Читать книгу The Speaking Stone of Caradoc - Evadeen Brickwood - Страница 9

In the early afternoon sunlight, the ocean resembled a blanket made of shimmering scales. SPLASH! A school of dolphins accompanied the ‘Navis Arion’, diving effortlessly in and out of turquoise waters.

Trevor sat on a pile of coiled tackle, his hair tousled by the breeze. He steadied himself with his feet against the railing as he concentrated on drawing a colourful seabird perched close to him. Good thing he had brought his pad and pencil, but drawing the floppy thing over the birds beak was a bit of a challenge.

What swam around in these prehistoric oceans was still a complete mystery to them. They had only just left the country of Alesia and there were so many things they still had to learn about this ancient world.

“How clear the water is!” Katherine gazed longingly into the shallow sea. “I wish we could just stop the ship right here and go for a swim with the dolphins.”

“You’re kidding, right? It’s not safe to swim.”

“I guess so,” Katherine said.

It hadn’t even been a month since their trip through time began and Katherine sometimes still wondered, if this Alesian epoch was for real.

“Do you remember how it was in the beginning?” she asked Trevor. “How scared we were when we saw our first giant?”

“Túvar?”

“Yes!”

“Sometimes - and for your information, I wasn’t scared.”

“Hah, sure you were,” Katherine teased him.

Her accent was still faintly British, unlike that of her two American friends Trevor and Chryséis . The people of Alesia spoke an Akkadian dialect, so nobody cared much about English accents, and the time travellers had learned to communicate in this ancient language. At first, Katherine had been so scared of taking the trip back in time. Even in the name of science. Now she couldn’t wait to see more of the ‘Known World’ the Lady of Cydonia had told them so much about.

“I like it here. I’m glad we stayed.”

“Yeah, I’m glad too,” Trevor said and looked up briefly.

They had been exploring this long-forgotten time ever since the vortex had released them in Cydonia, the capital city of Alesia. The nature reserve of Carter Valley had been ideal for their time travel experiment. Not far from the school, but fairly remote and no major electromagnetic interference.

They were smart, but not in their wildest dreams would they have expected a marvelous prehistoric city in the middle of Carter Valley! This civilisation was so terribly ‘modern’.

It had all begun with a school project in quantum physics: an endless energy source that powered a time-portal-finder. Nobody had tried that before. Not even other gifted children at the Pemberton Academy. They were planning to present their project in class next week — well what was next week in the future. The other kids would fall off their chairs when they saw the pictures! They were almost 12,000 years in the past. Imagine that: twelve millennia. Twelve!

It didn’t matter how long their sea voyage took. They would return at precisely the same moment they had left the future when they decided to go back. So they had decided to stay for as long as it took to travel to Atala and back. A few weeks more or less surely didn’t make a difference.

“Are those merpeople under the boardwalk? There at the tip of the peninsula?”

“Hard to tell, could be sea cows.” Trevor squinted to get a better look. ”No, definitely merpeople.”

The ‘Navis Arion’ had left the seaport of Aztlan on the safe mainland over an hour ago. Safe, if one ignored the fact that giants had started a war against the country of Alesia there. An unsuccessful war. Before their time travel began, they had been afraid to bump into cavemen and dinosaurs or land in a volcano.

Who would have thought of mermaids and evil giants? Okay, there were actually cavemen and small dinosaurs and probably also volcanoes around, but nowhere near as scary. In fact some cavemen, known as Konks, were sailors on the ship.

As they moved east in a gentle seesaw motion, the citadel of Aztlan became a tiny white speck against the dark hills and the Alesian coastline slowly merged with the sky.

The dolphins leapt into the air and splashed back into the water.

“Ooh, careful you guys. I’m getting all wet,” Katherine laughed.

Technically, their ship was on its way to D’ântilla, an island state in the Caribbean Sea. Only that D’ântilla no longer existed in the future and the Caribbean Sea did not yet exist. It didn’t trouble the time travellers one bit. Even people with green skin and the hairy Konks with their human faces seemed normal after just two weeks. They would visit a few Atlantean islands and prehistoric England, then return to Alesia and travel back to the future through the time portal. It was a good plan.

“Trev, where’s Chryséis ?”

Trevor shaded his eyes with his hand against the sun. “I think she’s in the front with Kheton and Lelani.”

