Grand Vizier of Krar

by W. John Tucker

  113

  Unable to assist Serunipa for the moment, both Blan and Pel leapt into the boat. An oar hit Pel in the stomach, winding him, but he quickly recovered and wrestled with his attacker. Blan somehow managed to duck under the oar that came swinging for her. She collided with her attacker and they both tumbled overboard just as Pel and his adversary suffered the same fate. The combined weight of all four brought the top strake of the boat under the surface of the water. The boat capsized and then sank.

  Blan lost contact with her attacker. The water here was still clear and she could see the hull of the ship stuck in sand. However, the sand bank seemed to fall away rapidly into dark depths below. Then Blan felt the current change. It was no longer merely strong; it was pulling her down and around with great force. She realised that she was in a whirlpool.

  For a moment Blan saw Pel and the two centurions. They were all caught in the same whirlpool. Then she saw the little boat above her. It was sinking and, what is more, following her down, spinning slowly around at the same rate as she was spinning. She was surprised that she was starting to think dispassionately about her predicament. Was she spinning in the world, or was the world spinning against her, Pel and the longboat? The whirlpool became stronger as she descended. She knew it would not be long now before she would run out of air. How strange to have survived battle only to be taken by an ageless natural phenomenon.

  *

  Blan came up spluttering and gasping for air. It had seemed like an hour of agony. In fact, it must have lasted no more than two minutes. She had been dragged down into the whirlpool and into some kind of tunnel. She had been drawn against smooth rock faces and jolted three times with rapid changes of direction. Then the force of the whirlpool had simply left her and she had risen to the surface of what looked like an underground river. She looked around and saw that she was in a long cavern. There was no sign of it having been worked by humans. There was a kind of narrow shore or riverside where stalactites and stalagmites could be seen, and there were the remains of stalactites in the roof above, seemingly worn down by the flow of water. On occasions the river must have filled the entire tunnel, Blan mused. Thank goodness it did not do so now.

  The air was warm but breathable.

  A figure was clinging to a rock at the waterside a hundred paces further down. It was Serunipa and she seemed to be alive and breathing. Then two men broke the surface. One was Pel and the other was one of the centurions. A great surge of water followed as the boat lifted out of the water and settled back. As it did so it knocked Pel unconscious with a glancing blow. However, it hit the centurion’s head with such force that he could not have survived. He soon floated away downstream and out of sight. The second centurion never appeared.

  Blan swam to Pel and grabbed his collar with one hand and the edge of the boat with the other. She managed to manoeuvre the boat so its prow was caught between two rocks at the riverside, quite close to where Serunipa was clinging to another rock. Fortunately, Pel was coming to, so she hauled herself out of the water and made the boat a little more secure before checking that Serunipa was alright. There was a nasty bruise forming on the skipper’s head and she probably had concussion, but Blan managed to help her into the boat. Pel had, by this time, recovered sufficiently to get into the boat on his own.

  “This stream has a very strong current,” Blan observed. “It must go somewhere. We can’t go back, so let’s just rest in this boat and let it take us on the voyage, hopefully to the sea and not to some subterranean pond.”

  After checking the others’ injuries, Blan sat back in the boat and did no more than push it away from the riverside whenever it might get caught on rocks there. She was sure that both Serunipa and Pel had concussion, so she got them both to lie down and rest. She started to drift off to sleep until suddenly coming alert.

  “Where is the light coming from?” Blan asked aloud. “A deep subterranean cavern like this should be dark.”

  Pel mumbled something and then said more audibly, “Glowing organisms… we have them in caves around the coasts of Akrin.”

  “Near Port Fandabbin too,” Serunipa mumbled.

  “That’s fascinating,” Blan remarked excitedly. Next time the boat became caught against the rocks at the edge of the river, she held it there with one hand while reaching across with Pel’s knife to take a sample of some luminescent material nearby. Perhaps she would be able to grow it and one day study it with the new lenses she had ordered from the glassmaker in Nantport.

