THE RIVER
“I an!” he heard in the darkness of the tunnel he felt he’d fallen into. “Ian, please!” came the cry more clearly. He knew that voice. It was Theo’s. He couldn’t remember why she was pleading with him, and at the moment he couldn’t worry about it, because he was in too much pain. Someone was hammering on his chest, and his mouth was opened and air was blown in. A second later, he convulsed and hacked up huge quantities of water while he coughed and sputtered and wheezed.
“Oh, thank heavens!” said Perry, who it seemed was leaning over him. “He’s back.”
Ian continued to cough while his body shivered from head to toe. “Here,” said Carl. “Wrap up in this, mate.”
Ian opened his eyes to see Carl holding a blanket out to him, but he was coughing too much to reach for it. Gratefully, Theo took the blanket from Carl and placed it around Ian’s shoulders. “What happened?” he sputtered when he was finally able to speak.
“We thought you’d drowned,” Theo said with a small hiccup. He realized she’d been crying.
“That beast almost had you!” exclaimed Carl. “He was right on top of you, and then you popped into the water.”
“You went right under,” added Thatcher, and Ian was surprised to discover that both he and Perry were soaking wet. “We came in after you. It was a miracle that Perry managed to bump into you down in that murky water and haul you up to the surface.”
“That was far too close for comfort,” said the professor, and Ian was touched by the look of deep concern on his face.
Ian coughed again; his cheeks felt hot with the effort. Everyone waited for him to finish before continuing with the story.
“The beast made like it was going to jump in after you when several fishermen on the dock came running after it with their oars and a net. It ran off back up the stairs, but not before it gave us a bloody good scare,” said Carl, his eyes wide and frightened.
“Master Lawson,” said Perry, “please watch your language.”
The professor waved impatiently. “Let the boy be, Perry. We did have a bloody good scare.”
Theo shuddered and looked back to the pier. “It’s okay,” Ian said gently. “There’s no way that creature can track us now that we’re on the boat.” Theo glanced back at Ian, but her worried frown remained.
“Bad chien!” said Jaaved from his place at the stern of the boat, and Ian turned to look at him in surprise.
Thatcher asked, “Jaaved, do you speak English?”
Jaaved shook his head. “Non,” he said. “Je comprends seulement un peu de ce que vous dites.”
“He says he understands only a little bit of what we say,” Thatcher translated.
“The locals here speak fluent French and Shamali, but enough British travel through this port that many of the natives can understand a few phrases and words,” added the professor.
“What’s Shamali?” asked Carl.
“A form of Arabic,” explained the professor. “I speak a smattering of it, but my French is better.”
“So how did the beast find us all the way in Morocco?” Perry asked, getting back to their terrible scare. “Did it come through the portal too?”
“Impossible,” said Thatcher. “The stone wall was back in place when we left the cavern, not to mention that Caphiera’s wall of ice would have needed days to melt and it certainly would have blocked that thing from following us through.”
“Not if the beast somehow came through the portal first,” reasoned Ian with a shiver.
“Maybe that’s where it’s been all this time, then?” said Carl. “All the while you lot were hunting it, that beasty was prowling around here in Morocco.”
“It wasn’t the same one,” said Theo quietly.
She had spoken so softly that the professor, Thatcher, and Perry all leaned in and asked, “What’s that?”
Theo looked back at the pier, which was becoming a distant dot on the landscape as they sailed farther into the mouth of the Loukkos. “Did you get a good look at it, Carl?” she asked. “The beast that attacked us in the tower didn’t have that white stripe along its hackles.”
Carl turned his head, also glancing at the pier. “Yeah,” he said thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, Theo, I don’t remember that white stripe from before either.”
“The beast had a white stripe?” Ian asked. The only thing he’d gotten a good look at on his dash down the pier had been its cruel eyes and huge teeth.
Theo nodded. “And that beast,” she said, pointing to the pier, “was male.”
