History Keepers 1: The Storm Begins (32 page)

‘Don’t look at the sun, Jake!’ Miriam cried. ‘It’s dangerous.’

Mothers pulled their children close. A group of market traders gazed up in disbelief. An ancient nun pointed a shaking finger at the sky, muttering prayers. Dogs barked in confusion. Boats, un-piloted, crashed into one other.

‘Coffee after then,’ said Alan, jumping ashore and mooring the
Aal
. ‘Quickly, everyone,’ he said, helping his wife and Paolo onto the quay.

‘Shall I just hang around here?’ Paolo suggested. ‘I wouldn’t want to get in anyone’s way.’

Alan laughed heartily and pushed him into the crowd. ‘You wouldn’t want to miss all the fun! It’s going to be dramatic.’

‘That’s what I’m worried about,’ the Italian mumbled to himself.

Jake would never have seen the caped figure if everyone had not come to a standstill. In the grand square between the river and the cathedral there must have been more than five hundred people, but only one of them was running. A compact figure, all in black, her cloak billowing behind her, rushing across towards the far end of the harbour.

It was Mina Schlitz.

Jake saw her run up the gangplank of the
Lindwurm
. As she leaped aboard, the red-cloaked guards cast off and the ship headed out into the river.

‘Dad …’ Jake cried, stopping Alan in his tracks. ‘It’s Zeldt! He’s still here.’ He pointed towards the retreating galley.

His father spotted it then, but he also remembered Nathan’s strict orders. ‘Nothing we can do about it now,’ he said firmly. ‘We have less than five minutes to diffuse a bomb.’

Jake had no choice but to jump ashore. He followed his father through the crowd and caught up with the others. Jake’s mind was in turmoil. He knew that his duty lay in the cathedral, but something almost as strong was pulling him in another direction: in pursuit of the
Lindwurm
and Topaz St Honoré. As he pushed through the throng of gaping townspeople, Jake’s eyes kept turning to watch the red sails in the distance. But by the time he’d reached the steps of the cathedral, they were lost from view.

The congregation, having heard about the eclipse, were rushing out to see the apocalypse for themselves. Alan, Miriam, Jake and Paolo had to
fight
their way through the melee. At last they were in the great nave, an endless succession of arches upon arches upon arches. The huge stained-glass windows were darkening gradually as the sun was slowly blotted out.

‘That scaffold will be the quickest way.’ Alan pointed towards a vast timber structure that stood in front of the central window. The steps climbed the entire height of the cathedral. Beside it was an arrangement of buckets and pulleys that brought materials up from ground level.

Jake led the way through the sea of people still charging for the door and was the first to reach the scaffold and leap up onto its timber steps.

The rough staircase ascended floor by floor, spiralling up towards the vaulted ceiling. At each pass, a gantry ran beside the multi-coloured window, affording an ever more panoramic view of the city. Through the tinted panes, Jake could still just make out the silhouette of Zeldt’s ship.

‘Did you know that the Three Wise Men are buried here?’ Alan asked as he pounded up the creaky steps. ‘That’s why the largest bell in the tower is called the
Dreikönigenglocke
– the Bell of the Three Kings. It’s the heaviest in Europe.’

‘Fascinating,’ Miriam shouted back. ‘I’d say we have two minutes before the end of the world.’

They picked up their pace. Soon they were at a dizzying height. The people in the nave below were now just moving dots of colour fanning out from the main door.

On the eighth turn, Jake saw the
Lindwurm
disappearing round a bend. On he hurried, his parents close behind him, Paolo panting at the rear, following the timber scaffold until it spiralled through the roof of the nave and into the bell tower.

Jake looked around the cavernous space; it was half open to the elements and dominated by four vast iron bells, each as big as a small house. His eyes met those of an owl, huddled in a dark corner,
twoo
ing uncertainly, thinking night had come. Then there was a hollow creaking of ropes, a great pulley stretched backwards, turning a giant wheel and setting one of the bells into motion. As it smashed against the giant clapper (itself the size of a person), a peal rang out, so deafening that it hurt Jake’s ears and reverberated through his very bones.

Then more pulleys tightened, wheels spun, until every piece of apparatus in the room was in motion and, one by one, all the bells started to chime.

‘Two o’clock!’ Alan shouted as he climbed up, followed by Miriam and the hapless Paolo.

