Part 13 (1/2)

The monstrous mushrooms provided st.u.r.dy, woody stems that floated with ease. Squatting in the soft dirt, Nemo used a stick to sketch plans for building a simple, seaworthy craft. He took what he knew of engineering and added ideas he'd gleaned from Captain Grant's library -- from the sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci to the designs of the steamboat inventor, Robert Fulton. It was a problem to be solved through time and ingenuity, and Nemo had both.

With his cutla.s.s, he hacked down seven st.u.r.dy mushrooms. He removed the hemispherical caps, each one broader than his outstretched arms, and dragged the porous logs to a flat clearing at the sh.o.r.e of the sea.

Rather than using simple vines to lash the mushroom logs together, he took extra time to braid thin tendrils into a st.u.r.dy cord. He had no way of knowing how long he'd need this craft to last. He secured four of the large fungus caps together on the bottom of the raft to act as pontoons for extra flotation. Next he used his braided cord to tie the logs together on top.

After many hours of labor, Nemo stripped to swim in the leaden waters of the Earth's central sea; then he went back to work again until, exhausted, he crawled under a mushroom canopy to sleep. . . .

Once the completed structure was firm and stable, he looked across the cavern ocean. Seeing no end to the water, he gathered fresh supplies: ripe fruit, hard roots, even the meat from a small plant-eating dinosaur he ambushed behind the thick ferns. He still had his two pistols taken from the pirates, but so far he'd found no need to use them.

Ready to undertake a long voyage, Nemo heaved his lightweight fungus boat into the water, using shaved mushroom logs for paddles and a tiller. The raft drifted along, carried by the strong subterranean current. Behind him, the underground sh.o.r.eline faded into the distance, veiled by a mist that clung to the thick fungus forest.

Before long, Nemo found himself in the uncharted expanse of a featureless sea. The grotto ceiling above shone with pearly luminescence, far, far away, and Nemo had no stars or familiar land features to guide him. Only his dreams. . .

The hardest part was coping with the sheer boredom. For so long, Nemo had been forced to spend every waking hour on the simple business of survival, occupying himself with essential tasks all day long to feed himself, improve his life, or reinforce his defenses.

Drifting in the open sea, Nemo had nothing to do but lie back and think. He tried to determine his velocity by tossing bits of flotsam over the side, but had no fixed point of reference. Smiling, he let himself enjoy memories of his childhood days and the port of Ile Feydeau, playing card games with his father, spending joyful times with Jules Verne, competing for the attentions of Caroline Aronnax, imagining all the adventures they would have in their lives. . . .

Now he was at the mercy of the strong current, and his simple rudder could barely nudge him in one direction or another. He saw no reefs or shoals, still no sign of an opposite sh.o.r.e, or a pa.s.sage leading to the surface. He began to think he might never see the real sun again.

He was lost at the center of the Earth and defenseless in the face of whatever forces Nature chose to inflict upon him.

vii

When a pounding came at the door of his small room, Jules Verne was not asleep, though the hour was late. He'd sat by the pale light from a salvaged candle, rereading scenes from the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Tears were in his eyes from the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet, but the plotting and careful tapestry of characters made him weep as well. He wanted to publish great dramas, too -- and perhaps Alexandre Dumas could help him. He wished he could afford to buy some of the esteemed author's novels and plays before visiting Dumas in his chateau. Verne was anxious to make a good impression.

The fist hammered insistently, and Verne a.s.sumed it must be one of his literary friends, possibly drunk, possibly wanting to borrow money that Verne didn't have. He got up, grumbling, and closed his book. ”Coming, coming!”

But when he opened the door, he saw a broad-shouldered figure in the dimness of the hall. The stranger wore the striped pullover s.h.i.+rt of a sailor and tattered bell-bottomed pants, and he carried a smell of tar and sweat about him. Verne stopped, startled, as if seeing a ghost from the s.h.i.+pyards on Ile Feydeau.

”I'm looking for Jules Verne,” the man said with a gruff, Breton accent.

”I am he.” Verne drew himself up, running a hand through his tousled reddish hair, though this sailor did not seem to put much stock in personal appearances. Rough and tumble, scarred, the sailor cut a fearsome figure, and Verne swallowed hard. He took an unsteady step backward, thinking of a.s.sa.s.sins and bullies. But who would want to rob him? ”May . . . I help you?”

”You're from Nantes, then? I've been to your city and seen your father. He gave me your address here, but I've got to get back to my s.h.i.+p.”

Now Verne was even more confused. His mind whirled -- his father would never send such a man to check up on him, would he? He wished he'd been studying his law books rather than Shakespeare, just in case this ruffian reported on him. ”What is this all about, sir?” He did not dare invite the man into his small room.

”I have a message for you. And a story.” The sailor withdrew a thick, rolled-up sheaf of papers from his pocket. The pages were yellowed, curled, and waterstained, some torn. ”I worked on a fis.h.i.+ng trawler five months ago. We caught a shark, and when we slit his belly open we found a bottle inside. That bottle contained this journal -- a long one, written by a friend of yours. Someone by the name of Nemo.”

Verne's entire body went numb, and he reached out a trembling hand to take the roll of papers. As he unfolded them and looked down at the packed writing, he recognized his friend's penmans.h.i.+p. ”Nemo . . . he's alive?”

The sailor shrugged his broad shoulders. ”I expect so, otherwise he wasn't likely to write so much. Beyond that, I can't say. No telling how long the bottle drifted in the currents before the shark swallowed it. Says here at the top to deliver it to a Monsieur Jules Verne, from Ile Feydeau. That's you, isn't it?”

Stunned, Verne stepped back into his room, holding the pages as if they were a rare treasure map. ”Yes. Thank you. Thank you.”

