Voyage of the Owl

by Belinda Murrell

  ‘As the fisherfolk of Mereworth say, the boat is much safer in the harbour but you do not catch any fish there,’ Saxon added quietly.

  Fox laughed, slapping his thigh.

  ‘Right you are, lad. It would be a great adventure to get the better of those Sedah scoundrels, and my coffers are looking woefully empty at the moment,’ he said. ‘Okay, here’s the deal. Fifty gold crescents to cover my time, and the boat. That’s just to get you on board the Sea Dragon. If you get what you’re looking for, we get any extra treasure we can find. Deal?’

  Roana went pale feeling the coin pouch tucked into her waist. She knew they did not possess fifty gold crescents.

  ‘Ten crescents,’ said Saxon quickly, before anyone else could reply.

  Fox rolled his eyes.

  ‘You get the treasure, remember?’ Saxon added enticingly.

  ‘Your father’s son!’ Fox replied, chuckling. ‘Thirty crescents.’

  ‘Fifteen,’ snapped Saxon.

  Fox looked around at the four anxious, tired faces leaning towards him. Mia chattered excitedly in his ear, as if counselling him.

  ‘Twenty crescents, but you kids are on galley duty,’ Fox replied, in a softer tone. ‘Stumpy, my cook, had an unfortunate brawl in the inn last night and will need to sleep it off for a few days.’

  Saxon looked at everyone seated around the table. Ethan nodded. The girls nodded too.

  ‘It’s a deal!’ said Saxon.

  Fox spat in his hand.

  ‘Shake hands – smuggler’s honour!’ Fox ordered.

  Everyone spat in their palms and then shook hands all round. Mia crept down Fox’s arm and shook hands solemnly with everyone too. Fox leant over and pulled out a ceramic bottle from the locker beside him. He pulled the cork out with his teeth.

  ‘Let’s drink to a successful business partnership,’ Fox cried.

  Fox poured out a huge slug of brown liquid into a rather battered tin mug. He downed the whole mug in one gulp. Lily could smell the strong fumes of the liquor from across the table. Fox poured another long slug and passed it around the children.

  Each one took a tiny sip. The smell felt like it was singeing the hair out of their noses. The liquor burnt their tongues and throats. It tasted terrible. Roana coughed and spluttered. Lily gagged.

  ‘Oh, what a bunch of sooks,’ complained Fox. ‘We’ll make sailors out of you yet.’

  He grabbed the brimming mug and knocked it back, smacking his lips in satisfaction.

  ‘You’re right,’ Fox concurred. ‘It is rotgut, and will probably be the death of me. That is, if a Sedah cutlass doesn’t get me first!’

  No-one could answer. Their voices still didn’t work after the sip of rotgut.

  ‘Now I have a riddle for you all,’ Fox added mysteriously. ‘I wonder if you can solve it. Not many people seem to.’

  Fox looked around at the four children, with a challenging grin.

  ‘There is a farmer travelling to market with a fox, a delicious plump goose and a sack brimming with corn,’ he went on. ‘The farmer comes to a wide rushing river, where there is a tiny canoe moored. He can only take one thing across at a time. If he leaves the fox with the goose, the fox will gobble the goose, but if he leaves the goose with the corn, the goose will eat all the corn. How does he cross the river with everything intact?’

  The children stared at each other mystified. Their brains were too tired to work, and the riddle seemed impossible.

  ‘I told you it’s hard,’ chuckled Fox. ‘You think on it, and see if you can give me an answer by the end of our voyage. Okay, enough pleasantry. Hand over the twenty crescents, then I will show you to your sleeping quarters.’

  Roana fumbled under the table into the money pouch slung at her waist. She counted out twenty gold crescents. The pouch was woefully thin now with only a couple of coins left.

  ‘Here you are, Master Fox,’ Roana croaked. ‘Twenty crescents.’

  ‘Not Master, just plain old Fox,’ replied Fox, sweeping the coins off the table and into his pocket. ‘Follow me. The crew will be back on board soon. We’ll set sail on the ebbing tide in about half an hour.’

  Fox led the way forward, past the narrow galley and a couple of canvas hammocks. Mia rode on his shoulder, waving cheekily at the following children.