Ian curled the edges of the blanket about him tighter. “The mate,” he said through chattering teeth. “It must be the she-beast’s mate.”
“Yes,” said Carl, nodding. “But why do they always seem to be after you, Ian?”
“It must have to do with the prophecy and the Oracle,” said Perry, to everyone’s surprise.
“So now you believe this isn’t some hallucination?” Thatcher asked.
Perry sighed and nodded. “If that jump into the water didn’t shake me out of my delusions, then this must be real,” he said soberly.
“He’s got a solid point,” said the professor. “That beast had the stink of the underworld on it. Did any of the rest of you catch the smell of sulfur?” Ian bobbed his head up and down; he’d certainly smelled it. “Yes,” said the professor. “I’ll bet that the beast is some sort of force controlled by one of Demogorgon’s other offspring.”
“Not Caphiera?” asked Carl with a shiver.
“No,” said the professor. “From what very little I know of her from the clay pots at Grimspound, she’s particularly cruel to animals. She likes to freeze them just for the sport of it.”
“Then which of the other offspring do you think the beasts belong to?” asked Ian.
“Either the sorcerer, Magus, or his vile sister Lachestia. Magus is the sorcerer of fire and Lachestia is the sorceress of earth. Both would be good candidates to set those brutes loose upon the land.”
Just then Theo gasped and Ian looked around them in alarm, thinking she’d spotted the beast again. When he didn’t see anything, he asked, “What?”
She gripped his arm through the blanket, her face as white as a sheet, and said, “Do you remember my vision out on the lawn of Castle Dover?”
“Of course,” he said, now even more worried. “Are you having another vision?”
Theo shook her head. “No,” she said, looking up at Thatcher. “Schoolmaster Goodwyn, do you remember when I talked about the wolf rising from the east to launch his army on us and that a war far greater than the Great War would come to devastate our lands?”
Thatcher gasped, making the connection, and one by one the rest of them did too. “It makes sense!” said Ian. “Those gruesome creatures do look like overgrown wolves! And if this führer fellow from Germany wanted a powerful, scary brute by his side to invoke fear into his enemy, those nasty creatures would be the ones to have.”
The professor inhaled deeply and met Ian’s eyes. His expression suggested that Ian’s conclusion was likely the worst scenario possible. “Laodamia was right to be so concerned,” he said quietly.
Ian thought about the extraordinary Oracle who seemed to be directing their every move. “Sir?” he said to the professor. “What more can you tell us about the Oracle?”
“What would you like to know?”
“Well, what happened to her? I mean, you mentioned that she fell out of favor politically, but what became of her?”
The professor’s frown deepened and he said, “She was murdered, I’m afraid.”
Ian gasped. He’d never considered that the greatest Oracle of all time could have met such a horrible end. “How?” he whispered.
The professor pulled at his chin and crinkled his nose. “I know of the Oracle’s untimely death because of the scrolls I discovered,” he began. “As I said before, there was a span of several years where Laodamia was the host of Phoenicia, but during her career as an Oracle,
the young lady developed some powerful political enemies. She had a few potent allies, however, including her betrothed, Iyoclease, a Phoenician general with a long legacy of bravery. But Iyoclease was ambushed by Laodamia’s enemies and killed before the couple could marry.
“That’s when things got very grim for our Oracle. After she lost her most valuable ally, it wasn’t long before her enemies were able to issue a decree of treason against her. An order was given to bring Laodamia before the Phoenician senate for judgment, but the Oracle fled Phoenicia and was soon discovered by an armed regiment in a cave on the outskirts of the city. When she tried to flee again, the soldiers inadvertently killed her.”
“That’s so sad,” whispered Theo.
Ian felt as if a sharp dagger had hit his heart. He was unable to explain why he felt such a connection to the Oracle, but hearing that she’d been murdered upset him greatly.
“Blimey,” said Carl in a breathy whisper, and Ian noticed he and Theo weren’t the only ones with long faces.
