by Ben Yallop
Sam found his mouth was hanging open in surprise. He ran his hands through his hair. In the middle of the cavern, sitting in what looked to be a few feet of water and only just visible in the gloom lay an enormous grey warship of the kind that he had only seen in films he had watched about the First World War in history class. They stood opposite its starboard side, somewhere near the bottom of its hull. They could see its front end in the pale light. The rear end was lost in shadow.
So incongruous was the sight that none of them spoke for a few minutes. They simply stared. It was Hadan who spoke first. He pointed across to the lettering on the side of the warship.
‘I think we’ve found our monster.’ he whispered.
Sam followed the line of Hadan’s finger to where he could just make out some words that he had not noticed amongst the patches of rust on the ship's side.
‘USS Cyclops’
'The words on the arch.' said Hadan. 'Not us, but U S S. Here you will find United States Ship Cyclops
‘How in Mu did it get here?’ said Weewalk in awe.
‘There's a line.’ Sam said quietly. ‘There must be. Away back behind the ship. It must have gone right through, crew and all, and disappeared, and arrived here. The crew must have had quite a shock.’
‘I don't think they lived to be surprised for long’ said Weewalk. ‘Electrical equipment often fails around lines. They might have had no light and my guess is that, down here in the darkness, the wendigo made short work of them.’ He pointed to more bones that lay amongst the rocky teeth and shallow water on the floor. ‘The wendigo must have had a party when such an easy meal landed in their laps.’
They stopped a little longer imagining what terrors those sailors must have faced in the darkness.
Kya broke the spell.
‘Should we take a look around? We need to find the way out of here.’
They climbed down the cavern and picked their way amongst the pointed stalagmites. Each tooth was taller than Sam and needle sharp at its tip. They protruded from every surface and Sam felt like dental floss as they picked their way between them towards the smooth grey hull of the USS Cyclops. They splashed their way through shallow pools of water until they got close to the dull metal, here the stalagmites were broken and jagged from where the ship had run aground and smashed through them. Progress was more difficult so they went back a few steps before they turned toward the front of the ship, hoping to skirt it.
Water dripped steadily from the teeth on the ceiling, a monster's saliva running down its fangs. It landed with plings and plongs on the enormous grey beast held within its mouth, regurgitated from some watery depth. There were plenty more bones sticking out of the pools and puddles of the floor that they passed. All picked clean of meat.
They came to the front of the ship and continued around the other side. There they found that ladders had been thrown over the side and they stopped, wondering whether there was any merit in climbing them to explore the ship or gain a better vantage.
Sam thought he could hear at least one line nearby and thought the view from the deck might help to identify the quickest way towards it. As well as the now familiar hum of the line through which the Cyclops had arrived he thought he could feel some other line. It seemed to resonate on his senses pulling at his mind in an almost hypnotic way, a tugging at his presence, a low rumble to the growl of the main line. That, he thought, must be the line to Montauk. He tried to recall what Weewalk had said about that place...
‘It took them another forty years to reopen a hole in a place called Montauk and begin to control some of that power. Some of the scientists and crew were seen years after they were thought to have died. Some people even absorbed a little of the power of the hole and began to be able to control objects and even other people with their minds, but it is said that those people soon became unstable and destroyed the equipment effectively ending the project.’
Who knew what they would find there? What point in history? Would it be in ruins already? As Sam stood, lost in thought, he became aware of a faint clanging noise somewhere behind him. As he listened he realised that he had been hearing it for a few moments. He looked around him. The others were still debating where to start looking but as he looked past them he could see the rope and wood ladders hanging over the side of the ship had begun to tremble as if in a strong breeze. The wooden rungs were clanging softly against the grey steel of the hull. It took a moment to realise that there was no wind here to disturb the rope lines. In horror his eyes travelled up the ropes and up and up. Grey bodies were swarming over the side of the ship, inching down the ladders, head first like insects.
Sam shouted and pointed. The others turned to look. The wendigo had found them again but this time there were hundreds. Their nest had been disturbed and they poured out like spiders. Their chittering voices began to sound.
