Mariah Mundi and the Ghost Diamonds

by G. P. Taylor

  Mariah leapt over a small gap above a tank of silver fish that skimmed the surface. Suddenly the air around him was filled with silver darts as fish leapt from the water and flew. They jumped and dived. One snapped at his ear with sharp, needlelike teeth. It bled quickly and profusely.

  Getting back to the gantry, Mariah ran on. It was as if every piscary contained an even stranger creature than the one before. As he ran on he could see the deep waters beneath him and hear Titus and Grub catching up on him.

  ‘There’s no way out. Just give yourself up and face the consequences,’ Titus shouted above the ravenous barking of his dog. ‘I’ll spare you, if you give yourself up.’

  Mariah thought he sounded insincere. There was smug laughter in his voice. From where he was he could see the long shadows of Titus and Grub dancing on the wall at the other side of the Pleasure Palace. They were getting closer.

  ‘Come out and I’ll open the gate and let you go,’ Titus said, jangling a set of keys on a thick chain. ‘Just be gone and that’ll be that – understand?’

  Mariah now knew that Titus Salt had no idea where he was hiding. Grub sniffed at the stone floor that ran the length of the arcades. The dog had lost the scent. The lad crouched down on the gantry, keeping himself as close to the long metal walkway as he could. A drop of blood dripped from the bite to his ear and splattered in the water below. It scented the water with a bloody infusion. Mariah looked down. The tank was crystal clear. He could see the rocks and crab shells that littered the bottom of the tank. He couldn’t see a single creature.

  Titus drew closer step by step, until he and the dog were underneath him. He could see their shadows in the water below. He pressed himself closer to the gantry, trying to hold his breath for fear of being heard.

  Titus Salt looked in to the tank, his eyes searching every inch. Grub whimpered, as if there was something here he did not like.

  ‘Wise old dog,’ Titus said as he stroked Grub’s neck. ‘Didn’t like getting this one – always knew it would be trouble. There was wickedness in its eye – that’s for sure.’

  Titus spoke as if he had forgotten he was chasing an intruder. He cupped the grubby, half-gloved fingers of his hand against the glass so he could see inside.

  ‘Don’t like things that hide in the dark. Look at them crabs, never stood a chance, sucks off their shells and gouges out the innards.’ He paused for the briefest of moments as in his heart he regretted buying the beast that hid away in the shadows of the fish tank. ‘Can’t be …’ Titus looked up. He could make out the outline of a man on the gantry. The water shimmered on the surface, but he was sure that he could see someone twenty feet above him.

  ‘There he is, Grub!’ Titus shouted as he banged his fist against the glass in delight. ‘Got you now, lad – get yourself down here.’

  Unseen to them both, something stirred in the far corner of the piscary.

  Mariah looked down through the crystal-clear water and could see Titus and Grub far below. He looked along the gantry and quickly measured the race he would have to run to get to the end and down the steps before they would capture him. Without thinking he leapt to his feet and set off at a pace. The gantry shook back and forth. After just two strides there was a sharp thud from below. At first he felt no pain and then a sudden burning tore into his skin. He tried to move his leg but was held fast. Reaching down, he took hold of what he at first thought was the head of a snake that had wrapped itself around his ankle.

  Suddenly from the water came another and another. They lashed at him like long strands of thick, barbed rope as they took hold of every part of his body.

  ‘No!’ Mariah screamed as the beast rose from the water and began to envelop him with long tentacles.

  ‘Quickly, Grub – the octopus has him!’ Titus shouted at the dog as he ran to the steps that would lead him to the gantry.

  Mariah couldn’t move. The octopus had quickly wrapped itself around him and was squeezing him to the gantry. His face was squashed against the metal slats and dragged closer and closer to the water. He stared down and the beast stared back at him as it snapped its bird-like beak.

  ‘Stay still!’ shouted Titus Salt as he ran along the gantry towards Mariah. ‘Let it think you’re dead – just until I get to you.’

