The Curse of the Ice Serpent (19 page)

‘Would this do?’ Georgia said, pulling a small oil lamp from her pack. ‘It’s full of whale oil but I don’t know how long it’ll last.’

The yellow light of the lamp bounced off the polished icy surfaces of the wall.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Georgia gasped.

‘It’s cold,’ Dakkar muttered. ‘Georgia?’

He looked round to see Georgia standing with her hands up. Two armed guards stood in a side doorway. One pressed a rifle barrel to her cheek.

‘Put your hands up,’ the other guard said, pulling back the hammer on his rifle. ‘And get inside quickly. Count Tomasz will want to talk to you.’

Dakkar stared stubbornly, meeting the gaze of the guard.

‘Do as he says, Dakkar,’ Georgia said quietly. ‘It might just get us closer to the Thermolith.’

‘Very well,’ Dakkar spat, putting his hands in the air.

With the gun barrels at their backs, Dakkar and Georgia made their way up flight after flight of icy stairs. Then the ice gave way to metal and their footsteps clanged noisily.

‘We must be in the top part of the castle,’ Dakkar said. ‘Why is it made of metal?’

‘Quiet!’ One of the guards shoved him.

They stumbled along a passage through the belly of the metal platform. The ground shook gently beneath them as if it were trying to break free from the rest of the castle.

‘Tell Count Tomasz we have prisoners and that we’re ready to move,’ the guard shouted.

A man ran ahead while three others appeared beside Dakkar, all dressed in the black Cryptos uniform. He could see the emblem on the shoulder and chest, a snake twisted around a large C with a trident behind them.

Accompanied by the three guards, they climbed another metal staircase and emerged on the mid deck of the building.

‘This must be the flat metal top of the tower we saw from down below,’ Dakkar said quietly as he gazed in wonder at the scene.

The huge space bustled with men lashing down boxes and struggling with massive metal bars driven into the floor. Each bar had three handles poking out of its sides and the men pushed at these handles, turning them slowly around.

‘What’re they doing?’ Georgia said, frowning.

‘It’s as if they’re unscrewing huge bolts,’ Dakkar said. ‘Bolts that hold the metal floor on to the ice castle!’

They clambered up the steps to the deck above. The cold wind stung Dakkar’s face and the whole deck lurched. Up here Cryptos guards rushed about too, lashing ropes and turning valves that dotted the railings along the side of the deck.

‘This whole platform reminds me of a ship,’ Dakkar said, glancing around. ‘We came through the base which was confined and full of cabins and then the second layer was like the gun deck of a frigate.’

‘A bit wider and squarer,’ Georgia agreed, ‘but yes.’

Dakkar looked at the buildings at the front and rear of the platform. The rear platform looked like a poop deck – and there Tomasz stood like a captain, holding a ship’s wheel. A large cylindrical shape sat in the middle of the platform, lashed down and covered with tarpaulins.

‘The
Nautilus
!’ Dakkar said. ‘She’s here, Georgia!’

The guards dragged Dakkar and Georgia across to the foot of this platform, where a flight of steps at either side led up to it.

‘We caught them below, your excellency,’ the guard said, saluting.

‘Prince Dakkar, Miss Fulton, your ability to survive astounds me,’ Tomasz said, looking down at them. ‘I thought you had surely died under all that ice and snow. I underestimated you.’

‘As long as I have breath, I’ll stop you,’ Dakkar spat, taking a step forward.

‘I admire your spirit, Dakkar, truly I do.’ Tomasz laughed. ‘And I’m grateful to you too. You delivered the Heart of Vulcan into my hands.’

‘I don’t want your admiration,’ Dakkar said sullenly. ‘Or your gratitude.’

Tomasz gave a contemptuous snort. ‘Well, it saved the life of your friend Fletcher,’ he said, turning away.

‘Where is he?’ Georgia snapped.

‘He is safe for now,’ Tomasz said with a brief smile. ‘His attempts at flattery amused me. He bought himself some time, probably in the vain hope he could stop me. But there is nothing any of you can do to stop me. We’re ready to go. Observe!’

The guard heaved back a sliding metal door in the wall of the platform before them. Dakkar screwed up his face as the heat hit him. The hissing of pipes and the clanking machinery filled his senses and he stared into the cavernous hall.