Tarak Everune hugged his knees. He sat on a small pile of wet, dank hay that served as his bed in the small dark cell. Above him a single shaft of sunlight came in through a barred window illuminating a patch of stone above his head. But little light filtered down into the dark square of dirty floor. Flies buzzed around a wooden bucket in one corner of the room. They were all that moved. Not even rats bothered to cross his cell. There was certainly no food to be found here. He had sucked every last drop of the cold grey porridge that had been slopped into a bowl hours or perhaps days ago.
He kept his head down. His forehead resting on his knees, his lank bedraggled hair hanging in a dirty curtain around his face. He wiggled his cold bare toes but the movement brought no warmth and only made him feel even more weary.
He heard footsteps approach but he did not move even when the small hatch in the door was slid back. He knew someone was now watching him. He schooled his expression and looked up, through his grimy locks.
‘How are you enjoying your stay?’ asked Ferus with a laugh.
Tarak allowed his voice to waver. ‘Please, let me go. I've told you everything I know. I promise.’
‘Oh I know you have. You are a Secret Keeper no more. We shall have to think of a new title for you. Abject Coward. Traitor. There are so many to choose from.’
‘Please, let me go.’ Tarak hung his head again.
‘No.’ said Ferus. ‘I like having you here. You might be useful yet. You might encourage others to my door.’
Tarak heard the small window clang shut and Ferus' footsteps receded into the distance. He kept his head down. You could never tell whether someone was still watching. He had taken an enormous risk. It all came down to Kya. He just had to wait and hope that she succeeded. He just had to hope that the rescue would come and come soon or he would be too weak to fight. Too weak to reveal the greatest secret of all.
Weewalk, Sam and Kya moved at the same time throwing energy upwards towards the advancing wendigo. There was no need to hold back. They threw burst after burst of presence at them and some fell screaming onto the sharp teeth of the cavern below. Sam and Kya were able to hurl others sideways or up causing those wendigo still coming to scream in rage. But for every one they hurled away to fall broken onto the rocks, another three took its place.
Hadan called to Sam. ‘Try the lamp.’
It took Sam a moment to realise what he meant. Hadan had opened the lamp so that the flame was visible. Sam tried to catch it as Vallalar had shown him all that time ago at the Mermaid Tavern but still he could not grip it. He tried again and again. Still he could not hold the flame. The wendigo edged closer.
Kya screamed at him ‘I can't hold them off by myself.’
Weewalk and Kya were doing what they could but it clearly wasn’t going to be enough. Glancing round quickly Sam could see that Weewalk was trying to do something to dislodge the ladders, but without success.
Sam tried the flame again. Still nothing.
Hadan grabbed Sam by the shoulder and looked him in the eyes. ‘I believe in you. I know you can do it. Focus.’
Sam tried again and this time, unbelieva
bly, the flame flicked out towards him. For a moment it was a couple of inches longer than it should have been.
Sam tried again, and this time he wrenched it free from the wick and felt his mind take a hold of it. Once he held it there was no stopping him. He stretched it into a rope and whipped it in a fiery line at the advancing wendigo. Any that it touched were immediately burned but their fury only increased.
Sam lay the thin line of fire down across the floor between his companions and the advancing creatures using his mind to hold it in place. It smouldered on the wet floor. Sam steadied himself and took a deep breath. He leaned back and then threw his arms and his mind forward. An inferno sprang from the fiery string. A wall of flame lit the entire cavern so that every pointed tooth cast a thousand long shadows. The fire rolled up the side of the ship, hissing away the water and searing away the wendigo in a single blast of power like a volcanic eruption. Sam felt their bodies blast away like dried leaves in a furnace.
After the wave of fire had gone he blinked in the sudden darkness. Sam noticed that a tiny flame still flickered on a piece of hanging rope and he carefully plucked it away with his presence and drew it through the air to float back into Hadan's lamp.
