Understand the Unknown by K. A. Applegate
"It'll be easier here," I said. "Smoother ride."
"Unknown dangers," April added, undecided. "Loch Ness Monster, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla."
"I think Godzilla hangs off the coast of Japan, April," Jalil pointed out, allowing himself a small smile. "In the real world. In B-movies. Besides, do you have a better suggestion? Does anyone?"
"Do you know what a floater is, David?" Christopher asked suddenly. "Do you? Well, I'll tell you. It's a body that's been drowned and left in the water for hours or days. It's black and putrefied and bloated and. damn near unrecognizable as human. We came way too close to being floaters when Neptune bad his little temper tantrum. No more. I, for one, would like to leave a good-looking corpse. Especially if I'm going to be dying young, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to be doing."
"Then it's settled?" I said. "Let's go hijack some chariots."
Chapter
XIV
It wasn't hard to find the stables. For one thing, we followed the kind of pleasant smell of hay. Not really hay, of course, but some sort of seaweed Neptune's stable boys fed their charges.
The stables were spotless, we saw that soon enough, but still, they smelled like any real-world horse farm.
Point to note: We could smell, our noses were working underwater, as well as if we'd been on land.
W.T.E. Again.
That's when we spotted a chariot with a broken wheel limping its way toward a huge, high-ceilinged, simply constructed building of white stone that dominated the surrounding area of Neptune's city. We took a chance and followed.
We followed it, knees raised high with each step, legs thrust out as far as possible, used our arms in a breaststroke motion, moved as quickly as we could through the water. No one stopped us, no one questioned us.
The driver of the damaged chariot abandoned the vehicle at the wide double doors of the stable and handed the reins to a human boy who proceeded to lead the two medium-sized turtles and their chariot to a smaller, ancillary building, long and low. "So, General MacArthur, sir?" Christopher whispered. "Now what? Like, if we run into any really large mermen on guard duty?"
"I think it's pretty obvious," Jalil said. "We knock them out.
Correction. Davideus knocks them out with the flat of his sword."
Which is what I did. It was the only way.
April and Senna walked right up to Arnold Schwarzenegger and his equally large friend and started to flirt. It took a few minutes for the tactic to work. Both girls are attractive, I'll admit, in my opinion above average, though in very, very different ways — April is the sun and Senna is the shadowed moon. But compared to the mermaids we'd seen, and given the merpeopie's obviously well-fed egos, these guys had to be coaxed into paying attention to Earth women.
But it worked and while the big mermen were chat ing, Christopher, Jalil, and I snuck around and behind. I nailed Arnold and they each grabbed one of the other's arms. Quickly, I motioned for April and Senna to look for someplace to tie them to. Not like we could tie their feet together. They didn't have feet.
When Arnold and friend were bound and gagged and Jalil af irmed that the coast was clear, we headed farther into the huge stables.
The central space of the building was about the size of a commercial airline airplane hangar. In that space, in discrete areas, were parked chariots, piles of wheelwright equipment, and various workstations.
Along three of the walls were stalls, some more than ten feet across, for the numerous sea creatures in Neptune's service. The floors of the stalls were covered with thick layers of scattered vegetation, for warmth and comfort. Each stall had a feeding trough made of some nonporous material I didn't recognize.
As Jalil had said, the place was empty of people, alien or human or legend. No stable hands. Maybe it was lunchtime, break time, maybe the stable hands were off celebrating with their buddies in the arena. In any case, good luck for us, something there was way too little of in Everworld.
In some of the stalls, eating or sleeping, were the animals used to pull Neptune's chariots. Massive sea horses with thick, regally arched necks, absurdly tiny, translucent wings or flippers at their sides. Sea horses in bright fluorescent colors like fuchsia, acid green, hot orange, brilliant yellow. Dolphins, much larger than their real-world counterparts, gleamed in their shiny silver skins. A hot-pink giant squid. tentacles pure white, the suction devices that lined them scarlet. Impossible.
And then there were the chariots. Maybe about fifty in all. All large, though some larger than others. Made of bronze with silver trim and what looked like traces of gold on the scenes sculpted on the chariots' high fronts. Several were also encrusted with jewels, mainly pearls, or bits of sea glass in translucent blue and green and slivers of opalescent shell. A few were elaborately painted inside, with scenes of Neptune's real or imagined adventures, both amorous and military.
Maybe not military, exactly, but scenes definitely involving Neptune shish-kebabbing someone.
It was an amazing place. Horse racing is not my thing, I mean sportswise. I'm a sailor, and though there's racing in sailing, I like more the discipline of sailing, the solitary or near-solitary nature of being alone or almost alone on an expansive body of water, just you, the boat, the water, and the sky. But there was no staying in this stable the size of an airplane hangar without feeling some of the excitement of the competition, the venerable — and debauched — history of chariot racing and magnificent animals bred for speed.
Of course, I was assuming the variety of creatures in this stable had been bred for speed, were the thoroughbreds of their steries. hut frankly. It was hard to believe that about, say, the massive sea turtles. So, maybe some of these guys had been bred for intelligence, for tricking the arrogant athletes out of the win, the assumed victory. Maybe.
