Fireblood, p.15
Fireblood, page 15
Errol muttered a curse, took a deep breath and shouted another word, but Finn saw to his horror that the balcony was still crowded with the warped creatures. They were coming through the ice, and it was just a matter of time before the firebloods would be completely overrun.
Tula reached back and grabbed her brother’s arm in her left hand. Come on, Finn, she signed.
Finn felt an unlocking sensation in his chest, sucked in a desperate breath and yelled with all his might: ‘LEAVE THIS ISLAND, creatures from beneath, and … and … you too, Craven!’ he yelled, flourishing the whip at the scarred man.
‘Yes,’ gasped Charlie, drawing whooping breath at last. ‘Leave!’
And then Tula sprang to her feet, her face glowing with realisation.
The griffin’s mark! she signed, pressing her cold fingers to her chest with one hand. Her other arm flung out, and her mouth opened wide in a magical cry of soundless intensity. One by one, each Venom dropped unconscious to the floor, ears bleeding, eyes rolling, tongues lolling, disintegrating to ash. The only creature left standing between the firebloods and the balcony was Craven. His body was rigid with rebellion, drenched in perspiration, and he gasped and groaned as his feet shuffled uncontrollably backwards.
‘Whoa,’ breathed Errol. ‘He’s going…’
Going… signed Tula.
‘Gone,’ said Charlie with satisfaction as Craven toppled backwards over the balustrade.
28
harlie was shaking badly, and one of his wings hung broken and useless, leaking a lot of gold on to the floor.
‘To Drishti,’ he rasped. ‘We need her to tell the aviators that we have the hydrant.’
Drishti’s tech room was as far below ground as the island went, explained Errol to Finn and Tula. They were moving as quickly as they could, exhausted, torn and trembling, down dark tunnels hewn from black rock where Finn had not ventured before. The sconces here glowed into a brief blue light, then faded out swiftly once they’d passed.
At last they came to the end of the tunnel, looking down a steep spiral staircase that disappeared into pitch black.
‘I’ll go first,’ said Charlie, swinging round the rail and down.
What does Drishti do here? signed Tula, already making her way down the steps.
Errol gestured for Finn to go next. ‘She runs the place. She has to get the latest tech smuggled in, or she gets it made down here, and then we use as little as possible and cover our tracks so the frailskins don’t ever find out we exist.’
Thirty seconds later their feet were on solid ground again. At the end of the corridor was a set of solid steel double doors. On them, in big red letters, were the words:
And beneath that:
Errol hurried to the door and knocked out a quick rhythm.
‘Morse code?’ said Finn, surprised.
‘Whoa! You guys are a mess,’ said Drishti, throwing the door wide open. ‘What took you so long? What the hell happened?’
‘The Venomous were here,’ said Charlie, still breathless with pain. ‘Got to tell George and the aviators.’
‘Venomous?’ Drishti’s face paled. ‘On the island? Where? How?’
‘Someone must have let them in,’ said Errol, gesturing Finn and Tula inside and shutting the door behind them. ‘We got rid of a horde up at the watchtower, but we should ask Shen to scry to check that there aren’t any more, unless you’ve got surveillance at all potential entry points?’
‘Did you tell George about Augustus being in Iceland, not Russia?’ interrupted Charlie.
‘I left a message,’ replied Drishti, ‘because I couldn’t get through. They must be on the move. So just stay calm, all right?’ She pointed a warning finger at Charlie. ‘We don’t need any explosions in here. This is our only link to the outside world.’ She whirled away. ‘I’ll get hot chocolate going, extra chilli. You’ll need it.’
‘No time,’ said Finn and Charlie in unison.
Drishti threw a curious look over her shoulder and hurried them further into the room. ‘I’ve been scrutinising all geothermal patterns across Iceland. I’d bet my last cowri that Gargan is holding Augustus in the depths of Hekla, that ancient volcano near the south shore. It’s been smoking and steaming like a teahouse kettle for weeks.’
She clicked her fingers, and with a tick-tick-tick sound the room was suddenly lit by a bright glow. Tân emerged from Tula’s pocket, his eyes wide, and Finn’s jaw dropped in surprise. The space was vast, and every square centimetre of the walls and floors was covered in wiring and tubing and pipes and circuitry and switches and connectors.