  Mariah could hear Titus getting closer. The old gantry moaned and twisted with his weight. The octopus sniffed at him as it slowly unwound its tentacles. Then, without a sound, it pulled him slowly into the water. Instinctively Mariah gripped onto the gantry for as long as he could, but the octopus was wrapped around him and he could feel its heart beating against him and its beak gnawing against his shoulder.

  ‘Steady, lad,’ Titus said as he drew closer. Mariah could see the man’s shadow cast across the water. He saw him raise his walking staff like a spear and take aim. There was a crack like lightning. Mariah felt the octopus suddenly tense itself. The water filled with black ink. The creature shivered. The crack came again and again as Titus Salt beat his stick. Grub howled like the gates of hell had been opened and heaven was about to be vanquished.

  ‘Back! Back!’ shouted Titus as he hit the creature again and again.

  Mariah could feel his fingers giving up their hold as the water sucked him down.

  ‘You’ll not be taking him this time,’ Titus shouted at the beast. ‘Not from old Titus Salt.’

  A hand reached down and took hold of Mariah by the locks of his hair just as he vanished under the water.

  ‘Now you belong to Titus Salt and he will have his pound of flesh,’ the man jeered as he dragged Mariah from the water.

  [ 6 ]

  Titus Salt

  MARIAH woke up with the smell of his smouldering trousers fresh in his nostrils. Instinctively he reached out. His hands felt the leather of the large armchair in which he had slept the last hour. As he opened his eyes he could see the chiselled roof of a small cave. In the corner by a wooden chest that looked as if it had been nailed together from pieces of driftwood was a black stove. It burnt brightly and lit the room, and resting on the top was a simmering kettle of water. He looked at his smouldering trousers and steaming boots and watched the vapour rise in spirals. His face felt sore, the salt water stung the wound on his cheek and now he could feel burning in his neck. Mariah rubbed his hand around the collar of his shirt. He could feel a circular blister just under his chin. It was sore and stung as if he had been scalded.

  From the top of the fire stove, a long black chimney went up the rock wall and into the roof. His eye followed it higher until it disappeared in the rock. From what he could see, Mariah knew he was in a cave, a small, neat cave cut into the rock.

  There was no sign of Titus Salt or Grub. Mariah was alone. He turned around and to his surprise saw that the tiny door was

  open. He could see the back of the ticket booth where Titus would stand and collect the money. He knew this was Titus’s office. He had seen the small doorway behind the ticket booth every time Sacha and he had come to the Aquarium to look at the strange exhibits on wet Sunday afternoons. Mariah had always wanted to know what it was like inside. It was different to what he expected. He had always thought it would have been bigger, grander and more in keeping with an entertainer such as Titus Salt.

  Now as he waited for his clothes to dry he looked around eagerly. Next to the wooden chest was a table on which sat an old oil lamp with a dirty brass handle. On the far side was a small bed cut into the rock just above the floor. It was strewn with an old blanket, a felt cushion and a large book with a leather clasp. The floor sloped towards the stove and in the furthest corner was a pile of logs and black sea-coal that had been picked from the beach. Mariah pushed himself forward in the leather armchair to get nearer to the fire. He thought of how he would escape and what Titus Salt could do to him.

  ‘Still here?’ came a voice edged with a slight chuckle. ‘Thought you’d have run off as soon as you woke.’ Titus ducked through the doorway carrying a small silver tray piled with meat and chees
e. ‘Had to get this from the pantry – don’t keep it in here in case of the rats. Don’t like the idea of rats, never did. Remember when I was a sailor, rats were the things I hated the most. Found one once in my trousers – don’t know how it got there.’

  Titus sighed as if he had remembered something wonderful that he would never see again. He smiled at Mariah, his two gold teeth shining in the light of the oil lamp.

  ‘That thing could have killed you. More importantly it could have killed me. Should have left you to it – and I wouldn’t have had to feed it for the week.’ Titus laughed again as he put the

  tray on the ground by the fire and took the simmering kettle and poured coffee into two cups that he took from a long shelf behind the door.

  ‘You don’t have to tell me who you are,’ he said softly in his best Sunday voice. ‘You are Mariah Mundi. I’ve heard all about you. Quite a lad I hear and all.’ Titus spoke quickly as he sat on the ground next to the fire and cradled the steaming pot mug in his gloved hands. ‘Can’t understand why you have to break in here. I’ve seen you often enough with that lass of yours – so, what were you doing?’