  114

  Dabbin – 1st December

  The underground river was by no means straight. It snaked from side to side, so Blan could rarely see more than a few hundred paces ahead. All the same, she felt that it was going in the right direction, westward. That hope was based on her hypothesis that the river was taking water from Lake Glorz to the sea. She conceded that this suited her and should therefore be treated with caution, yet she was convinced that it was still the best hypothesis to work with. The thought of another whirlpool leading to a vast, dark, underground lake had occurred to her, as had the possibility that the river joined the sea far beyond the coast.

  The little boat raced along the river for the rest of the day and all through the night, although none of its occupants were aware of just how much time had passed. Pel and Serunipa slept fitfully for most of the time. Blan, however, was alert and the passing time started to gnaw at her nerves. She was also starting to feel voraciously hungry. At least the river water was drinkable, coming from the Tan Mountains rather than the swampy Southport River, and not too cold. However, with nothing but her hands to capture it, bringing water to her concussed companions was awkward until she realised that she could use Pel’s horn as a drinking cup.

  Blan’s concerns were intensified when the glowing organisms that gave light to the cavern started to diminish. The cavern tunnel became darker and darker until the light disappeared altogether. The prospect of being drawn by a whirlpool into a subterranean lake now loomed greater than ever in her mind.

  In complete dark now, Blan felt the boat change direction sharply. If it all ended now she would not have helped Serunipa after all. At least she had tried. She felt guilty about drawing poor Pel into it though.

  Blan’s ears told her that the water course had suddenly become narrower and shallower. The boat sped up until, instead of the whirlpool she was expecting to be drawn into, she felt the sides scrape against rocks. Then there was another sharp change of direction. This happened half a dozen times until the boat became wedged between rocks on either side of the watercourse. Water was pushing so hard from behind that it was splashing over the transom. Pel received a large splash on his face and woke up suddenly.

  “What’s happening?” he cried.

  “We seem to be stuck,” was all Blan could manage. She reached across the boat on either side and then added, “We are in a tunnel with rock walls just a pace and a half apart. The boat is too wide to get through.”

  “There’s nothing else we can do but rock the boat and hope that the tunnel doesn’t get any narrower,” Pel advised. His long sleep seemed to have improved his condition. “You feel your way to the bow. When you are there, let me know.”

  As soon as Blan announced that she was at the front of the boat, Pel started to rock it around by moving his weight around the middle. Ultimately he came forward to Blan. The front of the boat fell. There was a grinding sound of timber on rock and then the boat suddenly lurched forward. Blan would have fallen forward into the water had Pel not anticipated this and pulled her back. The boat was carried forward on the stream with renewed speed.

  For a few minutes the tunnel seemed almost as narrow and the boat still at risk of becoming wedged. Then light could be seen ahead; not the glow of organisms but the light of lanterns.

  The boat suddenly entered a wide space and slowed. The cavern was banana shaped, at least fifty paces across where they were, the roof ten fathoms above them. Blan saw that they had entered near the midd
le of the convex side of the ‘banana’ by one of many tunnels in that side of the cavern. She guessed that the river had divided into separate tunnels when it had been too dark for her to notice, and the boat had entered one of them.

  Ahead and somewhat left, Blan saw that a dock ran most of the length of the concave side of the cavern. The dock varied from three to five paces wide, just a rocky ledge levelled by humans for their convenience. It was well lit by lanterns along the wall. A single, empty dragon boat was tied up at the dock. There were no people to be seen.

  Without oars, Blan and Pel had to get into the water and swim hard to push the boat to the dock. This was only possible because the current was taking them generally in that direction anyway. Blan clung to the boat with one hand and, with the other, to a cleat on the dock while Pel found some rope in the nearby dragon boat. Once the boat was tied up they both helped Serunipa onto the dock.

  “The good news is that the dragon boat over there bears the arms of the Duke of Dabbin,” Pel noted. “Perhaps Serunipa knows where we are.”

