The Demon Collector (25 page)

‘I trust that we aren’t in any danger, Mr Janus,’ Boyd said, gripping the lapel of his coat and frowning.

‘No, no,’ Janus beamed. ‘No danger. But if my calcu­lations are correct, then a small island of ice will rise up out of the sea at this point tomorrow, on February the fourteenth.’

‘Island of ice?’ said one of the seamen. ‘Rise up? How’s that possible?’

‘Gentlemen,’ Mauldeth called out. Edgy could see the fear spreading among them like a fever. ‘The pheno­menon you will see is perfectly natural –’

‘Yes,’ Janus butted in, still smiling genially. ‘It happens, I believe, every thirteen years.’

‘Thirteen?’ cried a voice from the back of the scrum. Muttering and whispered conversation broke out.

‘Envry, you aren’t helping,’ hissed Mauldeth through gritted teeth.

Silky McFarland squeezed his way through the men until he stood in front of Janus and Mauldeth. ‘Not meanin’ any disrespect,’ he said, bowing his head, a slight smile playing about his lips, ‘but me an’ the men thought that it was seals an’ the like you were after.’

‘Thank you, McFarland,’ Boyd said. ‘Mr Janus, I suggest you come below and discuss this with me so that I can reassure the men.’ He turned to the crew. ‘Gentlemen, I will not put a single life at risk needlessly. I will get to the bottom of this but for now, go about your duties.’

Janus and Mauldeth followed Boyd down to the cabins, leaving Edgy on the poop deck. He watched the men drift away, glancing over their shoulders and muttering. Last to leave was McFarland, who gave Edgy a grin. But there was no trace of genuine humour on his face and no warmth in his eyes.

‘O, what a mountain is yon,’ she said.

‘All so dreary wi’ frost and snow?’

‘O, yon is the mountain of hell,’ he cried,

‘Where you and I will go.’

‘The Demon Lover’, traditional folk ballad

Chapter Thirty
-
One

The Ice Mountain

Edgy stood at the stern of the ship, listening to the hollow lap of the waves against the hull. The engines lay silent and the anchors had been dropped. He watched the men working the capstan. It reminded Edgy of a huge cotton bobbin with holes in it to put thick planks of wood in. The men pushed against the planks, turning the bobbin and unwinding the chain. Usually, the men sang songs to keep them in time as they pushed. Some of the songs were rude and made Edgy snigger. But this time, they just grunted in time as they pushed on the capstan. Ice coated everything, making the men slip, stumble and curse.

‘There’s no doubt, Edgy,’ Mauldeth murmured, appearing beside him. ‘The men aren’t happy. If only Envry hadn’t spouted off about the island.’

‘I ’ave to say, sir,’ Edgy said, ‘it was news to me.’

‘Me too,’ Mauldeth replied, raising his eyebrows. ‘He only told me after we met with Captain Boyd. According to legend, Satan hid Moloch’s body on an island of ice and submerged it in the frozen waters. But every thirteen years, it rises from the sea.’

‘On February the fourteenth,’ Edgy murmured. ‘My birthday . . .’ Or so Salomé had said. Their first encounter seemed years ago now.

‘Good Lord,’ Mauldeth said, staring closely at Edgy. ‘A strange coincidence.’

‘I don’t know, your lordship.’ Edgy shook his head. He thought about Salomé. The way she wove her plans – a slipshod job here, a drunkard’s bad decision there, all coinciding at the right moment to complete her schemes. And she’d made a point of telling him that date was his birthday. ‘Is there any such thing as coincidence when demons are involved?’

‘Good point, Edgy, but it’s beyond me what your part in all this is,’ Mauldeth replied.

‘Why did Satan make the island rise every thirteen years?’ Edgy wondered aloud. ‘Why not just sink it for ever?’

‘It’s a game to them,’ Mauldeth spat. ‘Little clues and rumours, teasing mortals and fellow demons alike. Leading them on.’

Edgy nodded.
Nothing’s simple
. He had thought Mauldeth was stuck-up and pompous, and had hated him. Yet he’d shown more concern for Edgy in the last few days than Janus had.