‘So, we know the Venomous are driving recent eruptions and earthquakes, yes? Well, look at this!’ Her hands moved swiftly over the desk again and a map flowed on to the screen, zooming further and further from a reddish glow in Russia, closer and closer to Iceland, showing a crimson infrared glow in one specific area.
‘Magnetic activity that is completely off the scale,’ explained Drishti. ‘Tula?’
Tula placed her finger on the map, closed her eyes for a second, then nodded. Dad, she signed.
‘He is at Hekla,’ said Charlie.
Finn laid the whip down carefully on the desk but kept the bag strapped to his shoulders, leaning in to study the terrain around the Icelandic mountain. It was covered in rock, snow and ice.
‘Yes,’ said Drishti, ‘and if we don’t intervene, there’s a chance Gargan could turn Hekla into a supervolcano – which would be enough to cause another Ice Age. It would be the end of the world as we know it. Exactly what the Venomous have always wanted.’
‘How do we get there?’ asked Finn. ‘Can we leave now?’
The griffin is not here, signed Tula. Are there any other creatures that could take us?
‘No mythic will go anywhere near you,’ declared Charlie. ‘Not after what happened in the Last Battle.’ He stopped and took a breath. ‘I’ll go. If I leave just before dawn, I’ll be there by mid-morning.’
‘No, Charlie,’ said Drishti, panicked. ‘No!’ She gestured impatiently at the satellite picture on the screen. ‘Look at this and this, and what about that?’
Charlie’s brow furrowed. ‘Bad weather isn’t going to stop me.’
Drishti barked a bitter laugh. ‘It can and it will. This is Hurricane Celeste right here. Mean and nasty and totally impenetrable. This over here is a cold front currently charting thirty degrees below freezing. And even your flight capabilities won’t make it through this hailstorm hitting the south coast. We need to wait for Idris and the aviators, with Patrick, George and Angelina. They’ll already have picked up my message and be back by tomorrow, in the nick of time because by my calculations Hekla is predicted to blow two days from now.’
‘That doesn’t sound in the nick of time. That sounds too late.’ Charlie clenched his jaw. ‘Boats?’ he asked. ‘What about boats?’
Drishti just stared back at him, deadpan.
‘A submarine?’
She closed her eyes and her nostrils flared.
‘A plane!’ burst out Errol. ‘My brother’s turbojet! My jump jet!’
‘Both are still in pieces!’ retorted Drishti. ‘And you know it, Errol! Come on!’
‘Fine,’ snapped Charlie. ‘Fine. I’ll go talk to the mythics,’ and before anyone could say anything to deter him he’d rushed out, leaving nothing behind but the echoing clang of the doors shutting behind him.
Errol raised his eyebrows at Drishti.
‘Nothing and nobody is getting to Iceland through that storm,’ she muttered. ‘You’ve got to stop him, Errol.’
Errol paled. ‘Go back into the labyrinth after we sent their strongest warrior away and the Venomous have arrived?’
‘You can do it, Errol,’ said Drishti, spinning round to clatter away at the computer keyboard. ‘Let me check for any remaining Venomous on the island…’ Finn, Tula and Errol found themselves holding their breath until she said, ‘Sulfuric detectors and infra-red imaging show footprints here, here, down the side of the watchtower and we lose track when they retreat to the ocean.’ She turned and grinned at them. ‘You puny lot vanquished them! How does that feel? You’ll go down in songs for years to come!’
‘Songs about doom, death and destruction,’ said Errol, ‘unless we move fast. I’ll catch up with Charlie now and reassure the mythics as best I can.’ He turned to Finn and Tula. ‘What’s next for you?’
‘Well, we have the Stone and we have the equaliser,’ replied Finn. ‘No one else knows that yet. Who can we trust?’
‘With that information?’ squeaked Drishti. ‘The hydrant? Really? You have it?’ Her hair was whipping so fast around her head that Errol and Tula took a dubious step back. ‘Where is it? Can I see it?’
Finn fished the bottle out of his pocket and held it up to the light.
