Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane (76 page)

Under the rocky outcropping on the side of the trench wall, they found the entrance: there was indeed a rectangular opening almost the exact size of the nautilus. Kal spun the wheel that injected air into the ballast tanks, and carefully rotated the sub to line up with the dock. When they broke the surface of the pool, they found themselves under one of the smaller domes. It was brightly lit by the same soft phosphorescent lights Kal had seen aboard the dreadnought. And like on board the dreadnought, there was a welcome committee on hand to greet them …

There must have been at least a hundred zombies inside the dome, engaged in carrying crates and barrels to and fro across the vast floorspace. They all stopped what they were doing when they noticed the nautilus bobbing in the pool. A hundred pairs of unseeing, black eyes turned in Lula and Kal’s direction.

‘I’m beginning to wish we hadn’t come now,’ Lula said.

Kal flashed Lula a nervous grin. ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said. ‘You know that a bit of risk is part of the fun. When you come on a date with me you have to expect some scrapes, but I always show you amazing things, and take you to incredible places you’ve never been.’

Lula bared her teeth in reply, but it was more scowl than smile.

‘I bet you say that …’ she hissed, ‘to all the girls.’

V.iv

Rule the Sea and Live Free

Kal popped the hatch of the nautilus and clambered out onto the hull. The air under the dome tasted metallic and bitter, but it was breathable—an amazing feat of ingenuity in itself. Kal swallowed her curiosity; she was not here for a site inspection. She double-checked she had her cutlass and cleaver at her belt, but she didn’t draw them … not yet. The zombies were milling around all four edges of the dock, but they didn’t seem able or willing to jump the two-foot gap to get to her.

Lula climbed out too, and looked out over the zombie crowd. She didn’t say, but Kal knew she was looking out for her father. Every zombie encounter they had ever had was made that shade harder by the knowledge that one of creatures, somewhere out there, was Levon Pearl—a simple fisherman who had vanished, along with the rest of his village, as Sirensbane took control of the Islands.

After a time, Lula’s eyes flicked back to Kal. ‘How are we going to get past this lot? We can’t kill them. We promised: no more deaths.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Kal said. ‘Watch this.’

She hopped off the hull and onto the stone floor of the dock, gripping the shoulders of two zombies for support as she landed. The surrounding creatures just shuffled to one side to make room for her. Kal turned back to Lula. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘It’s okay.’

Lula made the jump, but cringed as she pushed through the zombies. ‘Why aren’t they trying to chew out faces off?’ she asked Kal.

‘Because nobody told them to,’ Kal said. ‘They act on Sirensbane’s orders, remember. And right now, he doesn’t know that we’re here.’

They took a few moments to investigate the contents of the boxes and barrels that were stacked up around the dock. On one side, the boxes were full of glossy black shards of Sirensbane. Each batch was packed in a slim, rectangular package of broken shards, like a mirror that someone had taken a hammer to. Kal estimated the weight of each slab as around ten pounds … with an estimated market value of a quarter of a million crowns. There were hundreds of crates ready for shipment. No wonder Sirensbane could afford to build an underwater fortress: his
business
was worth billions.

Kal took her cleaver to one of the barrels on the other side of the dock. The fishy-smelling liquid that dribbled out of the gash was the same stuff Dogwood had discovered in the hold of the
Swordfish
. ‘What is this?’ Kal asked Lula.

‘It’s called napazane,’ her friend said. ‘It’s made from naptha and azane, and I guess it’s the main ingredient of Sirensbane. We used to collect it in bulk from the factories and chemical works in Amaranthium, then hide it among our water supplies for the voyage back to the Islands.’

As soon as they moved away, a zombie stepped in and hoisted the leaking barrel up onto its shoulder like it weighed nothing. Kal and Lula followed it to the entrance to the dome, where a metal door was sliding open to allow zombies to leave or enter, and then sliding shut behind them.

As they fell in beside the zombie workers, Kal realised that the door was a kind of airlock—another door six yards further down the corridor was opening and closing in sync with the first, so that one of the doors was always shut at any one time. Kal’s best guess was that this preserved, at least as much as possible, the air pressure inside the dome, so that the sea didn’t rush in and flood it. But there had to be a fresh supply somewhere, topping up the air and oxygen levels. Surely even zombies had to breathe.