Mauldeth stared out into the darkness. The icebergs all around reflected the moonlight, giving his face a bluish tinge. ‘He’s still my little brother, you know,’ Mauldeth said quietly. ‘We’ve always been competitive. Even as children we would fight for Mama’s affection and Papa’s approval.’

Edgy nodded and stared at the sea.
Happy families. Not all families are happy. Maybe I’m better off alone
.

Mauldeth continued, ‘But I always watched over him. God, the number of scrapes I pulled him out of! Always chasing after the next demon to ossify.’

‘But I-I thought you . . . killed just as many,’ Edgy stuttered, choking back the words as soon as they had left his lips. It wasn’t his place to criticise Lord Mauldeth.

Mauldeth shook his head. ‘Most of the demons I killed, I did so to save Envry. When he first became involved with the Royal Society, I joined too to protect him. Once he becomes fixated on a goal, there’s no stopping him.’

Something splashed in the water, snatching Edgy’s attention away from the conversation. He peered into the blue twilight.

‘What is it, Edgy?’ Mauldeth whispered. ‘What can you see?’

Edgy squinted hard into the dark water. ‘I’m not sure, sir,’ he hissed back. ‘Down there – somethin’ black an’ shiny.’ The water swirled and rippled as something slipped down into the depths. ‘Captain Boyd says it’s just a seal or somethin’.’

‘But you think otherwise?’ Mauldeth murmured.

Edgy nodded. ‘It’s just a feelin’ but it gives me the creeps. An’ anyway, wouldn’t there be loads of seals round ’ere, not just one?’

Mauldeth shrugged, then turned as Silky McFarland emerged from the shadows. He scowled at Edgy, gave a short nod to Mauldeth and slipped down the steps to the main deck and his shipmates.

‘Where in heaven’s name did he appear from?’ Mauldeth said. ‘D’you think he was eavesdropping?’

‘Without a doubt, sir,’ Edgy muttered, staring after McFarland, who glanced back as he whispered to a gang of men by the mainmast.

The tension of the following day drove Edgy down to his cabin. Everywhere he walked in the ship, men stared at him and whispered to each other. Some crossed themselves and turned their backs to him. Fear tightened every jaw. He ate his meals in his cabin, avoiding the others. Up above where the men were muffled against the cold, eyes stared wide and angry over scarves rimed with frost. The perpetual night only served to heighten the feeling of foreboding that gripped the ship’s crew.

Edgy lay on his bunk and flicked through
Everyday Daemonologie
. Questions flitted around his mind. His birthday. The island rising. What was their connection? Was it just coincidence? And what was it that prowled beneath them, slipping through the icy water? Edgy looked down at the page.

Leviathan:

A colossal beast of the sea, created by Satan to plague seamen. Its many heads, armed with row upon row of razor-sharp teeth, are capable of pulling a fully rigged man-o’-war to pieces and devouring its crew in a matter of minutes.

He stared at the rough woodcut print on the facing page, at the black body half out of the water. Hundreds of heads on long serpentine necks snapped and tore at a foundering ship. Was that what he’d seen? The necks twisting and writhing under the water?

He jumped up and ran to the foredeck where Janus, wrapped in furs, sat on a collapsible chair, peering out across the bay through a telescope. Edgy tried to ignore the hard stares as he barged his way up the steps to him.

‘Mr Janus,’ he hissed, clasping the book to his chest, his thumb stuffed between the pages of the book to keep his place. ‘Mr Janus, I –’

‘Not now, Edgy,’ Janus said, not removing the telescope from his left eye. ‘I’m expecting something to happen any minute. Don’t worry, young man, you’ll be able to play your part in this adventure soon enough.’

‘But, sir, I think I know what it is that I keep seeing in the water,’ Edgy hissed, trying to keep his voice from alerting the sailors, although one or two were frowning over at them even now. ‘Look.’ He thrust the book into Janus’s free hand. He glanced down, eyes widening.

‘A Leviathan, eh?’ Janus said out loud.

Edgy screwed his eyes up in frustration but when he opened them, Janus and every man on deck stood, jaws slack, staring at the boiling water a hundred feet in front of them.

An icy point peeped out of the water, sending small ripples across the smooth surface. Gradually the waves grew bigger as more and more of the island forced its way out of the sea. The icebergs around them shook and flakes of ice sheared off, making the water more turbulent. Edgy gripped the side as the ship rocked. His ears rang with Janus’s cries of victory. In the background, Boyd barked commands. The engine began to thump and Edgy felt them backwater away from the rising mass.

