The Dagger X (The Dagger Chronicles) (18 page)

“K
itto! Kitto! There’s something wrong!” Van scrambled back over to where his companions awaited him.

X waved angrily at him. “Would you not scream it out, boy!” he hissed. “Quiet!”

Van ignored him. “Kitto! It’s Akin.”

“What? What of him?”

“Spider pushed Akin into the water. They just told him to go in first.” Kitto blanched, then hurried over to the crevice and peered in. Nothing.

Think. Think.
He looked up at Van.

“Quick now. Run back and fetch a rope.”

“What for?”

Kitto looked down into the darkness again. Still nothing. “Akin can fit through this crack for sure. We can pull him out.” Van nodded, then took off, clambering madly over the crags back to camp.

“Mum, please.”

“What is it, Kitto?”

“Would you go too? You can get the pistols.”

“No pistols!” X said. “Are you mad?” He eyed Kitto,
surprised at such a ludicrous suggestion. Kitto ignored him.

“You might need to shoot at Pippin to keep him from Akin.” Sarah nodded and ran off in the direction Van had now disappeared.

X said nothing until Sarah was out of earshot. He cocked a head toward Kitto.

“I am not so quick as you, Kitto Quick: boy who would lie to his mother.” Kitto shot X a look. X wagged a finger at him. “Boys, they should not lie to their mothers,” X said with a rueful shake. “She cannot use the pistol. Not only would it hurt my baby, but it would announce our presence to Morris.”

Kitto lowered his head down into the hole. Still no sign of Akin. Pippin’s shadowy figure twitched at the edge of the freshwater pool. Kitto lifted his head out again.

“I am the only one of us who can fit through here,” he said.

“And this your mother could not tolerate,” X said with a nod of respect.

Kitto held out his crutch to X. “Perhaps you could lower me part of the way,” he said.

At that moment, below the rocky outcrop that hid Kitto and X, Akin was weighing the importance of obedience. He treaded water outside the passage.

“You are sure, sirs?” he said brightly, feigning a smile. “This is the correct tunnel? I cannot see a cave inside,” Akin said. He gripped the rock above his head.

“If we was sure, we wouldn’t be asking you to go in, now would we?” Spider growled. “Get in there like the captain said!”

“Yes. Aye, aye.” Akin turned around to face the darkness of the passage that wound toward blackness into the rock. He gulped. What were those old prayers of his people? He wished that he could remember one, but it had been too long. Akin reached out to paddle forward into the gloom when a sudden movement inside the passage stirred the water. Akin startled and pushed off from the wall, eyes wide in panic, until he saw the source of the movement. A tiny turtle a few inches across swam toward him, then dove down into the water and disappeared.

“Turtle!” Akin said, breathing a deep sigh. “I am not frightened of turtles,” he told himself. He put his head down and started swimming forward into the darkness.

Above, Kitto lowered himself legs first with X’s help as far into the crevice as he could go. X gripped him about his shoulders. With one hand Kitto reached about, dragging his fingertips along the stone below the lip of the opening. His fingers chanced upon a deep groove, and exploring it hastily, he found it fit most of his hand.

“There is a hold here,” Kitto said to X. “I am going to try it.”

“You want for me to let go?” X said in surprise. “Are you so brave, or a bit mad, too?”

“Just hold the crutch down to me so that I can grab for it if I need to,” Kitto said. “Go ahead and let go,”
he said. X shook his head in disbelief, but slowly pulled away his fingers. Kitto lowered himself through the crack until his arms had straightened and he was dangling in empty space over the shining pool below.

“You are good?” X said, but Kitto did not answer. Instead, he scanned the sloping walls of the cave in search of a climbing route. He heard a faint splashing noise come from what seemed to be the passage leading out to the ocean. He twisted about to look down at Pippin.

The crocodile had heard it too. Pippin’s head raised a few inches off the sand, but she remained otherwise still. Kitto risked unwedging his left hand so that he could run it along the dark rock face in the hopes of finding another hold. Above him X dangled down the end of his crutch, watching him and chewing the corner of his lip.

If I can find a way to climb down, then Akin can climb up. There must be a way!