Kheton and Lelani were a young Cydonian couple. Kheton was their guardian and some sort of junior citadel judge and had agreed to take the children as far as the main island of Atala.

“I’ll go and see what Chryséis is up to.”

“Okay, I’ll just keep drawing this bird here. Can’t believe it hasn’t moved.”

“Maybe it’s sleeping. Why don’t you just take a picture?”

They had brought a small digital camera with them.

“I like to draw, and besides, I have nothing else to do.”

Trevor gazed at the screeching seabirds sailing through the air. They had humped beaks and were featherless. Featherless?

“Could be flying therasaurus, the way they are gliding down from the rocks.”

“Or maybe they’re just a strange, featherless species of birds.”

“Yes, sure. Don’t fall into the water while I’m gone,” Katherine grinned and Trevor looked up crossly.

“Funny,” he grumbled, feeling his ears go red. “Will I ever live that one down?”

He was still embarrassed by the incident in the harbour. A sharp push by someone on the landing had sent him into the murky waters just before they left.

“Oh come on, I’m just kidding.”

“Whatever.”

“Okay then, see you later.”

Katherine staggered along the railing. She had to get past the colourful seabird with the parrot beak, Trevor had been drawing. The bird suddenly took to the air with a loud croak and gave Katherine a mighty fright.

“Hey!”

“Scared to fall into the water, Katie?” Trevor grinned and scrawled a few more lines on the paper.

“No, not at all.” Katherine’s voice trembled a little. She walked on bravely to the front of the ship. Trevor put the drawing pad aside and studied the view. They were just leaving a small island behind, all covered in tropical plants.

The ship was close enough for Trevor to see horseshoe crabs scurrying along the beach with hungry seabirds in pursuit. Soon they passed another island that looked rather less inviting. Stark rocks jutted out of the foaming surf that thundered against the steep shore. The rocks were covered in shrieking white dots, while large birds circled the shallow bay. If they were birds at all.

Just as Katherine returned with Chryséis in tow, a deep growl rose in the distance and echoed off the rocks. The dolphins that had accompanied the ship were nowhere to be seen.

“Look over there! Is that — a whale?” Chryséis cried.

The hulking body of a large animal with a long neck and broad flippers dived just below the water surface. Waves sent the ship wobbling.

“Looks just like the whale in Aztlan. Don’t you think?”

“You mean that huge thing on the beach? I’m not so sure.”

“What else can it be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. But it was sad how the fishermen cut it up and stacked all that the blubber. Had to be a whale.”

“Well, it’s their job, isn’t it?”

“It’s still sad.”

The sea animal with the long neck came up and stared at them with intelligent eyes while paddling on its back. The three friends stared.

“That’s so amazing. Get the camera, quick!” Chryséis leaned over the railing.

“Where did you put it?”

But it was already too late. The ‘whale’ dived and was gone, just to reappear with a bigger companion in a cloud of water spray. They both darted off into the open sea. The boat wobbled again and seawater splashed up.

“Whoaaa!” Chryséis jumped back. ”I’m getting all wet.”

“Did you see that? If they are whales, I’m Mickey Mouse!”

The ship lifted ever so slightly off the water and the wobble stopped. They floated effortlessly on the water’s surface due to a standard anti-gravity device, which impressed the time travellers even more than the strange animals. Trevor managed to take a picture and zoomed in to have a better look.

“Let me see that.” Chryséis took the camera. All she could make out was water spray, a long thin neck and a triangular fin. “It’s too fuzzy. Could be a big fish. We should have brought a better camera with sound and video function.”

“Sure, let’s quickly go back home and fetch another camera.”

“Ha, ha — too bad we can’t use a cell phone!”

“Maybe they’re dinosaurs…Elasmosaurus…saurus,” Trevor stuttered as he put down the camera, hardly daring to say the words.

“Yeah, just like the monster of Loch Ness?” Chryséis laughed and shoved him. “Get real Trev, Elasmosaurus?! They died out ages ago. I mean ages!”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Here we go again —” Chryséis teased, but she felt uneasy.

Trevor could be right, of course. After all, they had seen strange farm animals back in Cydonia. What if saurians still roamed the oceans?

“Do you think there are lots of ‘Nessies’ out there?”

“Who knows,” Katherine said casually. “Nobody on the ship seems to mind them. Seem quite harmless. Probably just wanted to check out the ship.“

“What if they’re not harmless?”

