by David Sinden
Gradually, the sea ahead became clearer as they pushed through the other side of the kelp forest, back into open water. The seabed was sandy.
Ulf checked the navigation system. The sea monster’s beacon was still heading west.
“Where’s the Baron taking it?” Tiana asked.
Ulf shrugged.
He looked through the viewing sphere as they passed a turtle burrowing for urchins. It was digging with its flippers, throwing up a cloud of sand.
“Look, Ulf,” Tiana said, pointing ahead. In front of them on the seabed was an old ship, half buried in the sand. On the ship’s mast was a tattered black flag with a skull and crossbones. “It’s a pirate ship,” she said.
As they passed above it, Ulf looked down. The ship was covered in barnacles, and seaweed was hanging from its rigging, swishing in the current. He saw a rusty old cannon pointing from its side, then a huge eel wriggling from a porthole.
The submersible sped on, keeping a steady course. For over an hour, they tracked the sea monster further out to sea, passing mile after mile of sandy seabed.
In time they came to the edge of a coral reef. It stretched on for miles. As the submersible powered above it, Ulf stared at the corals and the rocks. They were all different colors: turquoise, emerald, scarlet and amber. He could see fish darting in and out of crevices and cracks. He saw starfish, jellyfish and sea anenomes.
“It’s pretty here,” Tiana said. She was hovering at the viewing sphere, her tiny hands pressed to the glass.
Ulf checked the navigation system. Dotted around the orange light of the sea monster, he could see other lights of different colors.
“Look at this, Tiana,” he said. “Beast beacons. There are beasts here.”
Tiana flew over to the screen. “Where are we?” she asked.
They looked out through the viewing sphere and saw a silvery tail swimming up ahead. As they motored toward it, a beast turned in the water. It had the upper body and head of a woman with long silvery hair.
“It’s a mermaid!” Tiana said, fluttering her wings. The mermaid swam deep down, hiding behind a bank of coral. Ulf looked to the side and saw water nymphs sparkling in the water. They were fluttering their tiny fins, swimming in circles and chasing each other.
“They’re just like fairies!” Tiana said.
Ulf glanced at the navigation screen. The sea monster’s orange light had stopped moving. They were closing in on it.
Suddenly, Tiana yelped. Ulf looked up and saw a red sea beast swimming alongside the submersible, bumping its long snout against the viewing sphere. Its jaws opened in a grin, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Ulf saw a beacon attached to its tail. “It’s a crocodon,” he said. The beast swished its barbed tail, then shot off through the water. Ulf watched it disappear into the distance.
Then he stared. Ahead in the water he could make out four dark metal columns rising from the seabed.
He cut the thrusters, and the submersible slowed. “I know where we are, Tiana. This is the Farraway Reserve.”
Ulf twisted the metal wheel, and the pressure tanks filled. The submersible started to rise.
At a couple of meters below the surface, he wound the wheel back up, bringing the submersible to a halt. He reached to the ceiling and cranked a metal handle, raising the periscope. Through the periscope Ulf could see above the water. The four metal columns were supporting a huge industrial platform with buildings on it and cranes leaning from its side.
It was the old oil rig. Moored to one of the thick metal columns was Baron Marackai’s boat.
Chapter 20
ULF DROVE THE SUBMERSIBLE BENEATH THE old oil rig and surfaced alongside Baron Marackai’s boat. As he opened the hatch, he glanced to the horizon. The sun was low and evening was setting in. It wouldn’t be long until night came, and with it the moon and Ulf’s transformation.
Tiana flew out and hovered above the Baron’s boat, peering into the wheelhouse. “They’re not here,” she said. She flew to the rear of the boat. “The sea monster’s gone too.”
Ulf looked up. The oil rig platform loomed over them like a large black machine. Long metal chains with hooks hung down from its edge. He clambered out of the submersible and tied its mooring rope to a metal column. Then he reached out and took hold of a rusty metal ladder. Its rungs were caked with slippery seaweed. He started climbing. “Come on, Tiana. We have to find Orson and Dr. Fielding.”
