by Lian Tanner
“Course they will,” said Krill. “Didn’t you hear what the woman said? She was warning us, which was right kind of her. Especially after the way a certain person spoke to ’em.”
Fin reddened. “I—I did not mean to shout. But they are ignorant. That is the truth.”
“They’re scared,” said Krill severely, “and with good reason, from the sound of it. And if they’re ignorant as well, who made ’em that way, hmm? The Devouts, that’s who. Seems to me you’re in no position to go around shouting insults at folk, lad.”
Fin was a proud boy, and Petrel knew that apologies did not come easily to him. But he swallowed and said, “You are right. I am—sorry.”
Krill glared at him for a moment longer, then softened. “Ah, you’re not doing too badly, considering where you came from.”
“It is not long till noon,” said the captain. “By the time the Devouts arrive, we will be gone.” He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the village. “But I wish the people had liked us more. How are we to help them if they will not talk to us? How are we to find the Song?”
“Look at it this way, Cap’n,” said Krill. “We mightn’t have got any further with the song or the water pumps, but those poor folk told us more by their silence than they could’ve done with a thousand words. We’ve got a huge task ahead of us.”
That stopped the conversation dead, and they waited for the Maw in silence, staring out over the water. Petrel kicked at a rock, wishing Skua would hurry up and take her back to the ship, where she belonged.
Noon came and went.
“D’you think he’s forgotten us?” asked Petrel after a while. She shaded her eyes with her hand. “Can you see any sign of him, Mister Smoke? Look, over there, is the water moving?”
“That’s the tide, shipmate,” said the rat. “It’s on the turn.”
Petrel made herself wait another few minutes, then said, “He should be here by now. We’d best remind him.” She took the telegraph device from her bag. “How does this thing work, Cap’n?”
“It is quite simple,” said the captain, sounding pleased that she had asked. “I took a spark gap transmitter and changed the—”
“Sorry, Cap’n. I’m sure that’s really interesting, but it’s not what I meant. How do I use it?”
“Oh,” said the captain. “It is like banging on the pipes. You tap the key, and it sends that same tapping to the device on the bridge.”
“Dolph’ll be on duty by now,” said Krill. “Ask her what’s happening.”
But before Petrel could begin, the telegraph key began to move by itself, clicking out a message in general ship code.
At first, Petrel thought it must be a joke. She looked at Krill and he was obviously thinking the same thing. But then his smile died. Because Third Officer Dolph would never joke about something as serious as—
“Mutiny!” whispered Petrel. The word tasted so foul in her mouth that she could hardly continue. But Fin didn’t understand general ship code, not when it was rattled out fast, so she had to translate the whole message, stumbling over the dreadful meaning of it.
“Albie’s locked the First and Second Officers in their cabins and taken over the ship!”
“What?” said Fin.
“He told everyone that—that Skua came to fetch us—but we were dead—murdered on the rocks and—and the cap’n smashed to smithereens!”
“But that is not true!” said the captain. “I am not smashed. Why would he say it if it is not true?”
The tapping continued. Petrel felt sick. “Albie’s saying we should never have left the ice in the first place, and—and he’s demanding that the Oyster goes south again!”
Krill roared like a wounded sea lion. But the captain said, “Why would he do that? It is not logical.”
Petrel thought of Albie’s uncharacteristic helpfulness, and Skua’s smirk. She thought of all she knew about the Chief Engineer, from a lifetime of hiding from him. “Reckon he prefers the way things used to be on the Oyster, Cap’n,” she whispered. “With the payback and the treachery, and everyone being scared of him. Since you woke up, he’s had to take orders, and he’s not an order-taking sort of man.” She stared blindly at the telegraph. “I knew he wasn’t to be trusted. I did! I should’ve seen this coming!”
Small paws patted her shoulder. “So should we all,” said Missus Slink. “But we didn’t—”
“Hush, there is more!” said Fin, as the telegraph began to click again. “What is it saying?”