The tunnels carved into the rock were dry and warm. Hot pipes ran overhead, while clean marble tiles paved the floor. The walls had been painted a sterile white. It was unfussy and practical. Kal was impressed, and more than a little fearful: an ordered, careful enemy was one that had few weaknesses she could exploit. She would much rather face a chaotic madman than someone like Sirensbane, who had harnessed and disciplined his evil nature and built an empire.

At a T-junction, Kal noticed the zombies passing by in both directions along the top of the T, while the third passage—the one that led to the large centre dome—was clear. ‘Sirensbane is that way,’ she said.

Lula nodded, but didn’t speak. Kal could see the fear hidden behind her brave face.

‘I’ll confront him alone,’ Kal said. ‘It’s better that way. You go and find a way to get the zombies out of here while they’re still docile. If I can take him out before he realises we’re here, I’ll come back and help you. If things go wrong, save as many as you can and get out of here. Don’t come for me.’

Lula took Kal’s hand. ‘Be careful,’ she said.

It looked like she wanted to say more, but the moment passed. They didn’t have the time for an emotional heart to heart. Kal briefly gripped Lula’s wrist, and then turned and hurried down the empty passage.

Like a moray eel in a deep cave, the enemy lurked in the heart of its lair. The place where, Kal hoped, its defences would be lowered and it would be least prepared for an attack.

* * *

The first set of metal doors that Kal arrived at were marked with a sign:
NO WORKERS
. Kal guessed that was Sirensbane’s name for his zombies, but could they even read? Under the words, however, was a symbol: a human figure with a cross over it. When Kal slid open the door, she nearly stumbled. For the benefit of zombies that couldn’t comprehend the picture, there was a cattle grid on the floor.

Kal closed the door quietly behind her. A second door in front of her opened by itself and she continued in search of her quarry. It wasn’t the first time Kal had set herself on a course to kill someone, but it was the first time she had done so with the intention of taking her target out in cold blood if possible. To kill an evil villain while he posed no immediate threat to anyone—was that a kind of murder? Kal would let others debate the philosophy. All she knew was that if you could kill someone without emotion getting in the way, and it
still
felt like the right thing to do, then how could it possibly be wrong? To try to capture Sirensbane alive would be a big risk, considering his propensity for trickery. No, her mind was set: he had to die. Her injured leg throbbed dully as her adrenaline flowed, and her heart pumped blood faster around her body.

Still, a small part of Kal hoped that he would at least put up some kind of spirited defence, and not make it too easy for her.

She arrived at another double-door airlock, and this time emerged into a vast cavern with a low ceiling. She guessed that she was directly under the largest of the domes. There were barrels of napazane stored here, as well as lots of dusty metal equipment half-covered with sheets. Thick pipes radiating heat rose up from below. Were the domes built upon some kind of natural source of power, she wondered. An underground hydrothermal vent, perhaps? Kal wiped aside the dust from a large cylindrical vat; the metal was chrome-plated or maybe even pure chrometal, and she could see her own reflection as clear as in a mirror.
What a mess
, she thought, examining her cut and bruised face and running a hand through her tangled and matted hair.

In the centre of the cavern, a metal spiral stair rose up through a hole in the roof. Kal took some deep breaths to steady her nerves, and then stepped slowly and quietly up into the dome above.

The staircase rose above the floor of the dome, allowing access to a multi-level scaffold constructed out of steel girders. Each level was crammed with row upon row of laboratory apparatus: polished chrometal tanks, complex arrays of glass piping and bubbling vats. Everything was tidy, ordered and spotless. There appeared to be nobody around, and Kal was able to creep up to the top level, which itself reached less than half the height of the dome. The space was enormous; so big that Kal could see clouds of vapour forming in the vast emptiness overhead. Lights like hundreds of tiny suns covered the inside of the framework, and gave the lab a stark, flat light, under which there were no dark corners to hide in. Kal was on high alert—if Sirensbane was in here, they could spot each other at any moment.

