Surrounded
again
From
the diary of George Moriarty, a.k.a. Cousin George.
2
May, 1875
(continued)
I did not get to clap Sir Philip in irons.
We went ashore and began following the trails. The footprints we
believed to be Sir Philip, Mrs Domokos, and Mrs Voach followed the path
of Captain Forrestor into the forest, up the foothills, and over the
ridge.
Wilhelmina has chosen an unorthodox wardrobe. She's wearin the blue
sari blouse, with a pair of dark turkish trousers, and the
broad-brimmed leather hat that Mohindar gave her. It is a very unusual
look. Mrs Frazer keeps worrying she will sunburn.
Before we had reached the crest of the ridge, several of us noticed
that we were being followed--by what looked like a tradesman's wagon
being pulled by two bay-colored horses. As the wagon caught up to us we
could see that it was painted white with green trim, and had a name
painted on the side (along with a picture of a cow and a milkmaid):
Ronald Voach
Hygenic Dairyman
Established
We could make out the driver, a man with a greying beard, wearing a
simple cap and a workman's apron. It was surprising enough to see a
dairyman driving through the jungle, but his aura was very strange. I
don't know how to describe it. Not much like a fairy or dragon, but
something equally supernatural. And, of course, the name of the wagon
was the name of Wilhelmina's mother's husband.
Mohindar recognized him and was quite as astonished as we to see him
here, of all places.
When we met, he doffed his cap to the ladies, and seemed to know
several of us by name, most notably Wilhelmina. When asked what he was
doing on this remote island, he said that he suspected he was doing the
same thing we were: following the trail of the people who kidnapped his
wife, Mrs Voach.
He offered us refreshment, saying he had milk and cheese. He
specifically addressed Wilhelmina and mentioned he had a nice blue
Stilton--one of her favorites! He acted as if it were not at all
remarkable that he would know her favorite cheese!
When he opened one of the doors of the wagon, the air that came out was
so cold, you could see the mist, and the mugs of milk he handed around
briefly had a coating of frost. The milk was very good. Cold and rich
and creamy. He offered some special milk to Mr O'Flaherty and Mrs
Cuthbert--I could detect a shimmering aura. Mrs Cuthbert thanked him
profusely and drank from it. She mentioned later that it had powerful
healing qualities.
When asked how he had come to be on the island, Mr Voach answered that
once he realized that Mrs Voach was in danger, he had simply hitch up
the horses and followed her. When Mrs Frazer said something about how
difficult it must have been on the horses to cross all the ocean, he
just ignored the statement entirely.
Wilhelmina took all of this in stride, and soon we were travelling
along with him, some of the injured taking turns riding on the wagon.
The trail was led us through forest on the other side of the ridge,
which soon gave way to grassland. We could see another encampment of
tents ahead of us, beside another set of stone ruins. Again, the ruins
were right where Pellew's map said they would be. We followed the
trails right to the encampment.
The people in the camp came out to meet us. It was a mix of Englishmen,
some hindu, and other asians. One of the Englishmen, a grey-haired man
of slight stature, took one look at Inspector MacGregor and said, "What
are you doing here?"
At the exact moment the Inspector asked him the same things. There was
a bit of a babble, but eventually it transpired that the Englishman was
the Inspector's uncle, Sir Ephraim Sloane. Sir Ephraim is an official
with the Colonial Office. He claimed to be leading this expedition in
search of something "vital to the security of the Empire." Eventually,
once Sir Spencer had presented his creditials, he admitted that they
were searching for the Moonblade, just as we were. He had reason to
believe that agents of both the China Sea Pirate lord, Wu Chang, and
the Science Pirate, Nemo, were searching for the blade, intending to
become leaders of a vast revolution which would drive all the Europeans
from Asia.
And conveniently place one of them on the throne of a new empire.
They said they had no connection with Sir Philip, though they had
learned that very morning about his expedition, because three people
from the expedition had arrived at their camp. The three people, it was
revealed, were not Sir Philip, Mrs Voach, and Mrs Domokos.
Instead we had been following the Reverend Parslo-Parslo, his maid Mrs
Gribble, and a servant of Sir Philip's names Mr Cribb. Mr Cribb is of a
similar build as Sir Philip and was wearing very similar boots. Once
Mrs Cuthbert had a chance to speak to the Reverend, it became clear
that Sir Philip had awakened him in the early hours of the morning,
while Mrs Domokos put some sort of spell on the Reverend to confuse him
and make him believe that it was vitally important to follow Captain
Forrestor's trail.
