History Keepers: Nightship to China (23 page)

It was an uneasy journey: the eye of the storm seemed to track their passage, stalking them. Occasionally the rain would subside and the water grow calmer, only for it to start again moments later with renewed vigour; the wind pummelled the sea and the ship listed dangerously, timbers creaking, sails flapping.

This was bad enough, but the fear of pursuit was worse. No matter that Fang had been left bobbing in the harbour; they knew that she might already have commandeered a ship to hunt them down. Nothing seemed beyond her. With that in mind, while Topaz took the helm, Jake, Yoyo and Nathan stood watch under a dripping awning at the stern, keeping an eye on the vessels behind them – just dim shapes in the gloom. Once there was clear water behind, they felt safer.

‘How are you feeling?’ Jake asked the other two. Their faces were still red from Xi Xiang’s squid serum, and Nathan’s eyes were very sore and inflamed.

‘As long as my hair doesn’t fall out,’ he said with a shrug, ‘I’ll be all right.’ He turned pointedly to Yoyo, remembering their argument. ‘Shallow or not, it’s a fact: fifty per cent of my personality is wrapped up in my hair. Anyway’ – he swept his hand around – ‘there’s no point in us
all
being here, so I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.’ He retreated to the prow.

Jake watched him sadly, then turned to Yoyo. ‘How are
you
?’

‘I’m fine,’ she said, putting on a brave smile. ‘Apart from the fact that everyone seems to hate me.’ She stared down at the wash left behind the ship and heaved a sigh. ‘I’m going to go and make us something to eat. See if I can cheer everyone up.’ She turned and headed down the steps into the galley. Standing at the helm, Topaz watched her go, but she didn’t speak. Moments later they heard the sound of chopping.

Jake looked at Fang’s golden bazooka again. He tested its weight, it was very heavy. He inspected the craftsmanship, running his finger along the outline of the dragon and gently probing the trigger, which was fashioned like a claw. He wondered if Philip had ever fired it himself. He studied the sketch of the other gun – the slim revolver – did this also exist? he wondered. And if so, who had it?

Next he unfurled the canvas from Xi’s house in London, and examined the picture again. There was Philip staring back at him, with Xi Xiang at his side. Had this indeed been painted in Rome by Caravaggio? There was no signature at the bottom, but it was evidently the work of a master.

Jake scrutinized his brother’s dark eyes and square jaw. In Jacobean London, the image had upset him; even though he’d been amazed and relieved to see that Philip had survived after all, he couldn’t comprehend the connection with Xi. Now, of course, he understood everything – Xi himself had explained it: Philip had got close to him as part of his mission – to spy on him. He was a double agent.

But this still left the biggest question unanswered: where was Philip now?

Xi’s words came back to Jake:
I didn’t want to kill him – that would have been too easy; I needed him to suffer – so I locked him in a place where he will never see light! No, he will
never
see light again
. The last phrase was the most chilling of all:
He will die cold, dark and alone
.

But where was that? Xi had said Philip was
back home
. Where was home? Jake finally took the Lazuli Serpent out of his pocket, wiped it on his sleeve and examined it. In the lantern light he saw that it had a faint blue aura, but otherwise it didn’t look particularly special: it was just a cylinder of blue stone. Its sides were inscribed with swirls and lines, but none of them made any sense to him. Whichever way he turned it, they didn’t create a proper picture. It didn’t look like writing either. As he peered closer, though, he noticed a tiny dent in the stone – and a symbol: a hallmark. All at once he realized that it was an octopus.

Yoyo came up with four bowls of food and passed them round. They all ate in silence, Topaz remaining at the helm. They made their way back past the distant lights of Macao.

Eventually the rain subsided to a patter and then stopped completely. Suddenly the air felt clean and fresh; the stifling humidity had gone. As the sea became calmer, their passage was easier. They headed southwest, hugging the coastline, a dense jungle of trees and palms.

It was two a.m. when they came across a deep inlet; a tiny fishing village nestled at the end of it. A couple of ships – each roughly the size of the
Thunder
– were moored there.

‘We’ll dock here until dawn,’ Topaz said. She cut the engine and they glided into the bay. As they approached the shore, she called to Jake and Yoyo to drop anchor. They released the latch and let the chain unravel, clinking and rattling until it stopped with a thud. The ship slipped forward a fraction more, until it was held by the weight, and they quickly furled the sails.