  There was an iron door in the wall. It seemed to be the only way out without continuing downstream, so Pel and Blan took turns at banging on it and calling out for help. No answer came, so they settled down to rest.

  They waited there for thirty minutes, having elicited from Serunipa that she had never seen the place before and had no idea where they were. They were lying on the stony dock when the iron door was flung open. The impressive figure of Carlcan Fandabbin appeared. Blan had not seen him before; she guessed who he was. Arnapa stood behind him with six people dressed like medics.

  “Blancapaw and Pelembras… Welcome to Silver Caves,” Carl announced. “Welcome also to our loyal third cousin, Serunipa, descendant of my grandfather’s grandfather, for whom this place will also be a new experience. As you might have guessed, it is part of the network of secret caves lying beneath Silver Island and Port Fandabbin. Its existence is known to few.”

  The six medics were already busy attending to Serunipa. Four of them bore her away on a stretcher while the other two checked Pel and Blan. Blan and Arnapa embraced, both overcome with relief at the other’s safety.

  For Blan and her friends it was a joyous reunion. The duke invited Arnapa, Zeep, Norsnette, Aransette, Bonmar, Pretsan, Nellinar, Pel and Blan to a celebratory banquet. Although the sea blockade had been in place since the twenty-second of September, food supplies were still plentiful from the hinterland and some luxuries were still arriving via secret ways yet undiscovered by the enemy.

  Serunipa was also invited to the banquet. She was feeling much better by evening, her bruises well bandaged or hidden by her hair. Although a mere ship’s Master would not usually be invited to a banquet in the citadel, and Serunipa had never been there before, she was now a Heroine of the Duchy. Blan and Pel made sure that the story of Serunipa’s courage in command of Mangrove Robin was fully told and recorded.

  Shortly after Serunipa had been sucked into the whirlpool with Blan and Pel, it had rained heavily enough to save Mangrove Robin from complete destruction. The shipwrights believed that it could be salvaged and rebuilt, so Serunipa was hopeful that she would eventually get her beautiful ship back.

  Memwin arrived late with her escort from Lake Glorz and she too came to the banquet. She had been distraught at Blan’s disappearance. The commander of the dragon boat had held her to stop her diving in to follow Blan. He had to keep her under guard for the first half of the journey to Port Fandabbin, until a rider from a nearby beacon station brought the news of Blan’s arrival at Port Fandabbin. The guards then had to speed up to satisfy Memwin that they were getting to the citadel as quickly as they could. After an ecstatic reunion, Memwin handed over Actio B to Blan. “I kept it safe,” Memwin said proudly.

  “I’m always safe with you around,” Blan had replied while Memwin giggled.

  Blan had been given food as soon as she reached the inhabited parts of the citadel. She could not remember being so hungry and it was a considerable effort of willpower for her to stop eating and save some of her appetite for the banquet later on. When the banquet commenced, all she could think of for a long while was her food and the fine clothes worn by the high nobles seated at nearby tables. It was unusual for Blan to concentrate on as few as two subjects at the same time, but she found it stimulating to contemplate how she might make such clothes and the improvements she would make to their design.

  At last she turned her mind to the conversations around her.

  The Duke had just reminded those present that, as friends and heroes, they should all call him Carl.

  “It was fortunate that you were anticipating that we might arrive via the underground river, Carl.” This was from Pel.

  “On the contrary, we never expected anyone to come that way. Until you arrived we were unaware that the river was navigable. We know it comes from Lake Glorz, but we have never found the entrance there. As for exploring it from this end, the current is too swift and the tunnels too dangerous to risk lives that way.”

  “How did you know we had arrived?” Pel asked.

