The Grotesques (46 page)

“Thank you,” Ella said.

“I . . . I’m not sure I believe it really happened.”

“It still is.”

“Genord . . .”

“Dead, but the dragon’s still out there.”

Caroline shook her head. She was shivering hard. “It’s become too strong. It’s almost entirely flesh,” she said, sinking to the floor, her back against the wall. “Without Romain . . .”

Ella looked around at the others. Ace was sitting up and glowering her way, Rob and Doer were standing guard at the door, and Adam was still comforting his cousin who had burst into tears over Romain.

“We have to get the dragon head.” She slid down beside Caroline. The lawyer was staring at the floor.

Ace groped his way up and tottered to the door. Doer glanced at him but the lad just shouldered his way in front of the men.

“No heroics,” Rob cautioned. “You’ve probably got a concussion. You need to rest.”

“The bastard—”

“Is dead,” Doer interrupted. “But we’ve still got the dragon to worry about and we don’t know if he can smell us in here, so do what you’re told ’cause none of us are risking our necks for the likes of you again.”

The moody teenager stared sullenly out the door. Doer and Rob came over to where Ella was sitting with Caroline, and Adam joined them, helping Cecily down beside the lawyer.

“What can you tell us about the dragon?” Rob asked Caroline.

“Nothing you don’t already know.”

“Any suggestions as to how to get it away from the church?” Adam asked.

Doer hefted his belt up. “You probably don’t want to hear this but it’s got to eat and with this area deserted . . .”

Nobody answered that truth.

Something thudded onto the roof. Seven pairs of eyes looked up.

“My God,” Caroline whispered.

“It just doesn’t give up,” Doer muttered.

Claw scratched on metal. Caroline and Cecily stood. Ace backed away from the door. A huge talon tore through.

Without warning, Ace gave a long shout and raced out. Doer took two steps after him but Rob placed a restraining hand on his arm.

“He’s mad,” Adam said.

“You’re just going to let him go?” Ella asked Doer, dismayed.

The big man looked at her. “You really want to go after him?”

The Jaguar’s engine roared to life, and its wheels screeched as it gunned away from the waterfront. They heard the flap of wings as the dragon took flight after the car. Ella thought it was a miracle the car worked, but Ace was as good as dead. She choked back a sob.

“Doer’s right,” Rob said. “He’s made his decision, now we’ve got to use the time.”

“Yeah, and he just might be young and reckless enough to pull it off,” Doer said quietly.

“Stay here,” Adam told Cecily. He ignored her protests. “If we don’t make it, there has to be someone who knows what to do to organise another attempt.” He turned to Ella. “You too.”

Ella shook her head. “No way. Romain thought I was important in all this.” She must have sounded convincing because he nodded once and poked his head out of the door.

“Come on, then.” He turned to Rob. By unspoken agreement, the detective stood protective guard over Cecily and Caroline.

“Ladies,” Doer said, taking leave.

The three of them darted through the streets, keeping close to buildings for the meagre cover they offered. Every few seconds, one of them looked skyward.

The excavation site was deserted, the machinery left unattended, the engine on one bulldozer still rumbling. Ella slowed down. Adam immediately checked to see how she was faring. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t voice the thought.

“It doesn’t look like the dragon’s been here. I mean the machinery’s intact,” Adam said, reading her concern.

“Cowards the lot of them,” Doer said. “Probably cleared out at the first glimpse of the dragon in the sky.”

“Can you blame them?” Adam said.

“No. But don’t you dare tell them that. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

“Let’s get going. We don’t have much time. Remember, don’t haul up the bell until we’re clear.”

“Not unless the dragon shows its scales.”

Adam turned to Ella. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

She drew a sharp breath. “I feel like I have to.” Like Romain had chosen her because she had some part to play.

They lugged out the scuba equipment they had stashed in one of the excavators and suited up while Doer took control of a bobcat and continued excavating the crumbled belfry.