Several chariots were ready to roll, animals already strapped up with harnesses and reins.
"Which chariot do we snag?"
"You mean, steal," April said.
"Okay, steal." Christopher rolled his eyes.
"We'll need two. They're not big enough to hold the five of us." And, I thought, if we just take one it definitely lessens the chances of all of us getting out.
Jalil pointed to the nearest chariot. "How about, not that one." Four turtles were already harnessed and hitched. They were easily eight feet long from blunt snout to notched tail, maybe five feet across at the widest part of their shell.
Their four legs were as thick around as three-gallon jugs and ended in dense, built-up toenails, each the size of a man's fist, toenails that would put a ratty old man to shame. Looks can be deceiving, I knew that maybe better than anyone, but these turtles just didn't look fast and we didn't have a whole lot of guaranteed positives on our side.
I nodded. "Right. We need speed, power. Okav. Jalil, Christopher, April, you three take the chariot at the far end of this row. Six dolphins."
I paused, assessed the other vehicles. "Senna and I will take the one next to it. Two giant sea horses. Let's hope they're half as fast as that four-legged horse Neptune's so in love with."
"Yeah, that wasn't too weird," Christopher said, giving an exaggerated shudder.
"Be careful, David." Jalil climbed up into his chariot, reached a hand down to help April. Looked back to me, nodded almost imperceptibly toward Senna.
He might have been genuinely worried about me, or, after all this time, still just wary, distrustful of my loyalties, but he wasn't offering to change places. No one was. Not that I would have let them. Back in Egypt I'd called Senna a pain in the ass to her face. And she was, always taunting and riling and tempting the others, the classic troublemaker.
"Speaking of dying an agonizing premature death,"
Christopher said brightly, squeezing in next to Jalil and April,
"Should we just bust out of this stable and head straight up?
What's the signal for up? What do you do with the reins to make the animals go up? Forward, I get. Right, left no problem Re
I shrugged. "I don't know. But we're gonna find out."
Chapter
XV
"Wait." I focused on the wall that was to our left. Squinted to bring what I hoped I was seeing into focus. Yes. I jumped from the chariot. "There, against that wall. Christopher, Jalil, each of you, get out and grab one of those javelins."
They got out. April, still in the chariot, raised her eyebrows.
"Uh, hello? What about me? I should go unarmed, sit around waiting for some man — and I use the term loosely — to protect me?"
Christopher grinned. "Ouch."
I followed Christopher and Jalil to that row of metal-tipped javelins. Spoke over my shoulder as I went. "If you think you can throw that thing and do some serious damage, be my guest.
Senna what about you?" I asked as I carried my javelin back to the chariot.
"I'll pass," Senna replied smugly.
I held the long, slim, throwing spear at my side, the bottom of the shaft resting on the ground. The javelin stood at least a foot above my head.
"Okay, here we go," I said, wedging the javelin between me and the front of the chariot.
Without so much as a flick on the reins, the sea horses moved slowly toward one of the walls of the stable building.
The dolphins with their chariot followed.
"Uh, chief? I'm getting the impression these fishies aren't so bright," Christopher said from behind us. "A few sandwiches short of a picnic. Shouldn't they be moving toward, I don't know, the open door?"
And that was the last word I heard because just then the wall disappeared, simply shimmered out of sight and with breathtaking acceleration that made my head snap back and Senna fall on her butt, the two giant sea horses took off.
It was unbelievable. A complete rush, like we were in a rocket ship, not a two-wheeled vehicle. I had no idea how fast sea horses in the real world could move, but there was no way any real-world animal, on land or in the sea, could match the instantaneous speed of these creatures. Not an alley cat leaping from the lid of a garbage can after a rat. Not a greyhound out of the gate. Not even a cheetah powering after a gazelle.
We flew out of the stable building, up into the air that was no air but water, out of the city, away from the arena, the colosseum. My hair swept hack from my forehead. Senna's streamed like a flag behind her. My eyes widened against the rush of water, my throat worked, gulped, struggled to remember it was okay to breath.
"Woo-hoo!" Christopher, laughing, in the chariot behind us.
"What a ride!"
"Where are we going?" April shouted as the second chariot drew abreast of ours.
"Out of here," I called. Away from here, away from Neptune's arena of blood and guts. Then, up to the surface. To dry land. Hopefully.
We hadn't even left the city behind when we heard the noise. The mournful, hauntingly beautiful, high-pitched cries of... I turned my head. Killer whales. A matched set, shiny black-and-white, pulling a much larger chariot than ours. Two mermen, one at the reins, the other hoisting something up onto his shoulder...
"Senna, get down!"
I yanked her to the floor of the chariot, dropped over her, still holding the reins, the javelin. The trident whizzed by, missing one of our sea horses by inches. The sea horse screamed, a strange sound like that of a wounded horse on helium.
"There's... six of them, David!" Jalil cried. "Six chariots, how do we outrun them, man?!
These guys actually know how to ride!"