  “There’s an opening in the cavern roof, fashioned to catch sound from below. The sound is channelled along a narrow tunnel to a set of musical instruments which have been finely tuned to vibrate only when unusual sounds are made in the cavern below, such as people calling out, footsteps or the splashing of swimmers or of oars. When your movements in the cavern caused some of the instruments to resonate, the guards descended to that level where they could see you though a peephole above the dock. They immediately called me via the voice pipe to report what they had seen. I came straight away, but it takes nearly half an hour just to get down to the dock from the citadel. The dock is somewhat to the north of Silver Island, not directly underneath it.”

  “How did you know the river comes from Lake Glorz?” Blan enquired.

  “We guessed that it came either from Glorz River or Glorz Lake because there is no other known source of so much fresh water nearby. We had already thoroughly investigated the bottom of Southport River as far as the lake. Then we placed several hundred miniature boats in the water just where Glorz River enters the lake. Many of them wound up on various shores, some were recaptured at the mouth of Southport River, and some were captured in the cavern below.”

  “Where does the river go? Where would the dragon boat go?”

  “Ah, that is a secret which I think you will be finding out before very long,” Carl replied.

  “However, you have done us a great service in proving that the river can be traversed from Lake Glorz to here,” Arnapa put in. “We’ll have to make sure that the dock is better guarded in future. If the enemy discovers the passage, he could block off an escape route as well as poison our most abundant water supply.”

  “Pel, do you think that you could build a vessel that would go back up the river, perhaps a long, narrow one, propelled by some kind of waterwheel instead of oars?” Blan asked, unable to keep her mind from problem solving.

  “It would be a challenge, yet possible,” Pel maintained.

  “Serunipa has told me about your Beehive vessel,” Carl said. “If you can build a vessel that will go underwater, as well as upstream without oars or sails, it could prove very useful to our defence. By all means coordinate this with Serunipa who will not be able to return to her ship for some time.”

  Serunipa looked at Carl with mixed confusion and disappointment; confusion because she was not a shipwright and had no staff other than her crew who would be reassigned to other ships for the time being; disappointment because she had hoped to be allocated some kind of vessel, perhaps a brig or barque, while Mangrove Robin was being salvaged and rebuilt.

  Carl continued, “My Shipwright General has fallen ill and will be unable to continue his duties, so I would be very grateful if you, Pelembras, would help us with your advice until we have appointed a permanent Shipwright General. There are several candidates but they are away, advising allies in pockets of resistan
ce. In the meantime, I am appointing a new admiral who can be Acting Shipwright General for the time being, to smooth the way for you in dealing with my officers and in finding resources.”

  “Who is the new admiral?” Arnapa asked, with a smirk on her face which suggested that she already knew.

  “Admiral Serunipa Fandabbin, of course,” Carl announced. “When it is rebuilt the Mangrove Robin will be your flagship, Serunipa.”

  Serunipa’s jaw dropped. It was unheard of for a ship’s Master as young as she to reach the rank of admiral, the second highest rank in the navy, currently held by just six others, and just below the rank of the fleet admiral, Count Nargin.

  Being third cousin to the duke brought Serunipa no favours; he had dozens of first cousins, and hundreds of second and third cousins. Besides, all important appointments were the result of a consensus reached between numerous influential people, so Serunipa’s appointment would have been agreed by a number of high-ranking officials, and soundings would have been taken from trusted representatives of ordinary mariners. Serunipa was more popular than she had realised, with both the administration and the rank and file.

  The tradition in western Arctequa was one of government by consensus, vague as that concept might sometimes be; not absolute power. Only once had this system been corrupted in recent years in the Duchy of Dabbin and that was when Binpin managed to fraudulently orchestrate his own appointment as Prime Minister, but few had yet guessed the details of that episode.

  A great cheer went up throughout the banquet hall as Carl and his guests stood to toast Admiral Serunipa. Practised as she was at giving pep talks to her crew, Serunipa had little trouble rolling out a short speech of thanks. Blan could see, though, that she was trembling. Blan felt she understood what Serunipa was feeling; she had faced death and the loss of all she loved, yet she had survived and found a joy she never expected to have. Blan then also realised that Serunipa’s joy was not just from her appointment to high office.