Mariah Mundi and the Ship of Fools

by G. P. Taylor

  ‘I’ll have to climb,’ he said to himself as he eyed the route to the top of the ship.

  Taking hold of the window outside the Saloon Theatre, Mariah started to climb. He edged his way slowly up and up. His fingers gripped the cracks between the metal plates. He gripped the bolts and used each ledge as a foothold. The wind whistled about him as if it hoped to drag him from the ship. Mariah dared not to look down but he turned and looked over his shoulder. In the distance he could see the lights of the ship getting closer. It gave him strength and hope.

  Mariah heard the lifeboats being launched on the far side of the ship. They scraped as they slid down the listing metal plates and into the water. The passengers were shouting as the Triton slowly deepened its draught.

  Soon he had climbed three decks. He looked up. There was the balcony where the Marquis had talked with Charity on the night Mariah had first met Biba DeFeaux. Mariah stretched out his hands to reach for the railing. He gripped the cold brass rod in his fingers and pulled as hard as he could. Quickly he was on the balcony. The door was open. The room drapes still covered the opening.

  ‘Biba! Casper!’ Mariah shouted as he went to the door.

  It was as if Deck 13 was empty. He searched the first room and found no one. Then he checked Biba’s suite. It too was empty. He shouted again but there was no reply. Yet Mariah was sure he was not alone. He could feel someone nearby. He walked through the rooms of the apartment until he had nearly come to the rear of the ship but still he couldn’t find Biba nor Casper Vikash. The rooms were dark, eerie and cold – unlike when he had first stood on the marble floor and wondered what kind of a man could afford a suite of rooms such as this on the most expensive ocean liner in the world.

  It was then that he saw that one of the oak panels on the wall was slightly open. In the dim light he made out three fingers curled around the wood. For a moment he wondered what to do and then without further hesitation he kicked the panel shut.

  A girl screamed. It was Biba.

  ‘Biba?’ he asked as the panel swung open and Biba sat in the darkness crying and clutching her hand.

  ‘You could have broken my fingers,’ she said angrily, unafraid to speak. ‘Why did you do that?’

  ‘I didn’t know it was you. I called out your name and no one replied – you could have been anyone.’

  ‘Anyone with a broken finger,’ she snapped.

  ‘Where’s Casper?’ Mariah asked.

  ‘Four men took him. He fought them so I could hide. They had guns and explosives,’ she said as she rubbed her hand.

  ‘Who were they?’ asked Mariah.

  ‘I heard them call one Markesan.’

  ‘But how could they have got in? All the doors are locked and the steam elevator isn’t working,’ Mariah asked.

  ‘Through there,’ she said as she pointed to a large picture of a Greek sea god in an ornate gold frame on the wall opposite. ‘It’s an escape ladder my father had fitted to all his ships. It takes you to the lifeboat deck. The only people who knew about it were Captain Tharakan and Lorenzo Zane.’

  ‘Then we have a way of escape. The ship is sinking, we have to get to a lifeboat,’ Mariah said as he examined the picture.

  The frame opened from the wall to reveal a small room and a ladder descending into the darkness. Mariah looked down; it was like staring into a dark abyss. Far below he could hear the screams of the passengers as they leapt into the remaining lifeboats. He turned to Biba. She knew from his look what he was about to say.

  ‘I can’t do it,’ she said nervously. ‘They have Casper and could be waiting for me.’

  ‘We have to go, now. The Triton will be at the bottom of the ocean within the hour.’

  [25]

  Excelsis Aliquando Videbimus

  IT was Mariah who led the way through the darkness. Biba followed, gripping the ladder with both hands, frightened to let go. The tunnel was narrow and cold and it echoed with the sound of distressed voices far below. Mariah kept talking, reassuring Biba that all would be well, but in his heart he doubted his own words. From far away he could hear the sound of the orchestra. Their music was carried by the wind and matched the rumble of the bubbling seawater that boiled with the heat of the Zane Generator.

  ‘How much further?’ Biba asked when they reached a small landing and looked down.

  ‘I can see some light,’ Mariah replied, pointing to a faint glimmer of light below them.