“Remember what I taught you last night?” Adam said as they stood on the boulders that lined the Port Adelaide Canal. He checked the explosives on his belt.

Ella nodded. Doer’s access to ammunition at short notice made her almost as nervous as any thought of the dragon. She had to remind herself that under the circumstances it was likely to save their lives. Doer had spent as much time instructing Adam in its use last night as Adam had teaching her to scuba dive.

She put the regulator in her mouth and dropped into the murky waters despite a strong urge to gag. She fumbled with the vest, managed to pump more air in, and had to wait for Adam to open the valve. Sinking made her panic until he grabbed her arm and guided her down the canal. She was careful to keep as close to Adam as possible. Visibility was poor, even with their headlamps and torches, and she didn’t want the dragon sneaking up on her.

The squat canal did not take long to search. At the junction with the Old Port Reach, Adam stopped. Considering the dragon was always lurking around the church, the underwater passage to the crypt had to be close but that still left a substantial area to cover.
For goodness sake,
Ella told herself, the passage had to be huge to accommodate the beast. They trawled across the bottom, investigating shadows along the bank. Adam pointed, and they swam to an outlet. A short way in, he signalled her out. It looked small, couldn’t have been more than a storm water outlet.

A short way on, an irregular shadow caught her attention. She swam toward it. Something darted by, brushing her legs. An eerie sound filled her ears. Bubbles rushed past her face as she looked around for Adam. He wasn’t beside her. Cursing herself, she swung her torch around. A dark shape moved by. She pushed for the surface. Clicks joined the wheeze of air through the breathing valves. She felt her chest tighten as she readied herself to strike the dragon with the torch, wondering if she had more chance in the water where the dragon could not belch fire.

Then, a dolphin swam directly in front of her, and she almost spat the mouthpiece out in relief. As she brought herself under control, forcing herself to breathe slowly, regularly, she saw Adam’s light. When he reached her, she indicated the gaping hole in the bank.

Her heart thudded as they negotiated the sloping passage. She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw the grey shape coasting above. It curved down. She baulked. Adam signalled okay. She realised what it was the instant her brain registered it was shorter than her. The dolphin swam around them, small and carefree, and she wondered how she could ever have mistaken it for La Gargouille.

The passage widened into a chamber. They swam up into a small air pocket. Rubble blocked what should have been the entrance to the crypt. Their surroundings were eerily dark and quiet, save for the occasional squeak of the dolphin and her own breaths whooshing through her ears. Doer had to be close to breaking through to the river but the hum of heavy machinery was conspicuously absent. She wondered if the place was protected by magic and had a sudden bad feeling. No time to think about it, though, with Adam signalling dive.

What felt like a long way down could, in reality, have been only seconds. The water became thick and heavy, making each kick harder. Her head bobbed out of the water. A moment later Adam appeared. She blinked. His face beneath his mask had to look as bewildered as she felt.

They dived again, propelling themselves with strong strokes. A minute later, they were back in the air pocket. Ella removed her mouthpiece and twisted around.

“What?”

The dolphin surfaced between them, opened its blowhole and
whuffed
air. Even in the face of everything that had happened, Ella had to think how special that was.

“What happened down—” Ella broke off. The dolphin was nudging her. “I think it wants us to follow.”

She took hold of the notched dorsal fin. Adam swam over and gripped her around the waist. The three of them dived. Her guess was the clicking dolphin managed to avoid whatever was confounding them by echolocation. It would make a stellar research topic for Adam, way more appealing than bats.

The dolphin wriggled free of her grip, leaving her to float beside the great bell. It had come to rest upright on the river bed, inside a walled-off well, meticulously constructed to safeguard Genord’s treasure. As the dolphin circled with comforting clicks, they scraped at the river bed until a small depression gave access to the hollow interior. Even in the water, the bell was too massive for them to flip. Adam fitted an underwater explosive to the rim.