His fingers felt something.
Yes!
Sure enough there was another crack, not quite so deep as the first, but still ample for a good grip. Kitto reached for it, and in so doing his body pendulated open to face the cave. He looked down, and saw that he hung perhaps eight feet from the surface of the water in the larger pool.

X pulled out the crutch and stuck his head into the crevice.

“What a stallion!” X said with undisguised admiration. “Better yet, a monkey!” He turned to Pippin,
whose head had perked up at the sound of X’s voice. “Hello, my pretty baby, baby, baby,” he cooed. “You don’t want to eat any skinny English boys today, do you, pretty baby? No, no, no. You save your appetite for the smelly Irishman, yes. He be here very soon, baby.”

Akin swam through the passage and emerged from the darkness into the relative light of the cave. Quite a sight awaited him when his feet found purchase in the sandy bottom. To his left, hanging in space, was Kitto, spread-eagled, and farther along on the ceiling the head of a strange man with a tangle of a beaded beard emerged from a fissure of light and whispered sweet nothings toward something unseen deeper in the cave.

Akin rubbed the water from his eyes, then looked again. A smile of intense joy spread across his face.

“Kitto!” he said, flashing an incredulous smile. “Kitto, is that you? Why are you in the air?” He splashed closer to Kitto, away from the passage and into the center of the pool.

The speaking head at the ceiling spoke more loudly.

“Yes, Pippin, the stupid boy is talking, and making you think you are hungry. But no, you are not hungry.”

“Akin!” Kitto hissed. “There is no time to explain. There is a crocodile back there. A crocodile!”

“No, Pippin. No, Pippin, dear!” The crocodile took three decisive steps forward so that she now stood in a bright patch of sunlight at the edge of the sandy bank overlooking the large pool. Akin looked up at the huge beast atop the rise. His eyes, wide with surprise and joy,
now widened further with terror, the whites seeming to shine in the dim light.

Crocodiles have excellent vision, but the bright sunlight streaming down on Pippin left her dazzled for several moments, and the only movement she could see came above her in the form of Kitto’s gently swinging foot and stump.

“I gave my love a cherry,”
X sang in a rich vibrato,
“that had no stone. I gave my love a chicken—”
X never finished the line, for just at that moment, Spider, who had swum underwater through the passage, came thrashing up at its entrance a few feet from Akin.

“What the devil!” Spider said, as the first thing he noticed was Kitto hanging from the ceiling. “You’re alive!” he hissed. He sloshed in Kitto’s direction just a single step, then he turned to look up at the sandy bank to his right.

Both her appetite and her curiosity truly piqued, the massive reptile launched herself forward. Pippin slid down the sandy bank on her belly and into the water, leaving a groove in the moist sand behind her. Before her front feet had entered the water, both Akin and Spider bolted for their lives. They dashed madly through the thigh-deep water in Kitto’s direction.

Distracted by a tumult of bubbles underwater, Pippin’s attention was drawn away for an instant by a large turtle that had chosen an inopportune moment to return to its breeding ground. Pippin whirled on the turtle, her massive tail sweeping out and knocking both
Akin and Spider off their feet and into the water.

Kitto looked on in helpless terror. X spat off a series of orders without realizing he spoke in Dutch. Spider found his feet first and grabbed Akin by the arms, holding him out like a shield in the direction where he thought the crocodile might surface.

Pippin’s head broke through at the far end of the pool. In her mouth was half of the turtle, shell and all, shards jutting out between her teeth. Pippin whipped her head and the turtle hunk flew off and clattered against the wall of the cave. She eyed Akin and Spider with an expression that bore an uncanny similarity to a smile. Slowly Pippin lowered her head so that just the top of her snout and her eyes were above the surface, and she began to swim slowly toward the two figures at the far side of the pool.

“Let me go!” Akin struggled against Spider’s terrible grip, but the man’s crushing strength—fueled by his own terror—easily outmatched his. Closer inched the crocodile. Closer.

“Pippin, my sweet. Eat the big one! Very juicy, Pippin!” X called from above. Spider whirled about in confusion at the sound of the voice seeming to come from nowhere. He knew that voice. . . .

Kitto could watch no longer. He could see that Akin’s life hung in the balance. He arched his back to swing his legs as best he could, and then as momentum brought them forward again he launched himself out into space. Kitto flew through the air just as he had
intended, landing on Spider’s back. Spider gave out a cry as Kitto’s weight slammed into him, launching him and Akin in opposite directions.

