Cain pushed her inside and shut the heavy door. Alicia fell to her knees and felt around behind her, searching for something to cling to. It was almost pitch dark in the cabin: the only light came from a small porthole, which years of being submerged in the sea had covered with a thick, semi-transparent crust of seaweed and rotting remains. The constant rolling of the ship propelled Alicia against the cabin walls and she grabbed hold of a rusty water pipe. It took her eyes a while to adjust to the dim light, and as she struggled not to think about the penetrating odour that filled the place, she examined the cell Cain had reserved for her. There was no other exit save the door the magician had locked when he left. Alicia looked desperately for a metal bar or some other object with which she could try to force the door open, but she couldn’t find anything. As she groped around, her hands touched something that had been leaning against the wall. Alicia took a step back, startled. The unrecognisable remains of the captain of the Orpheus fell at her feet and Alicia suddenly understood who Cain had been referring to when he spoke of her ‘company’. Fate hadn’t dealt the Flying Dutchman a good hand. The roar of the stormy sea drowned out her screams.
For every metre Roland gained in his progress towards the Orpheus , the fury of the sea sucked him underwater and returned him to the surface on the crest of a wave, engulfing him in an eddy of foam. Before him, the ship was also locked in combat, assailed by the walls of water pummelling its hull.
As he neared the ship, the violence of the sea made it more difficult to control the direction in which he was heading and Roland feared that a sudden surge might hurl him against the hull of the Orpheus, rendering him unconscious. If that were to happen, the waters would swallow him down greedily and he would never return to the surface. Roland dived through an enormous wave towering over him and emerged in a valley of murky water as the wave rolled off towards the shore.
The Orpheus loomed less than a dozen metres away, and when he saw the steel hull, tinted with a fiery light, he knew he would be unable to climb up to the deck. The only way in was through the gash the rocks had torn open in the hull twenty-five years before, causing the sinking of the ship. The opening was level with the waterline and appeared and disappeared with every new pounding from the waves. Strips of jagged metal surrounded the gaping hole, making it look like the jaws of some enormous beast. The very idea of entering through such a death trap terrified Roland, but it was his only chance of reaching Alicia. He struggled through the next wave and, once its crest had passed over him, he hurled himself towards the hole, shooting through it into the darkness like a human torpedo.
*
Victor Kray was gasping for breath as he walked along the path that led through the wild grass down to the bay. The rain and strong wind slowed him down, like invisible hands determined to hold him back. When at last he reached the beach, he saw the Orpheus in the middle of the bay swathed in spectral light. It was heading in a straight line towards the cliff. The prow of the ship plunged through the waves, the water sweeping over its deck, raising a cloud of white foam with each new shudder of the ocean. A veil of despair fell over him: his worst fears had come true and he had failed; his mind had been weakened by the passing years and, once again, the Prince of Mist had tricked him. Now, all he asked was that it wasn’t too late to save Roland. At that moment Victor Kray would happily have offered his own life if it provided Roland with even the slenderest possibility of escape. And yet he had a dark premonition that perhaps he’d already failed in the promise he had once made to the boy’s mother.
Victor Kray walked towards Roland’s hut in the vain hope of finding him there. There was no sign of Max or of the girl, and the sight of the front door lying on the beach seemed to confirm his worst fears. Then, suddenly, he felt a glimmer of hope when he realised there was light inside the beach hut. He rushed towards it, calling out Roland’s name. The figure of a knife thrower, carved from pale stone yet alive, came out of the shadows to greet him.
‘It’s a bit late to start having regrets now, Granddad,’ said the figure, and the old man recognised Cain’s voice.
Victor Kray took a step back, but there was someone behind him, and before he was able to react, he felt a blow to the back of his neck. Darkness fell.
*
Max saw Roland enter the hull of the Orpheus through the breach and realised he was losing strength with each new wave. He could not compare to Roland as a swimmer and knew that he’d be unable to stay afloat much longer in the storm unless he could find some way of getting on board the ship. On the other hand, the certainty that great danger awaited them in the bowels of the vessel grew with every passing minute and Max realised that the magician was drawing them into his lair like bees to honey.
Then came a deafening roar and Max saw a gigantic wall of water rising behind the stern of the Orpheus and approaching the ship at great speed. In a matter of seconds the impact of the gigantic wave threw the ship against the cliff face and the prow smashed into the rocks, causing a violent shock wave along the length of the hull. The mast with its navigation lights collapsed over the side of the ship, its tip plunging into the water only metres away from Max.
Max scrambled towards it, then grabbed hold and rested a moment to get his breath back. When he looked up, he saw that the fallen mast had provided him with a kind of ladder up to the deck of the ship. Before a new wave could tear it away, Max began to climb, unaware that, leaning on the starboard rail, a motionless figure was waiting for him.
*
As the force of the water swept Roland through the flooded bilge, the boy protected his face with his arms against the blows dealt him by his passage through the shipwreck. He allowed himself to be carried along by the current until a sudden surge flung him against a wall, where he managed to grab hold of a small metal ladder leading to the upper part of the ship.
Roland climbed the narrow steps, then passed through a hatch into the dark vault that housed the ruined engines of the Orpheus. He stepped over the broken machinery, reaching the passage that led up to the deck. Once there, he rushed along the corridor lined by cabins until he came to the bridge. It was a strange feeling for Roland, recognising every corner of the room and all the objects he had seen so often when he went diving. From this vantage point, Roland had a good view over the whole front deck of the Orpheus: the waves rushing over it and foaming along the platform of the bridge. Suddenly, Roland felt a tremendous force propelling the Orpheus forward and he watched in astonishment as the cliff seemed to rise up from the shadows just beyond the ship’s prow. They were going to hit the rocks.
Roland hurriedly grabbed hold of the helm, but his feet slipped on the film of seaweed covering the floor. He stumbled and collided with the old radio, then his whole body felt the tremendous shock as the hull crashed against the cliff face. Once the worst was over, he stood up and heard a sound close by, a human voice amid the roar of the storm. The sound came again and Roland recognised it: it was Alicia screaming for help somewhere in the ship.
*
The ten metres Max had to climb up the mast to the deck of the Orpheus felt more like a hundred. The wood had practically rotted away and was so splintered that when he finally reached the gunwale his arms and legs were covered in small stinging cuts. He decided it was better not to stop and examine his wounds and stretched out a hand to grasp the metal rail.
Once he’d got a good grip, he launched himself over it and fell onto the deck. A dark shadow passed before him and Max looked up, hoping to see Roland. It was Cain. The magician opened his cloak to show Max a silver object hanging on the end of a chain. The boy recognised the watch he’d lost in Jacob Fleischmann’s tomb.