“Blimey is right,” said the professor. “Still, she was an extraordinary woman for all of the short years she lived. By my estimate she was only twenty-three or twenty-four when she died, and yet, she left us so much to consider and such detailed instructions to future generations, all in an effort to get a message to us.”
“But how exactly do you think she was able to see so far into the future, Professor?” asked Thatcher.
The professor sat back against one of the packs, using it as a cushion as he considered Thatcher’s question. “Well,” he said, “I suppose that after reading her scrolls this week, I can conclude that, speaking of time as a vast ocean current, while other oracles were only able to look out from the sand at the horizon, Laodamia was actually able to follow the wave as it left shore, and ride it out to sea. In one of her scrolls, she specifically discusses seeing one hundred generations into the future, when a great war would be sparked in the lands west of Greece and bring on the end of the world.”
“One hundred generations,” said Thatcher thoughtfully. “That’d be roughly …” He paused while he sorted through the math. “Close to now,” he said. Ian gulped. Laodamia’s prophecy was too close to dismiss.
“But this is all just a myth,” said Perry, and Ian noticed that he was looking round at them as if they were all having a great laugh at his expense. “I mean, it’s not real,” he insisted.
The professor regarded him soberly. “That is what I hoped, Perry, until earlier today when meeting Caphiera the Cold removed all doubt from the seriousness of the Oracle’s predictions.”
“So what do we do?” asked Theo, fear tingeing her voice.
“We find the Star of Lixus,” said the professor. “And we find it quickly. Laodamia has told us of its importance and has ensured setting us on this course. Therefore, we must see it through to the end.”
“But we don’t even have the Seeker yet!” said Ian, feeling an overwhelming sense of gloom while he watched the fear and trepidation cast a shadow over the grown-up faces around him.
“All we need to do is follow the prophecy,” said Theo confidently. “If Laodamia had clear enough vision to get us this far, Ian, then she certainly had the ability to see us through to the end.”
The professor turned to Jaaved, who was busy navigating them through the traffic in the wide mouth of the river, and asked the boy something. Jaaved responded as he pumped his head enthusiastically, and the professor said, “I’ve asked Jaaved if he knows anyone who is good with crystals. He says as it happens, his grandfather is one of the best jewelry makers in all of Morocco. He works extensively with gemstones and crystals that he quarries out of the surrounding hillsides.”
“If Theo’s right and our Seeker is a boy, do you think he might know him?” Ian asked.
“It’s worth asking him,” said the professor. “Jaaved has assured me that his grandfather would welcome us as his personal guests. It’s a good place to begin, I think.”
“How long until we reach his grandfather’s?” Ian asked, realizing they had only a fortnight before they must return to Larache.
The professor conferred with Jaaved. “He believes it will only take us until midday tomorrow to reach his grandfather’s home.”
“That’s longer than I thought,” said Ian, moody about spending so much time in the bottom of an uncomfortable boat.
“Geographically, Lixus isn’t that far from Larache,” said the professor. “But the Loukkos River winds through several deep curves and the current works against us going in this direction.”
“Why didn’t we choose to travel by land?” asked Perry, adjusting himself to a more comfortable sitting position.
The professor answered, “You’d need to travel by camel or horse. And the main road has never been safe for foreign travelers.”
Turning to Jaaved, Thatcher asked the boy something in French. Jaaved pointed up to the sky and answered him. Thatcher said, “Jaaved suggests that we can sail as long as there’s a good wind, but shortly after dusk the wind dies down and won’t be strong enough to fight the current. We’ll have to cast anchor and make camp.”
“I was afraid of that,” said the professor, looking uneasily at the shore. “And the one gun I purchased for the trip was lost in Ian’s pack.”
“My pack’s gone?”
Perry nodded. “It was all I could do to get you to the surface,” he explained. “I had to cut you out of the straps and the whole bundle sank to the bottom of the harbor rather quickly.”
Ian’s heart plummeted. “What else was in it?”
“Much of our food, I’m afraid,” said the professor.
“Our food?” exclaimed Carl. “What will we eat?”