  ‘There are few luxuries on this boat,’ he said over his other shoulder. ‘You can sleep in the sail hold. Everyone takes turn in the galley and with the chores. And you, missy, had better stay out of sight until we are a long way off shore.’ He raised an eyebrow at Lily. ‘The crew don’t hold with females on board, except for Mia, of course. They reckon it brings bad luck.’

  Lily nodded and Fox turned back to open a small door, which led into a black cave. The lantern showed a pile of neatly folded canvas sails on the floor. There were a couple of round portholes, which were the centre of the owl eyes painted on the bow. Up above was a partly opened hatch leading to the deck. Mia swung up through the hatch and peered out into the darkness above.

  ‘It’s a fine night, so leave the hatch open to give you some air,’ suggested Fox. ‘If you need to pee, it’s straight over the side – easier for the laddies than the lass!’

  Fox laughed uproariously. The children smiled uncertainly. It was hard to know how to take their host.

  ‘Good night, sleep well,’ Fox grinned. ‘By morning we’ll be far from shore.’

  Fox withdrew, taking the lantern with him. Mia waved cheekily at them from Fox’s shoulder and blew them a kiss.

  Aisha whined, her tail low and her ears drooping. She was not sure that she liked Mia at all. Glad that the strange little creature was gone, Aisha sniffed around and found a sail to her liking. She turned around three times, then settled down to sleep, black-tipped nose to black-tipped tail.

  The others followed her example, suddenly feeling exhausted from the day’s adventures. Soon everyone was asleep.

  In the middle of the night Ethan woke. He felt hot and cramped in the sail hold. He stood up and explored the hatch opening with his fingers. He pushed gently, opening it wider. Pulling himself up with his arms, he hauled himself out onto the deck.

  It was a beautiful night. Stars blazed in the sky in a way Ethan had never seen before on land. He stretched and breathed deeply, relishing the fresh, clean air and the breeze ruffling his hair. The schooner was sailing. Taut with wind, the pale sails pulled the Owl skimming across the sea. The boat skipped and danced under his feet like a live creature. It was easy to believe the Owl really was flying, swooping, chasing her prey.

  Ethan lay down on his back on the hard deck and stared up at the vast star-filled sky above. A blazing white fire streaked across the sky. A lucky shooting star! Ethan closed his eyes and made a wish. He wished with every fibre in his body. He wished until his bones ached and his clenched fingernails dug into his palms.

  Then he climbed back down to the sail hold and went back to sleep.

  Lily was woken by a spluttering sound. Aisha jumped up and climbed over everybody to investigate. It was still pitch black but Aisha nudging open the door let in a strong smoky smell, and the louder sound of sizzling.

  Everyone yawned and stretched, then scrambled out of their sail nests. Lily remembered Fox’s warning about females on ships, so stayed put, but the others pushed their way out.

  The galley was small and stuffy, and hot from the fire burning in the stove. A couple of lanterns swung from the low oak ceiling beams.

  A stocky man with well-muscled arms was hunched over the iron range, wielding a small frypan that spluttered with melting butter. He opened a small door in the range and stoked the glowing coals. The man had scruffy grey hair, sticking up in tufts underneath a black kerchief. He was dressed all in black, like Fox, with a face twisted by a ferocious scowl, and wore a large gold earring.

  ‘Otto, say hello to our paying guests,’ murmured Fox, who was drinking something from an enamel mug at the table, with Mia cuddled into his neck.

  ‘Bleeding
landlubbers,’ Otto muttered under his breath.

  ‘I trust you will be polite to them,’ Fox continued. ‘By the way, what are your names? Not that I expect you to give me your real ones.’

  ‘I am Saxon of Kenley, as you know,’ answered Saxon. ‘This is Ethan, and Rowan and Aisha and, er …’

  ‘Oh yes, the fair maiden,’ Fox remembered, gently stroking Mia’s fur. ‘Tell her it’s all right to come out. We are a long way from Tiregian now.’

  Lily came out from the sail hold, holding Charcoal in her arms.

  ‘And this is Lily, and Charcoal the kitten,’ finished Saxon.

  Otto scowled even more ferociously, if that were possible. He lifted the hot frypan threateningly as if wielding a weapon. Fox lightly touched his cutlass.

  ‘Well, Otto, although they are paying customers, they’re here to help,’ Fox smiled. ‘Perhaps Rowan can take over cooking the bacon and eggs, Ethan can carve the bread and Lily might like to make a fresh pot of coffee – the kettle’s boiled.’