The water lightened. Looking up, Ella saw a shadow lift. They swam to the surface and saw a large hook dangling from a chain in what had once been the crypt. Metres above, Doer was bending over the hole he had cleared.

“No sign of the beastie,” he called. He looked about to collapse under some intolerable burden. Ella bit her lip and hoped Ace wouldn’t do anything too stupid as a decoy.

Doer lowered the hook. Adam took hold of it. As soon as Ella held the dolphin’s fin, it whistled and dived, guiding them to the hole used to suspend the bell from the belfry. Working the hook in was easy. She was about to let out a sigh of relief when the dolphin nosed her. Below the surface, a current was stirring. Her heart fluttering, Ella righted herself. The chain ground into motion, tugging the bell from the bed with a slurp of mud. She swam up, but it was moving as fast as she was. She kicked faster, grabbed at the chain, missed, kicked, found Adam’s hand and latched on. His legs locked around the chain, he shoved her up until she could grab hold. She dropped her torch as she threw a hand to him. He took it and righted himself.

Ella directed her headlamp down the passage. Sapphire scales gleamed in the light. The dolphin darted down the tunnel. It had to know what lurked there. The poor brave creature; it would never survive. She adjusted her grip for a better look as the bell clanged against the side of the well and rocked. Her hand slipped from the chain and she toppled onto its side. She slid off the smooth surface, clawing in vain to regain a hold lest she fall under it and be trapped. Adam caught her wrist and pulled. Her fingers brushed the hole. She kicked and caught the chain above the hook. The dolphin’s clicks stopped. The bell lurched, tossing her body out. She drew her legs in as the rim hit the side of the well. It swung back, hit again, but this time the impact was softer. She shivered, looked down, saw the elongated body of La Gargouille snake around the bell. The dragon angled toward her. As its jaws loomed, the dolphin careered into it. The dragon flicked its tail, sending the dolphin spinning downward. They broke the surface of the water but ground level was yet some metres distant. Adam began to scale the chain, and Ella followed suit.

“Get us out of here,” Adam yelled. She barely heard over the din of the winch, no way would Doer have. She had a bad feeling that he might consider their lives an acceptable loss to be rid of the dragon.

The dragon lunged out of the water, snapped with gleaming fangs. In fright, Ella let go of the chain, falling backward onto the bell. The dragon snared the end of her flipper, but her foot slid free. She splashed head first into the water. Adam plunged in beside her. He got an arm around her waist and herded her around the bell as the dolphin rammed the dragon in the side of the head. Adam signalled down as he slapped his right arm behind his thigh to catch his regulator and mouth it. They darted out of the well and into the tunnel. The thought of the beast swimming up behind them turned her colder than the water, but without room to manoeuvre, it was their only, futile chance. She had a sinking feeling that their chances of making it to the riverbank were nil.

She had not counted on the dolphin pushing its nose against her foot, driving her forward at incredible speed. She twisted around to spot Adam, and caught sight of him holding the dolphin’s dorsal fin. She could see the wide opening ahead, planned on shooting straight for the surface but the force of a blast pummelled them into the middle of the river. She somersaulted, lost her regulator, couldn’t find it though she had just seen Adam use the technique. She swallowed water, flailed, somehow saw light, and pushed up, her lungs burning, one hand still searching for her air hose. She was so weak, her tank heavy, she didn’t think she would make it.

Air hissed. She panicked until she saw Adam handing her the mouthpiece. His hand came to her inflator button and let in more air. She floated up, trying to slow her ragged breathing. They struck out for the bank, crawled ashore, and shrugged out of the vests and tanks. Adam was standing. She knew they had to move but her legs had turned to jelly. To their right, across the Port Canal, Doer was waving frantically. Water sloshed behind them. She scrambled up as a dragon head emerged from the water, fin raised on the top of its head, prominent eye ridges lowered into an evil glare. They stumbled back. A pair of tail flukes slapped the water. She let out something that was half a sob, half a laugh and watched the whistling dolphin paddle the mummified head into the deep.