All four faces stared up at the menacing hulk of the black ship towering up there. There was something strange up there, just below the bowsprit – a terrifying shadow, poised like a large animal ready to pounce. But it was like no animal they had ever seen – a monster! They all froze, silently watching. The creature did not move, just swayed gently with the rocking of the waves.
As their eyes strained in the darkness, they could make out the ugly creature better. A large ferocious head, its mouth open in a silent roar, its many sharp teeth gleaming softly. Red eyes flickered in the darkness.
Long, sharp claws reached out to rake the enemy’s face. Powerful hindquarters quivered with the exertion of staying still, while a long tufted tail curled languidly down the bow of the ship.
The children stared up, terrified, mouths dry, hearts beating and muscles pumped with adrenalin, ready for flight. Still the creature did not leap. Ethan quietly moved forward to untie the mooring rope and push off, back to the relative safety of the sea. Saxon moved to help him, and then paused, staring up at the monster.
He muffled a nervous giggle. ‘It’s all right,’ Saxon whispered. ‘It’s only the figurehead. We usually carve beautiful women for ours, but the Sedahs prefer monsters!’
Lily’s knees went weak and trembling with relief. She took a deep breath. Of course it was just a carving, she thought. It is amazing how shadows play tricks on the mind.
Ethan climbed up the anchor line, swinging arm over arm. He swung up into the shadows on the ship, then snaked down a coil of rope that he had attached to a stanchion. Lily tied this rope around her waist then climbed up the anchor line, as agile as a monkey. The rope came snaking down again.
Saxon grabbed it before it splashed in the water and passed it to Roana. She hesitated then tied it round her waist. She carefully took hold of the rope and looked up into the dark shadows above.
The boat rocked alarmingly and the anchor line creaked and groaned. The ship towered above, rocking slightly with the motion of the waves. The ship and boat moved as if in a formal dance, rocking together, then wrenching apart.
Roana swallowed, the pit of her stomach lurching with nausea. She tried not to think of Octomons or sea serpents lurking in the depths below.
‘Come on, Roana. You can do it,’ hissed Saxon under his breath.
Roana took a deep breath, then climbed hand over hand up the anchor rope as Lily had done. But Roana was not as fit as Lily, nor as used to climbing. Her arms ached with the strain of taking her weight. She reached halfway up the rope. Her muscles started to burn and her arms shook uncontrollably. The effort became greater and greater. At last Roana could not let go of the rope to climb any further.
She hung suspended over the boiling black sea, frozen with fear. Her hands were slick with sweat. She could feel the rope slipping from her grasp. Ethan and Lily felt the guide rope stop, so together they took the slack and hauled with all their might, winding the rope around a timber strut to stop it from slipping back.
Roana was dragged, dangling and kicking, up onto the deck. She collapsed panting in a heap. Ethan untied the safety rope and lowered it down to Saxon. In a moment Saxon was clambering on board too.
In the bow they all crouched, hardly visible in the darkness with their black cloaks and charcoaled faces. They paused for a few minutes, gathering their breath and their courage and their bearings. At a nod, they crept forward, one after the other. Roana lead the way as she was the only one who had ever been on a ship of this size. From the stern they could hear low murmurs and the smell of pipe smoke.
They found the ladder leading down into the deep, cold hold. Hearts thudding, they climbed down and down and down into the very belly of the ship. They crept through the darkness, fumbling their way with their hands.
The hold was filled with crates and barrels of stolen loot. Animals were penned in makeshift stalls, snorting and panting at the unfamiliar rolling of the ship. Further on, they came to a couple of doors with small barred grates and heavy padlocks.
Peeping through the first grate, they saw dozens of Tiregian soldiers in red livery sleeping on the floor in dirty straw. A strong stench of stale vomit and sweat wafted through the bars.
Peeping through the grate in the next door, they saw a smaller room with just a handful of people curled on the floor. One man dozing close to the door had a very familiar shape.
‘Dadda?’ Ethan whispered. The man stirred fitfully. ‘Dadda!’
The man started and struggled to his feet. He limped to the door. Willem had a dirty bloodstained bandage around his head, and his arm in a sling. His face looked puffy and bruised, as though he had suffered a recent fall or blow.