  The ship groaned and juddered. It was as if it were splitting in two. They heard the crack of the metal plates. Mariah couldn’t understand how the Triton was still afloat.

  ‘It’s designed not to sink,’ Biba said as if she could read his mind. ‘I heard Lorenzo Zane tell my father that even if the side of the ship fell off then it would still float for several hours.’

  ‘Do you think he was right?’ Mariah asked hopefully.

  ‘For our sake, yes,’ she said as Mariah again took to the ladder and climbed down to the deck below.

  The shouting grew steadily louder. They could hear the sound of the sea and the scraping of lifeboats on the side of the hull. They were soon on deck amongst the chaos of people.

  A man recognised Biba. ‘You should be ashamed, bringing us on a ship like this. If your father was here …’ he snarled as he pushed by her towards the front of the ship.

  ‘Ignore them,’ Mariah said as Biba pulled up the collar of her coat to cover her face.

  ‘There aren’t enough boats, are there?’ she asked.

  Mariah nodded. Ahead he could see Charity by the lifeboat station. An orderly queue of women processed as if at the entrance to a jumble sale. They filled the lifeboats one by one. Charity turned and waved.

  ‘Biba! Here, there is a seat for you here,’ he said. She looked at Mariah, unsure if she wanted to meet her fate alone. ‘Women only – you’ll have to go.’

  Biba took her place at the end of the line and waited. Mariah put his arm around her shoulder.

  ‘Now the men – line here,’ Charity shouted as three clowns in full make-up and costume trudged the deck towards them. They looked out of place with their masked, lopsided smiles and gigantic shoes. ‘Once this boat is at sea we have ten more lifeboats. Keep calm, there is enough room for you all.’

  Charity tried to count the men who lined up before him. He took Biba’s hand and then turned to Mariah. He was gone.

  ‘Did you see where Mariah went to?’ he asked.

  ‘I felt his arm around me and then nothing more,’ she replied as she turned to see where he was.

  ‘I will find him. Now get in the boat, you will have to go,’ Charity said as Biba stepped into the lifeboat and took the last seat. The boat was lowered quickly and two men with long oars pushed the boat away from the keel. Biba looked back up to the ship that grew in size as she reached the water. It smelt of brine and engine oil. It steamed and sizzled as the lifeboat touched the water.

  No one saw the hand that had snatched Mariah into the shadows of the quarterdeck lounge. He was dragged quickly, his heels dragging along the carpet as two men pulled him across the floor. He tried to speak but a hand squeezed his mouth tightly shut. The man smelt of French cologne that was bitter and stale.

  ‘Say nothing,’ whispered the voice. ‘You belong to me.’

  He was taken down several flights of stairs until he reached the door of the circus. There was the empty space where Mr Blake would always stand and collect the tickets. The doors were forced open and Mariah was pushed inside. He fell to the wet floor, which was covered by an inch of cold seawater. He looked up. Casper Vikash was locked in an empty tiger cage. He had been beaten. His face was bloody and bruised. Vikash looked as though he were dying.

  In a large sedan chair sat a clown whom Mariah thought he had seen before. He was dressed as a pierrot, clad in white silk with a painted face and sad red lips.

  ‘Markesan,’ Mariah said as the man let go of him and dropped him into the water.

  ‘How very true, Mariah Mundi.
But not my real name,’ he replied.

  ‘Why have you brought me here?’ Mariah asked. ‘The ship is sinking.’

  ‘Because, my dear friend, you are the most important thing in the whole world to me,’ Markesan jabbered, throwing his voice about the room to sound like a mighty echo. ‘You don’t know how hard it has been for me to see you on this ship. The very presence of your face pains me greatly.’

  ‘But I don’t know you,’ Mariah replied.

  ‘But you should. I am the curse of your family and the Bureau of Antiquities,’ he said in the voice of a child. ‘Captain Charity once took something very precious from me and now I will do the same for him. Do you know his secret?’

  ‘This is not the place or the time,’ Vikash shouted breathlessly. ‘Don’t believe him, Mariah, he is a liar.’

  ‘A dying man protecting the boy’s feelings, Vikash? How gallant,’ Markesan said. ‘You see, Mariah, I once had a son. He joined the family business – a business of secrets, sold to the highest bidder. Captain Charity killed my son one starlit night in Paris. Now I will do the same.’

