The Wrath of the Lizard Lord Read Online Free

thrashing about in the water even more desperately.
    The Nautilus pitched again as something grazed along her hull. Dakkar gasped as the nose and then the fin and then the tail of an enormous shark glided past the porthole towards the men.
    ‘That’s no ordinary shark,’ Dakkar gasped. ‘It’s massive! It must be at least fifty feet long.’
    ‘Too big for . . . a white shark . . .’ Oginski said, gritting his teeth. The stain on his shirt had spread. ‘We must leave.’
    ‘But those men . . .’ Dakkar began.
    As he glanced back, he saw the shark open its enormous jaws. Two men could have stood, one on the other’s shoulders, and still not spanned the creature’s mouth. It swept a poor guard up in one bite, leaving a faint, crimson trail.
    Dakkar craned his neck to see the other two men and his eyes widened. Another shark, as big as the first, cruised lazily through the smoky haze of blood that filled the water. Dakkar screwed his eyes shut for a moment. There was nothing we could do to save them , he thought, but a pang of regret still nagged at him. He opened his eyes again. The shark had angled slightly and was now heading straight for the Nautilus .
    ‘It’s coming this way,’ Dakkar yelled as the huge jaw opened and the fish hurtled towards them. ‘Keep our course!’
    Dakkar hurried from the tower down to the front of the Nautilus . He scrabbled at the boxes that lay in the front of the submarine and pulled out what looked like a long spear with flights at one end and a ball at the other. A Sea Arrow, an explosive missile invented by Fulton. Dakkar slipped it into the chamber in the wall of the craft and then pulled back the handle, loading the spring that fired the bomb.
    ‘Oginski, should I fire?’ he shouted.
    No reply came back.
    Cursing, Dakkar bit his lip. There was no time to lose; the shark would hit the Nautilus at any moment. He stabbed the firing button with his thumb and was rewarded with a comic boing sound as the missile flew from the sub.
    Scrambling back to the tower, Dakkar just saw the arrow disappear into the creature’s gullet. Its red maw closed on the arrow and then the sea boiled with the explosion. A blood-red fog filled the water and chunks of shark thumped heavily against the Nautilus as she rolled and bucked, throwing Dakkar around the tower room like a drunkard in a storm. Oginski slid from his seat and, too weak to hold on, rolled at Dakkar’s feet.
    Dakkar scrabbled over Oginski into the seat as the Nautilus plummeted down into the darkness of the sea, spiralling like a bird diving for a fish. Her planks groaned as Dakkar wrestled with the wheel.
    Something banged against the rear of the craft and the world spun around as the Nautilus whirled nose over tail. Dakkar clung to the wheel, and Oginski’s limp body thumped against the walls, floor and ceiling as each took the place of the other. Maps, spanners, rope and anything that wasn’t tied down flew around the cabin, bouncing off Dakkar’s head. Then, in the distance, he saw the ominous outline of a shark growing ever larger.
    With a yell, Dakkar wrenched the ballast wheel and blew the ballast tanks, sending water bubbling around them. His head pounded as the Nautilus rose upward, righting herself as she went. The shark tracked the sub­marine’s path with ease. Its red mouth, lined with dagger teeth, widened as it scraped past the sub’s hull, sending her juddering to port.
    ‘See how you like this,’ Dakkar hissed. He reached up to the wall and turned a crank handle rapidly clockwise, panting as he did so. ‘Eighteen, nineteen, twenty . . .’
    The shark circled back round and Dakkar realised that it was trying to get behind the sub to bite into the rudders of the Nautilus. If that happens, we’ll be set adrift, helpless , he thought, wheeling the craft round to face the oncoming creature once more.
    The Nautilus shook again and Dakkar shuddered at the sight of the raw gums, serrated teeth and the cold, black