At the top of the ladder Ulf stepped onto the platform of the old oil rig. It was huge. He could see rusty sheds and old machinery: cranes, winches and forklift trucks. Ahead, painted in white on the ground, he saw a big letter H in a circle, and on the far side of the rig was a drilling tower and a large warehouse.
“It looks deserted,” Tiana said.
“Professor Farraway closed it down years ago,” Ulf told her.
Ulf heard the thwock thwock thwock of helicopter blades. He looked up. A helicopter was flying toward the oil rig. “Hide, Tiana!” he said.
They hid behind a rusty crane as the helicopter hovered above the platform, touching down on the big letter H. Ulf watched as the helicopter blades slowed. Twelve humans stepped out from it onto the oil rig: six men in black suits and six women in long dresses.
“Who are they?” Tiana asked.
Across the platform, Ulf saw the door of a black hut opening. A man came out and strode toward the helicopter. “Look! It’s Baron Marackai!” he whispered.
The Baron was no longer dressed in a captain’s clothes. He was wearing a long fur coat with a high fur collar, giranha-belly pants and serpent-skin boots.
One of the men from the helicopter stepped forward. He handed the Baron a leather briefcase and the Baron opened it. The briefcase was stuffed with bank notes.
“Money!” Tiana said.
Baron Marackai snapped the case shut. “That’ll do nicely,” he said.
The guests each shook the Baron’s hand. “Thank you…Merci…Danke…Gracias…Arigato…Teshekurler…”
“Come this way,” the Baron told them, leading them across the platform. “Everything is prepared.”
“Let’s follow them,” Ulf whispered.
Ulf and Tiana dashed across the helipad to the black hut. Ulf peered around its side. Baron Marackai was taking his guests to the warehouse on the far side of the rig.
Tiana tapped Ulf’s shoulder. “Look in here,” she said, peering through a steamy window into the black hut. Inside was a kitchen. A fat man wearing a white chef’s hat was lifting the lid of a saucepan. He dipped his finger in a dark brown sauce then licked it. He smiled, wiped his finger on his thin mustache, then looked in the glass door of an oven.
Ulf turned and glanced back around the side of the hut. Baron Marackai was sliding open a huge metal door at the end of the warehouse. He led his guests inside.
“Come on,” Ulf said, running to follow them.
“Stop, Ulf,” Tiana called, as two men came out of the warehouse.
Ulf ducked behind a forklift. Tiana flew beside him. They watched as the men walked across the platform toward the black hut. They were both dressed in white shirts and pink bow ties.
One was small and was dabbing his nose with a red rag. “Blud do this. Blud do that. Pah!” he said.
The other man was big, with a thick beard. “My shirt’s too tight,” he said.
“Why do we have to serve the food?” the small man complained. “Why can’t we eat with the guests?”
They walked to the door of the black hut and went inside.
“Tiana, we have to find Orson and Dr. Fielding,” Ulf said. They headed to the warehouse and peered through the doorway. It was enormous. Barrels were stacked around the sides, and there were piles of metal pipes, wooden crates, and big rusty drills. Hooks hung on chains from the ceiling. Signs on the walls read LOADING AREA and DANGER: HEAVY MACHINERY.
At the far end of the warehouse, Baron Marackai was sitting at a long table. His guests were sitting either side of h
im, laughing and joking, pouring wine into glasses. The table was laid for dinner with a white tablecloth and silver cutlery. Candles were flickering in ornate candlesticks. There was no sign of Orson or Dr. Fielding.
Tiana perched on Ulf’s shoulder. “Let’s try somewhere else,” she said.
Ulf turned and saw the small man in the waiter’s outfit coming out of the kitchen toward them. He was wheeling a large metal trolley. “Quick, Tiana, hide!” Ulf said.
They dashed inside the warehouse and hid behind an old oil barrel, then watched as the small man wheeled in the trolley. It was loaded with dishes covered by domed silver lids. It rattled as the small man pushed it to the dinner table at the far end. He placed the dishes on the tablecloth in a long row.
“That’ll do, Blud,” Baron Marackai said.
Blud backed away from the table, bowing.
