‘This literally world-shattering device,’ the prince continued, ‘will shortly be deposited on the un finished spire of Cologne’s new cathedral, a vulgar and ostentatious edifice if ever there was one. At precisely three minutes past two this afternoon, when the eclipse is total, those golden hands will do their work and release the contents of the glass vial. What glorious poetic licence: as the dark starts to engulf Europe, my super plague is released. Within days, half the continent will be extinct. The survivors will fight over the putrid bones of Europe, until they too succumb to the might of King Death.’
Zeldt stared at them, and his voice rose as he proclaimed: ‘The Renaissance will be destroyed before it has even begun.’
‘So that’s your grand plan?’ Charlie tried for his most cutting tone. ‘Advancement? Progress? The sciences? The arts? They’re no use to you?’
Suddenly the blood rose in Zeldt’s face. ‘I’m cleaning up the stinking mess of history!’ he roared. ‘You’re not so stupid that you do not know what becomes of it! Giving knowledge to the masses brings nothing but catastrophe and despair! Human beings are animals, and that is how they should be treated.’
‘Except for the select few …’ offered Topaz with a sneer. ‘You and your millionaire investors.’
Zeldt glared back at her before speaking. ‘Someone will have to be in charge: slaves do not drive themselves.’
‘But if you plan to kill everyone,’ Charlie enquired, ‘who exactly is going to man your prison camps?’
‘Those slaves, as I said,’ Zeldt answered with a shrug. ‘Selected and imported from every corner of the Earth. I will have the world at my disposal because I will own the world. And I will rebuild it, stronger than it has ever been before – a marvellous, awe-inspiring creation such as history has never seen!’
Mina Schlitz silently packed Zeldt’s time bomb back into its wooden box and fastened the catch.
The prince took a deep breath and settled down again. ‘Now, if there are no more questions …’
‘I have a question,’ Jake persisted. ‘Where are my parents?’
‘Tiresome individual,’ Zeldt sighed. He turned to Mina. ‘Take them back to the library. I shall join you presently.’
As the prince went to speak to one of his scientists, Jake, Topaz and Charlie were escorted back across the laboratory and over the bridge.
‘Your friends are already waiting,’ Mina announced. ‘We thought it would be charitable to dispose of you all together.’
As they entered Zeldt’s library, they immediately recognized the two sorry-looking figures who awaited them there.
‘Nathan!’ Topaz exclaimed.
‘Don’t say you’ve missed me!’ said Nathan with a twinkle in his eye as he limped towards her. Behind him, cowering helplessly, was Paolo Cozzo. All five agents were herded together.
‘Charlie, Jake – good to see you both alive,’ Nathan said, nodding to the others. He stopped and did a double-take at the sight of Jake. ‘Don’t tell me you put that outfit together yourself?’ He squinted to get the full effect. ‘Great silhouette! And nice work on the hair. A style rethink during a world catastrophe takes a special kind of courage.’
Paolo shook his head in bewilderment. ‘How can he talk like that – as if nothing’s happened?’
Zeldt came back into the room, carrying his time bomb. He closed the bookcase behind him. ‘I have a ship to catch,’ he said, rounding on the agents, ‘so I’m sorry to report that the time has come to say our goodbyes.’
He nodded at Mina, who went over to the metal door through which the unfortunate Friedrich Von Bliecke had been sent to his death two days earlier, and turned its distinctive bronze handle of curling snakes, then rotated the wheel.
‘On the other side of that chamber is a door. In one hour exactly it will open and take you into a labyrinth. In the labyrinth there is a single exit that will take you out of the castle.’
‘An exit?’ exclaimed Paolo. ‘You’re really going to let us go?’
‘Idiotic simpleton,’ Zeldt said with a curl of his lip. ‘I am telling you this not because you will ever reach it – it is impossible – but to prolong your exquisite agony a little longer.’
‘How thoughtful you are,’ Nathan drawled. ‘It’s a mystery that you’ve remained unmarried all these years.’
Zeldt turned to Topaz. He stared at her long and hard. ‘I think this lost little soul should come with us,’ he whispered with a nasty glint in his eye.
Topaz’s eyes widened in trepidation.