“Oh get out of here. I’m sure the ships are prepared for that with rayguns and stuff like that. If there’s trouble, they’ll just zap them.”

“Nicely put, Trevor.”

Trevor shrugged his shoulders and sat back down on the heap of tackle next to Chryséis .

“Oh well, if we can’t get a proper picture, I’ll just make a drawing.”

Chryséis stretched her neck to get a look at the bird Trevor had penciled earlier. It was quite life-like, right down to the feathers and eyes.

“Trev, that’s very good! I didn’t know you could draw like that.”

“Oh it’s nothing, just a dumb sketch.” Trevor drew back, a little embarrassed.

“That’s more than a dumb sketch. You’re good!”

A light splash announced that the cheerful dolphins were back. Katherine leaned over the railing and whistled just as the mermaids in Aztlan had taught her yesterday. Did the dolphins jump a bit higher?

“They understand you,” Trevor said admiringly.

“You think?”

“Mhmm.”

Trevor wiped water droplets off his page and carried on drawing from memory. Two of the dolphins ‘danced’ backwards on their tails and answered Katherine’s whistling with excited chatter.

“Oh cute!” Katherine whistled some more.

“Those birds are making a heck of a noise,” Trevor complained.

“They don’t come with volume control. It’s called nature.”

While Katherine and Trevor were having a friendly squabble, Chryséis observed the birds fishing in the shallows. Black-rimmed wings tucked back at the last moment before the dive, then bobbing to the surface with wriggling fish. Just before the ship rounded a massive wave-beaten rock, a long snout with sharp teeth broke through the surf, snapping at the birds.

“Wow, what was that?” Chryséis caught another glimpse of the jaws clamping one of the featherless birds. The ship rounded the rocks and the animal was gone. “Did you see that thing?”

“No, what thing?” Trevor looked up from his drawing pad then lost interest again.

“Oh, never mind, you won’t believe me anyway.”

“What?!” Katherine insisted.

“It looked like…a huge crocodile. In the surf and I think there were others underwater, catching birds. You know like the one in Aztlan.”

“Yeah right. You’re trying to scare me. Thanks.”

“I’m not joking!” Chryséis cried.

“Okay, must be a saltwater crocodile then. They can get really big.”

“Still feel like swimming?” Trevor was being sarcastic.

“Okay, I get it. It’s too dangerous to swim in the sea.” Katherine shrugged her shoulders.

“It was enormous – just like the one in Aztlan. Hey!” Chryséis yelled. A big blob of gray slime had spattered onto her head and sleeve.

“Yuck, that’s bird poo, so gross!”

“Oh no,” Katherine began to laugh. ”Ghastly!”

“Oh you!” Chryséis waved her fist at the sky. There were so many birds that it was impossible to tell which one had dropped the bomb.

“At least it’s not me this time,” Trevor gloated and Chryséis glared at him.

“How on earth do I get this stuff off me?”

“A wild guess would be water and elbow grease,” Trevor suggested.

Katherine asked one of the hairy Konk sailors for a bucket of water and a cloth. Then she vigorously wiped the muck out of Chryséis ’ hair. Chryséis just stood there stiff with disgust.

“Oh, it’s so gross. My hair’s all sticky,” she wailed.

“Excuse me, who is cleaning you up here?” Katherine washed her hands again in the bucket water. “You can wash your hair tonight.”

The Konk sailor came and took his bucket and cloth away without a word. He needed them. They knew that Konks didn’t like to speak. The long red hair on the sailor’s arms and under his fleeing chin flattened in the breeze as he waggled his ape-like head. A coarse ponytail peeked out from under his blue cap.

They tried not to stare as the Konk chucked the dirty water overboard and walked away.

“Gee thanks, I only still need it,” Katherine moaned and hurried after him.

Chryséis tied her sticky blonde strands into a ponytail with a disgusted grimace. Trevor had an idea how to distract her.

“You could send Alun in Cydonia a telepathic message.” Alun had been their first prehistoric friend and was Kheton’s younger brother.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Chryséis slowly unscrewed her face.

“Why not? You did it before.”

They had all learned how to use telepathy in Cydonia, but only Chryséis had managed to use it properly.

“I must relax first.” She sat down on the tackle next to Trevor.

Trevor squinted at his sketch. Not bad, not bad at all. The head was still a bit too big, though. He erased the lines and drew the head again.

