Xi reeled in confusion, and Jake picked him up and dragged him towards the tank.
‘Where’s Philip?’ Jake yelled. ‘You have twenty seconds to tell me . . .’
26 MIRROR TO THE PAST
HE TIGHTENED HIS grip on the monster’s collar and thrust his head into the water. As Xi fought back desperately, his octopus appeared, wrapping its tentacles around Jake’s wrist, trying in vain to prise his hand off its master. It spidered up out of the tank and along Jake’s arm, its suckers seeking out his face, curling into his mouth. As Jake grabbed hold of it, the creature pumped black ink into his face. Jake wiped his eyes and tossed the octopus across the room. Immediately it righted itself and slithered its way back along the floor.
Meanwhile Xi had managed to grab a lungful of air. He tried to speak, but Jake pushed his head down again, and his words spilled out as bubbles. Jake kept him submerged for a little longer, then pulled him up by the scruff of the neck.
‘I’ll tell you where he is! I’ll tell you!’ Xi cried, spluttering water. ‘I’ll tell you, I promise to tell, but I beg you to kill me some other way. Drowning is—’ He broke off and vomited water and mucus over Jake’s sleeve. ‘Drowning is my greatest fear. Shoot me . . . Promise to shoot me—’
‘Tell me where he is.’
Xi shook his head in fear; make-up ran in black streams down his cheeks, and his lip trembled. His two good eyes opened wide, while his bad one closed completely. ‘He’s dead. He died nearly a year ago.’
Jake said nothing; his face was expressionless.
Xi continued, ‘I know you will never believe me, but I did not kill him. How could I? Even after everything that happened, I still loved him – like a father. He . . .’ For a moment, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. ‘He killed himself.’ Jake shook his head in disbelief. ‘He had the freedom of the palace, you see. I told you I kept him locked up, but I didn’t – no, no, not at all. I’m not a complete monster. I came down one morning and found him . . .’ Tears streamed from Xi’s puffy eyes, though still the mutant one remained impassive. ‘I found him hanging by his neck.’
Jake’s voice was cold. ‘Where? Where did you find him?’
Xi pointed at the chandelier above his head. The memory was clearly too much for him and he started shaking. ‘I cut him down. He still had a pulse. I gave him the kiss of life, pushing on his chest – breathing and pushing. He died in my arms.’ He let out a strangled cry of pain.
Jake stood there, quite still. ‘Thank you for telling me,’ he said.
Xi tried to smile; but Jake simply pushed him back under the water. Xi wrenched his head round, spluttering: ‘You promised you wouldn’t drown me . . .’ Then his words disappeared in a cloud of bubbles.
Jake used both hands to thrust Xi’s head down to the bottom of the tank; he kicked and thrashed, but Jake showed no mercy. The octopus had made its way back across the room and started to creep up his leg, but he shook it off.
Soon Xi’s face started to turn blue, his bad eye gazing up through the water, pleading. Suddenly Jake was appalled at himself; he remembered what Galliana had told him: Taking a life is something you never get used to. He pulled Xi out of the tank, and let his body fall to the floor. The octopus moved its master’s head from side to side, but all three eyes merely gazed up lifelessly.
Jake felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end; bile inched up his throat. Had he killed Xi? He got down on his knees and shook him, forgetting what a monster he was. How could he kill someone in cold blood, pleading for their life like that? He was fifteen years old.
Through the windows, from far across the sea bed, came a distant flash of light. Jake went over and looked out, but couldn’t see what it was. Then he noticed a reflection in the glass and his heart stopped . . .
The floor by the tank was empty: Xi wasn’t there!
Jake cast his eye along the glass and found the image of his foe standing by his throne, dripping wet and taking aim with his golden pistol. He looked like a ghost, floating above the floor of the ocean.
‘I lied . . . Pip’s alive,’ the spectre said, his voice hoarse where his throat had been squeezed. Jake suddenly remembered Galliana’s warning about Xi: Be wary. There are so many layers of deceit to that man. ‘Yes, your brother’s alive . . .’ Xi smiled. ‘You were looking straight at him . . .’
Jake turned slowly and saw Xi’s finger tighten on the trigger.