Reverend Parslo had been asleep aboard HMS Skylark. As far as the
Reverend knew, Sir Philip had remained aboard the ship. This caused
immediate worry, as the last time any of us had seen Sir Cosmo or Mr
Salmalin, they were going aboard Skylark to give the Captain his
orders. If Sir Philip were aboard Skylark, and had put the captain and
crew under his control… who knows what might have happened to Sir
Cosmo, or to the rest of the party aboard Selene and Foxglove?
Mrs Cuthbert went aside and took out her scrying mirror. Several of the
ladies gathered around with great concern. Mrs Cuthbert concentrated
for many moments, but then began to laugh. She laughed very heartily
for a bit, before regaining her composure and explaining that Sir
Philip was a prisoner aboard Foxglove,
and Sir Cosmo was questioning him. Sir Philip was not just locked
inside the brig (whose doors and locks had been designed by Wilhelmina,
I should mention), but he was shackled and manacled.
He was also somewhat the worse for wear. Mrs Cuthbert said half his
hair was burned off, several bruises were visible, and his clothes were
quite disheveled. She had laughed, she said, because of the
conversation between Sir Cosmo and Sir Philip. Sir Philip was trying to
persuade Cosmo to go ashore and rush to save Lady Cowperthwaite and the
rest of us from the dangers of the island, to which Sir Cosmo made some
comments to the effect that any monsters on the island would be advised
to steer clear of all of us.
Mrs Cuthbert's scrying also confirmed the Mrs Domokos was imprisoned
aboard Selene, bound
and unconconcious. And the Mrs Voach was also aboard Selene, assisting Daru and
Violet with the children.
The children, she said, as well as Mrs MacGregor, Daru, Violet, David,
Stewart, Tattvick, and all the rest were well and unharmed.
Her ladyship determined that we should explore the ruins in hopes of
discovering what Captain Forrestor had been doing here. The members of
Sir Ephraim's expedition all claimed no knowledge of Captain Forrestor.
The Reverend was most anxious to show us several points of interest,
however. Sir Ephraim's version of the Reverend, a Mr Raines (who we
learned had been employed as a lecturer in both natural philosophy and
history at some school in the sub-continent) was most excited about a
group of statues in the center of the ruins.
A large cobble-stone circle sits in the middle of the ruined city. Five
cobble-stone roads converge at this circle. And arranged around the
circle, between the roads, are five statues of chariots, with their
charioteers and horses. The style of the statues looks like some of
those in the museum brought back from Persia. Rev. Parslo-Parslo and Mr
Raines both say that the inscriptions on the statues are in Akkadian,
which was the language of Babylon. The inscriptions read:
Conqueror, whose great sword removes peace from the world.
Plague, whose arrows destroy the humble and might alike.
Famine, who brings a measure of death and suffering to all people.
Death, who harvest the souls of the just as wel as the unjust.
Havoc, whose sword of the burning ice scours the earth.
The charioteers are each depicted holding a different weapon. Conqueror
and Havoc each hold swords (though of slightly different design).
Plague is armed with a bow and arrows. Famine carries a pair of scales.
Death is armed with a scythe.
There was a moment when the Reverend and Mr Raines were in disagreement
about an inscription, and Mr Voach corrected them. They did not seem to
notice who it was that had pronounced the word for them. When Mrs
Frazer asked Mr Voach if he read Akkaddian, he made some comment about
learning a thing or two in his travels.
The Reverend was going on a bit about how the word 'havoc' is
pronounced almost exactly the same in Hindi, German, English, and even
Akkadian. I'm not sure why he thinks that's important. Mr Raines was
much more interested in the etheric properties of the circle. He had a
number of instruments, some of them very similar to things Wilhelmina
has built in the laboratories back at Sir Cosmo's, and he was telling
Wilhelmina all about it.
We had scattered enough that I was having some difficulty keeping an
eye on everyone. I had thought that Lady Cowperthwaite was with Mr
O'Flaherty and Mrs Wooster. Mrs Wooster thought her ladyship was with
us. Mr O'Flaherty forgot that he was supposed to be guarding anyone.
Somewhere in the encampment Mr O'Flaherty found a leprechaun or some
such creature, being held prisoner. He decided to help the little man
escape by hiding him under his hat. When Mrs Cuthbert saw him, she
burst into laughter.