And suddenly there he was! He was walking along the floor of the dome, right below Kal’s level. It took a moment for her to recognise him; Corus Sirensbane was not wearing his usual robes and sinister make-up. He was clad in a simple white shirt, black trousers and boots. His head showed a smattering of grey stubble. He looked like a normal middle-aged man strolling calmly about his workshop.

Sirensbane was passing from machine to machine, noting down readings in a book. Kal stalked his movements from above, taking stairs and ladders down whenever she got the chance. When she was fifteen feet up from him, on a gantry immediately overhead, she made her move: jumping and falling straight down, her sword aimed at the base of his neck.

And then the Magician pulled his next trick.

He nimbly hopped to one side as Kal fell to the ground. She landed easily, like a cat, but in the moment before she could rise, Sirensbane lashed out with a powerful kick, sending Kal sprawling against one of the metal vats. Her body banged against it hard and she dropped her sword. She didn’t have time to raise it before Sirensbane was on her again, his forearms bashing her arms away from her body, his knee coming up into her stomach, driving the wind out of her. She felt a sharp pain across the bridge of her nose, panicked, and hurled herself down onto the hard rock floor to escape the onslaught.

Kal fought to suck in air. A puddle of blood was forming on the floor under her face. She raised her head; Sirensbane had backed off, and had walked over to a solid stone table in an open space clear of lab equipment. He put down his knife, picked up a glass decanter and poured himself a drink. Then he stood looking out to sea, his back to Kal in a supreme gesture of invincibility.

‘I am disappointed,’ he said. ‘Disappointed in myself for not anticipating that you would dare come here, Kalina Moonheart. I would have thought winning over six thousand doubloons from me, together with your lucky escape when we met at the fort, would have been enough to make you quit while you were ahead. Still, I have learned to expect the unexpected. I trained in
wushu
with the renowned soldier-monks in the Empire of the Moon. My own body is now primed to protect me on instinct, even when my foresight fails me.’

‘Well, good for you,’ Kal said, wiping blood from her face. The gash was deep; her face would be permanently disfigured. ‘You’re finished anyway,
Sirensbane
. Your fleet has been destroyed; your hidey-hole here will be sunk by the Republic before dawn.’

Sirensbane brushed off the news. ‘I promised to pay the pirates a handsome price … if they won the battle. Their defeat only saves me money. I imagine I will have to move my base now, but so be it. My empire begins and ends with me; so long as I live I can bring new workers, fighters and smugglers to my aid. That is my power: control over people.’

He turned and poured a second glass from the decanter. ‘Here, Kalina. Pull yourself together and have a drink. This new bissy nut and cocaine beverage is quite refreshing. We will sit and drink and negotiate the terms of your survival.’

Kal stood up slowly, picked up her cutlass and limped to the table. She took the glass … and then threw the contents in Sirensbane’s face. ‘There’s not going to be any negotiating! I’m here to kill you!’

Sirensbane didn’t even flinch as the liquid splashed his face. He licked his lips as it trickled past his nose. His tongue was long and pointed. ‘And yet here I am,’ he said. ‘Still alive. I suggest you listen very carefully to my offer.’

His offer? Was he still intent on her running part of his operation, as he had first suggested when they had played cosmic race together? How could he dare risk even
talking
to her when her murderous intentions were clear. Perhaps he was not so confident of his wushu skills after all. Kal raised her sword and stepped towards him …

Then a familiar sweet wave sloshed through her brain, and she stumbled. Sirensbane stood still, a smile on his lips. Kal looked to the knife on the table: it gleamed with a sticky residue. She realised now what his game was: the knife was laced with his drug, and Kal would now have to fight to stay in control of her own will.

‘Sit down,’ he commanded, gesturing to a seat. Kal could feel vigour and strength surging through her body—she could easily have overpowered him there and then—yet Sirensbane’s orders brooked no resistance. She sat down. Like the table, the seats had been carved out of the rock of the floor of the dome. If Sirensbane floated his domes away, the seats and table would remain here until the end of time, as furniture for fishes and octopuses. Kal tried to concentrate on that image, rather than give in to the drug completely, and she involuntarily smiled. Sirensbane returned the smile, although his was cold. He poured them both a new drink.