by G. P. Taylor
The room was filled with Bizmillah’s discarded magic tricks and scientific devices, and sitting by a long table, each in cuff chains that were bolted to the floor, were Felix and Sacha. In front of them were bowls of brown porridge mixed with an abundance of bright white pearls. The two sat staring at the wall but turned slightly as Gormenberg entered.
‘Eat, I told you to eat!’ he bawled as he banged the table with his fist. ‘If I can’t use the waxworks then I will have to use you.’ Gormenberg crossed the room and lifted the lid of a metal vat that oozed cold steam over its sharp lip and across the floor. ‘Once you’ve eaten, then –’ He stopped and laughed to himself before turning to his companion. ‘Stick him in the sarcophagus and make sure it’s well locked, can’t have him escaping. Might have to use Mariah as well. Now come on, eat.’
Gustav pushed Mariah across the room before he could say anything to Sacha. The man slammed him face-forward into a large painted coffin that was leant against the wall, then crashed the two parts of the lid tightly shut and turned the key.
From where he was imprisoned, Mariah could hear the sound of footsteps leaving the room and the door shutting behind them.
‘Mariah,’ whispered Sacha as she gulped the pearls. ‘They have us all. Captain Charity is locked next door. Luger wants me to eat the pearls and then he’s gonna freeze us both and ship us to France. He showed us what’s in the vat. It’s a chemical that’ll freeze anything faster than winter. There’ll be no chance.’
‘You should have stayed, Sacha. We had a plan.’
‘Whatever plan you had didn’t work. He got everyone of you,’ Felix said as he crunched upon the pearls a spoonful at a time.
Mariah ignored what he said as he felt the inside of the sarcophagus with his hand. ‘Have you seen the Kraken, Sacha? He followed you here.’
‘Just Monica. She is a sea witch, she can walk through doors and do magic.’
‘And so can I,’ Mariah said – and suddenly, to their huge astonishment, he appeared behind them in the room. ‘They took the coffin that belonged to Bizmillah. It’s a magic trick, all you need to know is how to undo the back and hey presto … I saw it the first day I was here.’
‘Still haven’t got us from the room, have you, Mundi? Still as wet as ever,’ Felix said, bringing the dark edge of reality back into place.
‘Never expected to ever see you again, Felix Schlemihl. Once you’d left the Colonial School I thought you’d be making your millions. That’s what you always said, wasn’t it?’
‘You know each other?’ Sacha asked.
‘I know the dreamer,’ Felix said quietly, not liking his fate to be in Mariah’s hands. ‘Spent all his time looking at clouds or the moon and the stars, never a thought for life – eh, Mundi?’
‘Never a bully, dowsing boys in water as they slept, filling their bed with cockroaches, putting a rat in a cooking pot or making a fresher drink mushroom water, eh, Schlemihl?’ Mariah spat back through his teeth.
‘There’s no time for this,’ Sacha shouted angrily as Mariah stepped towards Felix with his fist clenched. ‘Luger will soon be back.’
‘That’s what I have to tell you – he’s not Otto Luger but a man called Gormenberg. He’s a crook and Black’s from the Bureau of Antiquities and so is Perfidious Albion. And more than all that, Captain Charity is really –’ Mariah stopped in mid sentence and looked at them as they stared incredulously towards him. ‘There is so much I need to tell you, Sacha, so much. Look what Charity has given to me – there are only three in the whole world.’
Mariah held out the three-bladed knife proudly. It glinted in the candlelight.
‘Why did he give you that?’ asked Sacha as she rattled the chains that held her to the floor.
‘Said it would be for my own good. That one day it would come in useful, and I think I know why.’ Mariah took hold of the chain and stabbed the fine point of one blade into the lock, twisting it back and forth. Soon Felix was free. He rubbed his wrist and ran to the door and peered through the lock.
‘No use,’ he said desperately as he looked about the room. ‘There’s a key in the other side.’
Mariah didn’t hesitate. First he quickly undid Sacha’s shackles and then, pulling a piece of discarded newspaper from the shelf, he slipped it under the door and pushed at the lock with the blade of the knife. Within seconds the key fell from the other side. Mariah pulled the stiff sheet of paper back into the room, and the key was there before them. Felix smiled.