Petrel listened. The thought of the Oyster sailing south without them filled her with such horror that it was hard to concentrate. But the next bit of news was not quite so bad. “Dolph and Squid and a few others have—have barricaded themselves—on the bridge. They’ve got a bit of food and water—which means—which means Albie can’t go south! Not yet anyway—cos they control the steering—”
The tapping stopped abruptly. Petrel shook the device, but there was no further sound from it. Quickly, she sent a return message, begging Dolph not to go south without them—please not to leave without them! But there was no reply.
“Cap’n,” she said, thrusting the device into his hands, “it ain’t working! I think your spark thing’s broken!”
The captain inspected the device, then shook his head. “There is nothing wrong with it. The fault must lie at the other end, on the Oyster. A loose wire, that is all it would take.”
“So, did Dolph get my message?” asked Petrel.
“Probably not,” replied the captain.
Petrel stared at her companions, and they stared back. Krill looked as if he was going to explode. Fin’s face was deathly white. Even the captain seemed dumbfounded.
“Then, we’re stranded,” whispered Petrel. And suddenly, the countryside around her looked more hostile than ever. “We’re stranded, and the Devouts are coming.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I hoped to go to Antarctica while I was writing Icebreaker, but never made it. As a result, I was more than usually dependent on asking endless questions. Many thanks to the following people.
Professor Gustaaf Hallegraeff of the University of Tasmania School of Plant Science, for helping me work out how the Oyster might be powered; Gwyneth Tanner, for a first-person account of dogsledding; Katherine Scholes, for the loan of her Antarctic photos; Captain Simon Estella, for arranging my tour of the icebreaker Aurora Australis; Murray Doyle, Ship’s Master, for the guided tour of Aurora Australis, and for helping me work out some of Petrel’s hidey-holes; Firefighter Andrew Mackey, for reminding me that water pumped into a ship must also be pumped out; Gosta Blichfeldt, for reading the manuscript and explaining how engines, digesters, and wind turbines might work together; and Professor Pat Quilty, ex-ANARE Chief Scientist, for information about seasonal events and weather.
For editorial advice and guidance, I owe thanks to Eva Mills and Susannah Chambers at Allen & Unwin, Jill Grinberg and Katelyn Detweiler at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, Liz Szabla at Feiwel and Friends and the redoubtable Peter Matheson.
My deep and sincere thanks to the fine people at Feiwel and Friends for giving Icebreaker a home in the U.S. My particular thanks to Editor in Chief Liz Szabla, who has proved a pleasure to work with, and to Senior Creative Director Rich Deas, for designing what has to be the best book cover ever.
And finally, thanks as always to my most excellent agents, Jill Grinberg in the U.S., and Margaret Connolly in Australia.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lian Tanner is the author of the Keepers trilogy (Museum of Thieves, City of Lies, Path of Beasts), winner of numerous awards around the world, including the Aurealis Award for Children’s Fiction. She lives in Australia. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Main Characters
Prologue
Chapter 1: Nothing Girl
Chapter 2: The Frozen Boy
Chapter 3: A Stranger on the Ship
Chapter 4: As Harmless as a Seal Pup
Chapter 5: Secrets …
Chapter 6: Lies …
Chapter 7: Escape!
Chapter 8: The Fishing Shift
Chapter 9: Murder!
Chapter 10: That Is Not My Name
Chapter 11: Fever
Chapter 12: The Funeral
Chapter 13: His Treacherous Memory
Chapter 14: Your Da Was a Traitor …
Chapter 15: Some May Call Us Cruel
Chapter 16: Half a Truth
Chapter 17: A Patch of White
Chapter 18: Fin’s Ship
Chapter 19: Fire on Board!
Chapter 20: Icebound
Chapter 21: We Have Caught the Murderer
Chapter 22: An Army of Men
Chapter 23: The Maw
Chapter 24: The Sleeping Captain
Chapter 25: Brother Thrawn
Chapter 26: North
Teaser
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An Imprint of Macmillan
ICEBREAKER. Copyright © 2013 by Lian Tanner. All rights reserved. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Originally published as Ice Breaker in 2013 in Australia by Allen & Unwin.
First published in the United States by Feiwel and Friends.
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
ISBN: 978-1-250-05216-2 (hardcover) / 978-1-250-08017-2 (ebook)
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
First U.S. Edition: 2015
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eISBN: 9781250080172
