After some time, the wind ceased, leaving a steady drumming of rain and a sense of peace.
Razi shifted and stretched a little. His limbs felt stiff and his palms stung from clinging on to the rock. “Are you OK, Shifa? I think the worst has passed.”
Shifa nodded, water dripping off the end of her nose. “I hope Zheng’s all right, wherever he is.”
“They’re experienced seamen. I’m sure Marco would have made it to shelter in time, so he’ll be fine.”
“I hope you’re right.” After a pause Shifa said, “Are you OK?”
Razi watched the raindrops pelting into the sea, forming little tumblers of water round each.
“I was wondering about earlier…” said Shifa. “You’re not afraid of the water any more. Are you?”
The rain pattered down around them as Razi struggled with how to explain. “I was never afraid of it.”
Shifa turned to him, listening.
“I-I don’t know how to describe it. I wasn’t afraid of the sea. I didn’t think I was in any danger. I just … disliked it. Intensely.”
He thought she might find that odd, but she didn’t.
“And?” she said.
“And when I finally went back in the water and saw the whales today, I realised how much I had missed it. How happy it made me.”
He had forgiven the sea. There’d be no more Father. There, he’d said it. Father was never coming back. It was time for life to go on without him, and to go back to the thing that had taken him away.
The storm petered out later that evening, leaving everything dripping and sodden. Razi had no idea how long they’d been there. He stood up and stretched. The sun had dipped too, leaving a trail of stippled oranges and purples on the horizon. The water had receded from the islet and the boat was once again resting on the sand beneath the coconut trees.
Razi sneezed. His fingers were shrivelled up like namnam fruit.
“Come on,” said Shifa. She was making her way carefully down the cliff. “Let’s see if there are any dry clothes.”
“Coming.” He picked his way down to the boat, where Shifa had already got the basket out from under the waterproof and found it was mercifully dry.
“We need to get changed,” she said. “But I can’t find a single dry spot of ground anywhere.”
In the end they sat in the boat for the night, even though not much of it had escaped the rains. The night was dark but everything was bathed in moonlight.
Razi found the last remaining mangosteens and some crispy rosette cakes that were squashed at the bottom of the basket with a few slabs of sesame toffee.
“We should leave as soon as possible in the morning,” said Shifa. “Before Marco comes back. We’ll need a new plan after that.”
The rosettes were crispy and sweet, and Razi crumpled a whole one into his mouth. He didn’t like the idea of leaving without the treasure. But Shifa was right. They couldn’t rescue Zheng here. “We’ll leave first thing.”
They curled up on either side of the boat, looking up at the stars through the trailing canopy of coconut branches.
Razi closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He knew there was something familiar about that oval shape on the map, something that blurred at the edge of his mind and wouldn’t become clear. But no matter how hard he puzzled, he couldn’t work out what it was and the frustration of being so close to the treasure and yet so far from finding it kept him awake long after Shifa had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep.
The sound of egrets squawking overhead woke Razi the next day. Tiny fingers of daylight crept through the canopy of branches, and waves slapped hard against the rocks. Shifa was still sleeping, her head resting on the side of the boat. A brand-new day was dawning, as if the storm had never happened at all.
He shook Shifa awake. “Come on. Let’s take the boat to the back of the island this time,” said Razi. “There’s a small stretch of beach there that we can leave from, and it’s covered by the cliff too. If Marco were to come the same way as yesterday he wouldn’t see it.”
Shifa took out the basket, spade and waterproof sheet to reduce the weight and together they struggled round the island with the boat and moored it with the rope.
Razi looked out to sea, squinting against the just rising sun. The sea sparkled in silvery blue, and a large turtle was making her way up the beach. Razi ran down to meet her, the salty spray waking him up at once.
The turtle was massive, the length of a grown man. She had a thick wizened head and a black leathery shell. She fluffed the sand as she walked up the beach with her rubbery front flippers.
