Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane (51 page)

‘I know … nothing about Dogwood’s investigation,’ Kal spat out, truthfully. ‘Lula, if he gets in our way when we get to Port Black, I’ll deal with him, I promise.’

‘Alright,’ Lula said. Kal’s promise was valuable currency among her friends. Lula pulled on the rope. ‘I’m sorry, Kal. I just …’

But Kal wasn’t looking at Lula’s apologetic expression. As the boom swung back into position, and her view out to sea shifted, Kal saw something beyond the prow. ‘Lula!’ she hissed. ‘Look!’

There was something a few miles out. Something that could be seen despite the darkness that surrounded the ship, and that was because it glowed a strange phosphorescent green. As Kal dropped from the boom and leaned on Lula’s shoulder to catch her breath, the glowing thing sunk beneath the waves.

Kal’s brain couldn’t process what she had just seen. It wasn’t land; it wasn’t a ship. By a process of elimination it could only have been one thing: a
sea monster
.

‘I’ll be right back,’ Lula said. ‘Keep it busy, Kal—sing to it!’

Sing to it?
Kal looked back, but Lula had already disappeared below deck. When Kal looked back out to sea, the thing had resurfaced, closer this time, revealing the hump of a great serpentine back. One after another, yards and yards of curved spines broke the surface and submerged again. Whatever the thing was, it was enormous.

Kal ran back to the quarterdeck. ‘Jako!’ she called.

‘I see it,’ the navigator said, wide-awake now and gripping the tiller. ‘Don’t panic, Kal.’

’What is it?’ she asked him.

‘Well,’ he said, with a tight smile. ‘We call him
Briney 
…’

Kal couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. ‘You give it a name?
You know what it is?
’

‘Aye,’ Jako said. ‘We just didn’t expect to see him this far out from the Islands. Lula will deal with him … if she gets back in time.’

It was too late: the monster swam under the
Swordfish’s
keel and surfaced on the port side, its immense tubular body arching over the deck like a bridge. The scaly green torso was twenty yards thick, and snapped the topmast and topsail yard clean off. Kal dived to the deck as splinters and canvas came smashing down, accompanied by splatters of glowing slime. The monster didn’t stop there, though—it plunged back into the sea and doubled back on itself, corkscrewing around the hull two more times.

Kal could feel the coiled creature putting the squeeze on. She could hear spars cracking and timbers groaning. What could Lula have possibly run off to fetch that could save them now? A magic spear?

Then the monster broke the surface once more and brought its head to bear on Kal. The sea dragon was at least four times bigger than any other dragon Kal had seen. When it opened its jaw, a knight on horseback could have stood comfortably on its tongue. A double row of teeth like white spear tips framed the dreadful maw, and the monster roared at her—a frightening sound like an ocean storm multiplied hundreds of times over, accompanied by a rotten smell that made Kal want to puke.

But it didn’t attack. It tilted its head and fixed Kal with an aquamarine eye that was as wide as Kal was tall.

What did it want? Kal had nothing to give it.

It roared again, and Kal fell on her back, covered with another wave of the monster’s stinking spittle. It clenched its curled body and the
Swordfish
screamed out in pain. The mainmast split in two, and the top half plunged down into the deck, stabbing it like a dagger.

Sing to it!
Lula’s crazy suggestion, which Kal had dismissed as whimsy, was her only play. She got to her feet and stared down the sea dragon as it brought its eye to bear on her once more.

‘
When I was young, my spirit free.
’

The creature held her gaze. Its jaws relaxed slightly.

‘
My feet they led me to the sea.’

Kal’s singing voice was low and throaty, but the sea dragon’s head started to sway. It let out what could almost have been a contented purr, but what came across as a thunderous rumble.

Then Lula reappeared on deck. In her hand was a small leather pouch. She stood beside Kal and lobbed the pouch underarm into the dragon’s mouth. It tipped its head back as if to swallow the offering, then sank out of view beneath the ship.

The coiled body released its grip, and the dragon fell away like a loosened knot. Kal and Lula ran to the rail and looked down. The green glow dwindled to a dot hundreds of fathoms deep … and then it vanished.