Katherine reappeared with clean hands, just as Chryséis closed her eyes to visualize Alun’s face.

“What is she doing?” she asked Trevor, but he just shook his head and put a finger on his mouth.

Chryséis concentrated on a message to Alun and the answer came promptly: Enjoy your voyage, friends. Remember to visit the observatory in Kamûk! You must tell me about the raygun. May the Earthmother bless you.

Chryséis told the others excitedly about the thought transfer. “Oh, boys! All he can think about is the ray gun.”

“I wish I could do that,” Trevor said. “This thought transfer.”

“You just have to practice more.”

“If you say so…,” he felt a little jealousy creeping up on him.

“Let’s go to the front,” Katherine said. ”They have proper seats there and we can watch where the ship’s going.”

“Okay, I’m done here anyway.”

Trevor stuffed his drawing pad between the daypacks and followed the girls to the bow of the ship. Kheton stood by the front railing, his long tunic fluttering in the breeze, showing off the handsome young man’s muscular chest.

There was a rumbling and the ship rolled a little.

“What was that? Do you think we rammed something?”

Trevor scanned the water. “I can’t see anything.”

“Ho, Tian! Go see what’s making the noise below,” captain Thëlamôn bellowed from the captain’s cubicle above the stairs. The cubicle contained the steering wheel and all sorts of interesting-looking instruments.

“Aye, aye, captain.” One of the younger sailors sprinted down the stairs below deck to investigate.

“Did you see all those gadgets in the captain’s cubicle?”

“You think they have radar?”

“Not just radar, I wonder how he lifted up the ship earlier.”

A minute later, the sailor called Tian reported back. “Two bales of cloth wrangled free and were knocking against the hull, captain. I fastened the bales.”

“No danger then, just some loose cargo in the hull,” the captain announced to the passengers. Then he continued to survey the ocean ahead.

In Aztlan, the ship had taken fine Alesian silk cloth aboard, destined for the island of Daitya. The cloth would be exchanged for a cargo of Daityan woolens. Daityans were a funny bunch, only interested in wool and raising sheep, forever spinning and knitting all day long.

Katherine let out a deep breath. “Thank goodness!”

They sat down on low canvas chairs and soon Chryséis and Katherine were chatting about this and that, while Trevor took a nap. This morning, they had seen all sorts of weird and wonderful people at Aztlan harbour. Like the ‘fairies’ with their flowing hair and butterfly clothes and a woman with green skin, who had been carried in a sedan chair. The girls debated the likelihood for inheriting green skin for a while. But, there was something else they remembered. Two Gabari giants in dark cloaks near the cooking house where they had eaten seafood.

“Those guys were creepy,” Chryséis said.

“Yes, creepy.”

“I wonder what they were talking about. Always looking around like that, as if they had huge secrets to discuss. Totally dodgy.”

“Maybe undercover agents. James Bond chasing after the prehistoric villains of the ‘Known World’!”

“The name is Bondûr, Jamon Bondûr.” They laughed.

“Then they are not very good at hiding it. What good are agents you can spot a mile away? Nah, there was something else going on.”

“As long as we don’t have to see them again…”

“Now that would be really creepy.”

The girls didn’t realize who it was they had seen. And it wasn’t a joke.

“Wonder what Kheton’s thinking about.”

“Lelani of course.”

Lelani had gone below deck, checking on her dowry, while Kheton enjoyed the warm breeze. He would soon begin his duty as ‘Honourable Junior Delegate from Alesia’ in Algiras. Algiras was the capital of Atala, the Atland archipelago’s main island.

Kheton thought about looking for Lelani, when she came up the stairs and came to stand quietly next to him. He looked at her proudly. Lelani was so beautiful with her auburn hair all wind-blown and her cheeks blushed by the fresh sea air.

The sun dipped lower in the sky and the rippling waters were turning the colour of charcoal glass.

“Steady on! Let’s reach Kamûk, before darkness falls and the monsters of the deep come out to play with ya dawdling seafarers,” captain Thëlamôn bellowed.

“Aye, aye captain!” the crew answered and the ship gained speed.

Captain Thëlamôn wore the customary dark-blue shirt with the captain’s compass rose on the chest. He had sailed the Atlantean Sea on his father’s trading ships from the age of four. The sea was in his blood.