All four of them were silent, staring at the deep-blue glass and the gold flames that circled its base. The liquid inside moved and swirled with a life of its own, even though Finn held the bottle still in a steady hand.
‘So powerful, but so fragile,’ murmured Drishti. She turned her gaze to Finn. ‘Guard it with your life.’
‘Of course,’ he replied.
‘Go tell Shen what you have,’ Drishti continued, ‘but no one else. She’ll help. And wait for better weather. It’s more than seven hundred miles of bad storms by air and sea between here and Iceland. No mythic is going to do that, no matter how much they love the Flints. Not even Grey Griffin, and he’d die for your dad.’
She pointed back at the screen. ‘Hurricane Celeste should blow over in a few hours, taking Charlie with it if he’s stupid enough to ignore my advice. This cold front is moving north, so there’s a chance you might run into that, but actually it’s more likely you’ll just be on the edge of it. This hailstorm … well, that’s more unpredictable. I might have to call in a few favours from the airheads.’
‘Really?’ Finn asked. ‘You’d do that for us?’
Drishti laughed. ‘Of course. Go talk to Shen. Get some sleep while the storm passes, and for snakes’ sake look after the hydrant.’ Finn nodded, zipping up his coat pocket with the precious bottle within it. ‘I’ll keep trying to get hold of George,’ she continued, her face serious again, ‘and I’ll let you know when it’s safe to leave.’
29
ack on the ground floor of the fortress, Finn, Tula and Errol were hit by an onslaught of noise so loud that Tula clapped her hands to her ears, wincing.
‘Many houses are moving,’ shouted Errol, taking them to a window. ‘Everyone, and everything, is afraid.’
And it was true. All around them, buildings were either in the process of extricating themselves from their streets or already creaking and groaning on spindly legs of brick, iron, steel or concrete as they went looking for safter places to reside, away from the fortress walls.
‘I bet the harbour will be almost empty,’ called Errol over his shoulder, ‘even with some of the best views in town. I’m sure Rudimenta’s place already went to a street on the cliff above last night. That house is really nervy.’
Two semi-detached homes were taking up the whole road, even though they were moving sideways like a pair of conjoined crabs. Another building, small and narrow, slipped off the pavement, bumping into the semi-detacheds. There was a shrieking sound of metal on metal, even though no surfaces ground against each other, and the little house leapt back on to the pavement, flapping its window shutters frantically. It bashed into a tall, skinny warehouse-looking building, which was trying to slide down a narrow side street, and there was a furious clattering sound in return that made Tula clap her hands to her ears.
‘We’ll get some sleep here in the fortress,’ decided Finn, ‘after we’ve talked to Shen. Will you be okay getting back to the Arsenal?’
‘Of course! See you tomorrow,’ said Errol, and jumped from the window on to the terrace outside. In minutes he had disappeared from view.
We have the Stone and the equaliser hydrant, signed Tula, plus a hypnotic whip. I know you have a plan.
Finn clapped a hand to his forehead. ‘I left the whip in Drishti’s lab!’
At least it’ll be safe there, signed Tula. Let’s get to Shen quickly for healing tonic for your legs because Dad may need it too, and then we can ask the Stone—
‘I’d like it if you two didn’t call me the Stone,’ said the Stone from the rucksack on Finn’s back.
Finn jumped. ‘Oh, my g—’
‘If ever there was a time to ask for direction, children, it’s now. Why has everyone forgotten that I’m here?’
‘W-what should we do?’ asked Finn.
‘Go to the clinic. Update Shen. Get some sleep.’
‘Of course,’ said Finn, shrugging at Tula. That’s what we already decided, he mouthed to Tula.
And then we’re going to find a way out of here, signed Tula. Whatever that might be.
30
utside the window above Finn’s bed in Shen’s medical room, the sky was dark with a thunderous storm, but it was clearly day. He pulled the bed curtain wider and saw to his alarm that the whole space was now filled with hospital stretchers. In them were wounded people, some snoring gently, some tossing and turning, one weeping and one groaning quietly. The rectangular pools around the big pool in the middle were covered up with slabs of what looked like granite, and the big pool had a glass cover over which he saw a young woman hurry with a tray.
A movement to his left made him jump.
Shen.