  ‘I had better cook the eggs and bacon,’ grinned Ethan. ‘Rowan’s not such a good cook. His mother never taught him how!’

  Roana pulled a face, but obediently started to use the large dagger to carve thick slices of bread and slather them with butter. Otto huffed over to the table and flopped down, glowering at everyone in the cabin, including Fox.

  Ethan started frying long strips of streaky bacon. When they were cooked he cracked brown speckled eggs from the basket and fried those. Under Fox’s direction, Saxon assembled thick sandwiches of hot bacon, egg and dripping butter. Lily made large enamel mugs of strong, milky coffee.

  ‘There’s not much room down here,’ suggested Fox. ‘You might want to eat up on deck. Take a couple of these up to Carl and Jack above. By the way, how did you go with my riddle?’

  Saxon and Ethan shrugged noncommittally, while Roana frowned and Lily became very interested in a small knot of fur on Charcoal’s neck.

  ‘Use those brains,’ Fox ordered. ‘That’s why you have them.’

  The children grimaced at each other. It was too early for riddles.

  Everyone filed up the narrow steps into the darkness of the cockpit. To the west, the silver moon was setting, while to the east, the pink glimmering on the horizon revealed that it was nearly dawn. Saxon took the provisions aft to the crew, while the others crept forward to find a comfortable seat on the cabin roof, between the two masts.

  The tangy salt air, the fresh morning breeze, the slap of waves on the hull and the surging of the schooner through the water combined to create a perfect setting for a shipboard breakfast. Aisha had a platter of bread crusts soaked in pan drippings, bacon rind and egg crumbs. She gobbled this up hungrily, then looked plaintively up at the others, begging for a scrap or two more.

  ‘Oh, go away, Aisha,’ complained Lily. ‘You’re worse than Saxon. I’m hungry too. You’ve had yours!’

  Aisha turned her red-golden back, her black nose in the air, and curled up in a ball with an injured sigh. Charcoal teased Aisha – playing with a crispy bacon rind, patting it with her paws and batting it around the deck, before licking it delicately.

  ‘I’m offended too, Aisha!’ exclaimed Saxon indignantly. ‘What do you mean “worse than Saxon”, Lily? I don’t stare at everyone with big saucer eyes, hoping they’ll give me food!’

  ‘Oh no?’ laughed Roana. ‘I’m sure I have seen you looking rather puppyish when it comes to dinnertime!’

  The others laughed, licking their fingers and trying to catch the last crumbs. The sandwiches were so good that no-one left any extra scraps for Aisha. They sipped on the coffee, watching the sky turn into a magnificent wash of scarlets, pinks, oranges and golds.

  ‘What do you think of Fox’s riddle?’ asked Roana. ‘It is driving me insane. I have been thinking and thinking about it, and I cannot see how the farmer can cross the river without the goose or the corn getting eaten. If he takes the fox across first, the goose eats the corn, if he takes the corn first the fox eats the goose, and so on, around and around in circles.’

  ‘There must be a clever solution,’ Saxon assured them. ‘There always is with riddles. It will come to us at some stage.’

  ‘I just hope we’re not the geese in the riddle,’ Ethan added. ‘We’re trusting Fox to help us for a pile of gold coins. Let’s hope the Sedahs are not prepared to pay him more.’

  ‘I think our Fox is trustworthy,’ Lily said. ‘He just feels like a nice man.’

  Ethan raised his eyebrows at Saxon, with a small ironic smile. But he felt reassured. Lily had a good sense for people.

  After breakfast they washed up, boat style. Saxon tied a soft canvas bucket to a long rope, which he threw over the back of the boat to fill with seawater. They sluiced the frypan and knives, scrubbing them clean. The water sloshed and slopped so much they were all soon saturated.

  The cool seawater felt so nice that they splashed and played, getting water everywhere. Saxon tipped an entire bucket over Ethan’s head, who retaliated with a full bucket of his own. Lily and Roana were not to be left out, and soon their clothes were completely soaked.

  Otto and Carl stared at them as if they were mad, which only made the children laugh more. Only Charcoal stayed well away, preferring to stay dry.

  When they had had enough of splashing and soaking, they all staggered back to the cabin roof again to lie in the sun and dry off. Saxon soon grew restless and suggested that they set off to explore the Owl. This did not take long.