‘Ethan. Ethan, my boy. Is that you? Have the devils caught you too?’ he cried in despair.
Ethan whispered through the grate and briefly explained how they had come to be there and how they had rescued the prisoners from the barn at the royal hunting lodge. Willem pressed his fingers through the grate and gripped Ethan and Lily’s fingers in his own.
‘How is Mama?’ asked Lily fearfully.
‘She is well, she sleeps right here. I must wake her – she won’t believe her eyes to see you both standing here of all places, as bold as brass, with young Saxon! She has been very worried. And who is this black-faced lad with you?’
‘That lad, Dadda, is the Princess Roana.’ Ethan laughed softly as he saw the incredulous look on his father’s face. ‘Can you believe it?’
‘The queen will be so relieved to hear the Princess Roana is alive,’ Willem whispered. ‘Lord Lazlac told the queen that the princess had been thrown from her pony and killed.’
Roana pulled herself up tall. ‘Lord Lazlac will find I am not so easily disposed of,’ she said haughtily.
‘Don’t worry, Dadda,’ Ethan added. ‘We will soon have you all free.’
‘No, you must go,’ Willem cried urgently. ‘You must not be caught. Please, children, escape before it is too late.’
‘No.’ Ethan shook his head vehemently. ‘We can rescue you.’
He started digging at the padlock with his dagger trying to pick the lock, but to no avail. Saxon and Roana tried to chip away at the heavy chain and the iron rings buried in the door and jamb.
Willem tiptoed across the cell and woke Marnie and Queen Ashana. The two mothers wept with joy and fear to find their beloved children alive and here. They gripped fingers with each child through the bars.
‘Your father is right,’ whispered Marnie urgently. ‘It is too dangerous for you to be here. Please go at once.’
A couple of bodies stirred in the cell. Everyone froze.
A man’s voice called from the darkness, quivering with suspicion.
‘Who is there? What are you doing!’
‘Shhhhhh,’ hissed Willem over his shoulder. ‘It is nothing, Lord Mortimer. Go back to sleep.’
‘Don’t “nothing” me, Willem of Kenley,’ cried Lord Mortimer. ‘Do not speak to your betters like that. I tell you someone is there. Who are you talking to? Someone is trying to break in!’
From overhead came a thud, then the sound of hurried footsteps.
‘Go,’ hissed Willem through the grate. ‘Hide yourselves.’
‘Take this, Dadda,’ Ethan replied as he slid one of his daggers through the grate. Lily immediately pushed her spare dagger through as well. Saxon and Roana ran back through the hold and were crouching behind piles of crates and barrels, hiding their faces in the folds of their cloaks.
‘What’s happening?’ called a woman’s voice, high with fear. ‘Who is here?’
A number of the prisoners had woken with the shouting and were now crowding around the doors, yelling and shaking the bars of the grate, rattling the padlock chains.
Ethan grabbed Lily’s hand and they ran to hide themselves in the shadows. Two guards clumped down the ladder, carrying lanterns that bobbed and swayed, casting a flickering red glow over the towers of crates.
‘Be quiet,’ one guard roared. �
�What is all this noise about? Go to sleep or it will be the worse for you all.’
Saxon and Roana took the opportunity to creep back up the ladder when the guards’ backs were turned.
‘There was someone here,’ replied Lord Mortimer. ‘Someone trying to break in.’
‘Nonsense,’ bellowed the guard. ‘There is no-one here.’
‘There was,’ insisted Lord Mortimer. ‘Someone creeping about and fiddling with the lock.’
‘That’s impossible,’ barked the guard, raising his cudgel in anger.
The other guard picked up his lantern and started shining it around the hold, brusquely searching the shadows. Ethan and Lily shrank back deeper into their cloaks. The first guard unlocked the padlock with a large key, using his cudgel to threaten the prisoners back into the corner.
‘The key!’ Lily mouthed. Ethan nodded. ‘Let’s try to surprise him.’
Both children drew their remaining daggers. The second guard was now searching the hold closer to the ladder, with his back to them. Lily and Ethan crept out from their hiding place and tiptoed back to the cell. Peering through the open door, they saw several courtiers cowering in the corner around the queen and the prince, with the first guard shouting at them.