All was silent as four pairs of eyes examined the inlet. Nothing stirred. Rising up on three sides were sheer walls of rock, covered in thick vegetation. Behind them was the ocean. Far in the distance, ships continued to and from the ports of China, a never-ending stream of world trade. Cutting through the stillness came the sound of squawking, and a flock of parrots flew up from the trees before disappearing inland. Jake thought of Charlie.

‘We’re safe here, are we?’ Yoyo asked, sounding uncertain.

‘We need to plan our route,’ Topaz replied curtly. ‘We can’t just wander about aimlessly. May I see that crystal now?’

Jake gave it to her and they all sat down. When Nathan came into the light, Topaz did a double take. His eyes were even more bloodshot and his face had a sickly purple hue.

‘You look dreadful,’ she said. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’

‘I’m fine,’ he muttered. ‘But thanks for the vote of confidence.’

‘You don’t have to be proud,’ Yoyo said. ‘If you’re not well, Nathan, it’s better that you tell us.’ She turned to the others to explain. ‘Squid venom can be very dangerous; some people are affected more than others.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me!’ Nathan hissed. ‘And I hardly need
your
sympathy,
Miss Yuting
. Now let’s look at that blasted stone.’

There was silence as Topaz passed it over and he inspected it, blinking his sore eyes. The other three eyeballed each other.

‘These markings don’t mean anything,’ Nathan said impatiently. ‘What is that?’ he asked, noticing the motif.

‘It’s an octopus,’ Jake replied.

Nathan was having trouble focusing, so he gave the stone back to his sister. Yoyo leaned over her shoulder and the two girls studied it together.

‘The lines have been meticulously drawn,’ Topaz said, ‘so they must have some significance.’

‘Maybe there is another piece to the puzzle?’ Yoyo ventured. ‘A companion stone perhaps?’

Topaz passed the crystal back to Jake, reached over to a little shelf below the wheel and took out the map of China they had used to navigate their way to Canton. She traced her finger around the crinkly coastline. Below lay the expanse of the South China Sea, crisscrossed with the faint lines of east–west trade routes. ‘All we know is this:
apparently
, the west is about to declare war on China. Why? How? Where? We have until tomorrow to find out. I’m going to send a report to Point Zero.’

She took the Meslith machine out of the trunk, sat down away from the others, and started typing. Pulses of electric light from the aerial flashed on her face.

‘If no one objects,’ Nathan said, clambering to his feet, ‘I’m going to have a little lie down.’

Topaz, Yoyo and Jake replied in unison as he shuffled down the steps: ‘Of course not. It’s a good idea. Let us know if you feel any worse.’

‘Wake me if my hair falls out—’ Nathan stopped. ‘On second thoughts, it’s probably best not to know.’ He went into the cabin and stretched himself out on his bunk, carefully arranging his hair on one side of the pillow as if it were a sick pet.

The other three sat in silence. The only sounds were Topaz tapping on the Meslith and the far-off lapping of water against the shore. Yoyo tucked herself against a bundle of rope, and her eyelids drooped. ‘Maybe I’ll have a little rest too . . .’ she mumbled. A moment later, she was fast asleep.

Jake and Topaz couldn’t see one another – the mast was between them – but they were acutely aware of each other. They had argued for the first time since they had met. The words Jake had spoken were still turning around in his head:
You’re so ready to criticize, but you never stop and think how you have hurt people. How you have hurt me
. He hadn’t even realized that he’d been bottling up his feelings about Topaz, about the past. They were best friends and had spent most of the last year going on madcap expeditions around the island; it was odd that this had come out now. He didn’t know whether to apologize or not.

The sound of a mandolin floated across the bay, playing a slow and haunting tune. Jake looked around, trying to make out where it was coming from. Topaz did the same, and caught his eye. They peered across the bay and saw the silhouette of a man leaning against the prow of a far-off ship, gently plucking the strings. They listened for a while, until Jake started to feel drowsy too; he stifled a yawn.

‘You rest for a while,’ Topaz said. ‘I’m wide awake. I’ll keep watch.’ A tear beaded in the corner of her eye and she wiped it away.