‘You take your hands off her!’ roared Jake, momentarily freeing himself from the guards and taking her arm. She looked back at him as if trying to tell him something. Whatever it was she wished to impart, he failed to understand it.
Nathan whispered urgently into Jake’s ear, ‘Let her go – at least she has a chance.’
Zeldt nodded, and the guards herded Jake, Nathan, Charlie and Paolo across the room towards the open metal door.
‘One last thing.’ Zeldt held up a hand to stop them. He touched Jake’s sleeve. ‘You were asking where your parents were …’
Jake held his breath and gazed at Zeldt in terror.
‘Once you get into the labyrinth,’ the prince continued, ‘you’ll find out soon enough. You’d better prepare yourself.’
Jake yanked himself free and flew at his captor. As his hands closed around the prince’s neck, the guards delivered an agonizing punch to his kidneys.
‘Take them!’ Zeldt hissed as he straightened his collar, and Jake and the others were dragged into the chamber.
‘Human beings are stronger than you think!’ Jake shouted defiantly. His last sight was of Zeldt reaching out a gloved hand and taking Topaz’s face in it; then the metal door slammed shut behind them.
Nathan couldn’t resist a final taunt: ‘And Miss Schlitz,’ he shouted through the door, ‘you really should take my advice about red – it totally drains your skin tone.’
Zeldt descended the great sweeping staircase towards the main doors, Mina at his side, the bubonic bomb clutched firmly in her hand. A pale-faced Topaz was dragged along behind them. As the prince reached the foot of the stairs, he stopped, and a number of footmen snapped into action. They fitted a brilliant silver breastplate to his chest and armoured gloves over his thin, pale fingers; a helmet with a plume of black feathers was placed on his head, and a magnificent fur cloak, with a tiger’s head roaring silently from each shoulder, was carefully fastened around his neck.
The principal footman made the final checks. He removed a tiny piece of stray lint from the fur cloak before all the servants bowed their heads and withdrew.
As Zeldt swept out onto the steps of the main entrance, a courteous round of applause echoed around the courtyard. His accomplices had come to bid their respectful farewells. Their young sons and daughters, dressed in fur against the chill morning, gazed wide-eyed at the resplendent figure of their commander-in-chief.
Also assembled there were Zeldt’s guards. They stood to attention, backs rigid, swords drawn and held aloft.
The prince made a gesture to the assembled crowd, then stepped down towards the blood-red carriage and inspected its load. It was neatly packed with its crates of books: five hundred volumes whose deadly contents would shortly strike Europe. He cast his eye around the cargo and nodded in satisfaction. The door of the carriage was closed; Mina gave a signal to the huge, ugly beast of a driver and his equally ugly companion, and the vehicle set off through the archway, heading down the mountain on its journey south.
Immediately an open-topped carriage drew up. Zeldt climbed in and took his seat with great solemnity. Mina, still clutching the box, joined him. Then she signalled to a guard, who had Von Bliecke’s dog, Felson, on the end of a lead. The dog yelped as he was bundled into the carriage, then crouched down, cowering away from both Mina and the prince.
Topaz was now ushered to move towards them, but she remained where she was.
‘Come and sit here,
my dear,’ Zeldt hissed, patting the seat next to him, ‘and tell me everything you’ve been up to. It’s been epochs.’
Still Topaz did not move. Two guards forced her up into the vehicle. She sat beside Zeldt, but did not look at him; Mina studied her with a sinister smile.
The carriage set off out of the castle, heading for the harbour and the red-sailed warship, the Lindwurm.
26 SNAKES AND LADDERS
‘IS EVERYONE ALL right?’ Nathan’s voice echoed around the pitch-black space.
Charlie just grunted and Paolo replied, ‘I’m locked in a stone box with no food or water, apparently about to die … I’ve never felt better.’
‘That’s the spirit!’ answered Nathan, ignoring Paolo’s sarcasm. ‘Jake? Are you all right?’ He waited for an answer. ‘Jake? Can you hear me?’