Soon one of the sailors called out. “Terreis – land. Terreis D’ântilla!”

They were thrilled. This had to be a remnant of Atlantis. Would D’ântilla be very different from Alesia? Chryséis checked her watch. It was twenty seven past five. She pointed straight ahead. “That’s so cool.”

A massive lighthouse slid by to their right. Round rooftops above the seawall shone like copper pearls in the setting sun. The domes were coated in precious orichalcum and belonged to the temple of the sun god Raïs, the patron god of Kamûk.

“And look at all those ships flying their flags,” Trevor said.

They joined Kheton and Lelani at the railing, determined not to miss a thing. On a hill to the left, a series of white, egg-shaped buildings overlooked the bay.

“That must be the observatory with the new raygun.”

“Yes, looks like it.”

“Alun says the cosmic deflector raygun is powerful enough to vaporize meteors and asteroids.”

“Can’t wait to see it for myself.”

They hadn’t visited the observatories in Alesia, but they had heard about them. The roof pearls were soon the size of large coppery onions and the town was bathed in a darkening orange glow as the ‘Navis Arion’ sailed through the harbour entrance.

“That’s magic,” Chryséis said in awe.

“Trev, did you take a picture? Hurry up the sun is sinking fast.”

“Not yet.”

“Hurry up!”

Ahead of them, two junks with sails like red fish fins and flying brightly-coloured flags were following the navigator’s boat to the docks. They landed shortly before nightfall. Close to the temple of the sun with the familiar sitting statue of a large bronze sculpture. Here, the crew would give thanks to the sun god Raïs as was Alesian custom.

“Make ready to go on land, athenai,” Kheton said. He called them athenai – friends.

“We’ll be ready. Just getting our things,” Chryséis said.

They walked to the back as the dark water reflected artificial lights lit up one by one along the shore. Large vimaans transported merchandise from all over the Known World along the illuminated streets. The scents of vanilla and sandalwood mixed with the less pleasant harbour odors. The sailors lined up, looking forward to merriment at the amphitheater tonight.

“After the harp concert, they show ‘Sons of Turennis’, about the theft of magical objects and retribution,” one of the sailors said.

“Great play, Saw it in Algiras. Quite a spectacle.”

The passengers disembarked and dock workers began to clear the cargo onto the landing.

“Well, I never…,” Katherine stared down at a group of maidens on the broad steps leading into the water.

A welcoming committee from the citadel of Kamûk serenaded the visitors while a young apprentice maiden put flowers in their hair.

“From snow-capped mountains to the deep blue sea, D’ântilla Island welcomes thee. We hope you will enjoy your stay before you must be on your way. Welcome, welcome to Kamûk, welcome, welcome to Kamûk…”

Good manners demanded that they listen politely. So the time travellers stood awkwardly on the landing with everybody else, until the maidens had finished their song.

Kheton, being the visiting diplomat, held a short speech, officially thanking the maidens for their musical effort and hospitality. Then a vimaan with the emblem of Kamûk’s citadel carried them through cobblestone streets and up the citadel hill, before descending in the court yard next to an ornamental fountain.

They were treated to a lavish dinner in the great hall. Crab patties, the local specialty, were heaped on golden platters with fried octopus heads and other delicacies of the sea.

Later, the young travellers watched the harbour skyline from their balcony. Kheton and Lelani had gone to watch the play at the amphitheater as official guests of the Lady of the citadel.

“I’m so glad they have bathrooms here.”

Chryséis had successfully washed the bird muck out and was wearing pajamas she had found on her bed. Her jade-coloured Alesian silk suit was hanging over chairs to dry.

“Yeah, but why do they always put us into the same room?” Trevor sighed.

The maidens had assumed that all three of them were siblings. Nothing new, then.

“I’ll take this bed.” Trevor drew back the blanket on a bed by the window. “I’m beat.”

“So am I,” Katherine murmured. She was already half-asleep in the soft covers.

Distant clapping and cajoling drifted up from the amphitheater. Despite the peaceful mood, Trevor couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. Something about D’ântilla felt very different. But what?

He had another dream that night. Of giants in dark cloaks. Of fairies, who cleverly fought the giants with magic tricks and of a large featherless seabird that devoured a black spider to the faint and distant tune of ‘…Welcome, welcome to Kamûk, welcome, welcome to Kamûk…’