“Hello, hello!” Razi walked beside her up the beach. “I’m Razi, what’s your name?”
The turtle ignored him and settled down on the sand, where she lay sunning herself, occasionally moving her head as if to catch the best rays.
“Looks like you’re a regular here then,” said Razi, watching her with amusement. The turtle seemed very comfortable.
The islet was bright and vibrant as the sun slowly rose, freshly washed after the storm, all its colours sparkling with a new lease of life.
“The size of that!” Shifa came up behind him, rubbing her eyes. “I’ve never seen such a thing. Do we have them on Serendib?”
“Yes, she’s a leatherback turtle.” Razi pointed to the ridges on her back. “There are loads on Serendib if you’d ever just come down to the sea and look. See, she has a rubbery shell, not the hard type like the other turtles.”
Shifa shrugged. “Come on, Razi, let’s get going. We’ll eat on the way.”
Razi went off to wash himself in the sea. As he approached the shore, he squinted at something on the beach nearby, lying on the flat rock where they’d read the map yesterday. Was that…? His scalp began to prickle.
“Shifa!” he yelled. Razi raced down to the rock. A crumpled figure lay there, wet and encrusted with sand.
Razi stopped short and stifled a scream. It was Zheng. He seemed to be asleep…
Shifa thudded up behind him. With a sharp intake of breath she dropped to her knees and lifted Zheng up by his shoulders.
“Zheng! Zheng, it’s us! Look, Zheng! Open your eyes.”
She banged on his back with her palm.
Zheng tried to roll away from her but was clearly too weak.
Shifa breathed a sigh of relief and stopped hitting him.
Zheng coughed and opened his eyes slightly and closed them again. Then he opened them fully and stared at something over Shifa’s shoulder.
“Let’s get him to the boat,” Shifa said to Razi. “We have to get out of here fast.”
Razi jumped up at once.
“No,” said Zheng hoarsely. He pointed behind Shifa, and tried to say something else. He looked weak and exhausted.
“It’s OK, Zheng,” said Shifa. “We’ll talk in the boat on the way back. We have to leave now.”
Zheng shook his head violently. His eyes were glazed and unfocused. He pointed again and again, and said something unintelligible.
Razi put Zheng’s arm over his neck so he could help him to the boat. The boy resisted at once.
“Follow the turtle,” Zheng croaked.
Razi paused, gobsmacked. “What did he say? Follow the turtle?”
Shifa shrugged. “He must be delirious. Quick, let’s get him to the boat.”
But Zheng wouldn’t move and kept pointing to the turtle. He rasped something that sounded like follow again.
“We don’t have time for this,” said Shifa, looking panic-stricken at the sea. “They might come back at any minute now that it’s light.”
“I left the map on the cliff! I’ll have to go and get it.”
“Oh, Razi, you idiot!” cried Shifa. “Please hurry. And see if you can see Marco’s boat while you’re up there.”
Razi hared up the cliff as fast as he could. He found the map where he’d left it the previous evening. It was perfectly dry, protected as it was in Shifa’s case and nestling safely in the crevice.
He went to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the horizon for Marco. But there was no sign of anyone.
He could see Shifa kneeling next to Zheng on the beach. The sea roared and white-crested waves raced in and out just by their feet. The giant turtle rested on the side, the ridges on her back glinting in the morning sun. In the water now and then a whale surfaced, with its booming deep water sound, shooting out jets of water high into the air. Pods of dolphins vaulted in curving arcs, soaring and splashing in an endless display.
Razi’s breath caught in his throat. He’d seen something amazing. Something hidden in plain sight. The thing they’d been looking for all this time.
He took out the map and opened it, holding it up next to the scene in front of him.
It matched perfectly.
And just like that, everything cleared in Razi’s mind.
He knew exactly where the treasure was.
“Shifa!” Razi waved his arms at her and started to run down the cliff. “Shifa, I’ve got it!”