Steam engines pumped pistons back and forth, and objects whirled on top of them in a confusing mass. At the centre sat the Heart of Vulcan, cradled in a metal throne, glowing beneath a huge tank. Pipes snaked in all directions from the tank.

‘Hot air is pumped from the tank along these pipes – and behold!’ Tomasz turned and gestured outside.

All along the platform, a hundred silk spheres ballooned from the pipes that skirted its edge. They blossomed like rare flowers, white and delicate, held in place by thin steel cable.

‘My brother Borys would have been proud of his invention if he’d had the good sense to stay loyal to me.’

Beneath them, metal grated against the hard ice. The whole platform lurched. Dakkar’s stomach jumped and he realised that they no longer rested on top of the castle.

‘We are airborne!’ Tomasz said, holding up his hands in a theatrical gesture. ‘The whole fortress is flying!’

‘That’s impossible!’ Georgia said. ‘The platform is too heavy. It’s made of metal –’

‘Aluminium, my dear Miss Fulton.’ Tomasz grinned. ‘A strong but light metal. With the many balloons heated by the Heart of Vulcan, I can fly a whole fortress across the world. I can attack ships and armies without being touched, reduce whole cities to ash and rubble at my leisure. I am invincible!’

The ground swayed beneath them as the platform lifted into the air. The guards cheered and ran to the sides to look over, causing the whole craft to tilt gently.

Realising his chance, Dakkar lunged past the nearest guard and sprinted into the engine room. The noise of the machines there deafened him.

‘Stop him, you fools!’ Tomasz bellowed.

Dakkar could see the Thermolith glowing angrily in its seat. Its heat scorched his face.

If I can rip out the tubes, lower the pressure …

A searing pain burned through his skull and lights flashed before his eyes as his face struck the hard, metal floor. He lay stunned for a second then tried to stand. His legs felt like rubber. A guard had sprung from nowhere and hit Dakkar with a rifle butt in the back of the head. Two guards scooped him up under his armpits and dragged him back to Tomasz.

Guards pinned Georgia to the deck of the platform. Judging by the rifle on the floor and one guard’s bloody nose, she had tried to react too.

‘Give up, Dakkar,’ Tomasz said with a smile. Then he narrowed his eyes. ‘It’s too late.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

MISDIRECTION!

‘I’ll give up when I’ve made you pay for the deaths of Oginski, Borys and all those men out on the ice field,’ Dakkar snarled, straining against the grip of the guards.

‘That will never happen,’ Tomasz said coldly. ‘And if we’re talking about revenge, perhaps I should settle a few scores for my brothers Kazmer and Stefan. I’ll let you live until we reach London.’

Georgia stared in horror at Tomasz. ‘London? You mean you’re going to attack a defenceless city?’

‘Of course, my dear girl,’ Tomasz said. He grinned and rubbed his hands together. ‘You can bear witness as I rain fire and shot down on the capital of one of the world’s proudest nations. I’ll destroy its dockyards and barracks, its slums and palaces. I’ll leave it a smouldering ruin and everyone will acknowledge that Tomasz Oginski is the most powerful of all!’

‘You’re a monster!’ Georgia yelled. She leapt forward but Tomasz swiped at her with the back of his hand, sending her reeling.

‘A monster?’ Tomasz laughed. ‘No, my dear. I’m a practical man. London will be merely an example. Other nations will make bargains with me – they’ll join me or perish. Imagine the world united under one banner – the banner of Oginski, the banner of Cryptos!’

‘You’re insane,’ Dakkar snarled. ‘We’ll find a way to stop you.’

‘Lock these two up,’ Tomasz bellowed to the guards. ‘Put them with the other boy. When we reach London, Prince Dakkar will witness my ultimate victory before perishing.’

Dakkar and Georgia were bustled off down below and taken to a side room. One guard unlocked the door and then pushed them inside.

A small pallet bed filled one corner but that was all. The metal walls and floor made the room seem even colder and more unwelcoming. Fletcher looked up from where he sat on the bed, his eyes widening.

He jumped up. ‘You’re alive!’ He beamed, grabbing Georgia’s hands. ‘I thought … well, I thought the worst when the ice cave collapsed.’