Jaaved must have understood some of what they were saying, because he pointed to the water and said, “Poissons.”
Carl gasped. “Did he just say the water is poison?”
Thatcher, Perry, and the professor laughed. “No, my good lad,” chuckled the professor. “He said ‘fish’ We’ll have plenty of time to catch our dinner as we sail upriver.”
The professor turned to Jaaved and spoke at length, then announced to the group, “I’ve just told him to please sail us as far as possible before it becomes too dark to navigate. I want to put some good distance between us and that horror back at the pier.”
Ian couldn’t agree more.
Several hours later, as the setting sun turned the western sky to rich shades of peach, purple, and orange, Jaaved navigated the little boat to a tiny island in the center of the river and they made camp and cooked the fish they’d managed to catch.
After everyone had finished eating, the professor suggested they turn in, as their group was exhausted from such a long day. “We should set a watch, however,” advised Thatcher, and Perry agreed. “I’ll take first watch,” Thatcher said. “Perry, wake me in two hours for your turn.”
“I’ll go after Perry,” said Ian.
“And I’ll take the last watch after Ian,” offered Carl.
Ian was asleep the moment his head hit his coat, which he’d wadded up to use as a pillow, and it felt like he’d been asleep only a few minutes when Perry was shaking him gently “Your turn,” his schoolmaster whispered.
With bleary eyes Ian followed Perry out of the tent and over to the small fire being kept up by the watchman on duty. “Give a shout if you hear or see anything alarming,” Perry said with a yawn.
Ian nodded dully and slapped his cheeks to wake himself up, but soon his eyelids had grown heavy and he could feel his head bobbing forward. In the back of his mind he knew he should do something to fight the urge to sleep, but he was far too exhausted to care. Suddenly, however, he heard a sound that made him jump to his feet with his heart pounding.
He could swear he heard a horrible howl somewhere in the distance. Straining his ears, he waited and then faintly heard it again, but a second howl joined the first. Ian rushed to the tent where Perry, Thatcher, and the professor were sleeping. He shook his s
choolmasters awake and motioned them outside. “I heard the beasts,” he whispered.
“Where?” asked Perry.
“When?” added his brother.
“Just a moment ago,” said Ian. “But both howls were faint and far down the river on the left side of the bank.”
Thatcher tipped his head back and regarded the night sky. “There’s about four hours before dawn,” he said. “There’ll be no wind to carry us further upstream until then.”
Perry squinted into the darkness all around their island. “We’re near the center of the river,” he mused. “Even if the beasts caught up to our position from the shore, they’d still have to swim to this island to get at us, and with this river’s current, that would be one mighty feat indeed.”
His schoolmasters then looked at each other and turned back to Ian. “We should be safe enough here until morning,” Thatcher concluded. “However, I’ll join you on watch, Ian. Perry, you may take the last two hours before dawn with Carl.”
For the rest of the night, Ian and the others strained their ears for any hint of the beasts, but nothing more came, which Ian thought was almost as troublesome.
Everyone was up and anxious to be on their way as the first rays of sunshine flickered across the sky. After the tents had been dismantled and the packs reloaded, Ian and the others piled back onto the ragtag vessel and got settled. Thatcher and Perry, it seemed, felt duty bound to watch the shore for any sign of the beasts, and as Jaaved hoisted the sail and lifted the anchor, the brothers took positions fore and aft, their heads swiveling from side to side as they watched the left bank for any hint of movement.
Because they were focused on the left bank, no one but Ian saw a movement on the right. In the distance he saw a figure moving in the faint light of dawn between the rocks and boulders that dotted the terrain. All Ian caught was a glimpse, but what he thought he saw was enough to make him shiver. It looked as if a cloaked figure walked purposefully just onshore. He remembered the cloaked figure that had walked the grounds at Castle Dover shortly after the beast had attacked them at the keep. He’d caught only a glimpse there too, but the eerie cadence in the movements of that figure and this one were strikingly similar.