Jake ascended the last section of scaffold, through the ceiling of the bell tower and out onto the wind-battered roof. In the five breathless minutes it had taken him to get here, the sky had darkened beyond all logical comprehension. Only a sliver of sun now remained behind the black moon. Jake looked over the parapet; far below the large jutting gargoyles of devils and vengeful creatures he could see the crowds standing motionless and awestruck in the square.

Once again he caught sight of the
Lindwurm
, now just a tiny shape on the horizon. Another image of Topaz’s terror-struck face flashed into his mind, but he forced it away.

Jake cast his eyes around the roof. On either side rose up the foundation stones of the cathedral’s two unfinished spires. Perched between them, reaching up into the dark heavens, was the colossal wooden crane, constructed from a million criss-crossing timbers. Jake started to scan it from top to bottom.

‘Good gracious me!’ gasped Alan as he emerged onto the roof. The sheer drama of the landscape,
along
with the wind and the tolling bells, took his breath away.

But Jake’s eyes were darting across every inch of the crane. ‘There!
There
!’ he suddenly yelled hysterically as Miriam and Paolo heaved themselves onto the roof.

For there, halfway up the crane, he’d caught sight of the tiniest glint of gold. If anything, the eclipse had helped to pick it out, for it was almost the last of the sun’s swiftly vanishing rays that struck Zeldt’s golden bomb.

Alan pulled open his telescope and inspected the glimmer. Jake was right: the bomb was sitting there, balanced on a wooden girder.

Jake was already clambering up the crane, feet and hands moving at double time. The wind gusted around him, the terrifying vortex of space yawned below. Just as the moon consumed the last feeble ray of sun and plunged them into blackness – and at this moment there was a howl from the people below – Jake reached out and took hold of the bomb. With a sharp
whoosh
, a pale shape suddenly emerged out of the gloom, flying towards him. It was the owl from the bell tower, hooting with fear and confusion. It thumped into Jake, he lost
his
balance and the bomb slipped from his grasp.

Miriam was the closest. She lunged towards the falling golden clock and caught it, then plunged over the edge of the parapet.

‘Miriam!’ Alan swung round, expecting to be met by the horrific sight of his wife falling to her death. His face told a different story. ‘Miriam …?’ he repeated softly.

His wife had landed sprawling on top of one of the huge gargoyles – a satanic beast, half lion, half bat, with a snarling mouth and outstretched wings.

‘My – my guardian angel,’ Miriam stammered with a half-delirious smile.

‘I’m coming to get you,’ Alan cried as he started to lower himself over the edge.

‘Bomb first – we need to defuse it,’ gasped Miriam. Breathlessly, she examined the golden device. ‘But how?’

‘Mum,’ Jake shouted down as he descended the scaffold, ‘inside, there’s a glass vial between two golden fists. Can you see it?’

Miriam scrutinized the inner workings. The light was so dim she could barely make it out. ‘I think so.’

‘You need to reach inside and remove it,’ Jake commanded.

Miriam probed with slender fingers. ‘I can justify that manicure now!’ she joked – then saw that the clock was seconds away from alignment. ‘Ow!’ she cried, quickly withdrawing her hand. ‘It gave me a shock.’

‘Careful, my darling – careful!’ Alan urged her.

‘Mum, you have to try again,’ Jake yelled. ‘We have
seconds
!’

Miriam inserted her fingers again; again she received a jolt of electricity. The clock ticked, the cogs turned. She gritted her teeth and plunged her hand in for a third time. Just as the mechanism clicked into position, she retrieved the glass vial. She was breathing a sigh of relief – when suddenly the marble beast gave a huge crack. Everyone shrieked at once as Miriam slipped, losing her grip on the golden clock, but managing to catch the gargoyle’s wing in one hand and cling to the glass vial in the other. The clock struck a gargoyle below and smashed into a thousand glittering pieces.

‘I’m coming for you, Miriam – I’m coming!’ Alan shouted, but when he put his weight on the marble, it cracked again.

‘This doesn’t look too good,’ Miriam breathed, contemplating the sheer drop below.

‘You’re too heavy, Dad. Let me go,’ said Jake, who had climbed back down to the roof. He did not wait for permission. He stepped carefully onto the gargoyle’s back. But the crack widened and the gargoyle moved alarmingly. ‘We’re
all
too heavy,’ he murmured to himself in despair. Then an idea occurred to him. He turned to the small figure who had been keeping very quiet in the background. ‘Paolo Cozzo, this is your moment!’

