Flight of the Phoenix (7 page)

“Fire!” Tures screamed.

The swirling blue liquid suddenly turned gold. Tubular bombs powered by twin screws shot out of the ship, rocking it. One of them hit the dragon. A hole opened up in its side. Blood spewed into the green sea and a school of sharks attacked the open wound. The dragon rolled away from the sharks, righted itself and shot toward the surface trailing dark blood.

“You hit him,” Bryn said.

Tures snarled. “I didn't kill the bastard.”

“The sharks are after him” Fenix said. “Maybe they'll catch him and finish him off.”

Tures spread her hands over the second globe. “The
pire
say he took to the air and got away.”

The ship slowly turned. Bryn watched as the sea life gathered to fight Priest gradually dispersed. “Maybe he'll think twice before he attacks your ship again.”

Tures nodded. “Possibly, but he seems obsessed. It is as Lazarus told me when he asked me to take you wherever you wanted to go. He told me to place my ship at your disposal. I resisted,” she shrugged. “It is my ship. But then I met Sam.”

The look she cast Sam spoke volumes. It seemed to Bryn that Tures returned Sam's feelings. The pair had fallen deeply in love. “How long will it take us to get to the mouth of the Congo River?”

“We should arrive in three days if the weather holds. We ride beneath the surface so high seas are usually no problem, but serious storms can still cause delays.”

“Three days,” Fenix said. “Three days and we'll be on our way upriver to find Kivunjo and the dagger.”

Tures nodded. “I shall accompany you to the Mountains of the Moon. I need to acquire more fuel and Lazarus instructed me to watch over Fenix.”

Bryn's eyes opened wide. “You still speak to him?”

“Of course, and he also speaks to Fenix. Didn't she tell you?”

Bryn turned and glared at her sister. “No, she most assuredly did not and I don't believe you. Fenix would confide in me. She's always told me everything.”

Tures shrugged. “Believe what you wish. It matters not to me.”

Pain ate into Draak Priest's side but he ignored it. He flew across the water toward Gibraltar and an ancient castle on the side of the Rock where a crumbling tower had sheltered him on many occasions. As he slowly circled the Rock, he tried to numb his mind to the constant haranguing of Cardinal Malenfant.

“You fucked up, Priest. You had the ship. You should have prevailed. Your quarry was inside that undersea vessel. We should have finished both of them off so we can get on with finding a suitable victim for torture and a most delicious death. You can't do anything right. Why-oh-why are you so incompetent? I get one chance for a corporeal life and it's in you. You're a bumbling oaf, Priest.”

On and on Malenfant's complaints and recriminations continued without pause. Priest landed on the tower and morphed back into his human form without answering the annoying voice echoing inside his head. If he were to go completely insane, who could blame him? The wound on his side leaked blood and foul ichor. He could smell it. Dragon blood mixed with human blood created a kind of suppuration found nowhere else.

He tore a piece off the bottom of his robe, made a crude bandage and pressed it against his side. The pain was nothing to him. As an old man, he'd suffered far worse just trying to climb a steep set of stairs. His knees were now those of a young man. The pain in his side would soon grow less as his body healed. He'd obtained youth only to have his joy destroyed by the creature Malenfant.

He descended the circular stairs to the base of the tower and entered a small room through a door set into its side. The door was very short. He had to duck to enter. The interior of the tower appeared to be more of the ruin, broken blocks of stone and filth. But a hidden door in the floor was soon uncovered and Priest descended deep into the rock. The darkness was no obstacle. He could see as clearly as if it were day. The stair led to a narrow passage traveling even deeper into the rock. It opened in a massive cave located under the old castle.

Priest had sheltered there often in his lengthy past. A cot and a table sat in one corner. Priest sat on the rickety cot and thought. He would try to sleep and then continue to follow Bryn and her sister when he was rested.

“You're not going to sleep, are you?” Malenfant snarled inside his head. “Get up, get moving and find me a woman!”

“I need rest.”

“You can't stop now. You must climb down into the city and find me a victim. I long to kill. I need to hear the screams of some innocent as she lies helpless before us. It has been so long…” The last word was a wail inside Priest's head that went on and on.