She looked up and held her hair out of her face while the breeze whipped her words this way and that. “We have … go now. What … you doing?”
“I know where it is! I know where the treasure is buried!” he yelled, slipping and sliding down the muddy cliff.
Shifa looked exasperated.
“The turtle!” he yelled again.
Razi hurtled to a stop in front of his sister and held up the map with shaking hands.
It was all as clear as daylight. The oval-shaped object on the map was on the beach now. The elongated shape and the seven ridges on the turtle’s back perfectly mimicked the pattern on the shape in the map.
Shifa gasped. “The landmark was a moving one! A turtle.”
“That’s what Zheng was trying to tell us!”
They looked at Zheng, lying on the beach. “Finally,” he croaked. He bent over and coughed up some water.
After he’d fetched the spade, Razi helped Zheng to where the turtle was. Zheng was looking much better from earlier, though still very quiet.
The turtle continued basking in the sun, completely ignoring the children.
“Er, what do we do now?” said Shifa. “We need her to move.”
Razi scratched his head. The turtle was massive, weighing as much as ten men.
“Could we give her a little nudge?” said Shifa. “Just to encourage her to move. I’m all for letting her enjoy her daily ritual, but it is a matter of life and death that we get out of here fast.”
“No, no nudges,” said Razi. “I think they bite. They have really strong jaws.”
“That settles it then,” she said. “We’ll wait.”
“Well, the boat is ready to sail. As soon as she leaves we dig for the treasure and run. If Marco comes before that, we run too. And maybe come back once he’s off our backs.”
“I can’t believe this,” said Shifa. “If we weren’t here at sunrise we would have missed everything.”
“You know, the rising sun in the map,” said Razi. “That’s what it was indicating. That the map is right at sunrise.”
Zheng nodded. “I think…” he said, still a little hoarse, “I think the turtle comes here every sunrise, and leaves after a while.”
“And the captain’s words to you!” said Razi. “Follow the turtle, it leads you to good things. He meant it quite literally!”
Zheng gave a sad smile.
“How did the captain know that the turtle would keep coming back to this same spot? What if she settled on a different place? What if she stopped coming?”
“He was born around here, wasn’t he?” said Razi. “Maybe he’d seen her before. And we don’t know much about turtles. I mean, they somehow come back to the same beach to lay their eggs as much as twenty years after leaving as newborns. Or maybe this particular one is a creature of habit and the captain knew it. They do live a long time too, so he guessed she’d keep coming and be a good marker for the treasure. Who would ever think that’s what the map showed?”
“Yes,” said Zheng. His face had regained some of his usual animation and he seemed to be getting his voice back too. “I think this one was coming here during the captain’s childhood, and when he saw her when he came with the treasure he must have got the idea to bury it in her spot.”
Razi stared admiringly at the leatherback, a living marker for one of Serendib’s most prized possessions.
The turtle started to move off back to the sea. Razi couldn’t be sure but he thought she looked annoyed. He couldn’t blame her; she’d wanted a bit of peace and quiet and here they were having a whole conversation over her head.
Razi struck the ground with the spade as soon as she’d left.
The sand was damp and clumpy and Razi had to dig hard. While he worked, Zheng explained how he’d escaped from Marco. Razi looked with admiration at his sister when Zheng got to the part about the knife. Shifa shrugged as if she did such things every day.
“You’ve had the most awful time, Zheng,” said Razi, digging hard.
“Tell me about it,” said Zheng. “And you know the worst part? I was gagged and so for hours and hours I couldn’t talk.”
Razi and Shifa stared at Zheng, not sure if he was joking. Zheng was making outraged gestures as if he were deadly serious.
The sand was soft and yielding, and the spade slid easily through it. While Razi worked, he and Shifa updated Zheng about their adventures, about fighting off Marco and about Maalu. Soon he was standing in a mound of sand. How far down could the treasure be? His arms were starting to hurt but he kept digging furiously.
