When Haddock didn't return that night, Tintin bore the pain of his back, grabbed a walking stick and headed off to Cuthbert's. He knocked. "Hello? Haddock? Cuthbert?"
No answer. Maybe they're both asleep, the lamps are off.
He pushed open the door, its quiet creak resounding through the house. Lighting the oil lamp near the window, he swept the light over the small space.
No one there.
An unsettling weight set into Tintin's stomach. His heartbeat pounded in his chest as he ran out of the house, carrying the oil lamp in his hand.
Distant screams echoed nearby.
No. Forcing his trembling legs on, Tintin followed the lengthening shadows in the dim moonlight, his breath exploding with every step. Cuthbert—Haddock—
By the time he reached the market, no one was there.
Something glimmered on the ground and he picked it up.
A pendulum, its ball heavy in his palm.
Tears brimmed in his eyes even as a fire burned deep inside his chest. He gripped the pendulum in his fist, suppressing gasps of sorrow as he marched towards the town proper.
He may have sworn once to never harm anyone…
…but now they'd gone a step too far.
Barking.
"Milou!" Tintin gathered the bloody, dirty dog into his arms, nuzzling its sticky fur. "Oh, Milou, what had he done to you?"
Whimpering, Milou wriggled out of his arms and limped away, Tintin following close behind. As they came closer to the trader's home, Tintin blew out his lamp and left it outside. Once they reached the door they stopped.
"Now, Milou, you keep watch, okay?"
Milou barked.
Tintin placed his hands on the ground, which melted into quicksand and sucked him in its wet pit of doom. He drew in a deep breath and went under.
The sand swept him though the tunnel, pushing him down and up and flipping him around. His back twisted and screamed at him before, finally, the tunnel spat him into the house. Nausea washed over him even as he stood, leaning hard on the wall.
Where are they? Where are they?
The dim moonlight filtered though thin drapes, the rays falling on people's outlines. There's the trader, fast asleep… his whip's beside him… Crumbs, where's Haddock and Cuthbert?
Something glinted in the darkness—chains.
"Wake up." Tintin shook Haddock's shoulder. "Wake up!" Crumbs… What to do…
He bit his lip and slapped Haddock. "Wake up!"
"What—oh!" Haddock brightened, the moonlight framing his pale face. "Tintin! What are you doing here?"
"I've come to rescue you."
"What—you're mad, I tell you, mad!"
Surfacing sharp, strong rock from the ground, Tintin placed it in one of the chain links and expanded it, prying them apart and shattering them. He did the same with Cuthbert, who was still fast asleep.
"A little to the left…"
"No waking him up with whispers…" Haddock threw Cuthbert over his shoulder, grinning. "Come on. How'd you get in again?"
Tintin opened up another tunnel, arms trembling, his energy draining out of him. "Let's go!"
"Wait."
Even as wave after wave of agony shot through him, he strained to keep the tunnel open. He cut off a scream in his throat.
"Got it!" With that Haddock, with Cuthbert, slipped into the tunnel, Tintin following along. The quicksand shifted and hardened into rock behind them and one by one the tunnel spat them out. Tintin struggled to get up, his knees and elbows trembling at the effort. Wet warmth burst on his back. Agony swelled through him.
He waited for the darkness to overwhelm him, but it never came.
"Come on, Tintin, we've got no time for this!" Above him Haddock's voice echoed, bouncing around his skull.
"What's going—oh, bloody—!"
A thump and Cuthbert's complaints. Another voice rising above the rest, shockingly familiar. The trader!
Haddock jerked him to his feet, grabbing his wrist and dragging him along. His curses and bellows melded into that of the trader's. Tintin squinted at the dim alleyways around them shuddering with every step.
A female voice and an agonized yell. Someone shoved him onto nother soft bed and a yelp rang out somewhere—from himself.
"Oh, shut up!"
"A little to the left—"
Haddock lifted a lamp over Tintin, hand trembling. "You're all bloody again."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Haddock laughed. "You're a madman, a real madman, I tell you."
Nausea washed over Tintin as he turned his head to Haddock. "Why—why did he take you?"
"He takes anyone who doesn't have the seal of freedom—even those with it, once he takes the seal away. I've been so stupid as to have left it here, of all places…"
"Seal? What seal?"
A gleaming tube thin as a twig hung in front of Tintin's eyes, a metallic gold in color. "This. It's made of pure cagliostroso, very hard to find or copy. Everyone has their own unique seal—at least, those who were free."
Tintin squinted at the small object and started, wincing. "I… I have one of those!"
"You do?"
"It's over there…" Tintin waggled his finger at his belongings nearby. Keeping his gaze on Tintin, Haddock went over and rummaged in the pockets until the tube rolled out. He took it and lifted it up to the light.
"Sa—Sapristi!"
"What is it?"
Bark bark
"Milou!" Tintin reached down to his dog, fingers brushing its head. "What a good boy, he followed us all the way here."
After escaping Milou's licks, Tintin turned to Cuthbert and Haddock inspecting his seal over the fire. "Marvelous, marvelous!" Cuthbert peered at it though his glasses. "It's a work of art!"
Haddock didn't say a word but let the seal dangle for Cuthbert to see. Once Cuthbert had enough, he went over to Tintin, presenting two seals in his palms.
"What is it? Haddock, what's wrong?"
"You see this?" His voice, usually strong, was now quiet and subdued. "Look at them closely and tell me what you see."
Struggling to a sit, Tintin took the seals and rolled them in his hands, comparing one to the other. Both had swirls and small filigree carving both identical to each other. The only difference was in the central design of both.
One featured a crest of a wave, the other a mountain.
"I—I don't understand, what does this mean?"
"Familial carvings are constant."
"But—how—"
Tintin stared at Haddock, meeting his eyes. Blue ones, with the color of the sea in summer locked into those irises, flecks of silver seemingly rock in the midst of ocean blue. It seemed familiar as well…
It looked like that of his, when he looked into his reflection.
Haddock rested a hand on his shoulder and nodded.
"Great snakes."
