Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Roberts Adam

Author:Roberts, Adam [Roberts, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: ORION
Published: 2014-01-16T06:00:00+00:00

The other sailors needed no further encouragement. Even Castor, who was calling out ‘We can mend it!’ nevertheless scrabbled up the sloping floor and out through the hatch.

‘The water is scorching me!’ screamed Billiard-Fanon, struggling to get to his knees, his face contorted with terror – or pain. His eyes were tight shut. ‘It’s the opposite of holy water! The unholy water – that burns me! Burns me! The devils!’

The water was certainly swirling about the space as if possessed; although none of the other men remarked upon its heat. But the uncanny motion of the fluid filled their hearts with fear.

Le Petomain had already leapt through the hatch, and away from there. Pannier bundled Ghatwala through and Jhutti was not far behind.

‘Don’t leave me!’ Billiard-Fanon yelled. ‘Capot – I hurt my back when I fell.’

Water was surging into the mess now, through the enlarged breach. It flew around in a diabolic frenzy like a monsoon rainstorm. The claw, or beak, was no longer visible – if it had ever been there. But whether the claw had been a real phenomenon or a hallucination, something non-human had certainly expanded the hole.

Capot put his shoulder under Billiard-Fanon’s armpit, and helped the ensign to his feet. Together they used the bolted-down tables and chairs as a stairway to climb up towards the hatch. Jhutti on the far side, was leaning through, his arm out. ‘Come on! Come on!’ he called.

‘The devils,’ Billiard-Fanon wept, struggling upward. ‘They’re all about the ship! They want to break in! A cursed vessel, a haunted vessel … we must pray to God! Let us pray!’

‘I pray you to shut up,’ grunted Capot, shrugging the ensign’s body through the hatch. He climbed up after and through. Jhutti slammed the hatch door shut, and spun the wheel to lock it.

They were all wet. Billiard-Fanon lay on his back, sodden, moaning. ‘The devils, the devils!’

‘What were you thinking?’ Le Petomain shouted at him. ‘Discharging your pistol inside the vessel like that? What were you thinking?’

But Billiard-Fanon was laughing, now; and there was a maniac in the laugh.

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