Stephen Hunt - The Kingdom Beyond the Waves

‘Who are you signalling?’ Amelia demanded.

‘The long-range flame guns of the Daggish have been spiked now,’ said Veryann. ‘It’s safe to be picked up.’ She pulled on a lever, and two antennae with a cable strung between them rose above the dome of the bathysphere.

‘Your troops are out there,’ said Amelia. ‘Is there enough space in this bathysphere for all of them?’

‘They have achieved their objective,’ said Veryann.

‘Achieved …’ Amelia stared in disbelief at the Catosian officer. ‘You’re leaving them behind!’

‘Our losses in the nest will not be significant,’ said Veryann. ‘Our worst-case plan of battle was that the Daggish would attain the Crown of Pairdan and that a full-scale occupation of their capital would be necessary while simultaneously holding off an assault by the rest of the greenmesh.’

‘In the name of the Circle, those are your own people out there!’

‘They will have warriors’ deaths, selling themselves dearly against creatures that would make slaves of our whole race if they could. If that was my duty, I would welcome such an end.’

Amelia pointed an accusing finger at Veryann. ‘That Camlantean crown last saw the light of day when Catosia was a scratch on the map, yet you now suddenly value it enough to exchange a whole division of your troops! You guessed that Billy Snow was going to try to destroy the crown, too …’

‘Of all people, professor, I would expect you to know the value of being well read. Now brace yourselves.’

There was a whining outside, growing louder. Just in time for Amelia to recognize it as the noise made by the rotating propeller blades of an airship. Then the floor of the bathysphere was pulled out from under their feet, the seven of them sent sprawling as they swung pendulum-like, ripped out of the waters of Lake Ataa Naa Nyongmo. Bull groaned when the dead weight of Ironflanks slid into him, Amelia barely hanging on as the commodore lost his grip and came tumbling towards her. Stability returned and they were rising. The hull of an impossibly large airship was just visible above them, cannons in rotating mounts jolting as they poured shells downwards. Three aerospheres bound together in a reinforced frame, short black stabilizer wings like the flying fish of the Shedarkshe. And damned if she could see any flag. Amelia gaped, wordlessly. This airship was clearly a man-o’-war, but she lacked the chequerboard belly of a RAN craft, instead sporting a curved black shell broken by gun ports and engine casings. There was a traitor’s death waiting for someone back in Jackals. She glanced back down at the rapidly receding jungle below. If there were any Daggish gunners left with the wit to try to bring them down, Amelia could not see their answering fire.

Commodore Black stumbled towards the porthole, trying to snatch a last look at the Daggish nest and his u-boat. ‘My Sprite , my beautiful Sprite . You’re leaving her here.’

‘No,’ said Veryann. ‘One of our assault craft has orders to scuttle her. The less of our engineering the Daggish have access to, the better we will like it.’

The commodore collapsed into the navigator’s seat at the news. ‘Lass, say that’s not true. We can belay that order. With this mighty airship of yours you can pound the Daggish to pieces and winch my Sprite up to safety. I’ll pilot her back to Rapalaw Junction myself with the help of T’ricola and Bull; maybe him in leg irons just to be safe.’

‘I’m truly sorry, Jared,’ said Veryann. ‘I must abandon a division of my finest fighters behind, and you must leave your ancient craft. We only have a brief window of flight time while the Daggish flame guns are incapacitated. If we are still within range above the city when their cannons are repaired and re-crewed, our fate will not be a kind one.’

The hooks clamped around the bathysphere’s catapult-like roof assembly began to winch them upwards into an opening hangar, the airship climbing for height as they were drawn into her belly.

‘No,’ said the commodore, an unruly glint in his eyes. ‘No kinder than the fate of that burnt-up airship we found crashed by the borders of Prince Doublemetal’s kingdom of loons. That was no derelict blown in from Jackals’ last war with Quatershift, was it? That was your people, learning the hard way that an expedition by air to Lake Ataa Naa Nyongmo is a mortal dangerous thing to attempt. Far better to bribe poor old Blacky and his brave, foolish friends, to sneak into the greenmesh for you on the Sprite .’

Veryann said nothing, but her silence spoke volumes.

Amelia watched as they were hauled into the airship’s hangar, rising up past gantries and empty launch rails for Catosian glider capsules. ‘This is no RAN vessel. Has Quest gone insane? Parliament will declare him a science pirate — he’ll be hunted to the ends of the earth as an outlaw for building this aerial folly.’

Veryann pointed towards the party waiting for them in the hangar. ‘There he stands, you can tell him yourself in a minute. You’ve followed the path of your obsession, professor, as Abraham Quest has followed his. Whatever the cost to you both. Were it not for your gender, I believe I would find it hard to tell the two of you apart sometimes.’

With the bathysphere raised into a docking cradle, their hatch was popped, fresh air replacing the febrile mix that had been cooked up by the expedition members. Veryann was first on deck, then the semi-conscious forms of Ironflanks, Bull Kammerlan and Billy Snow were pulled out by the airship crew.

‘Put these two in the brig,’ said Veryann, pointing at Kammerlan and Snow. ‘Chains for the old man and make sure they are strong — he can fight in witch-time.’

Abraham Quest walked over and grasped Veryann’s arm in the Catosian style. ‘You have it?’

She held up Amelia’s Camlantean crown. ‘Did you ever doubt me?’

‘It was as dangerous a thing as I have ever asked you to do.’ He looked at the motley group climbing out of the bathysphere, drenched in sweat, their clothes torn by long months in the jungle. ‘So few … did none of the others make it?’

‘My boys are gone,’ whined the commodore. ‘Walking dead among the Daggish or made proper corpses along the way of our voyage, left rotting in that Liongeli hell. You promised me my beautiful boat back, but even that’s gone now.’

‘You might yet have it returned,’ said Abraham Quest. ‘Stranger things have happened.’

‘Stranger things have happened,’ spat Amelia. ‘We’ve been shot at, gassed, imprisoned, seen glimpses of Camlantis at the bottom of Lake Ataa Naa Nyongmo, and had members of our own crew turn on us, all for the sake of that crown.’

‘For which I apologize.’ Quest looked at the prone form of Billy Snow being fitted with a metal cuirass, his arms strapped inside the steel straightjacket at a painful angle. ‘He looks a little like the last one who came after us, don’t you think?’

Veryann waved her soldiers forward to stand guard over Billy while he was being restrained. ‘Like a brother, perhaps, if you shaved his beard off.’

‘Who is Billy Snow, Quest? Who is he really?’ asked Amelia. ‘He claimed the location of Camlantis wasn’t going to be found in the crown’s crystal-book.’

‘He’s something ancient, professor. One of the texts mentioned something very much like him being grown in the old days.’

‘What texts? I didn’t read-’

‘You read only what you needed for our expedition to succeed,’ said Quest. ‘Something else that you have my apology for.’

Amelia bridled at the deception. ‘You were holding out on me? I risked my life for that crown!’

‘And you will find the risk was worth it. I needed your passion to be pure, Amelia. The truth would have made you doubtful; you might even have refused to go in search of Camlantis. I risked everything I have on this throw of the dice, and my methods have not always been as honourable as I would otherwise have had them. Some of the crystal-books’ secrets I kept back.’