He looked back at his companions. They were all fixed to the spot dumbstruck. If any wendigo remained they were hiding back inside the belly of the Cyclops.
Sam could feel the line more clearly now.
‘This way,’ he said and walked past a line of blackened and charred rock and gore towards another corner of the cave. ‘They won't bother us again.’
Sam stood before the portal. This line would take them to the place called Montauk. There they would find another line which would complete their journey to Mu, where they would try to find a way to rescue Tarak, the Secret Keeper. With the information he held they might be able to think of some way to fight Ferus and the Riven King's oppression. Standing here now it all seemed too difficult. They had already gone through so much and had got nowhere yet. But what else could he do?
Although Sam stood there, suddenly doubtful, it was Hadan who voiced his concerns.
‘I don’t know why but I've got a bad feeling about this one.’
Behind them the Cyclops creaked and planged as the metal cooled again from the fiery blast that had rolled over it.
‘Come on.’ said Kya, ‘We need to save Tarak.’ She opened the portal and they stepped through.
Jak watched them pop out of existence one by one. The lamp went with them plunging that part of the cave into darkness but he could still see in the blackness that enveloped him. As his eyes adjusted he could see that parts of the big grey ship still glowed a dull red from the heat of the blast sent out by the boy. No wonder Ferus wanted him dead. Someone as powerful as that could pose some real threat to the Riven King's rule. People would rally to him. It was only Jak's own malevolence and show of loyalty that had stopped him from being hunted by the ruler of the Rivenrok Complex. This boy was interesting. Very interesting. He had presence but could not always control it or will it forth. It was time to carry out the task that Ferus had set him. Jak clicked his long metallic fingernails together and strode to the line. He stepped through.
Immediately Sam was aware that this line felt considerably different. Normally the passage through the ethereal pathways was smooth but this one shook and bucked like it wanted to spit him out. He landed with a crash that knocked the wind from him, rather than the usual gentle realisation that ground was forming beneath his feet. He panicked for a moment when he realised that he couldn't see. He tried to open his eyes but found that he had already opened them. He called out to the others and Weewalk answered.
‘It's okay. We're all here I think. My vision's clearing.’
‘What's going on?’ called Sam, as his vision turned from black to a blurry dark grey.
‘These paths are different remember? These are manmade. Experiments by scientists trying to render objects invisible. It would seem they are not as smooth as the lines created by the God, Pyxidis.’
Sam rose and tried to stare into the room, his vision still very hazy. He saw movement. Something appeared before him and he had a sudden vague impression of a demonic face with glowing eyes, but a split second later, it was gone and as he blinked Kya's face swam into focus and he couldn't understand what he had seen as her pretty face appeared before him, a smile on her lips.
‘I saw something strange for a moment there.’ said Sam softly.
‘This whole place is pretty strange.’ she said.
Sam turned and looked around the room. They were in a long laboratory of some sort, long enough that its ends dwindled into shadow and could not be seen. Lights were only illuminated above their heads and Sam guessed that they were on some kind of motion sensor. He realised too that the walls were curved giving the appearance of being inside a very large doughnut. Blank television screens filled one large section of wall nearby and more hung from the ceiling. Big, chunky, old-fashioned computers took up much of the space under the bare concrete roof. The walls were painted white and were plain. There were no windows and, turning, Sam realised that he could see no door. No conventional door anyway. A dozen or more metallic archways were visible in the part of the room that Sam could see, set out around him at irregular intervals, each looking like some strange alien shrine. Within each of these Sam could feel a line buzzing with power so that if he opened his mind the room felt like the inside of a wasp nest.
‘I never guessed they might have made this many.’ said Weewalk in awe. ‘No wonder the project eventually collapsed. There's no way they should be able to hold this many lines open. Can you feel the power?’
‘How do we know which one will take us to Mu?’ asked Sam.
‘It's a good question.’ came a high-pitched maniacal voice from the edge of the part of the room that was lit. ‘I don’t expect you'll ever find it.’