‘We’re alive,’ Georgia said, hugging Fletcher. Dakkar felt a strange sting of envy and shook himself.

‘Tomasz let you live,’ Dakkar said, not quite posing the question why.

‘When the Heart of Vulcan came flying out of that avalanche of ice and snow, he forgot all about me,’ Fletcher said, rubbing his neck. ‘They loaded the thing on to their sledge smartish and then one of the guards remembered me. I gave old Tomasz a bit of blarney about wanting to see his great invention – what a great man he was – and he bought it!’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of your silver tongue,’ Georgia said. ‘You only bought yourself a few hours.’

Dakkar paced up and down in the cell, stopping every now and then to grip the bars of the small window and peer out.

‘We
have
to get out,’ he said.

‘We can’t,’ Georgia said, slumping on the pallet bed in the corner. ‘The door is metal, the walls are metal. This whole room is metal. We couldn’t break out even if we had weapons!’

‘That’s it then?’ Fletcher said, squatting with his back to the door. ‘We just give up and wait for Tomasz to come for us?’

‘No,’ Dakkar snapped. His head ached horribly. ‘I can’t think straight but I know there’s something I’ve forgotten.’ He rubbed his temples and his hand fell to his chest. A piece of paper scraped his skin and he rummaged in the folds of his jacket. ‘Of course, the note!’

Georgia stared at Dakkar as if he were mad. ‘What note?’

‘When I found Borys’s body, he was holding a note,’ Dakkar explained, unfolding it. ‘I stuffed it inside my jacket when Tomasz appeared. It’s suffered from the damp and cold a little but I can still read some of it.’

My dear brother,

You gave me a choice of helping you or dying in this wasteland and I chose the latter … I hid the Heart of Vulcan in the ice cave for a reason … hope you never … past the defences I have laid … the path you have chosen leads to destruction. I hand to you the poisoned chalice. Rest assured I shall have the last laugh.

Borys

‘What can that mean?’ Georgia said, snatching the soggy paper from Dakkar. It broke into pieces and she dropped it in disgust.

‘It was too easy,’ Dakkar said. ‘A poisoned chalice. That’s what the Heart of Vulcan is!’

Fletcher shook his head. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Borys
wanted
Tomasz to get the Thermolith,’ Dakkar said. ‘He wanted him to have it and to install it in this fortress.’

‘Talk sense, Dakkar,’ Georgia said. ‘We nearly died getting the Heart of Vulcan. It was well protected.’

‘Misdirection,’ Dakkar said. ‘Can’t you see?’

‘No!’

‘Borys and Tomasz hated each other – Oginski said that back at the castle. Borys wanted to get rid of his not-so-bright but evil brother, you see?’ Dakkar said slowly. ‘But he came to realise that he could never be free of him.’

‘Why didn’t he just kill him?’ Fletcher said.

‘Because Tomasz is wary of Borys and Oginskis are hard to kill,’ Dakkar said. ‘Borys had to think up a clever ploy to finish him off.’

‘So Borys built a huge ice cave and hid the Heart of Vulcan in it?’ Georgia looked blankly at Dakkar.

‘No!’ Dakkar said, shaking his hands in frustration. ‘Yes, Borys helped build a huge flying fortress but he knew it would never fly. Tomasz should be suspicious. He should be asking himself, “Why is my evil twin building me a super weapon?” ’

‘But we’re flying now,’ Fletcher said, scratching his head. ‘It flies …’

‘Borys said he put the Thermolith in the ice cave for a reason,’ Dakkar said.

‘To keep it safe from Tomasz, of course,’ Georgia said, shrugging.

‘No. To keep it cool,’ Dakkar said. ‘Once it’s out of the ice cave, it’ll begin to heat up even more.’

‘Oh my stars,’ Georgia whispered. ‘It’ll get hotter and hotter until it melts through the floor of the fortress itself.’

‘Sending it crashing to the ground,’ Dakkar finished, folding his arms.

Fletcher heaved a frustrated sigh. ‘But surely Tomasz would suspect Borys of something like this?’

‘No, because when Borys hid the Heart of Vulcan,’ Georgia said slowly, ‘Tomasz became so involved with finding the Thermolith and getting it out of its little hiding place that he forgot not to trust Borys.’