He grabbed his hair and tore out a handful. “I will rest and you will allow this or I swear by my dragon mentor, I will find a priest and exorcise you.”

Malenfant giggled hysterically. “Won't work, my wonderful friend. I am no demon. I am merely a partner you agreed to take on when you used my bones in your perverted ritual. Now get up and find me a victim.”

Priest moaned as he stumbled to his feet. “I can't. Don't you see driving me this hard will kill me and then you will live no more as well? If I die, you die.”

The voice laughed. “You're immortal. Quit crying and get moving. I must taste blood this day or you will suffer the consequences.”

Goaded beyond his limits, Priest left the comfort of the cave and stumbled toward the small town at the base of the rock. “If I find you a victim, then will you allow me to rest?”

The voice purred. “Yes, Draak Priest. After we kill, then we can rest.”

* * * *

The trip under the sea to the mouth of the Congo River passed rapidly. Bryn tried to recoup her strength. She knew the trip upriver would be difficult. Sam and Tures continued to grow closer. She felt the loss of her friend but rejoiced over Sam's newfound happiness.

“Let's go sit in the control room,” she said to Quinn who lay on their bunk with his hands behind his head.

“Are we getting close?”

“I would ask Tures that exact question. I think we must be. She said three days and yesterday was the third day.”

Quinn swung his long legs over the side of the bunk. “I'll be glad to get out of this sardine can.”

Bryn smiled. “For one as tall as you, quarters inside this vessel must indeed be cramped.”

Quinn grimaced. “I've been feeling a trifle claustrophobic. I don't see how these people, if indeed you could call them people, live in this thing.”

Bryn grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Be careful what you say. The walls have ears. Just be packed and ready to go.”

Quinn held up the velvet bag containing the charm that would enable them to make love. “This is all I'm carrying. We came with nothing, we leave with nothing.”

Heat rushed into Bryn's face. She kissed him and the kiss rapidly grew dangerous. When she broke it off, they were both panting. “Do not show that to anyone.”

Quinn grinned as he shoved it back into his pocket. “Wouldn't dream of it. I do not plan to let it out of my sight or to allow it to leave my person.”

She led him into the control room, still warm from his kiss. Sam and Tures stood together by the pedestals with the swirling globes. Fenix sat in one of the leather chairs staring out of the huge windows. Bryn knew Tomlinson and his new buddy, Brighthouse, would be in the engine room absorbing as much of the cutting edge technology they could hold. “Where are we?” Bryn asked Tures.

“Ten miles north of the river. I'm setting the ship on the bottom and letting some of my crew members out to feed. This is a heavily jungled area. There will be plenty of game and few humans to tempt them from their vows.”

“What happens if they break those vows?”

“True death,” Tures said in a flat voice. “And after a taste of immortality, that is a terrible threat.”

Bryn flinched. The vampires must be starving but beyond baring their fangs once in a while, they'd never shown any aggression. They'd been running for five days including the pickup day and the fight with Priest. It hadn't occurred to her that the vampires would be hungry. She stared intently at Tures and noticed the vampire's cheeks were hollow and her eyes sunk into their sockets, but her skin was pink. She also noticed Sam's blush. Tures had fed off her. Bryn read it in her expression and the sudden flare of desire. Sam's expressions and moods were well known to Bryn. They'd been friends and lovers for over a century.

“Then we should be at Loango to disembark tomorrow?” Bryn asked Tures.

Tures shook her head. “I'm not stopping there. We will travel upriver to Matadi. I have a place to dock the ship there and the next two hundred twenty miles of the river are nothing but rapids and falls ending in Zongo Falls. We'll take the Congo Railway which was just finished to Leopoldville where a missionary friend of Father Antonio's works in the mission. He'll book us on a steamship upriver as far as Stanley Falls Station where Stanley Falls breaks the river. At that point, the terrain will get very rough. The jungle is thick and the mountains spring out of the forest with rocky outcroppings and rock falls that require traversing or avoiding. One must know which is which.”

“How do you plan to travel? Do you use bearers or need a guide?”

Tures shook her head, smiled and her fangs popped into view. Bryn shuddered. Tures had extremely long, sharp canines. The sight of Tures with her fangs extended was terrifying.