‘You stupid scum, what is all this nonsense? Perhaps I can beat some sense into you!’
Lily and Ethan made a shhh signal. Willem saw them and started, his face pale and grim. Marnie immediately spoke up.
‘Of course there was no-one here. How could there be? The poor fool merely suffered a nightmare.’
The courtiers stared at the two children outlined against the dimness of the hold. The guard saw them staring and turned around, holding his lantern aloft.
‘What the devil …?’ he began.
But he was knocked flying as Willem jumped on him from behind. The lantern flew across the cell, landing in a pile of damp, putrid straw. The glass broke and flames licked out into the straw. The guard struggled and yelled as Marnie joined in the fray, a dagger clutched in her hand. Ethan and Lily ran into the cell to help their parents, their weapons raised.
The prisoners ran forward to stamp out the flames, led by Queen Ashana. The second guard ran back in, knocking Lily out of the way. The cell was filling with dank, acrid smoke, adding to the confusion.
‘What’s going on?’ the guard yelled, wielding his sword ferociously. He used the flat of the sword to beat back the prisoners crowding around his fallen colleague.
‘They’re the ones. They shouldn’t be here. They’re the ones who tried to break in,’ yelled the fallen guard hoarsely.
The second guard turned and lunged at Lily, grabbing for her arm. Marnie barrelled into him, knocking him off course. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a silver whistle, which he blew shrilly. A distant pounding of footsteps could be heard from the port deck, over the roar of the prisoners from both cells.
Willem looked up at his children beseechingly. ‘Go. Go. Please go,’ he yelled.
Ethan glanced at Lily. She nodded. One of the guards was at the back of the cell, holding back the group of loudly protesting courtiers and royalty. The other was blowing loudly on his whistle, struggling to take the dagger from Marnie on his back. Willem ran to distract the second guard, while Ethan and Lily lunged for the open door.
They had nearly reached the ladder when the thud of running footsteps became a loud thunder. Lily tugged at Ethan’s shoulder and they slipped into the shadows behind the barrels at the foot of the ladder, huddling into their black cloaks. A stream of booted legs pounded down the ladder and across the hold towards the cells.
When the last boot had thundered down the corridor, the two children clambered up towards the dim starlight above.
‘Stop there,’ yelled a voice behind them, but they kept on scrambling.
A dagger whistled past their legs, juddering into the timber wall. But still they climbed. A youthful-looking guard leapt for their ankles, recklessly waving his cutlass. He caught hold of Lily’s foot and stabbed viciously at her leg, just as her body disappeared through the manhole.
Lily cast off her cloak and it dropped back down the hole, entangling her attacker’s face and sword arm. She kicked herself free and kept running as blood streamed down her leg, slicking the deck with its sticky redness.
Wordlessly they both ran towards the bow as fast as they could, panting for breath, their hearts thudding. In a matter of seconds they could hear the sounds of pursuit – yells, footfalls, the clatter of arrows being drawn and curses as they missed their mark. Their pursuers carried lanterns, which lit up the deck in a fiery glow.
At the bow they paused, looking over the side. Down below bobbed their borrowed boat with the anxious white faces of Roana and Saxon staring up from the gloom.
‘Jump in the water,’ yelled Saxon. ‘We’ll fish you out.’
Lily hesitated, staring down at the black fathomless depths of the ocean below, then glanced back at the fearsome guards in pursuit.
Ethan grabbed her hand. ‘Come on, Lily, we’ll jump together,’ he urged.
‘Watch out for the girl,’ yelled a soldier behind them. ‘Lord Lazlac doesn’t want her killed. Just stop them getting away.’
There was an ominous twang, then the sound of arrows flying through the air.
Ethan and Lily both leapt out into the thin, cold air, arms and legs flailing.
Lily felt her whole body jerk, then a burning, agonising pain just below her shoulder. Ethan cried out as an arrow buried itself deep in his left arm. And then they were falling, screaming, into the dark sea.