‘Jake!’ a voice shouted from the doorway.
They both turned as Galliana fired the golden bazooka. It struck Xi with such force that it blew off his right arm, sending it splashing into the pool. He screamed as his cloak caught fire.
Galliana limped down the steps with the huge weapon. ‘And this one’s for my son . . .’ She fired again.
Xi fell to the floor, thrashing around, his mouth a shocking red hole in his charred body. ‘Amateurs,’ he croaked, lifting his gun and firing it twice at the window. Then his arm dropped. His withered eye swivelled to glare at Jake – and froze as he died.
Only now did Galliana falter, holding onto the edge of the tank. She clutched at her wound; she had removed the breastplate and managed to wind material around her chest, but blood seeped out from underneath it and her face was deathly pale.
Suddenly they heard a crack and looked round at the windows. The first of Xi’s bullets had hit one of the four large panes, fracturing the glass; the second had made a hole in a smaller one, and a fast stream of water came pouring through the opening. Jake felt his ears pop.
‘Come on!’ Galliana panted. ‘If that large window goes, we’ll be dead in seconds.’ She hobbled up the steps, but Jake was thinking about Philip. What had Xi meant when he said, You were looking straight at him . . .? Where was he?
Water started swilling across the floor and down into the maze. ‘Jake, we have to go. Now!’ Galliana told him urgently. The crack in the window grew.
Jake nodded grimly. He wrenched the golden pistol out of Xi’s blackened hand and followed her up the steps. He put his arm around her shoulders, and was struck by how light and frail she felt.
As they wound their way along the corridors, past the ballroom and the chambers of state, the stone courtiers looked on. Is Philip trapped somewhere in this labyrinth? Jake wondered.
They came to the courtroom, where the stone judge presided. Jake stopped, staring back down the passage.
Galliana sensed his torment, but spoke firmly: ‘Jake, we must leave now.’
With a heavy heart, he turned and they limped on, starting up the grand staircase. They were almost at the top when suddenly it came to him: You were looking straight at him . . . Earlier Xi had dragged him over to the giant looking glass. When you look into it, you can see your past, he had said, giggling. Can you see your brother?
‘The mirror . . .’ Jake said to himself. ‘He’s behind the mirror!’ He turned to Galliana. ‘Just two minutes,’ he told her. ‘Wait for me, please. I’ll be back.’
‘Jake, no . . .’ she commanded, struggling for breath; but it was too late anyway, for Jake was charging down the steps, two at a time. Galliana had to lean against the wall to prevent herself from fainting.
Jake splashed through the swirling waters, back along the octagonal corridor, past the royal chambers, weaving his way round the statues until he reached the war room.
The water here was waist-high. Xi’s charred body floated on the surface, face down; his octopus clung to it mournfully. The throne bobbed close by. Jake glanced at the large window that Xi had hit. Fracture lines now radiated out in every direction. It could go at any time.
He waded across to the mirror and tried to peer through it where, over time, the backing had been scratched. There seemed to be a space behind. He turned and grabbed the throne, then hauled it back towards the mirror. Behind him, the window creaked, and one of the fracture lines extended a little further.
With every ounce of strength he had left, Jake launched the throne against the mirror. It shattered
, and daggers of light rained down into the water, which poured into the empty cavity behind. Jake was carried along with it, over the jagged rim of glass. Then the water was still, and he managed to find his feet.
He was in a long, narrow chamber with dark walls; at the far end he saw a cage – and the silhouette of a man standing behind the bars, his gaze fixed on Jake.
As Jake waded towards him, he saw that the man’s mouth was gagged, his hands chained behind his back. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but slim. His clothes were ragged, and he had a wispy beard.
‘Philip . . .?’ he whispered. The shadow didn’t move as he approached the bars. Now Jake saw his face. It was black with dirt, but the whites of his eyes shone brightly. ‘Philip—’ he said again, but the word caught in his throat. ‘Is it . . .?’ He slid his hand through the bars and pulled the gag down.
The mouth immediately curled up into a tremulous smile. Jake let out a gasp, and hot tears sprang to his eyes.
‘Philip!’ he wailed, now stretching his arms right through the bars and throwing them around him – though it was hard to believe that this tall, bearded stranger was indeed his long-lost brother.