“Bearers we shall surely need, but guides no,” Tures said. “I have traveled this route many times.”

As the ship slowly settled on the sea floor, Bryn moved to gaze in awe out of the huge windows with Fenix. She looked up and took Bryn's hand. “Amazing, is it not?”

The number of fish swirling around the ship was truly amazing. Sharks swam by lazily, large wide-mouthed fish, schools of shiny small fish and even several dolphins. The wild life fascinated all of them. A sudden burst of bubbles announced the opening of the hatch. A group of crew members including Father Antonio and Tures, who had disappeared from her post by the globes, shot past the windows so fast it was impossible to figure out which was which.

“Pack whatever you have you can take,” Bryn told Sam and Fenix. And make sure Brighthouse is ready to go as well.”

“Why is he going?” Sam asked.

“He's interested in the fuel source. And we can't leave him here, now, can we?”

Fenix shuddered. “They'd surely eat him.”

When the vampires returned from their hunting trip, Tures took them to the mouth of the deep and wide Congo River. The ship surfaced and Bryn climbed to the top of the dome where there was a balcony wrapping around the deck for viewing. She stood on it feeling the damp, hot air of the Congo River basin ruffling her hair. The twin stacks of the submarine belched black smoke as the engine crew poured coal into the box to save the precious concentrated fuel they used when traveling underwater.

Huge sandbars filled the mouth of the river. Tures carefully guided her ship through the maze of channels until they reached open water. The banks were green with thick jungle. They steamed past small villages on each side of the river until a bay opened up on the left bank. Three ships were docked in the bay and numerous smaller vessels plied the waters, either fishing or carrying people across the river and back and forth from the anchored ships.

Tures called down to the crew. The anchors front and back were dropped, and the jolly boats on each side of the ship were lowered into the slowly swirling murky water and secured.

“We leave at dusk,” Tures said. “Traveling during the day is possible but very stressful for some of my crew members. The night train to Kinshasa leaves at eight and takes seven hours to get to Leopoldville. There, Father Antonio and the more susceptible will remain until we return for them.”

“Why take them at all?” Bryn asked.

“I may need them. They are fierce warriors as I'm sure you can imagine. Bakari and Edfu will accompany me as well as five others I've known for many years. They are almost as old as I and can bear the light of the sun even at these latitudes.”

Quinn, Fenix, Tomlinson, Brighthouse, Fingle, Sam and Tures climbed into one of the boats with Bryn. Several vampires including Father Antonio, the two Egyptians, Bakari and Edfu, and three other crew members climbed into the second boat. They set off for the shore where Tures sent both boats back to the sub.

“We take the Matadi-Kinshasa train from here,” she said as her crew members hefted all the baggage she planned to take. They trekked, Tures in the lead, down a worn dirt trail to the train station where a train pulled by a small steam locomotive was loading. Three passenger cars sat behind the fuel car and the tanker. Quinn led Bryn and Fenix to one of the cars and helped them aboard. There was no glass in the open windows and the bench seats were very hard. When the train started they were heartily glad of the open windows. Even without the sun shining, it was sweltering and the hot breeze blowing in the windows was welcome. The night wind carried the familiar scents of Africa; moist, strange vegetation, exotic spices, human body odor and animal dung. Bryn breathed deeply as memories of distant times flooded her. It had been a thousand years since she'd been here, but it was a place you never forgot.

The car they occupied quickly cleared out when Tures, her vampires and Father Antonio boarded. It was as though the local people sensed they were blood drinkers.

Goats, crates of chickens, skinny dogs and small naked children filled the next car along with very black women wearing sarong-like dresses that did not cover their breasts, and men wearing even less. It was hard to blame them for their lack of clothing. Bryn rarely suffered from the heat, probably because of her Egyptian heritage. Quinn looked cool and calm, Fenix the same, while Brighthouse's face was turkey-wattle red. He mopped the steady stream of sweat from his balding pate with a red handkerchief. Tomlinson and Sam were riding with the engineer in the locomotive examining the engine and watching it run. They possessed a never-ending curiosity about steam power in all its forms.