‘Clever lad, this Mariah Mundi. I’ll soon be out of a job.’ He tried to laugh.
‘Learnt it at the Colonial School. I was the one who trashed your room and burnt your money. Got the key from the caretaker’s house just like this, and no one knew. Bilton thought you’d done it to yourself. Teach you for all you did. I laughed when I saw you in that cage, wanted to leave you there forever. Hoped that crocogon would eat you alive.’ Mariah spat in his face and he clenched his teeth, ready to fight.
‘Then why did you come back?’ Felix argued, his face flushing with rage.
‘I came back for her, not you. You made my life hell. When you left the school it was the best day of my life. Just ’cos you’re a year older, thought you were the big man, and who had to save your skin? Me!’ Mariah held the knife to his face. ‘You’re a joke, I know that now. Always the joker, poking fun, but that stuff hurts, hurts deep. Never told her I knew you, never wanted to. A bad memory best forgotten.’
‘Stop it!’ Sacha shouted. ‘Luger will be back and you two will still be fighting.’
‘Was him,’ they said together, pushing their fingers into each other’s face as if they had done it a thousand times before.
‘She’s right,’ Mariah said reluctantly. ‘Save this until another day. It’s waited this long, it can wait another hour.’
‘Likewise,’ Felix grunted.
‘Gonna get us out of here then, Mariah?’ Sacha asked.
She had spoken too late. The door shimmered as the outline of a body broke through the fibres of wood. First a face and then the shoulders, until a whole body appeared in the room.
‘My dear little friends,’ said Monica as she materialized before them, dripping blue liquid to the floor in a large pool at her feet. ‘You weren’t thinking of leaving?’ She looked at Mariah. ‘All together at last,’ she said, her eyes jumping from one to another.
Mariah hid the knife behind his back and stepped across the room as Sacha looked at Monica. A growing stench of salt water and dead fish emanated from the sea witch, filling the room like a rising tide. Monica appeared to steam, a haze of fog falling from her shoulders like a white cowl. Yet her face looked young and fresh and was neatly powdered, her lips etched in bright red paint.
‘I see you’ve eaten the pearls … Good, now I can have you dipped in liquid nitrogen and frozen for your journey. Who shall go first?’ she said as she looked at Felix and Sacha in turn. ‘I think … Felix.’
Before anyone could say a word she grabbed the boy by his throat, her hands strong and powerful. She lifted him from his feet and dragged him towards the steaming vat of freezing steam.
Felix screamed and looked at Mariah with eyes that called for help. Sacha tried to move but found her feet salted to the floor, encrusted in a thick layer of brine that held her like cement. Mariah too was held fast, the salting running up his leg and encrusting his body to the waist. Monica laughed as she dragged Felix closer and closer to the metal vat.
‘Soon we’ll have a boy who looks better than any of Otto’s waxworks,’ Monica said.
‘He’s not Ottto – he’s Gormenberg,’ Mariah said quickly.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘You heard. He killed Otto Luger. I can show you his bones in the foundations. Otto’s dead, has been for a long time. He lied to you and he’s gonna kill you.’ Mariah spoke quickly as she took Felix closer to the vat.
‘I would have known, he tells me everything,’ Monica replied, intent on killing Felix. Her grip
tightened around his neck and he began to stop struggling.
The salting gripped them to the floor as her unspoken spell worked quickly about them. Mariah could feel the brine cutting into his flesh as the crystals multiplied upon him. Monica lifted Felix up the first of the three steps that led up to the top of the vat of freezing liquid. He had become limp in her hands as the life was strangled from him. She laughed to herself as she went up the next steps, and the sound of Sacha’s frightened screaming filled the laboratory.
‘I promise I’ll be quick,’ Monica shouted above the noise. ‘Death comes easily – so many people have done it before, it can’t be that bad.’ She laughed again as Sacha ripped at the salt that now enfolded her up to her waist; her legs were like those of a giant snowman.
‘Don’t do it to him, please!’ Sacha shouted, sobbing.
