The Curse of Salamander Street Read Online Free Page B

asked, as the lad appeared to struggle for his breath.
    ‘A comet crashed from the sky. It exploded above us. We had just left the dock. It was as if the world was on fire. I could smell the burning as we were bombarded. I saw them die, one by one. Their flesh fell from them …’ He spoke quietly, then slumped back to the table as if the words had taken from him all his strength.
    Crane took hold of him by the mop of thick black hair and held his head to the light. For several moments he looked at the lad’s face; then, taking a handful of skin, he tugged his flesh. ‘What did this to you?’ Crane asked as he pulled a stretch of skin away from the lad’s face.
    ‘There was a scream – I came in and …’ He gulped his breath, his eyes flickering with each re-lived moment. ‘It was the dust from the sky, it burnt as it came to earth. Everyone it touched melted, the fat dripped from them.’ As he spoke there was a sudden creaking of the deck as if a goat had dropped from the rigging and had run from stem to stern. ‘We will all burn,’ he moaned as Crane let him go and ran to the door.
    ‘Quickly,’ Crane said. The officer was melting before them, the fat soaking from his ears and trickling across the floor.
    No one dared move. Crane stopped and looked back at his men. They stared wide-eyed at the lad and then at Crane. ‘It will kill us too, Captain. The dust is everywhere,’ one said as he stepped back from the door.
    ‘We will not die from this,’ Crane replied sharply as he raised his cutlass and pulled the pistol from his belt. ‘Leave him, he’s as good as dead. I care for the living and this is a trick of hell. People don’t melt like wax dolls.’ Above his head the ship creaked again as if she would split in two.
    ‘I set a charge in the magazine,’ the lad moaned. ‘Strapped it to the gunpowder, long fuse, it will explode on the hour.’ He slumped against the table. ‘I couldn’t do anything else, had to sink her before we reached the sea. I didn’t want to die of this, I didn’t want to die away from the city. It’s always been my home …’ He gasped for breath as more of his bile seeped from his skin, soaking through his coat. ‘I always thought I would die from a Frenchman’s bullet and that I would stare into the eyes of the coward as he pulled the trigger. That’s how the old sooth said I would see my death, staring into the eyes of a coward.’
    ‘What hour was the charge set for?’ Crane asked.
    ‘When the hands strike midnight, we will be gone. London will never see such an explosion again and the name of the Lupercal shall live on forever,’ he whispered. ‘I thought no one would come for us. We were anchored in the river for three days. I cut the ropes and set us adrift.’
    ‘I’ve heard enough,’ Crane shouted. ‘Get every man from the ship, there is but two minutes before this madman has us all in hell.’
    ‘Save the Lupercal ,’ said the lad in his last breath. ‘You could cut the charge.’
    ‘And die trying?’ Crane shouted as he pushed them all to the door. ‘To the Magenta – we must be free of this place! Run!’
    ‘We’ve been through this before,’ Thomas shouted to Kate as they all began to run. He dug his fingers deep in the palm of her hand. Kate looked towards the hatch as she ran. Taking two short paces, Crane peered up the narrow flight of steps and into the night. Kate could hardly swallow – her mouth was dried to a crust, her lips charred by a sudden desire to escape her own pounding heart. Strangely, she could taste the scent of salt and feel the chafing of the wind.
    For what seemed to be a whole watch of the night they ran. Crane pushed Kate from the galley, his eyes fixed on a square of sky that flooded through the narrow opening onto the deck. He knew that in the hold of the ship, far away in the dark depths was a charge that would soon explode.
    ‘We can make Rotherhithe by morning. There are no ghosts here.’ Crane