getting up and heading for the door. ‘You didn’t leave me for dead, did you?’

  ‘No, we didn’t,’ Dakkar admitted. ‘And, Fletcher?’

  ‘Yeah?’ Fletcher said, turning back.

  ‘It’s Dakkar,’ he said.

  Fletcher laughed. ‘All right, Dax.’ He grinned and hurried out.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  A GRATEFUL REUNION

  HMS Slaughter looked a little less sorry for herself than when Dakkar had left. She no longer listed in the water and the main mast had been repaired.

  ‘We’ve made good progress in the time you’ve been gone,’ Blizzard said as he stood on the main deck with Dakkar, Georgia and Fletcher.

  ‘I’m sorry we lost so many of your men,’ Dakkar said. His heart felt heavy. ‘We didn’t stand a chance. The Tizheruk …’

  Blizzard raised his good hand. ‘It’s not your fault, Dakkar,’ he said. ‘You can’t take responsibility for every man who falls in the line of duty. Tomasz Oginski was to blame for those deaths, nobody else.’

  ‘I know but …’

  ‘You still feel responsible,’ Blizzard said. ‘I know. So do I. It’s the burden of leadership, something you’ll have to become more accustomed to as time goes on. Besides, someone did make it back.’

  ‘Baines?’ Georgia said, turning round as three men strode gingerly up the gangplank.

  ‘Morning, miss,’ Sergeant Baines said, saluting. ‘Oh, now then, miss,’ he added as Georgia wrapped her arms around his burly chest. ‘Salter and Atwood made it too.’

  The two marines behind Baines grinned at his discomfort.

  ‘Put ’im down, Miss Georgia – you don’t know where he’s been,’ Fletcher said, grinning.

  ‘Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour, lad,’ Baines said, giving Fletcher a hearty slap on the back that nearly sent the boy tumbling to the deck.

  ‘I’m glad you made it back, sergeant,’ Dakkar said, shaking his hand. ‘I thought you were lost for ever in that storm.’

  ‘So did we, sir,’ Baines said. ‘But Salter here, he dug us a hole and we sat the storm out. I thought he’d gone mad but he said he’d seen one of them Inuits do it once many years ago when he was shipwrecked on a whaling vessel round these parts.’

  ‘We searched for you, sir,’ said Atwood, a thin dark-haired man. ‘But the storm wiped out any footprints and we barely had enough supplies to get us back.’

  ‘We all did our level best, Atwood,’ Blizzard said steadily. ‘The Heart of Vulcan has been destroyed and two more of the Oginski brothers are no longer a threat to our nation’s common good.’

  ‘Three Oginski brothers died, commander,’ Dakkar said quietly.

  ‘Quite. I hadn’t forgotten,’ Blizzard said. ‘Oginski was a hero. He died saving your life.’

  ‘He was part of a cruel trick played by Borys,’ Dakkar murmured. ‘His own brother. I’m sick of revenge and I’m sick of the Oginskis’ family feud.’

  ‘The threat remains, however,’ Blizzard said. ‘I’ve a horrible feeling that the remaining Brothers Oginski will come looking for you whether you’re sick of them or not.’

  ‘I know, commander,’ Dakkar said. ‘I’m sure they will.’

  ‘Then you will continue to pursue Cryptos?’ Blizzard said, eyebrows raised.

  ‘No. I’ll not go looking for them,’ Dakkar said. ‘But if they come looking for me, I’ll be ready.’

  ‘And you have our full support,’ Blizzard said. He paused and looked at Dakkar closely. ‘You will join us now, I assume? We can offer you support and shelter – and the utmost secrecy. Join Project Nemo.’

  Dakkar looked hard at Blizzard. Project Nemo was Blizzard’s secret army and navy, elite soldiers dedicated to defeating a common enemy, the Brothers Oginski and the organisation they called Cryptos. He cast his gaze across Georgia and Fletcher.

  ‘It seems I already have a crew for my submersible, commander,’ he said. ‘But, yes, we will join you. From now on, the Nautilus sails for Project Nemo.’

  ‘The baton of responsibility has been passed, Dakkar,’ Blizzard said, shaking his hand. ‘Count Oginski would be proud of you.’

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  The Nautilus Flies!

  Given that Prince Dakkar is the young Captain Nemo, Jules Verne’s tortured hero from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island, I wanted to bring Verne’s fascination with flight into the third Monster Odyssey book. Verne wrote a number of books based on hot-air balloons and flying machines – Around the World in Eighty Days is probably the most famous of these stories. But he also wrote The Master of the World, about an amphibious flying machine that can travel at incredible speed. With these stories in mind, I wanted to take the Nautilus into the clouds!

  Voltaliths and Thermoliths

  As far as I know, electrically charged meteors don’t actually exist, nor do meteors that generate heat spontaneously. But Verne did write a book called The Chase of the Golden Meteor, which tells the story of two astronomers competing to retrieve a valuable meteorite.

  Lands of Ice and Snow

  As someone who wrote about amazing journeys, Jules Verne included expeditions to the North and South Poles in many of his stories. The quotation at the beginning of this book is from The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, which was published in 1864. This tells of an Englishman’s mission to travel to the North Pole and his adventures there. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo discovers the South Pole. As a young boy, I loved watching the Disney films The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot. These were based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and are set in prehistoric worlds
hidden in the North and South Poles. Another favourite of mine was the Marvel Comics character Ka-Zar, a Tarzan type who lives under Antarctica in the Savage Lands. Ka-Zar fights dinosaurs and other prehistoric threats. When I was thinking of a setting for this book, the polar wastes sprang to mind.

  Monsters

  The Tizheruk is taken from Inuit folklore – the Inuit do a great line in creatures that can slither out of the frozen waters and drag you in. Hideous little monsters that pull to their doom those foolish enough to wander near deep water can be found in most cultures. The Qalupalik are a variation on water sprites, Jenny Greenteeth and the nixie. The sharks in the ice cave’s pool are Greenland sharks. There is much controversy about this shark’s feeding habits and whether it is a predator or a scavenger but I decided to make it big and nasty.

  Historical Events

  In the latter half of 1815, most of Europe was still reacting to the downfall of Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. Mount Tambora, on an island in present-day Indonesia, did erupt in this year. Huge quantities of volcanic ash were thrown up into the atmosphere, affecting the weather and causing 1816 to be called ‘the year with no summer’.

  ALSO BY JON MAYHEW

  Monster Odyssey – The Eye of Neptune

  Monster Odyssey – The Wrath of the Lizard Lord

  Mortlock

  The Demon Collector

  The Bonehill Curse

  Praise for Jon Mayhew

  MONSTER ODYSSEY: THE EYE OF NEPTUNE

  ‘A rip-roaring, page-turning adventure’

  Books for Keeps

  ‘This is a thrilling adventure story full of heart-stopping

  moments that will have you on the edge of your seat’

  Primary Times

  MONSTER ODYSSEY: THE WRATH OF THE LIZARD LORD