Mariah looked at the sea witch and the words of Captain Charity came back to his mind as if freshly spoken in his ear. ‘A triple blade for a triple death. Not only kills the body but the soul and spirit, a blade for each, and will keep even the most fearful ghoul in its tomb for eternity.’
‘Take me!’ Mariah shouted as the sea witch dropped Felix to the steps before she lifted him over the lip and into the liquid nitrogen.
Monica stopped and glared at him, holding her hands against her waist and tipping back her head in mocking laughter. ‘Your turn will come,’ she scolded.
Mariah seized the moment. His hand flashed from behind his back, then quickly stretched to full length and fired the triple blade through the air. It flew like a hawk swooping to the ground, taking on a life of its own. It shuddered the air, whistling and groaning as it sped towards the sea witch. It knew its purpose, as in the second it pierced her tight black dress, sending sequins exploding across the room. There was a flash of bright green light as the knife was absorbed into her body and then burst through her back, embedding itself in the far wall.
Monica laughed as she put a hand to her chest and felt the dribbling fluid running over her skin. ‘I’m not flesh and blood … I’m a sea witch – you can’t kill me.’
She crooked herself to slide Felix into the vat of liquid nitrogen. He moaned as she gripped him by the chest and began to lift him higher to roll him into the vapours.
‘It didn’t work – she lives!’ Sacha shouted as Monica charmed the salting higher and higher up her waist.
It was then that the sea witch stopped and looked at Mariah. She smiled, but a look of concern flashed upon her face and fluid began to pour from her chest. As she looked to the triple blade embedded in the wall, minute orbs of green light burst from her and she began to glow. She gasped for breath, holding her hand across the rupture in her skin as she sought to quench the escape of life.
Felix began to breath again. The salt melted from Sacha and she broke free of its bindings. The sea witch gasped harder as if the air she gulped was of no worth and empty of life. A multitude of sparkles gushed from her wound like fireflies. She looked around the laboratory, her eyes searching for something familiar and her hand stretched out as if to reach for someone she knew.
Mariah walked towards her, knowing she was dying. His face was lifeless; there was not a single trace of emotion in his eyes. All he knew was that she had to die and that he could bring her life to its end.
In a few paces he had crossed the room. Felix stared at him, not knowing what he would do. Sacha grabbed his arm to hold him back, only to be shaken free as he pushed her to one side and made for the sea witch.
‘There had to be the first one and it’ll have to be you,’ he said as he contemplated what he was about to do, pressed on by a growing force that welled up inside him. ‘There will be no witnesses.’
Mariah stepped up to the vat of frosted liquid and took hold of Monica’s shoe, which looked as though it were sprayed upon her translucent foot. He twisted it to one side, pulled her leg towards him, then stepped towards her, pushing her backwards. Without a word, he tipped her into the tank. Then he grabbed hold of Felix and dragged him away.
Like a graceful and silent swan, Monica the sea witch fell into the icy pool. In her final seconds of life she looked towards Mariah and smiled. It was as if she could see his future and knew all that life would bring to him. As she was consumed by the chilling fluid the sound of cracking bones echoed through the laboratory. In an instant she had disappeared, only to float to the surface holding out a frozen hand as if she reached for mercy.
Mariah picked Felix from the floor and looked harshly into his face. ‘Don’t get any ideas, Felix. I did it for Sacha.’
[ 31 ]
Iqtar
IN the faint light of the passageway, Mariah peered through a narrow slat that was cut into the cell door. In the corner of the room he could see Captain Charity leaning against the wall, his head held in his hands.
‘I can’t open the door,’ Mariah said as he peered inside. ‘I met with Albion and Black – they told me everything. I know who you are – and what’s more, Luger is Gormenberg.’
Charity smiled as he stepped to the door. ‘Gormenberg? I realised that when I was captured. If I cannot escape, then you’ll have to go alone. Did you find Felix and Sacha? I heard their voices.’
‘They’re safe, still in the laboratory. Felix is hurt. I … I …’ Mariah stuttered the words as he pushed his hand through the slat to take hold of Charity. ‘I killed Monica – she was a sea witch.’
‘Did you use the knife?’ Charity asked. ‘And it worked?’
‘She’s dead,’ Mariah said as he held his hand.