She smiled at him. ‘You passed out when you staggered in here last night.’ She sighed, fixing a spraying device to a purple bottle, and shook her head at Finn’s legs laid out in front of her. ‘My clinic, as you can see, is now full to the brim with wounded aviators, back from Elbrus. Patrick has only just managed to heal a nasty Venomous bite on his shoulder. He wanted to speak with you and Tula urgently. I’m waiting for George – he’ll be here soon, I’m certain, but I’m wondering if I should take this opportunity to explain a few things first that have been kept from you for too long.’
A door at the far end of the room opened and Tula appeared with Patrick.
Your legs are very purple, she signed to Finn when she reached his bedside. You feeling better?
He nodded. ‘Shen was just wondering whether we should know some secret stuff. Probably secret stuff like what happened at Elbrus.’
‘What secret stuff?’ Patrick asked Shen, ignoring Finn and frowning.
Shen raised her eyebrows at him. ‘The boy is right. You should explain things like the ambush you just had with Venomous out at Mount Elbrus, and also the fight between you and Augustus after the Last Battle, and your disagreements about secrecy, and how you’re the children’s godfather, and about Charlie—’
‘Okay, okay! I’m happy to talk about all this,’ said Patrick, looking unhappy, ‘but we need to work out a few things first. Craven was tracking the children when they first left home,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how. And someone in this place is feeding the Venomous information. Who?’
A bright and cheerful voice bounced across the room, followed by a short, round man who moved as he spoke with short, energetic strides.
‘Yes, who, my dear boy, would you suspect of such a terrible thing? I don’t think it would be wise to start any rumours of treachery at this difficult time.’
Finn and Tula recognised Simon Veritas instantly from the portrait in the Hall of Heroes. His hair was carefully combed into a precise side parting, his moustache clipped into two narrow arrowheads facing opposite ways above his mouth, and his eyes were bright and shiny, blinking quickly as he glanced around the room, taking everything in.
‘Only one person has ever betrayed the people of the fortress,’ he continued, and Patrick flushed, while Finn’s mouth filled with the taste of rust, ‘and … well, I’m afraid history is not on your side, my dear Patrick. There are whispers aplenty here that you—’
‘We do not need to speak of that, Simon,’ said Shen with a frown.
Simon clapped a hand to his forehead. ‘Of course not! I beg your pardon, Patrick! Bygones, bygones – forgive me. I’m flustered by all the information I must share, but also because who do I see before me? Is it truly the legendary Flint offspring?’ His smile was bright and wide, and when his fingers touched Finn’s wrist the rust taste faded from Finn’s mouth, and he felt oddly comforted.
‘Welcome!’ said Simon, but his face when he looked over to Shen and Patrick was confused. ‘Why were these dear children not placed in the labyrinth quarantine rooms until all proper checks were undertaken? We must remedy this immediately. They are not safe here, as evidenced last night!’
‘What?’ exclaimed Patrick at the same time as Shen went, ‘Oh no! There’s no doubting that—’
‘Excuse me!’ squeaked Simon. ‘The minute they arrive we have a Venomous invasion! How do you explain that? People are saying the Flints let them in! We know that’s not true, but we should be following all our usual rules and regulations!’ His pale face had taken on a strange sheen, gleaming like the alabaster skin of a snake’s underbelly. ‘Sir Arthur! Sir Dornar!’ he snapped. ‘An escort immediately, please!’
Finn and Tula watched in shock as, with a great clanking, two figures in an odd configuration of armoured plates and chain mail came forward.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ muttered Patrick. ‘This is ludicrous. Stand down, Arthur. Drop the sword, Sir Dornar. We need these children! They are not traitors!’
‘We have the hy—’ croaked Finn, horrified at what was unfolding.
‘Let’s just get this over with, mate,’ interrupted Sir Dornar from behind a helmet made of copper and steel. ‘Won’t take long to do the checks, and then we can sort this whole mess out properly before it escalates as it did before.’
Patrick was about to speak but flushed again and gritted his teeth.
‘The boy is not well!’ cried Shen. Her voice had gone high and quavery. She cleared her throat. ‘Why don’t you leave both here, under guard? The labyrinth—’