  ‘Don’t listen, Mariah it is all lies,’ Vikash said.

  ‘You are the son of Captain Jack Charity – the man you called your father took you and your mother as his wife and child for the sake of the good name of the Bureau. You are Mariah Charity …’

  ‘My father is dead,’ Mariah said.

  ‘Oh, how I wish he were,’ Markesan said painfully. ‘I have waited for this day for many years and now that it has come I will rejoice and sleep at last.’

  Mariah looked at Vikash.

  ‘Is it true?’ he asked.

  ‘This is Markesan – he is a liar,’ Vikash said as he slumped to the floor of the cage.

  ‘Put him in with scarface – let them be drowned together,’ Markesan said. ‘Look at me, for not many have seen me or known my real name. You will both take this sight to the grave. And be thankful for it. As you can see, the water is rising quickly. I think you have perhaps only ten minutes of life – make good your time.’

  The door to the cage was opened and Mariah was thrown in. Vikash lay on the floor. Mariah could see the marks of his beating. The cage was locked, bolted and then pushed against the wall.

  ‘My ribs are broken,’ Vikash whispered as Mariah knelt to help him. ‘I have to get you from this place.’

  ‘There shall be no escape,’ Markesan said. ‘My assistant knows the tigers well. They shall be released from their cage and guard you whilst the water rises. In the meantime I shall take my place on deck and pray to Hades for a rescue. Don’t worry, Mariah. I will think of you down here with no air. How very, very sad.’

  Markesan got up from the sedan chair. The water was now to his knees. He smiled at them both and waded to the door.

  ‘Charity will find you, Markesan – your wages will be death,’ Vikash shouted as his broken ribs cut at his lungs.

  ‘Let out the tigers and follow me – make haste, my men, the ship is sinking.’ Markesan laughed madly as he pushed open the doors and vanished into the darkness.

  Mariah watched as two men pushed the tiger cage towards the exit. A rope was slung across the roof from the door. The two men stood behind the cage and then pulled on the rope and fastened it. Then the door opened and they ran from the circus.

  Eduardo leapt out of the cage with Rollo close behind. They could sense danger and sought a way of escape.

  ‘Did you find Biba?’ Vikash asked. ‘I knew you would look for her – is she safe?’

  ‘She is on a lifeboat, away from the ship,’ Mariah said. ‘We have to get out of here.’

  ‘There is a way,’ Vikash said, ‘but only for you – my time is near.’

  Mariah looked down. The water was rising quicker than before. The ship moaned and juddered as the tigers sought higher ground on the bank of seats that surrounded the circus. Vikash staggered to his feet and took hold of the bars of the cage.

  ‘If I can hold open the bars then you can escape,’ Vikash said as he gripped a metal rod in each hand. ‘When I pull the bars open you must squeeze through.’

  ‘I won’t go without you,’ Mariah answered.

  ‘You have to save yourself and help Charity. He is a good man,’ Vikash replied.

  ‘Is he my father?’ Mariah asked as the ship creaked and a metal beam fell from the ceiling.

  ‘Now!’ Vikash shouted as he pulled against the bars with all his might, screaming in pain. Mariah pushed himself through the opening. He could feel Vikash weakening as he strained to keep the bars apart. ‘I can’t hold …’

  Mariah slipped through just as Vikash lost his grip and fell to the floor. He jumped from the cage. The water was up to Mariah’s waist. Vikash waved him on.

  ‘I can’t leave you,’ Mariah protested as Eduardo roared and slashed the air with his claws.

  ‘I don’t cling to this world, Mariah. Eum in excelsis aliquando videbimus coelis. Life is about another place far greater than here … Go!’

  Vikash breathed a deep sigh and his head fell to one side. All life was gone from him. As Mariah stared at his face it was as if the scars mellowed and fused back into his skin. Vikash gazed upwards. Mariah reached in and touched his eyelids to close them.

  ‘Sleep well …’ he said as he stepped back. Eduardo the tiger roared louder than Mariah had ever heard. He knew he could not save the beasts and would have to leave them to their fate.