‘I’m not surprised, never known the knife to fail in its task. Do you have it now?’
‘In my belt,’ Mariah said softly, wanting more than this, wondering if everyone in the Bureau of Antiquities talked like this in times of great consequence.
‘Good … Find Albion and the Midas Box and Gormenberg will not be far behind. Sacha will help me from this place. Go – go now.’
‘Gormenberg has closed the steam valve and said the whole building will explode. You have to get out of here.’
‘Fear not, Mariah. I have no plans on leaving this life. The land of the table-rapper will not take me yet. Find Gormenberg, and swiftly – he must not get away from the Prince Regent.’ Charity spoke quickly as the cell filled with a sudden gust of steam from a bursting pipe.
‘But how will you get out?’ Mariah asked as the sound of the steam generator suddenly stopped.
‘That’s not your concern, Mariah. Do as I say. Find Albion and Black. They will need you in what is to come.’ There was the sound of grating rock above their heads. The foundations seemed to jump as they were showered in a pall of thick dust that fell from the roof.
‘I can’t leave you here, not like this,’ Mariah argued as he rattled the door to the cell.
‘I’ll find a way to escape. You have to go and go quickly,’ Charity insisted as more dust fell upon him.
Mariah turned to set off at a pace but stopped dead in his tracks. He cast a glance through the door to the laboratory: Sacha was lifting Felix to his feet.
From inside the darkened laboratory Felix looked at Mariah and smiled. ‘I judged you wrong. There’s more of a Colonial boy in you than I thought,’ Felix said as he hobbled to the door still holding his neck, his hands covering the bright blue finger-marks around his throat.
Mariah nodded and smiled at him. Somehow all that had gone before mattered not, it seemed so trivial and commonplace. The mountains of hurt had crumbled around him in his present circumstances.
‘Take Felix to the beach,’ he heard himself saying to Sacha. ‘Charity needs you to help him escape. I have a task I must complete alone.’
Sacha vainly tried to call him back, her words echoing along the empty tunnels as his footsteps sped off into the distance.
Mariah ran and ran until he came to the steam elevator. He pressed the bell as the sound of the emptying steam generator gurgled and gulped all around him. He waited, in his heart knowing that the
machine would not come.
Wet sand covered the floor. Upon the wall the gas lamp burnt dimly, casting shadows through its broken glass shield out and along the tunnel that led to the sea. Mariah pressed the button for the lift and again waited. There was a long moan as the steam escaped from the ramrod far below, and he now knew for certain that the elevator had died. Looking around him, he walked on, keeping to the tunnels that went upwards and towards the Prince Regent. It was lighter and drier here. The sea was left far behind, the corridors covered in a fine sand that didn’t show his footsteps.
The foundations tremored yet again as the earth shivered and twisted, the pressure mounting in the geyser deep within the rocks. In a few minutes Mariah had walked the length of the longest passageway and stood before a double door with salt-rusted handles. It was blocked with a pile of sand. Nearby was a discarded shovel with a broken blade that had split in two; it was half buried in the dry sand that was stacked all around him.
Mariah pulled upon the doors. They were jammed fast. He thought of going back, finding some other way through the labyrinth of tunnels that he knew would lead him to the surface. But when he peered through a cracked pane of glass in the doors he could see on the other side the steps that led to the spiral staircase and eventually the lobby of the Prince Regent.
Taking the shovel, he smashed at the glass, only to find that it had been barred in place long ago with iron braces stronger than any prison. He kicked the sand and then began to dig. In a short time he had pushed the fine white sand back into the tunnel, piling it as high as himself. Still there was more to be moved. He dug the spade in deep until it cracked against something hard. He burrowed with his hands, moving away as much of the fine debris as he could, until he came to something that felt as hard as iron yet as smooth as a silken handkerchief.
Mariah tapped upon it three times. It rang out with a dull thud and sounded strangely hollow. It was then that he felt the earth move slowly beneath him. There was no sound of a tremor or fall of sand from the roof, but he was sure he had moved. It stopped as suddenly as it had begun and he knelt there, waiting. He again tapped upon it as he smoothed away the sand, and there he saw the thick red shell of the Pagurus.