  The aft of the ship was the storage hold, with a passageway down the centre, and storage bins to each side. These storage bins were used to hold the treasures smuggled from exotic lands – barrels of brandy and wine, bales of lace and silk, weapons, tobacco and chocolate. The hold was largely empty now, but faint smells lingered of the treasures brought across the sea on the Owl’s last voyage.

  Also aft was the ship’s stores, with sacks of flour and sugar, boxes of fruit and vegetables, wheels of cheese, barrels of water and rum, and sides of bacon and smoked meat. A thick watertight bulkhead, with a narrow door, separated the hold from the rest of the ship. Next were the steps up to the deck, the berths for Carl and Otto on the right and, to the left, Fox’s cabin. The captain’s cabin was small and spartan, with a narrow bunk, a small navigational desk, a couple of lockers and a washstand.

  The main saloon held the large table and benches, with the galley on the starboard side. This led to a tiny space for Jack and the cook to hang their hammocks and store their sea trunks, then at the very front of the ship was the sail locker where the children slept.

  After the adventures of the last few weeks, it was incredibly relaxing to be sailing. For the rest of the morning the children curled up on sailbags on the deck and chatted, snoozed, daydreamed and ate, while the Owl skimmed over the ocean.

  Ethan spied the laughing faces of dolphins, swimming alongside the schooner. They all rushed to the bowsprit and clung to the rigging, watching the dolphins surfing below. There was only a thin strut of timber holding their weight, and below was the dizzying, surging power of the ocean. The dolphins smiled and laughed, jumping clear out of the water as if showing off for the entertainment of the humans above.

  Aisha barked and lunged at the side of the boat, her tail wagging, unsure what these strange creatures were.

  At last the dolphins peeled away from the Owl and dived deep under the water. The children returned once more to their sailbag cushions to speculate about the Moon Pearl and the Sea Dragon. Where could they be?

  At first light, Sniffer was once again down on the beach at Ainsley, with Burgis tailing him everywhere he went. The beach was a scene of carnage – tables overturned, platters smashed, chairs broken, dead wildflowers churned into the sand.

  Sniffer scoured the sand carefully. There were hundreds of footprints, running back and forth. There were stilt marks and handprints from where the acrobats had tumbled and walked on their hands. There were animal prints from the nighttime scavenger
s who had come to clean up the dropped food.

  Slowly, methodically, Sniffer searched, snuffling and whispering to himself. Burgis always crept a few metres behind. At last Sniffer found a scuffle of prints that seemed promising, over by the overturned tables. It looked like several people had hurriedly crawled on hands and knees. Occasionally, overlaying the crawling scuffles, was a large pawprint.

  Moving faster now, Sniffer followed the tracks. On a bush he found a snagged hair. The hair was long and curly and honey blonde. He smiled, sniffing it lovingly. He tucked the hair away in his pocket, next to the other one he had found in the palace dumbwaiter.

  Sniffer observed where the four children had stood up and started to run, the prints sinking deep into the soft sand. He recognised the footprints – one set large and broad, one slightly smaller, one narrow with a high arch, one small and sturdy.

  He observed where a fifth person, a tall man, had intercepted them and then joined them. He followed the prints until they finally walked down into the sea and disappeared completely.

  Sniffer rubbed his head. He had lost them. He had lost them again. Governor Lazlac would be angry. Governor Lazlac would be furious. Governor Lazlac did not tolerate mistakes.

  ‘Where are they?’ asked Burgis excitedly, coming up next to Sniffer.

  ‘Swallowed by the sea,’ spat Sniffer. ‘Oh, for Krad’s sake, couldn’t you have a bath? You stink!’

  Down in the palace dungeons, Queen Ashana, Lord Mortimer, Willem, Marnie and their fellow prisoners had just eaten from a steaming pail of porridge, sweetened with cream and honey. This delicious breakfast had been partially disguised by an overlay of bread crusts, apple peel, strawberry tops and cherry pips.

  Once again Willem had found a crust of mouldy bread, with a floury note wedged inside it.

  My Dearest Cookie,

  Our friend Rowan safely embarked on his sea journey last night, only slightly delayed, and was most grateful for the fresh eggs you sent with him. He believes it will be two or three weeks before he returns to Tira, but he plans to bring you back a thank you gift.