As Ellis stood
with the other armed crew members in the gangway, facing the ladder leading up
to main deck, just beneath the fo'c'sle, he could only wonder what Harker,
Salah and assumedly also Marveille were thinking up there. It had been a good ten minutes since Siren,
Rockspark, Broken-Hope and the Former Baron Von Spektr had descended into the
bowels of the ship to tinker with the engine, fifteen since Salah had fled to
the main deck to prepare an ambush. How
long would their patience hold out?
Would they be preparing to attack now, willing to brave the depths of
the ship for a chance to wipe them all out?
Was there another Lich up there ready to turn them all into
thralls? He didn't know and the tension
was unbearable.
"I 'ate
waitin' like this," Gulliver moaned beside him, "not knowin' what's
goin' to 'appen next, my brother up there, expectin' me no doubt." He
stroked his one remaining flintlock pistol, the other having been commandeered
by Siren for the purpose of whatever they were doing down below. Instinctively Ellis reached for the
Medallion, which was also being used somewhere beneath them. He felt a little insecure without it, which
was ridiculous, he realised, since he had managed just fine without it before
his recent illness and he was back to full strength now anyway. Even so, its absence niggled at him and he
wished he had its metallic weight against his chest once more.
“I know how you feel,” he replied and then they
stared at the way out in silence, ready and waiting for the sign to move. “You’ll know when it happens,” the Former
Baron had reassured them, but he had given them no idea what to expect and so
they waited and waited and waited, wondering just what was going to happen, or
if it ever would.
It started
with a slight shudder running through the ship, as if the great wooden vessel
had coughed. If it hadn’t been sitting
still in the water, rocking from side to side, Ellis would have assumed they’d
just run aground, or at the very least scraped the keel off a sandbank or a
rock. As it was, he could only assume
it had something to do with the engine.
There was
silence for a moment or two more and then the ship shuddered again. It lasted longer this time and the
vibrations were stronger, causing the glass in lanterns above them to tinkle as
their flames guttered, then: silence.
If the first
two shudders had felt like the ship scraping against something, the third felt
like the ship must be falling apart.
All around them the vessel shook, the lanterns dancing from their chains
above and a mechanical throbbing rising up from beneath them. Outside there were yelps of surprise and
alarm, followed by a panicked commotion which could only be their cue to
advance onto the deck. Gulliver took
the lead, shouting, “C’mon lads and lasses, this is it!” before charging up to
the main deck with his sword drawn, a dozen similarly armed pirates chasing
after him and Ellis, Greta and Luke at the rear.
When Ellis
broke out into fresh air and daylight he was hit by many details all at
once. Firstly he discovered that the
warm air which had made him feel ill below deck was even more frightful when
faced directly. The temperature
couldn’t have been much below forty degrees Celsius and the amount of moisture
in the air made it feel almost solid.
As he tried to adjust to the heat, almost instantly becoming sticky with
sweat, he looked up to see that the ship was anchored not far from a hazy
coastline decorated with arabesque domes, sandstone terraces and leafy
balconies fringed with palm fronds. It
looked like something out of the Arabian Nights and was very unlike any other
part of Shadow he had seen so far.
A chorus of
shouts brought his attention back to the chaos on deck. Harker’s pirates were running around like
mad on the other side of the main mast, rushing between patches of green flame
which seemed to be spreading across the deck and which were being spat out in
dollops of burning green fluid, like Hypostatick napalm, Ellis assumed, by the
ship’s lone funnel which rose above the sterncastle. Siren’s pirates rushed in to engage them, catching some unawares,
but soon brawling with the others.
In the midst
of this confusion stood Harker, Salah and Marveille, the latter trying to
escape from Salah’s grip as he pulled towards a gangplank on the starboard side
of the ship. At his feet lay the
remains of some sort of clockwork device, whisps of purple vapour rising from
its shattered carcass.
Ellis, still
standing back from the fray, watched as Marveille managed to slip from Salah’s
grasp at last and dash along the gangplank towards a low, pipe-encrusted vessel
which Ellis could only assume was some sort of submarine.
"No, stop
him!" came Siren's voice from behind as she emerged from below decks with
Rockspark, Broken-Hope and the Former Baron in tow, "Don't let him get
away!"
Dripping
sweat, Ellis ran towards the gangplank, sword gripped tight for fear it might
slip. Beside him ran Siren, her black
hair caught in the salty sea breeze to reveal the golden roots within. For a moment he was distracted by it, by her
perfect form as she charged into battle and then they were stumbling onto the
gangplank even as Marveille shouted across to them, “Eet iz time for me to say
adieu – there really iz too much to do!”. He waved at them mischievously, then
slipped inside his submersible, the hatch sealing behind him. They stared in frustration as the vessel
began to chug smoke into the air and then had to hop backwards as it slipped
beneath the waves, sending the gangplank tumbling after it.
"No!"
Siren cried, her voice tearing, "We can't let him get away!"
"Well,
for once, I'm with you on that one."
The voice
which spoke from behind them was deep and masculine but also clear and precise
like cut glass. Ellis and Siren whirled
around to face its source and Ellis, at least, was surprised to discover that
it was none other than Harker Blake.
Now that he
was confronted with him face to face he had time to take in the man’s
appearance and he felt instantly inadequate.
Harker was tall, handsome and lean but well built, with thick black hair
which hung in slight waves down the sides of his face and a light spray of
stubble accentuating his jaw line. He
wore clothing that looked suitable piratical, and yet also somehow debonair and
when he spoke again Ellis felt his insides crumbling. This is the type of
man Siren used to be around? How can I
compete?