The Baron stood up, tapping his glass with a fork. “Ladies and gentlemen, a word if I may before we begin.” He stepped to a huge door at the far end of the warehouse. His guests turned and watched as he slid the door open.
Through the far end Ulf could see out to sea. The sun was setting and the water was glowing red.
“Look at this,” Baron Marackai announced. “The Farraway Reserve. In these waters are treats and delicacies beyond your wildest imaginings, the rarest sea beasts known to man. For too long they have been allowed to swim freely, their delicious flesh denied us, protected by law. But I ask you, if man wasn’t meant to eat beasts, why are they so darned tasty?”
Baron Marackai’s twisted face twisted even more as he laughed. His guests chuckled.
“Everything you are about to eat has been caught locally,” he said. “Which reminds me…” He snapped his fingers. “Tonight we have a guest of honor.”
Ulf turned and gasped as he saw the big man lumber in. He was carrying Dr. Fielding over his shoulder. Her wrists and ankles were tied and her mouth was gagged. She was wriggling and struggling.
“Bring her here, Bone,” the Baron ordered. “She can sit next to me.”
Ulf snarled.
“We’ve got to save her,” Tiana whispered.
Ulf crept along the side of the warehouse, keeping low behind the barrels.
Tiana flew beside him. “Be careful,” she said.
Ulf saw the big man, Bone, push Dr. Fielding into an empty chair beside the Baron.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you all to Dr. Helen Fielding of the RSPCB,” Baron Marackai announced. The Baron’s guests hissed and booed.
“She’s going to watch us eat, while we shall watch her squirm!” The Baron laughed again and his guests laughed too.
Ulf’s elbow knocked a stack of steel pipes. One clattered to the ground and suddenly the guests stopped laughing. Ulf ducked.
“What was that noise?” the Baron asked, looking to where Ulf was hiding.
Ulf crawled behind a pile of wooden crates. He watched as Blud walked over, checking the pipes. “It’s nothing, Sir,” the small man called. “Probably just a rat.”
“Then without further ado…” Baron Marackai said. “Let the Beast Feast begin!”
He walked to the end of the long table and lifted the silver dome from the first dish. Underneath it Ulf saw a beast that had been skinned and roasted. It had pineapple rings on its tusks.
“Roast anglodon,” Baron Marackai announced. “Delicious!”
The guests licked their lips.
Ulf saw Dr. Fielding turn her head in disgust.
Baron Marackai lifted the dome from the second platter. Underneath was a yellow trunk cut into slices with melted cheese in the middle. “Stuffed trunk of elephant eel.”
The guests clapped.
Baron Marackai lifted the third dome. Underneath was a big blue blubbery mouth. It was sprinkled with peanuts and laid on the plate in a smile. “Succulent boiled lubbalubba lips.”
The guests cheered.
Baron Marackai lifted the fourth dome. Underneath were fairy-like beasts fried to a crisp. “Deep-fried sea nymphs.”
“I can’t watch,” Tiana said, holding her hands over her eyes.
The Baron picked up half a lemon from the side of the plate and squeezed it over the little fried nymphs. “Tasty!” he said.
He walked the length of the table lifting the silver domes one after the other. Under each was a dead sea beast, cooked and ready to eat. Some were covered in batter or made into pies. Others had been mashed or barbecued and covered in sauce.
“Three cheers for Baron Marackai,” the guests cheered. “Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!”
The Baron sat down and grinned. “Dig in,” he told them.
The guests grabbed at the food with their fingers, tearing off flippers and cracking off claws. They ripped off legs and fins and popped out eyeballs, sucking them until they burst. They shoved in mouthfuls of meat, with gravy dribbling down their chins. They slurped sea-serpent soup and nibbled slices of elephant eel. They gobbled flaming squidlets, chomped impossipus sandwiches, and spread sea-monkey pâté on toast. They chewed the fat from the lubbalubba lips and bit off the sea nymphs’ heads.
“Fill your bellies,” the Baron told them. “There’s plenty more.”
He threw a fork at the waiters. “Blud! Bone! Go and fetch the rest!”