I.ix

Thunder Road

They replaced the mast with the spare, and patched up the hull with wood from the deck. In the next two weeks, the sea dragon made three more appearances; and each time, Lula dealt with it by tossing it another mysterious offering. When Kal asked her what magic she was using to keep the monster at bay, Lula simply smiled and said, ‘Vudu.’

Kal felt like she was stuck in the middle, hanging in the space between Lula’s secrets and Dogwood’s investigations. When she tried to interrogate Dogwood, as they battled over the cosmic race board, he just tapped the side of his nose. ‘Senate business, Moonheart,’ he muttered. ‘And the last time I checked,
you
don’t work for the Senate.’

‘I voted for Ben last year,’ Kal reminded him. ‘Without him,
you
wouldn’t work for the Senate either.’

Dogwood chuckled as he threw the dice and moved his counters. ‘In politics, no one cares about the voters once the votes have been counted. I’ve been Captain of the Senate Guard while senators have risen and fallen around me. I know more about how the Republic is run than any politician, and the rule is that once you’ve got yourself where you want to be, all the promises and friends you made to get there are instantly forgotten.’

Kal shook her head. Dogwood was insufferable. And to make matters worse, he was good at his job and he knew it. As far as Kal could tell, his only weakness was his new-found love of gaming, something he could never have allowed himself to be seen indulging in back home. It was funny, watching him now sitting opposite her, still dressed in his blue Senate Guard surcoat, which he wore like a vest over his naked blubber. The swirl of gold stars sewn into his surcoat glittered every time the sun came out from behind the clouds.

Dogwood had most of his counters home, but he still had two of them imprisoned on the bar, after Kal had captured them. Kal also had most of their escape routes blocked off, thanks to some clever tactical positioning that Dogwood had ignored, to his cost. Kal took the doubling dice and turned it from sixteen to thirty-two, giving Dogwood the choice of either doubling the stakes, or quitting.

He hesitated. Dogwood loved to gamble, but he was risk-averse. ‘Tell you what,’ Kal said, as casually as she could manage, ‘if I win, I’ll let you pay me in
information
instead. Just a few harmless hints, even. As I’m sure you know from your work in the Senate, a small titbit of information can be as valuable as a chest full of gold!’

Ten minutes later, Kal had freed her last counter from the board, and Dogwood was forced to spill the beans. ‘There’s a new drug on the market,’ he told her in a hushed voice. ‘One that’s taking Amaranthium by storm. It’s more dangerous than opium—it’s a stimulant rather than a depressant—and that’s what’s got the authorities worried: addicts don’t lay around in smoky dens all day; they become aggressive, with heightened senses. Gangs of political rebels are getting sucked in, and thanks to the drug they’re up all night, plotting violent schemes. They call the drug
Black Ice
, because it comes out of Port Black.’

‘And you think the crew of the
Swordfish
are involved?’ Kal asked, pressing the fat man for more information.

‘Perhaps,’ Dogwood said. Then his ego got the better of his circumspection: ‘I’ve laid a trap that will lead me to the source of the drug. I’ve marked hundreds of bills with invisible ink, and instructed the bank of Amaranthium to hand them out to any suspected addict asking for a withdrawal. If the same bills turn up in circulation in Port Black when we get there, then I’ll know I’m on the right trail!’

* * *

That night, alone in her small cabin, Kal unlocked her sea chest. She took out one of the calico bundles that she had been looking after for Lula, and unwrapped it. There was another bundle inside, wrapped in waxed leather and tied with twine. Kal had never doubted for one moment that it was money, but she had never been curious enough to take a closer look … until now.

There was a
lot
of money in the package: a block of fifty bills, each promising to pay the bearer one hundred Republic Crowns (or—and this was of more interest to international smugglers—one hundred ounces of gold). Lula had given Kal five bundles to look after, too. Kal didn’t bother counting all the linen-paper notes; instead she lit a candle and held one of the bills over the flame.

Chances were, Dogwood would have marked the notes with lemon, honey or vinegar—something that would brown when heated. A thief she once knew—Will Straightarrow—had told her about that trick. Sure enough, under the smoke of the candle, the secret mark revealed itself: a spiral of twenty-four stars. Kal smiled; the golden constellation had been the symbol of the Guard long before the Republic—back when they had been the Royal Guard. One star for each of the world’s twenty-four gods.