Jake didn’t reply. He yawned again, suddenly feeling exhausted. He took out the Lazuli Serpent and looked at the curious lines. Then he lay down and fell into a slumber, the blue crystal clutched in his hand.

He woke with a start, just as day was breaking, his mind full of images – of strange lands and crinkly coastlines. He sat up and looked around, shaking his head to banish the vestiges of his dream. Yoyo was still asleep, curled up amongst the ropes.

‘Morning,’ Topaz said brightly, coming up from the cabin.

‘How’s Nathan?’ Jake asked.

‘Flat out, still. His breathing, it’s . . . strange.’ Topaz did an imitation, inhaling with an odd shudder. She poured a cup of water from the barrel. ‘Here,’ she said, handing it to him. He swigged it back, picking up the Lazuli Serpent, which had dropped onto the deck beside him. In an instant, he remembered his dream: the flashes of maps and coastlines. They meant something to him, but he wasn’t sure what at first. The cogs of his mind turned – and suddenly it came to him.

‘It’s a map,’ he said, studying the stone intently. ‘It’s a
map
!’

Topaz was nonplussed. But Jake opened the trunk where they kept paper for the Meslith machine and pulled out a blank sheet. He set it down and placed the jade cylinder on top of it. He started to roll it firmly across the page – then back again, repeating the motion until he had marked the page with an embossed design. Then he took a stick of charcoal from the trunk and gently rubbed it over the paper – until a black-and-white image materialized. He held it up for Topaz to see. The Lazuli Serpent had indeed printed what looked like a map: a corrugated coastline with islands of all shapes and sizes dotted along it.

Jake grabbed the map they had been looking at last night, checking the drawing against it. ‘There! Look!’ he said, indicating one section. It exactly matched the map made from the stone. ‘The mark of the octopus, Xi Xiang’s emblem,’ he said, ‘points to this place –
here
. It must be
home
– as Xi called it – his own island.’

Topaz took both pieces of paper and compared them, realizing that he was right. She studied the little island, paying particular attention to its coordinates, and let out a gasp. ‘
C’est extraordinaire . . . Partons tout de suite!
’

‘How long will it take?’

‘Eight hours – seven, if we make good time.’

Without waking the others, they hauled up the heavy anchor. Jake looked at the sky: it was going to be scorching, but it was less humid than it had been the day before.

As there was little wind, they had no choice but to start up the engine; Jake – who took the helm – was careful to keep it to a low purr so as not to attract attention. On the other ships, sailors were stirring, and fishermen were getting their nets ready on the shore. He steered the
Thunder
towards the open sea and they followed the coast once more, picking up a breeze. Their mission suddenly had a purpose. Could they stop Xi in his tracks? And was Philip on that island? Would he see his brother again before the day was out?

They sailed south-southeast, into the heart of the tropics. The coastline soon became more dramatic. Vast empty beaches of virgin sand stretched out in front of rolling green hills. There were forests of palm trees, and soaring escarpments of purple rock. And then islands started to appear, jewels set in the sapphire sea. It looked like paradise.

Every once in a while they checked the map against the coastline, charting their progress. Jake glanced over at Yoyo, while Topaz went down to check on Nathan, bathing his fevered brow with a cold cloth. However, the pair of them slept soundly through the morning and into the afternoon.

Yoyo was the first to stir. Her eyes opened and she stared blankly at the horizon. Then she sat up, clutching her head and blinking. She looked much better, Jake thought; her cheeks were no longer blotchy and red.

‘Jake had a breakthrough,’ Topaz told her, explaining about the Lazuli Serpent. ‘We’re heading for Xi’s island. We’ll be there by evening.’

Nathan didn’t stir until late afternoon. He tottered up the steps, holding onto the rail, a blanket wrapped round him. There was a hectic flush to his cheeks and he was shivering.

‘How are you feeling?’ the other three asked in unison.

‘Cold?’ he said, his voice cracking. ‘But it’s not cold, is it?’

His companions looked at each other. It was almost forty degrees.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked, staring around at the tropical scenery.

Topaz told him about the map inscribed on the crystal, but Nathan barely took it in. He was finding it hard to breathe and his teeth chattered. ‘Why is it so absurdly cold?’

‘We need to get him to a doctor,’ Jake said quietly to the other two, the mission forgotten: he was worried about his friend.