Kitto plunged into the pool, disoriented. He opened his eyes beneath the water, trying to get his bearings in the torrent of bubbles, when Pippin’s snout grew distinct right before him. Pippin launched himself at Kitto with terrific speed.

“No, Pippin!”

Kitto pushed himself backward with his good leg, breaking the surface. He kicked out with his wooden leg at Pippin. The crocodile clamped down on it and thrashed her head, whirling Kitto back and forth through the water. Kitto felt the false leg tear away from him and he threw himself in the opposite direction, finding himself at the bottom of the sandy rise quite near Akin. Pippin whirled about with her jaws clamped down on the stump, not yet realizing it no longer connected to flesh.

“Come on!” Kitto yelled, scrabbling up the sand. Akin followed him, and Spider, who had ended up on the far side of the pool, hesitated a moment, considering whether to swim out the passage or follow the boys. As making for the exit forced him closer to Pippin, Spider chose the latter.

Kitto and Akin reached the top of the rise together, just as Pippin hurled the splintered stump across the water. Akin pulled now at Kitto, trying to help him to stand, horrified to see that Kitto had now but one whole leg.

“Back there!” Kitto pointed past the single cracked barrel the pirates had left behind in the sand, and the two of them scrambled in that direction. Spider made it to the bottom of the rise and began to claw up out of the water.

In a moment Kitto and Akin had made it to the narrow crevice at the ground through which he and Ontoquas had crawled a week earlier.

“Go. Go in!” Kitto screamed, grabbing a fistful of Akin’s hair and shoving him down toward the opening. Akin understood Kitto’s intention and scurried in as quickly as he could. Spider reached the top of the rise, Pippin scratching her way up the slope a few steps behind. Kitto looked down to see Akin’s ankles disappear into the tunnel.

Kitto crouched down to follow, but Spider reached him. He grabbed Kitto by the arm. Kitto spun and hurled out with his fist, a fierce blow that struck Spider square in the nose. Spider’s grip slipped from Kitto, and again Kitto dove for the crevice.

Spider turned to see the crocodile racing toward him with frightening speed. He gave out a cry and snatched up the half broken barrel at his feet. He threw it at he approaching beast. The barrel plummeted down and landed on top of Pippin’s head, stopping her cold for just a moment. Pippin twitched, and the empty barrel flew off and clattered against the wall. Not daring to crawl after the boys, Spider retreated deeper into the cave, desperately looking for a place to hide himself.

Pippin stepped forward, her head snapping to the left to see Kitto’s good foot disappear into the crack at the bottom of the wall. Pippin launched herself at the crack.

Kitto got through the opening just in time, yanking up his legs inches ahead of Pippin’s snout. The crocodile jammed her head into the crack, and inside there was just enough light for Kitto and Akin to see the full head of the crocodile enter into the dark passage with them.

Akin screamed in terror. Pippin whirled about, her mighty tail whipping back and forth as if might propel her wedged body deeper into the tiny crevice.

“She can’t fit!” Kitto said, pushing at Akin to go deeper into the passage. “There is no way.”

Spider, seeing the crocodile momentarily distracted, charged forward to leap over Pippin, but the beast’s gyrating tail lashed his foot midair, and Spider fell forward in a heap. Pippin felt the contact and sensed that the quarry in front of her had already escaped, but the larger one behind was not yet out of her reach. Spider found his feet and ran.

X, still witnessing the chaos from above, watched as Spider reached the top of the sandy bank. “Pippin!” X called. “Get over here, girl! Come eat this ugly devil!” Spider’s attention diverted for an instant, dazzled by the sunlight above him.

Pippin’s great claws dug into sand and rock now, forcing herself backward out of the crack. In a trice she was free.

“Exquemelin!” Spider howled in midair as he dove headlong into the large pool, then thrashed away for his life.

“Get him, Pippin, my love!
Krijgt die schoft!
”

Spider had just reached the tunnel by the time Pippin was gliding herself down the sandy bank on her belly.

Within the cave, Kitto clenched his eyes.
Oh, please, God! Spider cannot make it out! He will warn the others!