He was right. The mermen, two per chariot, were experienced hunters, madly blowing conch shells like a call to the chase, and we were the pitiful little foxes, doomed to run until exhaustion made us drop, doomed to have our tails cut off and paraded through the city. We couldn't outrun them. Their chariots, pulled by killer whales and yeah, the turtles, were superfast. I should have known, paid attention to reverse logic.
Had to stop them some other way. Could we exhaust them?
Probably not before exhausting ourselves and our animals.
Stop thinking, David, and just go! No point in using the javelins now. No way could we take good aim, hit a target while moving at this speed into unknown territory.
"David, look!"
I saw. It looked like a tunnel, like a narrow entrance to a cave. Tear inside and what? Meet a dead end, be trapped and taken? Or maybe find a path to the surface? No, stay in wide-open spaces. Only a fool would back himself into a corner for safety.
Another trident hit our chariot with a heavy clatter. The mermen didn't share Neptune's excellent aim but still, too close.
And then, I got it. Only a fool... Neptune's mermen thought everyone but themselves fools "Jalil, follow me, make it look like you're going through the tunnel. Veer off to the right at the last minute — do you hear me, the last possible minute. I'll go left.
When I give the word."
Were our sea horses and dolphins traveling at top speed?
Were we moving too fast to pull off the feint? Would we crash and bum? No, not if I could help it. "Senna, look back. Tell me how close the chariots are to one another, to us."
Cautiously, Senna peered around my legs. "I can't tell the distance," she admitted. "But there's more space between us and them than between their six chariots. They're in a kind of bunch."
Good. The mermen's arrogance was going to convince them that we were stupid enough to trap ourselves in a dark, narrow, and unknown space. They were going to follow us in
— or die trying.
Closer now, closer. Hair streaming, sea creatures and coral formations rushing by, everything a blur. My hands tightened on the reins and I glanced over at the others. "Jalil, drop back and pull in tight behind me."
I saw Jalil yank on the reins, the dolphins jerk back, then to the left to get in place. Jalil was good, better than he thought.
Only yards ahead. My hands could sense the sea horses'
reluctance to continue straight on into that looming black hole.
Instinct, survival. But this was only going to work if it looked convincing.
"They're still coming, David," Senna cried. "Jalil's right behind us."
Closer. Only thirty, twenty, ten... "Go!" I shouted, wrenched the reins to the left, muscles straining with the effort of guiding the sea horses through the too-tight turn.
"They made it," Senna reported. "Jalil's gone off to the right."
And then we heard it. Chariots smashing, mermen shouting, animals shrieking. Our sea horses were on a solid path now, racing to the left at a forty-five-degree angle to the tunnel entrance. So I risked a glance over my shoulder.
Yes. A five-chariot pileup, just at the entrance to the tunnel.
Only the last chariot had escaped the crash, the merman at the reins trying frantically to back up the two massive turtles pulling his rig, cursing, screaming at his weapon man to keep his eyes on us. We were free. For now.
Chapter
XVI
We traveled on, Jalil and I within sight of each other, and headed in the same direction. Still racing at what seemed like top speed. I didn't know how long the sea horses or dolphins could keep the pace. Hope we'd be far, far away from Neptune and his henchmen before the animals got tired.
And then... above us, the surface of the ocean! It had to be, I could see sunlight dully glowing through the skin of the water. If we could reach the surface before the mermen — what then?
Closer to our own turf, would we have the advantage?
Up up up. I chanced a look over my shoulder. Yeah, one chariot was still coming. Even if I hadn't seen the mermen, I could hear the mad honking of their conch shells. Safe to say the sole survivors of the crash were pissed.
Up up up until... Finally, we broke through the surface of the water, like those synchronized swimmers, neatly and cleanly, with hardly a splash. Shimmering droplets of water fell graceful y from Senna's face and streamed off the backs of the sea horses as the chariot arced through the air several fee
Then, several yards to the right and ahead of us, out of our direct path, the other chariot breasted through the ocean's surface, its dolphins leaping even higher into the air before settling back half-beneath the water.
"Wooo-hooo!"
I looked ahead to see Christopher grinning, arms up over his head. Jalil, back tense, hands clenched around the reins. April, facing backward, gripping the right and left rim of the chariot walls, her face a confused mask of excitement and panic.
I didn't answer. Yeah, it was cool, but how did we keep the chariots from descending again? How did we direct our sea horses and dolphins not back to Neptune's playhouse for perverted psycho killers but onward, toward land? And in what direction would we find land, anyway?
"Christopher is such an idiot!" Senna spit out the words like a bad taste. "We haven't lost the mermen; nothing's changed."
I didn't respond. Partly because at that very moment the pursuing chariot of mermen burst halfway between our chariot and Jalil's.
Senna dropped to the floor. It was now or never. In the split seconds it would take for the turtles to land, for the chariot to right itself on the surface of the water, for the mermen to orient themselves, we could strike. It was a long shot, we could easily screw up the chance to attack, but right then, it was our only shot.
"Christopher, Jalil, April! The javelins!"
I didn't look to see if they'd heard me. If someone had taken the reins, picked up the spears, taken aim. Senna and I were behind the mermen, but we weren't going to be for long. I flicked the reins, made a sound I hoped meant "go!" and for whatever bizarre reason, the sea horses went. Fast.