  ‘You going to kill me?’ Mariah asked as his lips tightened and he made ready to leap from the chair and run.

  ‘Why should I do that?’ Titus asked calmly as he eyed the lad from head to foot as if he knew what Mariah was about to do.

  ‘Barcus Dobbs. Didn’t you kill him and feed him to the fish when he stole your money?’ Mariah said, trying to hide his fear of the man.

  Titus began to giggle. He juddered in mirth as if he were electrocuted.

  ‘Did you think I killed Barcus Dobbs? All that I got of him was a patch from his trousers as old Grub tore his pants from him. He ran from here half naked. Wouldn’t do his repute any good if people found out that Titus Salt’s dog had ripped off his pants and he was frit of the beast. Cried like a baby, surprised you didn’t hear him from that fancy hotel of yours.’ Titus sipped from the cup and filled his mouth with cheese. ‘The man is hiding and the rumours of his death do him good. Dead men can’t do no wrong and it suits him to be dead. Suits Inspector Walpole too.’ Titus chewed frantically as he spoke and looked eagerly at Mariah. ‘Leads me to ask – what you doing here?’

  ‘I … I was looking for someone. There’s an entrance through a metal door. It was all rusted and it came out behind

  the fish tanks.’ Mariah stared at Titus, unsure if he would be believed. Titus rubbed the stubble on his chin and pouted like a fish.

  ‘Thought that had been sealed up long ago,’ he said thoughtfully as he smiled at Mariah. ‘Otto Luger had that done when he took over the Prince Regent. Was going to be a way for the guests to come from the hotel, but Otto had other ideas.’ Titus stopped and looked at Mariah. ‘What happened to your face? That looks like it wasn’t the octopus that did that.’

  ‘It was a man in Paradise, a man in a mask, he’d killed a girl.’

  ‘So it’s true. Thought it was just gossip.’

  Mariah told him all that had happened. The exploding Ambassador, the fire and Inspector Walpole. Titus listened without interrupting. He nodded and grunted as he and Mariah shared the cheese and meat and swigged the coffee from the pot until there was none left.

  ‘It’s as if they were murdered one by one and Walpole thinks it’s Charity or me that did it. He said I was at every murder last night and that makes me a suspect,’ Mariah said as Titus listened.

  ‘Trouble is, Mariah, the Prince Regent should never have been built. Some say it’s cursed. I told them but they never listened. There’s a salt cave and a hot spring – that’s where they get the heat from for that generator. Keeps me awake half the night with its rumblings. Luger was breeding fish. I don’t know how or why but some of the things were so strange he got rid of them straightaway and the others, the ones that weren’t bad, he gave to me.’

  ‘Piscis Humanis?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘People fish … Them as well. Far too clever and they look at you as if they know what’s in your head. When Luger brought them here I thought he was having a laugh. Looked as if they were people covered in scales.’

  ‘Luger brought them?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘In that lagoon of his were all sorts of things that shouldn’t be. I sneaked in there one night and saw more than I should – that’s why he blocked up the door. He didn’t want Titus Salt knowing what he was up to.’

  ‘What sort of things?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘It was as if he were doing experiments. Some of them fish looked like cats and dogs with gills and fins – cross breeding, new creatures. Most of them died or went mad. The Piscis Humanis, as he called them, they lived and grew and grew. Now look at them – glow in the dark and look at you as if they know better.’

  Before Mariah could reply, Grub growled. The dog then sat by the fire and slept. Mariah talked and talked as Titus listened. His face appeared to grow softer, less furrowed and more at peace. They laughed together as Titus joked about the octopus and how Barcus Dobbs had thrown the money back at Titus when Grub had taken hold of him. He told Mariah of his life at sea and how he had always wanted to own such a place as the Pleasure Palace.