Sam turned in horror as a man strode into view. Not a man, a thing. He had red eyes which glowed beneath a metallic mask that covered the top part of his face. He wore a long black cloak on top of what looked like tight white leather body armour. He clicked his fingers as he stepped into view and Sam could see long metallic claws that caught the light as he moved.
There was a sharp intake of breath from Hadan. ‘Spring-heeled Jak.’ he said.
Jak merely grinned and kept his eyes upon Sam.
As the figure stepped under the bright lights, Sam noticed that Jak was flickering, almost hazy. A faint chime, like the sound of a line came from him. Suddenly Sam realised why. A thousand tiny pieces of metal floated around Jak, spinning so quickly they looked like floating orbs. Jak raised his arms slightly and gave a short laugh. The metal ceased its spin and the hum fell silent. His arms dropped and a storm of metal flew at Sam, a blast of jagged death, impossible to dodge. Instinctively, Sam threw his arms across his face and fell to his knees as the world turned white.
Chapter Fifteen
When Sam opened his eyes again Jak was staring at him angrily, his fiery eyes narrowed in hate. Sam chanced a quick glance over his shoulder where the pieces of sharp metal were embedded in the wall behind him. A perfect circle in the middle was clear. He had instinctively, with his eyes shut, grabbed each piece and thrown it past him.
Then everyone moved at once. Sam, Kya, Weewalk and Hadan dashed towards Jak but he pushed away from the floor with presence, arms outstretched and flew over their heads, brushing the ceiling with his cloak. He threw an arm sideways towards one of the metallic archways and a line opened. To Sam's horror Murian beasts began to enter the long laboratory. First came the fast wolf-like garoul, then a huge nandi, then another bigger than the first, then a flock of ropen.
‘We have to get out of here.’ shouted Kya as she dodged a garoul that leapt for her throat. She used her presence to push off the wall. She twisted as she flew and slashed at it with her knife.
‘We can't.’ shouted back Sam who leapt over a nandi. ‘We have to stop this Jak here. He'll only follo
w us.’
Weewalk had his back to the wall as a nandi towered over him. ‘Sam, you and Hadan try to stop Jak. Kya and I will try to hold off the rest and shut that line.’
Sam focused his presence on a garoul, holding it mid-air with his mind. He threw it at Jak who laughed and dodged allowing the garoul to smash through one of the television screens after which it fell to the floor and did not rise again.
For every one of the monsters that was flung to break against the wall or stabbed through by Hadan or Kya's knife another seemed to take its place and, through the melee, roared the nandi like angry rabid bears, relentless, using massive claws to slash their way through the throng not caring whether they eviscerated human, kobold or animal. More beasts entered every now and then almost as if they had been caged just the other side of the line and were finding a pathway through.
The battle raged as Sam and Hadan tried to edge closer to Jak. In the fight Sam found new respect for Hadan. Despite his lack of presence he fought with a skill and determination that Sam had only guessed at before. He ducked and dived, swirled and all the time flicked out with his knife, slicing ropen from the air and causing the garoul to fall back in panic.
Sam was able to use his mind to pick up and smash their enemies to the ground or wall. He found that was the most effective. But he was also able to use the tricks that Vallalar and Odhar had shown him during his training. He leapt and pushed himself from floor, wall and ceiling so that he flew around the room. He was a pinball in a machine, cannoning off surfaces and smashing through foes, but never landing in one place for longer than a moment.
He and Hadan made progress until they came to where Jak stood, apart from the battle, arms crossed, a smile on his face. Motion sensor lights clicked on above them as they moved towards him. Then they had cleared the path and he was before them. Sam could hear Weewalk and Kya fighting the snarling beasts some distance behind them but ahead stood only Jak. Sam pushed off the wall behind him moving his arms towards Jak, ready to lift him and dash him against a wall. But Jak uncrossed his arms, almost lazily, and suddenly Sam felt as though he had slammed into a brick wall. He was held in mid-air. From the corner of his eye. He could see Hadan similarly immobile. He tried to push away from the ceiling to get back to the floor but he only dropped a foot before Jak held him again.