Just before their bodies hit the rock-hard surface of the water, a sight more terrifying than they had ever imagined rose to meet them. In the light from the soldiers’ lanterns they could see something moving. A giant tentacle curled up above them. It was sickly grey, with smudges of purple, covered in large crater-like suckers.
The tentacle groped blindly into the air, stretching and reaching. Another tentacle followed, towering above them. Ethan could hear screams of surprise from the ship above him.
An Octomon! The fabled monster that could crush the bellies of great ships. The sea monster that made salty old seamen whimper in their beds.
Ethan and Lily hit the water with a smash that knocked all the breath from their bodies. Immediately the water foamed with eight long, writhing tentacles. Ethan started to swim for the boat, shouting to Lily to swim too. The water boiled and churned.
Ethan threw off the heavy black woollen cloak that was dragging him under. He could feel the sharp pain of the arrow in his arm but fear of the Octomon drove him on faster.
Lily started to swim clumsily after him, paddling on her side, her left arm virtually useless. Blood swirled in the water around her.
Lily felt a flicker of cold on her belly as something brushed against her. She swam faster. The brush turned to a loving caress, then an embrace. Lily kicked her legs out behind her. She was not moving anywhere.
The hug became stronger, then started to tug. One of the thick Octomon tentacles was wrapped around her waist and dragging her under. Lily screamed as her mouth filled with bitter sea water, burning her throat and nose.
Ethan paused when he heard Lily’s scream and turned around. She was gone.
He turned back and forth, searching the water desperately with his arms, legs, hands and eyes.
‘Lily,’ he screamed. ‘Lily!’
He felt something with his hands. Something cold and wet.
He grabbed at it. It grabbed back.
Something slimy and strong wound around his waist and down his warm body. Ethan struggled and fought. It was like a cable of steel, squeezing the breath from him. The tentacle pulled him slowly under the surface. Ethan took a deep breath before he went under, thinking furiously.
He stopped fighting against the relentless squeeze. His dagger! He grasped the hilt from his belt, took aim and stabbed.
The Octomon jerked and flung its injured tentacle up into the air, sligh
tly loosening its grip. Ethan took large lungfuls of air, saturating his blood with oxygen, and stabbed again.
This time the Octomon flung up its other tentacle, tightly clutching Lily. She breathed deeply and thankfully. She saw Ethan stabbing violently with his dagger as the tentacle that held him plunged toward the sea again.
Lily found her own dagger. She started frantically stabbing the grey and mauve vice that held her, as the tentacle descended once more deep into the icy sea.
She could hear muffled screaming. It wasn’t her own voice. It was Roana screaming from the boat.
The sea chopped and churned as the sea monster wrestled with its prey. Thick black ooze welled from the wounds on the creature’s flesh. In its struggles it lifted them high in the air, then plunged again. Still the creature did not release its vice-like grip.
Above them, on the ship, a band of guards laughed on the deck. ‘That’s the end of them – tasty fish food,’ chortled one. The others collapsed with mirth.
Roana and Saxon rowed out into the maelstrom, then used the oars to beat the tentacles they could reach. Saxon tried to use his sword but couldn’t reach close enough. Roana fashioned two extended bayonets by lashing swords to the end of the oars. They thrust these vigorously at the sea monster. The water swirled with oily black blood.
A cacophony of jeering noise erupted on the ship’s deck as the guards spied the futile rescue attempt.
‘I think our fishy friend is still hungry,’ shouted a guard, raising his bow and arrow. ‘Let’s give him some sweet hot pudding.’ The others chuckled at the joke.
Another guard dipped his arrow head in a sticky barrel of tar on the deck, lit it in the lantern and sent the flaming arrow soaring over the churning whirlpool below. Soon a score of flaming arrows spun through the night, illuminating the mayhem.
Roana and Saxon now had to fight flying flames as well as the hideous sea creature. They stamped out spot fires with their boots, while still lunging with oar bayonets.
The sea monster, stabbed repeatedly and now dazzled by shooting fire arrows, dived deep under the water and headed out to sea, taking its precious prey with it. Roana and Saxon set off in pursuit, rowing with all their strength. Yet their speed was no match for the sea creature’s power. Soon there was no sign of the Octomon, of Lily, or of Ethan.
Quest for the Sun Gem Page 9