  ‘I knew it would be mine one day,’ he said as he ate more cheese. ‘I have these visions. I can see things that haven’t happened – always had them – the seventh son of a seventh son, that’s me. Sometimes they just come to me as I’m working. It’s as if I see the possibility of the future and I can choose if I’ll walk that way or not.’

  ‘Fortune telling?’ Mariah asked impatiently. He had seen so many charlatans on the promenade who said they could see the future. Charity called them rogues and scoundrels, not to be trusted. Mariah had agreed.

  ‘More than that lad. It’s as if there is a perfect plan for your life. A plan to prosper you in all things. Sometimes I get to see what’s coming. Sometimes I see it and then make a mess of it

  and it never happens. I knew I would have this place. I knew that Luger was a bad thing. I knew I would meet you.’

  ‘What do these visions look like?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘Sometimes it is just a picture or a glimpse of a person. If you’re blessed you see it as if you’re watching actors on a stage. More often than not I just hear things of what will come, like distant whispers.’

  ‘Are you talking to the dead?’ Mariah asked. He had once seen a man on the corner of Garibaldi Street who said that those who had died told him everything. They never spoke to him of the horse and cart that had killed him the next day.

  ‘Never speak to the dead. What do they know? Best listen only to that which will bring life, young Mariah,’ Titus replied as he finished the last piece of cheese.

  The kettle and tray were soon empty and the fire in the stove dimmed. Mariah sat back in the leather chair.

  ‘I thought you to be a wicked man, but you’re different from that,’ he said as Titus took a handful of sea-coal and stoked the fire. The flames flickered on the chiselled wall of the cave. Mariah looked about him; he liked the place with its threadbare rug and old leather chair. It was warm and smelt of the sea. It was everything he had never had and reminded him of a night he’d once spent with his father as they camped by a fire on Hampstead Heath.

  ‘We’re all different underneath, Mariah. I heard things about you – but you’re not the lad they said you would be,’ Titus replied. ‘Jack Charity will be wondering where you are, you best be off. Next time you come in here through that door – shout my name and I’ll know it’s you. Keep away from that octopus. Nasty beast, would kill you if it got the chance.’

  ‘So I can go?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘Unless you want to swap that room of yours for a bed in this cave?’

  ‘Can I come back?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘Whenever you want. My special guest.’ Titus got to his feet and shook the cold from him. ‘Not many people like speaking to me. Like you they have listened to too many stories of what I am supposed to be like. I just wish they
would find the truth. Judge not lest you be judged, Mariah. That’s what it says in my book and that’s how I live, me and my house serve that and always will. A fine principle for life.’ Titus stopped speaking and listened. It was as if he could hear something that only he could hear. He looked as if he were staring through the rock and into the night sky. ‘Sure you don’t want to stay until morning? I have a feeling, Mariah. All is not well with this world and you’re in danger.’

  ‘Have you seen something?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘No lad, just heard it. I heard a child crying as if they were locked away in a dark room without any light. Someone has got them and they’re afraid. They were calling out – calling your name.’

  ‘Who was it?’ Mariah asked as Titus listened again and stared like before.

  ‘Not a good thing, Mariah. Don’t go near the castle. I can see its shadow cast across your life. Stay away from the ship in the bay.’

  ‘What can you see?’ Mariah asked, sure that Titus Salt wasn’t telling him everything that was in his vision. Titus stared at the roof of the cave, his eyes flickering like the flames of the fire. He seemed to be watching an invisible performance played out in mid-air. He followed the meanderings of his imagination with the tip of his finger as he drew their movements in the air.

  ‘There’s a fog coming, a mist you can’t see with human eyes. It’ll cover everything and everyone. There are two people who want to see you dead. Each for a different reason.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Be careful. Visions don’t tell you everything. They’re like a dim mirror. If we talk too much about them we fill them with our own words and not what we’re given – best leave it at that, Mariah. Watch yourself, I can do nothing to help you. You’d better get going. Keep to the lit streets. Tell Charity you met old Titus Salt and lived to tell the tale.’ Titus spoke quickly as he tried to push Mariah through the door and into the Pleasure Palace. ‘Can’t be staying here all night. You’re dry now and the octopus didn’t kill you. You’ll have to go and go quickly.’