Jake was right; he was their only hope.

‘
Che
?’ Paolo stammered, edging away. ‘No, I don’t think I’m your man. I’m terrible with heights.’

‘Not negotiable,’ barked Alan sternly as he dragged him back. ‘If you don’t do the right thing and save my wife, I will throw you off anyway.’

‘You can’t do that,’ whimpered Paolo. ‘You’d be reported. You’d be decommissioned instantly.’

‘
Not negotiable
!’ Alan pushed him to the edge of the parapet. ‘We’ll hold your legs. You crawl down and reach out for Miriam.’

Paolo snivelled with fear as he lay flat on his stomach. Alan and Jake took a leg each, and the boy started to reach down over the edge of the building towards the gargoyle. The moon had now passed
over
the sun, and the sky was bright again, illuminating the void below.

‘There
must
be an alternative,’ said Paolo, trying to pull himself back onto the roof.

‘
Do it
!’ barked Alan. He could see that Miriam was starting to lose her grip.

Paolo lowered his body onto the gargoyle and held out his shaking hand for Miriam. The stone creaked again.

‘You’re nearly there,’ Alan encouraged him. ‘Just a little further.’

Paolo’s eyes streamed with tears. He reached out, not daring to look down. He had never wanted anything more than to abandon this appalling adventure.

Then something strange happened to him. Time seemed to stop. Silence suddenly descended. He could hear neither the wind, nor the bells, nor his companions. All he could hear was his own breathing. He opened his eyes wide and looked down. He was hanging from the edge of a great cathedral, the tallest building in the world. Below him lay a city, and a woman hanging from a gargoyle with enough death in her clenched hand to destroy Europe. Within him, Paolo felt a sudden surge of courage: he
could
be a hero.

‘
Not on my watch
!’ he roared, and thrust out his hands. Miriam carefully placed the vial between her lips; she reached for his right hand, then let go of the gargoyle and grabbed his left.

Paolo gasped in agony as he bore her entire weight. His back was stretched to the point of dislocation. But his desperate tears were replaced by a defiant glare of resolution. He held on with all his might as Alan and Jake slowly reeled him back onto the roof – until at last Miriam could clamber to safety. She held the terrible vial triumphantly in the air.

Alan threw his arms around his wife and hugged her. Paolo, still dangerously close to the edge, squared his shoulders and took the glass vial from Miriam’s hand to examine its deadly contents. Immediately it popped out of his fingers and flew up into the air. Everyone gasped at once. Images of instant death flashed before their eyes. But Paolo caught it neatly in one hand.

‘Relax,’ he told them. ‘I’m using humour.’

Alan’s mouth curled into a quizzical smile and he laughed out loud. But he still took the vial carefully from Paolo; they could afford to take no chances now.

The four of them climbed back down into the bell tower. With the present crisis averted, Jake’s mind turned immediately to Topaz.

‘I’m going after her,’ he declared, resolution shining in his eyes. ‘Zeldt’s galleon is no more than five miles away. I will take the
Aal
. If I go alone, I will make up the time quickly.’

‘The
Lindwurm
? No, Jake, it’s not a good idea,’ said Miriam.

‘We’ve completed the mission. What’s to stop us?’

Miriam and Alan looked at each other. She continued in a tone that was both soft
and
firm. ‘Well, amongst other things, we have orders. Nathan Wylder was very clear: we were not to rescue Agent St Honoré, “even if we succeeded in our task”.’

‘Orders?’ Jake shook his head in disbelief. ‘I, for one, won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least
try
.’

‘You won’t be living at all!’ Miriam turned to her husband. ‘Tell him, Alan.’

‘She’s right. A very bad notion.’

‘Topaz is not your concern,’ Miriam added. ‘Her situation is very … complicated.’

‘It’s not
complicated
!’ Jake felt a tide of emotion rising within him. ‘It’s
simple
: she’ll die if no
one
saves her. And when did you ever obey orders? Did you obey orders when you went looking for Philip?’

He took advantage of the sudden silence that followed his question. He had calculated that there would be resistance, and had already formulated a plan. First he plucked his father’s telescope from his leather jerkin. Then he leaped over to the large basket of rocks that had been winched up to the top of the scaffold. Jake tossed out its contents, quickly checked the pulley, then kicked the basket over the edge of the scaffold and jumped inside. Miriam and Alan shrieked in unison as he started to descend at breakneck speed. As he went down, a counterweight shot up from the ground.