Jake could hear Nathan perfectly (it was physically impossible not to hear him), but he didn’t feel like talking. The truth was, he was very far from all right. His mind was awhirl with fears and worries. Zeldt had told him that he would ‘find out’ about his parents in the labyrinth, and that he should ‘prepare’ himself. He knew this could mean only one thing. He was desperate both to find out and not find out what awful secrets might lie beyond the chamber.
On top of all this, Topaz had now been abducted. The fact that Jake had known her for only a matter of days – that he was unable to explain or understand his feelings for her – was neither here nor there. Jake felt a deep attachment to her, as though, somehow, she was a part of him. His need to find her again was almost as strong as his need to find his family.
‘If you’re worried about what Zeldt said,’ Nathan persevered, ‘we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’ The truth was, after finding the clothing tag in the dungeon, Nathan himself feared the worst, but he felt it was his duty to keep morale as high as possible.
‘He’s right,’ Charlie added cheerfully. ‘There’s no point in worrying until we find hard evidence.’
‘Like Alan and Miriam’s severed limbs,’ Paolo suggested unhelpfully. ‘Ow!’ he cried as he received a clip on the back of the head from Nathan. ‘Ow!’ he yelled again as Charlie gave him another for good measure.
‘Let’s not talk about it,’ Jake decided grimly. ‘Let’s just get out of here!’
‘I like your style!’ drawled Nathan.
‘Spoken like a true History Keeper,’ Charlie concurred.
‘Zeldt said that a door would open into the labyrinth in an hour …’ Nathan set about feeling his way around the walls. ‘I’d say ten minutes has passed already. We need to find that door and force it somehow. What’s this …? Charlie, does this feel like something?’
Nathan directed Charlie’s hand to a groove in the back wall. ‘Can you get any purchase on it?’ he asked.
They both groaned and grunted as they tried to force the wall apart.
‘Oh, thank God!’ Nathan cried suddenly.
‘You’ve opened it?’ Paolo exclaimed.
‘No, I thought I’d cracked my nail, but it’s all right – disaster averted.’
‘How can you care about your nails at a time like this?’ murmured Paolo in despair.
‘I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer. My nails are perfect in all respects: tone, colour and contour. There exists no time or circumstance in which I would lose interest in them.’
Even with all four of them pulling with all their might, the stone wall refused to budge. Eventually, with reluctance, Nathan suggested that they conserve their energies and wait until the chamber opened of its own accord.
As they sat there in the darkness, Charlie told Nathan and Paolo about Zeldt’s plan to destroy Europe and the Renaissance. With every new twist, from the prince’s use of genetically modified plague, to the books with their vile secret, to the time bomb to be detonated in Cologne Cathedral, Paolo uttered a single phrase over and over again: ‘Oh, mamma mia! Oh, mamma mia!’
Finally there was a sound of grinding stone, and the back wall of the chamber split in two.
‘It’s opening! The wall’s opening!’ Paolo gasped as pale light crept into the room. Jake’s heart started pounding like a bass drum.
Nathan limped over to the aperture and peered inside. ‘The labyrinth, I assume. Very welcoming.’
‘Is anyone in there?’ Jake shouted out into the void. ‘Anyone at all?’ His voice echoed around the space. There was no response.
‘Jake, do you still have that lighter I gave you?’ asked Nathan.
Jake took it out of his pocket and passed it over.
Nathan turned to Paolo, and with one tug ripped the sleeve from his jacket.
‘What are you doing? Mamma made me that.’
‘Sorry – cheap material burns well,’ Nathan replied as he set light to Paolo’s sleeve.
He was right: it produced a bright flame, and he hurled the burning sleeve into the centre of the space. It landed on the edge of a wooden gantry, revealing Zeldt’s labyrinth with its endless puzzle of staircases going off at every conceivable angle.
‘Exit?’ Paolo wailed. ‘Where? How on earth are we to find the exit?’
‘Hello!’ Jake called again, scanning every inch of the murky space.
All four agents listened intently. Eventually they heard an odd noise like shifting sand.
‘Wh-what is that?’ asked Paolo, wondering if he really wanted to know the answer.
‘It sounds like it’s coming from the floor,’ said Charlie.
Nathan turned to Paolo and ripped off his other sleeve.
‘Nathan!’ he exclaimed.