After speaking quietly with Mrs Cuthbert and Mrs Salmalin, he made his
way through the camp to Mr Voach's wagon. Several things went amiss.
Lady Cowperthwaite and Owen were chasing a fox through the camp, which
apparently spooked Mr Voach's horses. Mr O'Flaherty decided that
encouraging the horses to gallop faster was the best way to finish
extracating the Little Man from the camp. And somehow Captain Sparrow
had gotten his belt or shirt or something entangled on the wagon.
The wagon zoomed past, with Mr O'Flaherty whipping the horses, the
Little Man jumping up and down on the seat shouting, Lt Wooster hanging
onto the side of one horse's harness while shouting 'whoah', and
Captain Sparrow clinging for his life to the back of the wagon.
Meanwhile, Lady Cowperthwaite and Mrs Wooster were running along in the
its wake.
Mr Voach asked if we wanted the wagon stopped. Mrs Salmalin said we
should all just follow it out of the camp and discuss things there.
Began running, so I followed her.
The wagon had almost ran over the group of Sir Spencer, Sir Ephraim,
and Insp. MacGregor. Sir Spencer and the Inspector joined us. Soon we
were all following the wagon. Once we were a good distance away from
the encampment, and had lost sight of the wagon, Lady Cowperthwaite
called out that we could probably slow to a walk for a bit. Which about
the time that we heard the gunfire, so we started running again.
By the time we could see the wagon, the fight was nearly over. A group
of men (later determined to be pirates working for Wu Chang--they had
recognized Captain Sparrow and mistook Our Mr O'Flaherty for the Pirate
O'Flaherty) had surrounded them with weapons drawn. Though greatly
outnumbered, our companions killed or severely wounded all of them.
Unfortunately, Mr O'Flaherty had taken a bullet in one leg. He still
had hold of the one pirate still standing with gunshot began raining
down on us all. Up the the crest of the ridge was another group (from
the same fleet), and many were armed with rifles. Several of our side
were as well, and they began firing back once Lady Cowperthwaite yelled
out that she recognized Wu Chang among them. Mr O'Flaherty, despite his
wound, ran toward the bad guys. Which is what I was doing, though he
had a head start on me. I was also trying not to outrun Wilhelmina, as
I meant to shield her from any bullets.
Something odd happened. I was running in front of Wilhelmina, but as I
said, not trying to outrun her, when suddenly the world moved. One
moment my foot was coming down on one piece of ground, the next it
touched down, but about six feet to the left of where it had been. I
glanced back, and Wilhelmina was right behind me.
And a bullet gouged a hole in the turf some distance behind us… but
about six feet to the right of our present line of motion.
Something moved both of us out of the path of the bullet, somehow, I'm
quite certain. But I can't figure out what could do that.
Mrs Salmalin and Major Powell were raising power and casting a spell. A
sorcerer or sorcerers with the pirates was doing the same. Water
spouted out of the ground right beneath Sir Spencer. But up on the
ridge, a rock wall rose up in front of the pirates.
The firing stopped. By the time we reached the ridge (where Mr
O'Flaherty was leaning against the rock wall), we realized why. Five of
the pirates were dead--one of them blown to two pieces thanks to Sir
Spencer's elephant gun. The others had fled down the mountain side.
Mr O'Flaherty had not chased them because we could clearly see at least
six ships flying the flag of Wu Chang's fleet down in the cove below.
No telling how many more armed men were down there.
Wilhelmina made Mr O'Flaherty sit down so she could attend his wounds.
Mrs Salmalin and Major Powell tried some more magic to disable the
fleet, though I don't know if it was successful.
While we were attending the wounded, several men from Sir Ephraim's
group had ridden out on horseback. One of them, Mr Monroe, was wearing
Japanese-style armour and swords. His aura was odd--though it seems
everyone's aura is odd on the island. Mrs Salmalin, for instance, has a
very obvious twinkle of Faerie when you look at her, which isn't
normally visible elsewhere. While Lady Cowperthwaite's aura reveals
both her connection to Kali and Ravanna. Mrs Cuthbert referred to Mr
Monroe as "another immortal" while commenting that we seemed to be
encountering a lot of them.
Mr Monroe sent one of the men, a Mr Mercer (also wearing swords, though
European in design) back to the camp for assistance. He offered to take
the surviving pirates prisoner, since (he said) their ship, HMS Icarus, was closer.