‘Look, Edgy! Look, there.’ Janus gripped Edgy’s wrist, making him wince. Janus pointed with a trembling finger at the island.

It towered over them now, a huge cone of ice the size of a mountain. Edgy could just make out a narrow flight of carved steps twisting up into the heights of the island.

And then he flew forward as the whole deck tilted. Janus stumbled and tripped over him. The stern of the ship was rising, caught on the growing island. Barrels and boxes rolled and slid down the deck towards the bow. A seaman came running towards Edgy, unable to stop himself as gravity propelled him towards the sea. With a scream he sailed forward into the water that rushed up the bow of the ship. The bowsprit gave a deafening crack and slack lines swung back towards Edgy and Janus. A loose pulley block whistled past Edgy’s ear as he pressed his cheek to the freezing deck.

Then all was still.

Edgy could hear the engines pounding and the groans of the crew. The deck remained at a crazy angle. He pulled himself to his feet and peered over the side of the ship.

The island of ice had risen underneath them, grounding the stern of the ship and pushing its front into the sea. Water ran in rivers down the side of the island, pouring down on to the men on deck and into the heart of the ship. Steam boiled out of the ship’s funnel, shrouding the deck.

‘We’ve found it, Edgy!’ Janus said, clapping his hands with glee.

‘But, Mr Janus, we’re trapped on the ice an’ –’ Edgy began.

‘Yes, yes, yes,’ Janus tutted, a scowl flitting across his face. ‘First things first. We must explore the island.’

‘You’re not goin’ anywhere,’ McFarland said, stepping in front of him, a wall of angry-looking men behind him, all steadying themselves on the ridiculous tilt of the deck. The mist that closed around the ship made grey silhouettes of them in the eerie half-reflected moonlight.

Captain Boyd and Mauldeth were pushed through the crowd of sailors that had gathered on the main deck and sent stumbling next to Edgy and Janus.

‘This is insubordination, McFarland,’ the captain said, his voice calm and quiet. ‘What d’you think you’re playing at?’

‘Beggin’ yer pardon, captain, but the men aren’t happy,’ McFarland said, glancing from one sailor to the next. ‘We want some answers.’

‘Answers? Can’t it wait?’ Captain Boyd’s voice rose a little. Edgy could see the back of his neck going red just above his cravat. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, the ship has just been grounded.’

‘That may be, captain,’ McFarland said, ‘and we’ll attend to that soon enough. But the men are worried. All this ain’t natural – islands risin’ up out of the sea. There’s been talk of demons too.’

Boyd let out a snort of derision. ‘Demons?’ he scoffed. ‘You are a seaman on-board a modern steamship and you talk of demons?’

‘That Professor Janus, he was talkin’ about demons to the boy,’ grunted a man behind McFarland. The crowd murmured.

‘And look at this,’ said one of the seamen, reaching forward and snatching Edgy’s book in his huge brown hand. ‘It says
Everyday . . . Daemon . . . ol . . . ogie. Or a Demon a Day!
’

The crew hissed and began chattering excitedly. Someone came up from below with an armful of Janus’s books.

‘Put those down – they’re priceless.’ Janus ran at the man but arms snaked out from the crush of sailors, pinning him. ‘Let me go!’ he bellowed. ‘This is an outrage.’

McFarland took a book from the man and leafed through it, his skeletal features fixed in a frown. Edgy thought he could see him tremble a little as he held the book.

‘Ye gods, would ye look at this,’ he said, holding the book open.

Edgy glimpsed the words
Moloch
and
heart
, followed by
Salomé
and
Satan
. But it was the images that struck home. Satan pinned Moloch to the ground, his mouth twisted into a triumphant leer, a dripping heart beating in his hand. A babe lay on a stone altar, naked and helpless. Salomé towered over it, a long spiral blade in her hand, her green eyes flashing as she prepared to plunge the blade down.

‘No!’ Janus yelled, lunging forward so suddenly that he broke free. He crashed into McFarland, sending him sprawling and the book whirling across the deck. Uproar broke out as men pounced on Janus, dragging him back.