  He was soon on the walkway that led from the circus to the grand hallway at the centre of the ship. A double staircase of gold leaf swirled up and round to form a balcony, lit by the fading lights of the ship’s emergency batteries. It was eerily empty. The water here was only a foot deep. Mariah took the stairs two at a time. It was bitterly cold. His sodden clothes stuck to him, drawing the heat from his body.

  The Triton clung to life, even though he could hear the weight of the ship falling in on itself. It was as if it were about to split in two. By the grand staircase, a large crack ran up the walls and across the ceiling. Plaster dust fell like snow and the vast chandelier of glass and gold had already crashed to the floor. Mariah knew he was running out of time. From far away he could hear the sudden blasting of a steam whistle. It couldn’t be? He thought – the Ketos …

  Mariah remembered the sound when they had left Liverpool, sharp and shrill like the whistle of a steam train. It was the Ketos – he knew it.

  He ran faster towards the outer deck. The battery lights were fading fast and the water was rising quickly. There was the sound of gunfire as salvage lines were fired at the Triton. Mariah could hear the crowds of passengers cheering and shouting as their fear turned to hope of rescue. Searchlights flashed across the water. The bow waves of the Ketos broke against the side of the ship; as it rocked sideways the deck was tilted towards the sea. The doorway on to the deck had been smashed open, and pieces of cloth hung from the broken glass of a nearby window. There was a crack that ran along the deck as far as he could see. The ship was breaking up. It was slow and silent but Mariah knew instinctively that its end would come suddenly.

  ‘Mariah!’ shouted Charity as he tied on a rope to the metal foremast. ‘We must leave the ship.’

  Mariah looked up. The Ketos now towered above them as the Triton took on more water. He looked about the deck. A handful of men waited to be hoist across the ravine of water to the liner.

  ‘Is this it?’ he asked.

  ‘All safe as far as I can tell. Fifty lines strapped to the ship and we should have everyone off in no time at all. Where did you go?’

  ‘Markesan – he found me. Casper Vikash … He’s dead …’ It was all that Mariah could say.

  ‘Markesan – did you see him?’ Charity asked.

  ‘He said you were my father and because of that I had to die. Did you kill his son?’ asked Mariah as the rescue buoy came closer.

  ‘We sometimes do things that come back to haunt us,’ Charity replied as the searchlight fixed upon them. ‘This is for you – you mu
st go now.’

  Mariah strapped himself into the buoy as the rope took the strain. He looked back at Charity.

  There was a sudden crashing sound as a crack ripped through the deck of the ship. It splintered the wood into a hail of shrapnel that blew upwards. Water exploded through the funnel, which blasted soot and ash high into the air and showered burning coals to the deck. The landing on which they stood began to break away from the ship as it began to sink.

  ‘Hold on!’ Mariah shouted to Charity as the rope tightened.

  Charity grasped the buoy. He was pulled from his feet high into the air as he and Mariah dangled like flies trapped in a web. The sea bubbled beneath them. The Triton slipped slowly deeper and deeper into the cold, dark sea. The searchlight kept them in its glare. Mariah heard people screaming and he looked back to the swirling depths. Just for a moment, in the flickering lamplight, he thought he saw a tiger reaching up to him, claws outstretched.

  In an instant it was gone. The rope was heaved and pulled as the winch spun faster. They shot higher until they landed on the deck of the Ketos in a pile of cargo nets.

  Mariah didn’t see the death of the Triton, but he heard its dying screams as it clung to life. It was as if the ship was crunched and chewed by a leviathan of the deep. The metal twisted as water spouted high into the air. The foghorn blasted several times until the water vanquished it. Within a minute, the Triton was no more. Like Atlantis, the glittering city now rested in the deep ocean.

  Rushing to the side of the Ketos, Mariah looked down to where the Triton had once been. The water bubbled and boiled as the darkness of the sea finally consumed all that was the ship. There was a faint glow deep within the ocean that slowly dimmed. Then, as if from the sky, came a rumble of thunder. All around the Ketos was the debris of the ship. The flotsam bobbed on the wavelets – discarded travelling cases, crates of gin and a multitude of lost chattels floating on the sea.