Philip opened his mouth to speak, but only strangled sounds emerged. He tried again, his voice so much deeper than Jake remembered: ‘I wondered . . . when you were going . . . to get here,’ he stammered.
Jake remembered the shattered window. ‘We have to leave now. Where are the keys?’
‘Xi . . . has them . . . on his belt.’ Philip nodded his head. ‘There.’
Jake turned. The corpse had been washed towards the secret room and was now lodged on the broken edge of the mirror. Jake rushed back and reached underneath it for the belt, pulling the keys free. As he turned back towards the cage, he heard another crack behind him. Like a jagged bolt of lightning, the fracture line was creeping towards the corner, and it seemed like the pane of glass was bulging inwards under the pressure of the water.
The first key Jake tried was too large, the next too small; then he dropped the whole bunch and had to fumble in the water for it. His hand shaking, on his third attempt, Jake unlocked the gate and then uncuffed his brother’s hands with a smaller key. ‘Can you swim?’ he asked.
Philip smiled and ruffled his hair. ‘Let’s go, little brother.’
They splashed their way through the water, across the war room and up the steps into the corridor. Behind them, they heard the giant window rupture, letting in a tsunami of water. Philip turned and slammed the door shut. ‘Run!’ he croaked.
They took off along the corridor, Philip slightly wobbly on his feet. As they passed the ballroom, they heard the war-room door crashing open. The wave surged through, flowing into the corridor and overturning the army of statues as it went.
Jake and Philip raced through the palace, just ahead of it, then charged up the main staircase. As they neared the top, Jake looked around for the commander, but she was nowhere to be seen. They emerged onto the landing and continued up the final flight to the harbour.
‘Here!’ a voice crackled. It was Galliana, standing in the hatch of Xi’s submarine.
Jake and Philip ran across the pier and clambered onto it. ‘Commander Goethe . . .’ Philip nodded, leaping over as the flood of water spewed up through the throat of the stairwell.
‘Hurry, Jake!’ Galliana yelled.
He cast off and dropped down after Philip; she pulled the hatch shut behind her just as the wave thundered down on top of the submarine, shaking it around like a toy.
Inside, Galliana fell down the ladder, but Philip caught her and laid her on a sofa. There was an almighty bang as the submarine was swept against the huge stone doors, cracking them open. It was carried through into the open sea.
Jake rushed over to Galliana. Philip was already examining her wound; her lung was exposed, blood pulsing out. ‘Commander . . .’ Jake glanced around desperately. ‘We need to get help!’
Galliana clutched his hand, stopping him. ‘Too late for that, I think,’ she said weakly, scarlet blood bubbling out of her mouth, and gently touched his cheek. ‘Jake was right all along. Welcome home.’ Then she gave a little gasp and her eyes filled with tears. The two brothers glanced at one another in dismay, but Galliana was smiling through her tears. She held her hands out to them and said: ‘Two brothers together, two princes of Egypt . . .’
Suddenly, bizarrely, Jake remembered his father’s book – the one with a picture of pyramids on the front. What was the secret he’d been keeping from Jake?
The commander’s expression became stern. ‘Rose . . .’ she whispered. ‘Rose Djones: she must command now.’
And then she died.
27 CHINESE FIREWORKS
MIRACULOUSLY, THE FLAGSHIP stayed afloat; her prow stood up out of the water, and her decks sloped, but the holes in the stern had been patched up, and she had survived, along with her imperial passengers. She dropped anchor halfway to shore, while the rest of the fleet gathered around, looking like a floating city.
The patrol boat ferried Topaz back to where Nathan was waiting, and they hugged each other, Topaz clinging onto him and sobbing. As they limped up onto the main deck, the imperial court of China bowed down to them as one. Zhu came to greet them with open arms, beaming from ear to ear.
‘You save us,’ he told them with a pointed look at his overbearing guardian. ‘You save me – and you save China.’ His courtiers gathered around like old friends and cheered.
Topaz was gratified, but it did not lessen her heartache at the loss of Yoyo or her worry about Jake. She and Nathan wasted no time in asking Prince Zhu to lend them a boat to return to Xi Xiang’s island for their comrades.