So, the crew of the
Swordfish
were indeed smuggling Black Ice. And making a fortune from it, it seemed.
Who’s the detective now, Dogwood?
Kal gloated to herself. The question was, when should she confront Lula about it?

Kal always favoured the simple and direct answer to any problem, so she took one of the notes, locked her chest, and went in search of her friend.

Lula wasn’t in her own cabin. Kal went along the passageway, passing the open door to the galley. Che was still up, sitting on a stool, peeling potatoes.

‘Have you seen Lula, Che?’ Kal asked.

‘Up on deck,’ Che said.

‘Thanks,’ Kal said. ‘Oh, and Che?’

‘Yah?’

‘I hate potatoes.’

Che grinned. ‘Well, you better catch us that sea monster, man, cos I’m fresh out of goats!’

Kal passed on and up the rear companionway. The moonlit deck was deserted, but Kal could hear voices above her on the quarterdeck.

‘… has to be a map,’ Dead Leg was saying. ‘There are thousands of uninhabited islands around Port Black. Thousands! You don’t bury treasure and forget to make a map. It just ain’t right!’

Kal crept up the ladder and peeped over. Dead Leg and Lula were standing with their backs to her. Both of them were as still as statues, with their arms outstretched like scarecrows.

‘Maybe there
is
no map,’ Jako said, from his usual position at the tiller. ‘Maybe there’s no treasure either.’

‘There had better be,’ Dead Leg said. ‘The sooner we find it, the sooner we can give up this smuggling lark and retire.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Lula said. ‘I say if we find any treasure, we invest the money in another ship and crew. We could make twice as many runs to Amaranthium and back. You know the demand is there. And you know what they say: while the sun shines—make hay!’

‘Either way,’ Dead Leg said, ‘we have to shake off this curse first. I just hope you’re right, Lula, when you say that Moonheart can—’

Kal would have loved to hear more, especially about the
treasure
, but Sea Dog wandered out of the captain’s cabin and woofed at her. She threw him an evil glare, and clambered up to the quarterdeck as naturally as she could.

‘Speak of
the Dragon
…’ Jako said.

‘…
killer
,’ Kal said, twisting the well-known phrase, ‘and she shall appear.’ She walked around Dead Leg and Lula to stand face to face with them. ‘What are you two doing? Waiting for gulls to perch on you? I’m not
that
hungry.’

‘It’s an old sailors’ trick,’ Lula said. ‘You stand with your back to the wind, with your arms outstretched, and then your right hand will point into the eye of the storm.’

Kal followed Lula’s arm. The sky to the east was clear and full of stars. ‘There’s a storm coming?’

‘A big one,’ Dead Leg said. ‘A typhoon. It’s coming in fast, and it’s going to chase us all the way home to Port Black!’

Kal shivered, despite the balmy night. A bad storm was the one thing she feared most of all, and that was because she would be helpless, trapped on this small ship—her life not in her own hands, but in the hands of the crew.

She swallowed her sense of dread. What you couldn’t control, you couldn’t waste time worrying about. ‘Lula,’ she said. ‘Can I show you something?’

She took Lula aside and gave her the marked note. Lula swore. ‘You have to keep Dogwood off our backs, Kal,’ she said, as they walked the deck. ‘At least, until we can offload these notes in Port Black. Then they’ll be someone else’s problem.’

‘Lula!’ Kal said, stopping by the mainmast and looking her friend in the eye. ‘If I’m going to help you, then you have to be honest with me. You told me you were smuggling calico!’

‘That wasn’t a lie,’ Lula said. ‘We
do
smuggle calico. We just smuggle a few other things too. All the crew swore an oath not to tell
anyone
though.’

‘Do you want to hang?’ Kal hissed. ‘Like that Azul brother on the cliff top? I can’t save you from both the rope and the curse!’

Lula looked sorrowful. ‘This is the last time, Kal. When we get to Port Black, I’m going straight, I promise.’

Kal sighed and looked away. She already knew that was a lie, but she decided not to tell Lula that she had overheard them talking; it would only make the situation worse. It seemed like her friend was going to be harder to save than she had ever imagined.

* * *

The next day, the swells were twenty feet high and the troughs were twenty feet deep. Kal tried to avoid going on deck at all if she could help it, but seeing the rest of the crew—and even Dogwood—going about their business as usual (albeit with forced cheerfulness), she made the effort to test herself.