‘What? You want to go around with one sleeve? You’ve got four hundred years until asymmetry becomes fashionable.’
Nathan lit the second sleeve and flicked it into the centre of the space. It was a good shot. It fell between the various staircases and landed on the floor far below. The others craned their necks to see what lay there. The burning sleeve illuminated a large circle of empty stone.
Then the tail of a snake slowly curled out of sight. Paolo gasped. There was stillness again.
‘I don’t want to be the voice of doom,’ said Charlie, ‘but that looked suspiciously like a black mamba.’
‘A black mamba?’ whispered Paolo. ‘That’s bad, is it?’
‘One of the deadliest creatures on earth,’ Nathan confirmed. ‘It can deliver up to four hundred milligrams of venom in one bite. You’re dead in twenty minutes, if it doesn’t strangle you first.’
‘And it’s long,’ added Charlie. ‘Fifteen feet. That’s nearly three of you put together.’
It was impossible for Paolo to go any paler, but he said nothing. Jake continued to search the chamber for any sign of his parents.
‘Of course, the “black” refers not to its skin colour,’ added Charlie, ‘but to the inky interior of its mouth.’
‘Which they say is blacker than a black hole.’ Nathan raised his eyebrows.
‘All right, that’s enough!’ snapped Paolo. ‘We don’t know what it is for sure, so lesson over!’
‘Not quite …’ Charlie had seen something else. The head of another terrible serpent appeared in the illuminated circle. For a moment it did not move. Then it gradually started to slither across the space. In unison, all the boys’ eyes widened in horror: it was, at the very least, fifteen feet long.
‘That’ll be a black mamba then,’ said Nathan.
‘And all its black mamba friends,’ Charlie added chillingly.
‘Let’s go then,’ said Jake, swallowing his fear and descending to the first step of a staircase leading away from their chamber. But his foot came into contact with nothing but air. He lost his balance and fell forward. In a flash, Nathan had caught him and pulled him back up.
‘Those steps are not what they seem to be. None of them are. It’s a puzzle – a trick with mirrors.’
He demonstrated by dropping a small stone onto the ‘apparent’ staircase in front of them. There was actually a sheer drop into the great abyss b
elow.
‘So how do we know which way to go?’ asked Paolo desperately.
‘Well, mirrors can play tricks, but gravity can’t,’ said Charlie as he scooped up a handful of grit and scattered it in front of them. Amazingly it settled on a flight of stairs that appeared to go in completely the wrong direction. The others were puzzled, but the truth was there to see in front of them. Charlie took a pace forward. It seemed as if he would step into nothingness, but he landed on firm ground.
‘You see? Simple really,’ he said, secretly drawing a sigh of relief. ‘Everyone get some grit and follow me.’
Jake, Nathan and Paolo each scooped up some dirt and cautiously set off. Charlie led the way; Nathan followed Jake, holding onto his shoulder so as to avoid putting pressure on his leg. A whimpering Paolo brought up the rear.
They cautiously made their way down to a landing at the bottom of the first staircase and stopped. There were now three staircases going off at wildly divergent angles. Charlie scattered some grit and identified the correct path – a much narrower staircase that ascended high into the chamber.
As the four of them climbed the steps, they gradually got a clearer view of the space below. It was large and uneven, punctuated by clusters of shadowy rock, amongst which they glimpsed a spine-chilling undulating movement.
The agents carefully found a way through, up and down staircases, moving forward, doubling back and moving on again. Jake’s eyes still darted everywhere. After twenty minutes of slow, nail-biting progress, Nathan spotted a small rectangle of light.
‘Look! There!’ He pointed up to a doorway at the top of the winding staircase ahead of them.
Paolo gasped and his face lit up. ‘That’s it! That’s the exit!’ He pushed past the others and started up.
‘Wait! Come back,’ barked Nathan. ‘It might be a trap.’
‘No, I can see sky! I promise I can see sky,’ replied Paolo, rushing towards the light. ‘We’ve done it, we’ve done it!’ he exclaimed. He was running so swiftly that he did not notice one of the steps moving as he trod on it.
The History Keepers: The Storm Begins Page 22