Zhu replied: ‘I will not lend you a boat – I will give you my fleet.’ And with that he ordered the navy to follow Topaz’s directions.
Just then, a cry went up from sailors who had spotted a figure drifting towards them, clinging to a piece of wreckage. Topaz’s heart gave a flutter as she rushed over to the rail and watched half a dozen crewmen haul a limp figure out of the sea.
Yoyo . . .! Though Topaz couldn’t tell whether she was dead or alive. Finally she received the news that her friend was still breathing, and she and Nathan punched the air in celebration. Now they needed to know that Jake and Galliana were safe.
A short while later, as the ships started on their journey to Xi’s island, Yoyo was laid out on the main deck, with imperial doctors rushing over to attend to her. She had been cut badly across her shoulder and chest and was scratched and bruised all over. Topaz and Nathan took her hands. She looked up at them, blinking in the bright sunlight. ‘That’s the last we’ll hear from her,’ she murmured. ‘The indestructible Madame Fang died as she lived: with a bang.’
Despite the assurance, Topaz found herself glancing back at the sea, checking that the old woman wasn’t still lurking out there somewhere.
‘Any news on Jake and Galliana?’ Yoyo continued.
‘We’re on our way there now,’ Topaz told her.
They had only travelled a few miles when Nathan spotted the submarine heading in their direction. At first, it threw everyone into a panic and the sailors started preparing the gun decks again, but Topaz noticed two people sprawled on top of it. One of them suddenly stood up and started waving.
‘C’est Jake!’ she exclaimed, leaping with joy. ‘Il est vivant!’ She took a moment to inspect the other figure, and added uncertainly, ‘Is that Galliana with him?’
Nathan took out his telescope and peered over. He was surprised to find instead a shabby, bearded young man. His mouth curled up into a smile. ‘Well, I’ll be—’
The Djones brothers came aboard the flagship to another emotional reunion, and Jake gave the others the devastating news of Galliana’s death.
‘She gave her life for mine,’ he sobbed. Topaz fell to her knees in shock and Nathan’s face streamed with tears – something Jake had never witnessed before. It should have been a moment of triumph: the missing Philip Djones discovered af
ter four years, Xi Xiang vanquished, his schemes destroyed; but how could they celebrate when their leader was no more?
When the young prince understood what had happened, he immediately sent a team onto the submarine, instructing them to prepare the body as if Galliana were a member of his own family.
Philip stood with his arm around his inconsolable brother, as Topaz looked from one to the other, half smiling, half crying, and said, ‘C’est un miracle – to see you both together. Although, of course, Philip is the good-looking one.’
Jake surprised her by suddenly kissing her on the cheek. She blushed and locked eyes with him.
Philip looked at them, eyebrows raised. ‘How long exactly have I been gone . . .?’
Yoyo watched them, half smiling. Yesterday, outside the doctor’s in Zhanjiang, she had guessed that Jake’s feelings for her were not strong. Probably, in her heart, she had always known that he and Topaz were inseparable. She went over to join Nathan at the rail; he was staring at the submarine as an empty coffin of interlocking jade plates was lowered down into it in readiness for Galliana’s body.
‘I’ll never forget her,’ he murmured. ‘She was the one person who never laughed at me. And she gave me my first compliment: when I was four, she said my cavalier boots with silver spurs were very daring.’ Suddenly a terrible thought struck him. ‘Or was that jarring?’
The submarine was tethered to the flagship, and they set off again, this time towards Zhanjiang. Its harbour was deep and repairs could be carried out there.
Jake and Philip, standing shoulder to shoulder in the afternoon sun, looked back at the archipelago. Xi’s mountain, the furthest island, was easily identified – a sharp pyramid with a crooked peak. Neither brother would ever forget it – a place of almost unendurable pain, but also a place where they had found each other at last.
‘Any idea what she meant?’ Philip asked Jake. ‘Two princes of Egypt?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘I was hoping that you might know.’
As the fleet started to file into the port, word spread around the town, and the harbour was soon full of people gawping at the great flagship that wallowed into the bay. They hadn’t received a royal visit in over a hundred years.
History Keepers: Nightship to China Page 24