He had no money to tip the sailor, and he hoped his father had at least paid the man something for his trouble. The stranger didn't seem to expect money, though, and turned to depart without further formalities. Verne recalled that the brotherhood of the sea obliged sailors to perform such services for each other.

Nevertheless, he was relieved when the intimidating man creaked his way down the long staircase. Verne locked the door. He moved aside the volume of Shakespeare and sat down in a cold sweat. A strange amazement warmed his heart as he stared at the pages.

He read all through the night and well past dawn, astonished at the ordeals Nemo had undergone on the mysterious island. But the story came to an abrupt end after the pirate attack, without a resolution. Verne sat up, trembling, and wondered what had happened to his friend next.

viii

As the weird, unchanging days pa.s.sed, Nemo lost track of how many times he slept or ate. Estimating as best he could, he marked notches on the mushroom logs to make a crude calendar. The endless twilight pa.s.sed in a haze of monotony as he continued to drift across the underground sea.

The character of the sky began to change so subtly that Nemo failed to notice at first. But then he saw that the air overhead had acquired a swirling, oily color, as if the cavernous ceiling had trapped strange thunderclouds. To him, it looked like a manifestation of the brooding vengeance he'd held for so many years against Captain Noseless and the pirates. Fluid arcs of electricity danced about, fading and vanis.h.i.+ng . . . not exactly lightning, but pulses of electric current, discharges from some mammoth dynamo.

He sat up on the swaying raft, feeling a strong metallic-smelling wind in his face. The placid water around him had become restless. In the distance ahead, where the flow was carrying him, he could make out the frothy choppiness of a brewing storm that increased in intensity. Nemo's raft began to jostle and shake. Strange buzzing cracks cracks stuttered through the air -- not quite thunder, but something more exotic. stuttered through the air -- not quite thunder, but something more exotic.

Deep in the strangely thick water, he noticed the movement of large, shadowy shapes. t.i.tanic silhouettes. t.i.tanic silhouettes. Not far away, a slick form like the back of a whale breached the surface and then plunged down again. Nemo withdrew to the center of his raft, though it offered little protection, exposed as he was. From his brief glimpse, Nemo knew that what he had seen was no whale or cachalot.

Another jolt of eerie crackles crackles around him was broken by the sound of a huge beast emerging from the water. Its mottled back was studded with fins and armored with overlapping scales. Icepick fangs filled its long, narrow snout, like some hideous nightmare that had been the precursor to crocodiles. Black eyes like impenetrable volcanic gla.s.s stared at him. around him was broken by the sound of a huge beast emerging from the water. Its mottled back was studded with fins and armored with overlapping scales. Icepick fangs filled its long, narrow snout, like some hideous nightmare that had been the precursor to crocodiles. Black eyes like impenetrable volcanic gla.s.s stared at him.

Nemo remembered sketches of fossils from Verne's science magazines and noted that this creature was similar to an aquatic reptile called an Ichthyosaur Ichthyosaur. The hungry-looking beast swirled in the stormy water and approached his raft. Gritting his teeth, Nemo withdrew his pistols and made sure both were loaded. He also propped the long cutla.s.s in front of him.

Before the crocodile-beast could attack, however, a second prehistoric monster burst above the water, its head long and sinuous. Its arms were wide flippers, like the rudders of a boat. Seeing its compet.i.tor, the new creature struck like an oceanic dragon. It was a sea monster reminiscent of maritime legends Nemo had heard on the docks in Nantes.

This ferocious sea serpent was by no means his rescuer, though. Nemo paddled frantically, doubting he had the strength to push his boat through choppy waters while these two t.i.tans battled. The sea serpent fell upon the first monster, striking with its snakelike neck and wide-open jaws. It bit deep into the dorsal flesh of the other, which snapped back until it tore a b.l.o.o.d.y shred from a flipper-fin.

Both aquatic dinosaurs chomped and hissed. The crocodile monster thrashed again, tearing a gash in the neck of the sea serpent. But the other monster was larger and more powerful, and as the two battled, the grayish water turned crimson. The sea serpent bit hard, using its unwounded flipper to roll the other dinosaur over so it could avoid the sharp, spiny fins on its enemy's back. Then it bit deep into the soft, white underbelly.

The doomed creature squealed and splashed, but its long snout snapped on empty air. The sea serpent disemboweled it, ripping open the tough hide and spilling Ichthyosaur entrails into the stormy subterranean sea.

Its teeth bloodied, the sea-serpent struck again and again, taking a mouthful of meat each time, stripping the flesh off the cartilage and bones. As the carca.s.s sank into the red water, the sea-serpent circled.

Paddling with all his strength, Nemo had put some distance between his raft and the frothing combat. He had his cutla.s.s and his pistols, but he doubted either would be sufficient to defeat the remaining monster. As the sea serpent turned its head, its obsidian eyes spotted the mushroom raft and the young man paddling. The sea serpent glided toward him.

Nemo got to his feet, cutla.s.s in one hand and pistol in the other. He glared at the beast, as if his anger alone would be sufficient to drive it away. He shouted a blood-curdling scream. He had come too far and fought too hard to end up in a mindless animal's belly.

The wind increased, flailing his s.h.a.ggy hair around his face, but a defiant Nemo stood to meet the oncoming monster. The sea serpent circled the raft, more curious than hungry after its feast of the Ichthyosaur. The sinuous neck rose up like a mammoth cobra's.

Unflinching, Nemo pointed the pistol at what he hoped was a vulnerable point for his single lead shot. The sea serpent opened its jaws and struck as if it expected no struggle from this morsel. Seizing the opportunity, Nemo screamed another challenge and fired the pistol into the pink flesh of its mouth. The sea serpent jerked back with a roar, startled as much from the loud bang bang as from the bullet sting. as from the bullet sting.