“I was hoping
you would show up eventually, Siren,” Harker was saying, whilst Ellis stared at
him as if he were teenage girl looking upon her favourite superstar, “Perhaps
you can bring this whole crazy business to a conclusion at last.”
“Harker!”
Siren replied in a voice which was just on the civilised side of feral, “Do you
know how many crew members I’ve lost today because of you? How many friends?”
“Probably
slightly more than I have, I imagine.”
“You
set a Lich upon us! A mind-wiping,
murdering Lich!”
“Actually,
Marveille organised the Lich, or one of his associates did.”
“What
difference does it make? You were still
working together.”
“Is
that what you really believe, Siren… Klarisse?”
Ellis
shivered slightly to hear the other man say her name, blanching at the gentle
passion his voice contained. They
were lovers once… he realised.
“If
you weren’t part of this,” she began, already beginning to sound doubtful, “then
why let any of it happen? Why capture
Rockspark, why give up the Dusk Raider?
Why any of it?”
“The
fact that I was not on board the Dusk Raider should have been your first
clue Klarisse-”
“Don’t
call me that.”
“You
know how much I love that ship!”
“As
much as I love the Crest? You
stole her from me. How could I trust
you after that?”
“I
won the Crest fair and square and if you’d given me a chance I would
have let you be her captain, but you would never let yourself be beholden to a
man, now, would you?”
“That’s
not the way Gulliver tells it! That you
could be so cruel to your own brother-”
“Gulliver
was behaving like a spoilt brat after you left, so I demoted him to get him out
of my hair for a while? If he had a
problem with that he should have come to me instead of running off with half of
my legitimately acquired crew!”
“I’d
take Gulliver’s word over yours any day.”
“Fine. Whatever you like, Siren, but please,
please believe me when I tell you that I had nothing to do with all of
this. Marveille and his associates
forced me into this, stole my ship, commandeered and indoctrinated my crew,” he
pointed down towards the fragments of the device that had been lying at
Merveille’s feet when they arrived on deck, “and, I assume from what you’ve
been saying, has led them all to their deaths.
Is there anything left of the Raider? Anything at all?” Ellis
wasn’t sure if Harker sounded more upset over the loss of his crew, or the loss
of his ship.
Siren
shook her head.
“Damnit!”
He turned his face away for a second and when he looked back it was with clear
determination, the kind one sees heroes where in action movies just before they
chase after the bad guys. “We really
need to stop arguing and get this vessel back under control,” he said, “I’ll call off my men if you call off yours
and then we get after that rhyming runt!”
Siren
looked thoughtful for a moment and Ellis was about to take the opportunity to
protest, to proclaim that it was all a dreadful idea, that she should not trust
Harker and that, ideally, she should give up and go back to Tentacle Lane with
him, but before he could speak she nodded and then she called out, “Everyone
stop! Stop!” Harker mimicked her and in moments the fighting had petered out,
although the green fires were still raging (harmlessly, Ellis realised) across
the deck. “I’ll get Franck to put them
out for you,” Siren said and waved for the Former Baron, who had just arrived
on deck with Rockspark and Broken-Hope.
Within moments the old man was organising the crew with an arsenal of
buckets and mops to tackle to the mysterious blaze.
“We’re
going after Marveille!” Harker shouted, once the deck was cleared of green
flames. “Everyone who’s with us,
prepare to weigh anchor, anyone who wants to leave, better do so now.”
Siren
turned back to Ellis, gave him a slight, sad smile, then said, “You should go,
Ellis. This might take a while and if
Marveille has had the help of one Lich there could be others. I’ve lost too many friends already today, I don’t
want to see you in danger on the High Seas.”
“In
danger?” Ellis asked, not quite believing what he was hearing, “But I-”
“No. I have to do this. I have to follow Marveille’s trail and see
where it leads – for my crew, you understand and maybe for myself as well and
it will be easier for me, I swear it, if I know you are safe on dry land.”
“I
don’t understand,” Ellis could feel tears building, but hid them beneath a
growing anger, “you want to abandon me here in God-knows-where and go off adventuring
with your ex?”
It
was Siren’s turn to fume. “That’s not
what I’m doing and you know it, Ellis Graves.
I just don’t want you to get hurt, but if you’re too stupid to realise
that-”
“Oh,
so that’s what you think of me, is it?
Too weak for a little danger, too stupid to be of any use? And you’ll roll off with the man who just
minutes ago you were calling a cheat and a murderer? Maybe you’re right. Maybe
I will be better off on dry land.”
“Ellis,
I… fine! Be that way! There’s a boat ready to be lowered on the
other side of the deck. I suggest you
wait for it there.” She turned away,
her face flushed and for just a moment, Ellis’ anger subsided enough for his tears
to win through. As he wiped his eyes
she looked back at him and, though he couldn’t hear it properly over the sound
of the ship’s engine coming to life once more, he thought she said, “Goodbye,
Ellis.”
And
then the Former Baron was ushering him away, rambling in his ear about how he
wasn’t sure they would have managed to put the fires out and how pleased he was
that it had turned out so easy and how they really must get in the boat if they
didn’t want to get dragged off to who knows where and eaten by some sort of sea
monster and throughout all of it Ellis didn’t care.
He
didn’t care as he, the Former Baron, Rockspark, Gulliver (because he refused to
sail with his brother) and Broken-Hope piled into the little dinghy. He didn’t care as it was lowered into the
water beside the jet-hulled galleon and released into the waves. He didn’t care as Gulliver and Rockspark
began to row them away towards the shore and the Ebon Crest powered off
into the open ocean.
He
didn’t care. He just felt numb.
END OF BOOK TWO
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