Tiana groaned. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Ulf could feel his fangs pushing through his gums. He looked to the far end of the warehouse. Outside, the sky was darkening. Soon the moon would rise.
Chapter 21
ULF TURNED AS HE HEARD THE SOUND OF ENGINES coming through the entrance to the warehouse. Blud and Bone came back in driving two forklifts side by side. They were bringing in an enormous black cauldron so big that it took both trucks to lift it. The trucks’ engines were groaning under the heavy load.
Ulf could see tentacles hanging over the rim of the huge cauldron.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the dish of the day,” Baron Marackai announced. “The rarest delicacy known to man: the Redback, king of the sea monsters.”
“The sea monster!” Tiana said.
“It’s still alive,” Ulf told her. Its tentacles were moving.
Blud and Bone drove the cauldron to the center of the warehouse where a hook was hanging by a chain from the ceiling. They raised the cauldron’s handle onto the hook, then reversed out of the warehouse, leaving the cauldron hanging. The sea monster’s tentacles were coiling in the air. Water was splashing out.
“Now, may I introduce our chef for the evening: Signor Franco Ravioli,” the Baron called.
The guests clapped as the fat chef waddled into the warehouse, wheeling a cage full of tall hissing gas cylinders. He positioned them beneath the cauldron, then struck a match and threw it into the air. There was a roar as the gas ignited and a huge blue flame swirled beneath the cauldron.
The guests clapped, then returned to stuffing their faces with cooked beasts, chomping and slobbering, their cheeks full and their lips glistening with beast juice.
As the flame warmed the cauldron, the sea monster bellowed and the warehouse shook.
“We have to save it, Tiana,” Ulf whispered.
“Look, Ulf!” Tiana said. She was shaking.
Ulf turned and saw Blud come back in driving one of the forklifts. Upright, standing on the forks of the truck, was Orson. Ulf gasped. The giant was rigid, as stiff as a board, and his skin and lips were icy blue.
“He’s dead!” Tiana said.
“No, Tiana. He’s frozen. It’s ice sleep. Marackai’s poisoned him with sea monster venom!”
“So that’s why he wanted you to use the venom extractor,” Tiana whispered.
“Ladies and gentlemen, one last surprise,” Baron Marackai announced. “For our dessert, we will be eating chilled heart—the heart of the RSPCB’s very own giant.”
The guests cheered.
Baron Marackai raised his right hand in the air. “Death to the RSPCB!” he announced.
Franco Ravioli gave Orson a shove and the giant toppled to the floor of the warehouse with a loud thud. Orson lay on his back, rigid and still.
From the table the fat chef took a large silver bowl. He lifted his apron and pulled a carving knife from his belt. Then he knelt down beside Orson and began unbuttoning the giant’s shirt.
Baron Marackai raised his glass. “To sea monsters and other delicacies!”
The guests cheered. “To sea monsters and other delicacies!”
Chapter 22
ULF WATCHED AS THE FAT CHEF PRODDED ORSON’S chest, feeling for his heart. The knife in his hand glinted. Dr. Fielding was struggling to free herself from the ropes. Hanging in the center of the warehouse, the cauldron was turning red from the heat from the flame. The sea monster was being cooked alive.
“Beast Feast, Beast Feast, gross gordura Beast Feast,” the guests chanted. “Wonderful! Ooh-la-la! Maravilloso! Wunderbar! Sugoi!”
They were spitting bones and wiping beast fat from their chins. “Ba-ron! Ba-ron! Ba-ron!”
Ulf leaped up. “Stop!” he shouted. He ran across the warehouse and kicked the knife from Franco Ravioli’s hand.
“Werewolf!” the Baron hissed.
Ulf hurled himself across the table, knocking the Baron to the ground.
“Bone, get this beast off me!” the Baron ordered.
Ulf felt a pair of strong hands grip his shoulders, dragging him off the Baron. He looked behind him. Bone was lifting him into the air.
The guests had stopped eating. They were staring at Ulf.
Baron Marackai stood up, brushing his giranha-belly pants. “Well, well. What have we here?”
Ulf kicked Bone in the stomach.
“Ouch!” Bone said. “You little—”