Lady Cowperthwaite and Sir Spencer both wanted to get back to our ships
as soon as possible, to warn them about the pirates and to figure out
what to do next. We went northing, staying up on the ridge so we could
keep an eye on the pirates. They set sail, toward the south. When we
got within sight of Selene
and Foxglove, Mr
Caine and Lt Wooster fired some signal rockets.
And then we found ourselves surrounded again. By a bunch of the Little
Men, just like the one who was travelling with us. They sang a strange
song in their native language… and kept multiplying. Then it bagan,
there were eight of them. By the end of the song there were over sixty.
I am fairly certain that all but the original eight were simply Faerie
Glamour, but as we learned from both Schmidt and Miss Mitzi, Faerie
Glamour is more than just illustion.
Before the Little Man with us could explain anything, someone else ran
out of the woods. Natesh. I mean, Albert. He babbled at the Little Men
in gibberish that sounded something like their language, with a few
English words thrown in. Mr O'Flaherty's name came up several times.
Wilhelmina jumped on him and hugged him as if he were some kind of
hero. I started to get out the manacles, but decided now was not the
time to start that argument, again.
He welcomed us to 'Loompa Land' and told us that the little men were
called Oompa-loompas. He babbled at us for a while. The important bits
were that: Pellew and the rest of his crew are alive at the village of
the little men. Unfortunately their ship, HMS Arabis, has been stolen
by the pirate Captain Tiberius and his crew (including the other Mr
O'Flaherty--who the Oompa-loompas call 'The Bad Oflaherty'). And Albert
thinks it's only February 5, which means that Pellew doesn't realize
he's overdue back at Port Victoria.
It was decided to split into two groups, one will continue back to the
ships with the news, the other will go to the village to meet Pellew
and the rest of his crew. Wilhelmina was determined to go to her father
right away, no matter what, and as Sir Spencer and Lady Cowperthwaite
both pointed out, retrieving the Arabis crew is our current mission.
We bid farewell to the others and continued north: Sir Spencer, Mrs
Cuthbert, Mrs Frazer, Lt Wooster, Mrs Wooster, Lobsang, Wilhelmina,
MacGyver, and myself.
Before we met the village we finally encountered one of the Giant Wasps
mentioned on the maps. It is very big, more than a foot long from snout
to stinger. Wilhelmina tried to shoot one that came after us, which
just brought a swarm. But the swarm was driven off before we had a
chance to try the smoke bombs.
Mr Wonka is on the island, and has joined up with Pellew's crew. Mr
Wonka used a Cinnamin Cannon, which makes your eyes water for quite a
while just being near it. Davy Hawkins is here, too. Apparently he and
Mr Wonka was tricked into booking passage aboard Captain Tiberius'
ship. They thought they were going to Australia, but Captain Tiberius
was trying to get to the island, and he needed a sorcerer to open the
portal. They found two sorcerers in Singapore: Mr Wonka and a Professor
Oddbody.
Davy tells us that Mr Wonka tried to explain that he thought the portal
didn't look right, but Tiberius insisted. So Mr Wonka opened it, and
the ship fell down into the water, which changed into clouds.
Wilhelmina made Davy describe it in detail, so she could draw a better
map.
Pellew and his men have been trying to build a new boat to sail back to
Port Victoria. They've made amazing progress in only four days. Pellew
suggests that we return to Selene
in the morning, after everyone has a chance to sleep. The Oompa-loompas
insist we stay for a feast, in any case.
We were walking from the riverbank where the boat is under
construction. The stars were coming out. Lt Wooster was pointing out to
Mrs Wooster how pretty they were when we saw it: a shooting star
streaking across the sky, getting brighter and larger. It vanished
behind the southern horizon. There was a flash of light, a few moments
later we heard the boom.
Mrs Cuthbert had gasped as soon as she saw the streak. The aura, she
said, was unmistakeable.
The Fist of Shiva has fallen back from the Heavens.
Curator's note: The dates recorded by the various
witnesses to the strange events of this chronicle do not agree. This
discrepancy occurred to other parties spending time on the so-called
Island of Souls (cf. "The Wreck of the Cumberland" by Matthew
Flinders). It has been theorized that the passage of time in the
vicinity of the island varies from that in the rest of the world.
Observers in the Bond party put the events chronicled above on
the twelfth day of March, for instance.
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