And then the spade hit something.
“Yes!” exclaimed Zheng, peering into the hole. “This is exactly how I felt when we unearthed a sultanah’s hidden diadem too…”
Razi’s arms were trembling with excitement now. He jumped into the hole and touched the bottom. Something was there. He pulled the spade in and dug some more. There was definitely something hard in the sand.
He moved the packed sand away with the spade, digging down the sides to reveal a small box about two hand spans in size. Shifa and Zheng jumped in after him and they all dug around the box with their bare hands.
It was hard work getting the box out but eventually Razi lifted it out of the hole and laid it on the ground.
The captain’s treasure chest stared back at them.
The three of them looked at each other and broke into peals of laughter.
“We did it!” said Zheng, grasping Razi and Shifa and pulling them into a happy jig.
“Let’s look inside,” said Razi, scraping off a layer of sand on top with his fingers. Shifa blew off the rest, revealing an intricately carved lid.
“That’s pretty,” said Shifa, as Razi slid his fingers under the lid to prise it open.
Zheng looked on with a faraway expression.
It was a square wooden box of teak, thick and well made, with beautiful lotus carvings on the top.
The lid wouldn’t move. Razi tried to lift it but it wouldn’t budge.
“Maybe it slides off,” said Zheng. He pushed the lid sideways and it moved stiffly, chunks of sand falling inside as it opened.
Before it was even fully off they could see that this was the captain’s hidden treasure.
It was the Dagger of Serendib, the hilt carved and topped by a roaring lion head, now tarnished by time. Razi lifted it carefully out of the box. There was something emotional about seeing it, in spite of its dullness, as if they were handling a living piece of history. Razi passed it to Shifa to see.
The rest of the box was full of roughly shaped coins and a few small trinkets. Zheng scooped up a handful and examined them.
A scuffle behind him made Razi start, and Zheng dropped the coins he was holding.
“There they are!”
Razi yelled as Marco knocked him out of the way. They’d been so engrossed in the treasure they’d forgotten to look out for the men.
Shifa put the dagger roughly into the box and slammed
the lid shut. She picked the box up but Marco snatched it out of her hands.
“So you pests survived,” said Marco, cradling the box greedily. He stared at Zheng. “You! How did you get here?”
Cook smirked as he came up behind him. “We should be thanking them. They’ve done all the work for us.”
Marco tried to open the box’s lid but couldn’t prise it off so just held it under his arm.
Suddenly Razi jumped on Marco and tried to wrestle the box out of his hands, but Cook grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him off.
Marco pounced on Zheng. “Well, what a great thing this is!” he said, dragging a squirming Zheng away with one hand, the box tucked under the other arm.
Cook held Razi and Shifa back but Shifa broke free and ran after Marco.
“Fine, you can keep it!” she yelled. “But leave Zheng. You’ve got what you wanted.”
The man stopped for a moment and laughed. “I don’t think so. He’s caused us an awful lot of trouble and needs to be punished for getting in our way.”
“You can’t do that!” said Razi. If the men left now, that would be it. They wouldn’t have a clue where they’d take Zheng or what they’d do with him.
“And by the way.” Marco turned back suddenly, leaving Zheng gasping in his grip. “If I see you two interfering one more time, I’m going to kill you. Understand?”
Razi stared at him, thinking. He knew the real reason Marco was leaving them there. The men, powerfully built as they were, knew they couldn’t control three struggling children. And Marco thought they’d lost their boat, so they couldn’t raise the alarm or even leave the island. They’d have to be rescued, by which time the two men would be long gone.
Razi turned back to Shifa and tried to send her a message with his eyes. Cook looked at him suspiciously, wondering why he’d given up.
Razi glanced towards their boat, lying ready in the sea and hidden by the cliffs. Then he threw back his head and yelled, kicking and punching Cook. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shifa slip silently away while Cook was distracted.
The Boy Who Met a Whale Page 7
