The Sceptre of Samnos

The Western Sea - Part 6

     The Captain considered for a while. "How many of you can we count on to fight beside us if we agree to help?" he asked the nome.

     "As I said, about sixty, but we hate the shologs so much that we will fight like three times that number!"

     "Very well," said the Captain. "I will return to the ship, explain the situation and ask for volunteers. If more than half the crew volunteer, we will fight. If not, I regret that I cannot allow such a small number of men to throw their lives away."

     "Thank you! Thank you!" cried the nomes, doing a little dance of joy. "You won't regret it, I promise you. You will be rich beyond your wildest dreams, and your names will live on in glory for ever!" They threw themselves at the Captain's feet, making him cough in embarrassment and gently push them away before returning to the ship.

     The poll of the ship's crew revealed that only fifteen men were ready to fight the shologs for a share of the treasure, but that the entire crew would fight if the wizard could somehow be disposed of. The Captain was ready to call the whole thing off and cast off from the island, but Shaun took him aside to talk privately.

     "The six of us have been talking it over," he said, "and we think it might be possible to take out the wizard. If we do, you and the nomes could take the shologs easily. What do you say?"

     The Captain considered. "I don't know. The idea of you youngsters going up against someone who can shoot bolts of lightning and destroy whole villages with balls of fire isn't one I could easily live with. What makes you think you could pull it off?"

     "Trust us, Captain," said Thomas. "We've got a few tricks up our sleeves."

     "Well, I don't like it, but you're not members of my crew so I can't stop you. Good luck and be careful."

     They thanked him and went ashore again, to where the nomes' spokesman met them. Jerry explained the situation to him and the nome nodded seriously. "I'll take you to our nearest village where we'll tell you what you need to know," he said.

     The nome, Kerrinott, led them a few hundred yards along the shoreline to where a path led inland, and then they walked in single file through the palm tree forest. As they went, Thomas moved up to walk beside the nome, the path being just wide enough to allow this. Kerrinott looked up at him, guessing that the human had more questions about the shologs. It wasn't shologs that was on Thomas mind, though. "You said something earlier about ‘living on the back of this creature.'” he said. “What exactly did you mean by that?"

     Kerrinott stared at him in astonishment. "You mean you don't know?" he asked. "But surely you've noticed that this island moves, that it swims through the water."

     "Yes, of course," said Thomas, "but that doesn't mean that the island is actually alive. I mean, by the Gods, it's over four miles long! Living creatures just don't grow that big."

     "If you say so," said Kerrinott with a smile.

     Thomas scowled at the outrageous concept, but then he remembered the legless, crocodile-like creatures emerging from their holes in the ground all covered with fresh blood. He thought about their strange jutting forward teeth. He thought about the beach with its strange substitute for sand that Jerry said bore a close resemblance to dead fish skin. Then he thought about the king manta they'd seen a few days earlier, a huge plankton eater almost as large as the ship. Just how large could a filter feeder grow, he wondered. Was there any theoretical reason why they couldn't reach four miles long?

     Then he thought of something else. The deep oceans were full of huge predators, small compared to the island creature, but still capable of making short work of the almost defenceless giant. Just how could it defend itself? Of course, he suddenly realised. The crocodile snakes! They weren't parasites, they were symbiotes. They spent most of their lives burrowing around inside the island creature, probably staying just below the surface to avoid doing it any real harm, and in return for their free meals they spent a few hours each day patrolling the waters nearby, warding off any large predators that approached. He remembered how they had clustered around the ship, prodding it and nosing it to see if it was dangerous. There could be thousands of them inhabiting this creature's body, he realised, which meant there could be hundreds in the water at any one time. If they all ganged up together, they could tackle even the largest marine predators, perhaps even a sea dragon.