Suddenly, it was as if the submersible had been slapped by an angry giant. It bucked, then plunged, and Aubrey's reflexes were tested again. He needed both hands to steady himself as the Electra wallowed in seas made angry.
'What happened?' Sir Darius shouted over the klaxon. Aubrey had grown to hate the noise. The thing crowed, as if it was making the most of its day in the sun.
Captain Stephens lurched back to the periscope. 'We must have hit the cruiser's ammunition store. It's gone down.'
'The freighter?'
'Damaged, sir, but still afloat.'
Sir Darius's face was grim. 'Let's see if we can rescue any survivors from the cruiser.'
SIR DARIUS, ROKEBY-TAYLOR, GEORGE AND AUBREY STOOD on the deck of the Electra with some of the submersible's crew.
The sailors on the freighter released boats in good form. They showed no signs of panic, even though thick black smoke was pouring from the stern of the ship, adding to the smoke from the remnants of the cruiser.
Aubrey looked in that direction and felt hollow at the destruction. No-one could have lived through that explosion. A slowly spreading oil slick was staining the surface, disrupted by gouts of air, huge eruptions of spray and an assortment of boxes, crates and floating objects that bumped about in an incongruously carefree manner.
Aubrey couldn't help but be saddened by the loss of life. How many sailors went down with the cruiser? Surely not all of them were criminals or evildoers. They must have had families, homes, loved ones.
With a bleak heart, he turned back to the freighter.
Six lifeboats pushed off. No-one was left on deck.
'We'll need to help them come alongside,' Sir Darius said. 'We shouldn't leave them to battle the swell.'
The Chief Petty Officer ran to the tower and relayed this to the control room. The diesel engines began to roar. The Electra was relatively good on the surface – for a submersible. She'd never win a speed or manoeuv-rability contest, but the submersible doggedly ploughed through the waves.
'Ropes and grappling hooks!' Sir Darius called. Sailors at the conning tower signed their understanding and disappeared.
Up close, the freighter looked more than crippled: it looked terminal. Choking black smoke enveloped the whole bow and loud grinding noises came from below deck, as if a foundry were being wrecked by clumsy, if enthusiastic, giants.
Sailors poured out of the Electra's tower with rope and hooks. Aubrey and the others moved back to allow the trained seamen to do their work.
Not standing on ceremony, deckhands pushed past and went to the other side of the submersible. With Albionite efficiency, they roped in the lifeboats. The merchant sailors were hauled aboard and stood on the deck, bewildered by the turn of events.
Aubrey stared. One of the boats was full of crates. Who would have risked their lives to load goods into a lifeboat at a time like this? The boat was overladen, to boot, and wallowed dangerously close to capsizing as it was hauled closer to the submersible.
The merchant sailors rushed to the rails with evident concern as the last lifeboat was brought close. When the two survivors were helped out onto the submersible there was a ragged cheer.
It was then that Aubrey saw that the two survivors were female. He gripped the rail, unable to believe what he was seeing. Then he jumped up and down, hallooing wildly.
George and Rokeby-Taylor stared at him. His father, though, had seen what he'd seen. He stood there with a look of profound surprise on his face.
One of the survivors was Aubrey's mother, Lady Rose Fitzwilliam. The other was Caroline Hepworth.
THE WARDROOM WAS PACKED, AND THE CAPTAIN HAD opened it up to the corridor through an ingenious system of folding walls. Aubrey had anticipated the crush and had done his best to sit close to Caroline. By her actions, she had also anticipated it and had manoeuvred herself to keep a respectable distance. The shifting, excusing and rearranging this caused went on for some time before Sir Darius called a halt, advising those outside the wardroom to find any space they could for the journey home. The last to find a place was Rokeby-Taylor, who chattered excitedly to anyone who'd listen about how well the Electra had performed – simply ignoring the bizarre episode with the batteries.
Sir Darius had managed – very smoothly, Aubrey noticed – to come to Lady Rose's side. He stood with his hand on her shoulder. The look they gave each other was so full of meaning that it fascinated Aubrey. There was reproach, bafflement and relief – from both sides – and a thousand questions demanding to be asked, with an understanding that they could wait until later.
They didn't speak a word.
Caroline's hair had come loose in the chaos of fleeing the freighter, Aubrey noticed. She had a blanket around her shoulders and looked angry, as if personally affronted by the goings-on.
In all the manoeuvring in the wardroom, she hadn't directly looked at him once, whereas he found it hard to stop staring at her.
What were you doing on that freighter? he wanted to ask. Are you all right? Why aren't you in the Arctic?
But he knew these were really trivial excuses to avoid asking the most important question, the one that mattered most: Have you forgiven me?
'Coincidence?' Lady Rose said, answering her husband's initial question. She put down her cup of tea. 'Perhaps your stumbling on us was a coincidence. But the attack wasn't. They were Holmlanders and they'd been waiting for us.'
'Holmlanders?' Sir Darius said. His voice was steely and Aubrey knew he was furious. 'They flew no Holmland flag.'
'No, but I can tell a Holmland accent, even over a megaphone.'
'They hailed us,' Caroline said, fuming. 'They came alongside and hailed us. Demanded we stop and be boarded.'
'The captain would have none of that,' Lady Rose said. 'He tried to outrun them.'
'The first shell took out the bridge,' Caroline said. 'The captain was killed.'
'And then you arrived,' Lady Rose said.
'But why do you think it wasn't just opportunistic? Was the freighter carrying valuable cargo?' Aubrey asked.
'Valuable cargo?' Lady Rose said. 'Just the specimens we salvaged from our expedition. Seabirds, mostly.'
'From one disaster to another,' Caroline said. 'We were lucky to save anything at all.'
'But what were they after, then?'
Caroline looked at him for the first time. It was a look of impatience and incredulity, and it made Aubrey feel quite weak. 'Why, your mother, of course.'
Five
A WHOLE DAY OF APOLOGIES, ACCUSATIONS, HAND-waving, finger-pointing and promises didn't help Aubrey cope with the effects of his spell-casting exertions. As a major witness to the Electra's near-disaster, instead of resting and recuperating, he joined his father in meeting after meeting. Top navy personnel, senior Magisterium operatives and embarrassed Special Service agents all wanted to document and argue over the events of the submersible's sabotage.