Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates (20 page)

Outside the little icehouse, Amanda grunted and stomped. Hamish X looked at the faces of his new friends in the firelight.

“Thank you for your help,” he said. “Without you, we'd surely have frozen to death out on the ice. You've already done so much, but I ask you one more favour. You've heard our story. You know we must find our friends. The Cheese Pirates mentioned a place called Snow Monkey Island. Do you know it?”

Aglucark gazed back at Hamish X, his black eyes reflecting the firelight. Finally, he nodded.

“We know it. It is a day's ride from here … by mammoth, of course.”

“Can you take us there?”

Aglucark was silent for a moment. He looked at each of them in turn. Then he spoke for a moment with his cousins in their strange, guttural language. Finally, he addressed the three travellers.

“The island of the snow monkeys is a dangerous place. First, one must get past the snow monkeys. These monkeys are not like normal monkeys. They are not
humorous or silly to look at. They are vile and filthy monkeys. They inhabit the cliffs surrounding the pirate stronghold. One must climb past them to reach the plateau where Captain Cheesebeard makes his lair.

“Also, there are a large number of pirates. You must defeat them all in order to escape with your skins intact. Do you have a plan of attack?”

Hamish X shrugged and smiled at his friends. Mimi smiled back and Parveen took off his glasses, polishing them with a piece of cloth. “Why break with tradition?” Parveen said.

“All we need is for you to take us there,” Hamish X pleaded. “Can you do that?”

Aglucark looked into the fire as if looking at something only he could see. “I had a dream that you were coming. The Raven spoke and said, ‘Be ready: Three will come. One is the Wolf … loyal and fierce.'” He pointed at Mimi, who blushed and squared her shoulders.

Aglucark continued. “One is the clever beaver, planning and building, dedicated to the good of the clan.” He smiled at Parveen, who pursed his lips in mild distaste.

“Fine. She's a big, powerful wolf. I am a large rodent. That's just wonderful.”

Aglucark laughed. “Every creature has its task. Every creature has its gifts.” He turned to Hamish X, serious once more. “You the Raven could not explain. ‘He is a boy but not a boy. He is other. He is alone. He will be called “Big Boots.”' He said we must help you, for you have many great deeds to accomplish. You must beware, however. You think you are searching for one thing, Big Boots, but that thing is not exactly what you imagine.”

“I'm looking for my mother,” Hamish X whispered. He debated with himself for a moment, then added, “I think
she's been talking to me … in my mind.” He related what had happened under the ice.

“This is puzzling. A spirit voice is guiding you, but it may not be what you think it is. Be cautious,” Aglucark said. “You may be disappointed with what you find.”

The oil stove popped in the silence. Hamish X sat deep in thought. “Boy who is not a boy,” he whispered. “What does it mean?”

“It is not for me to know. It is the place of the Great Spirit and he has chosen to remain silent.” The Innu smiled. He reached out and squeezed Hamish X's hand. “You have saved many bears. You have come a long way. This is already a great deed. We will take you to Snow Monkey Island, but there we must part ways.”

Aglucark stood. “You must rest now. The way is hard and we leave at dawn.”

Later, in the small hours of the night, Mimi woke to discover Hamish X's blanket empty beside her. She carefully got up, picked her way through her sleeping companions, and stepped through the fur hanging that served as a door.

The moon hung low in the sky, casting a pale glow over the ice sheet. The northern lights blazed above, shifting and sliding across the black velvet of the sky. Amanda grunted and raised her trunk when she saw Mimi. Mimi went to her and almost tripped over Hamish X sitting on a lump of ice.

“Hey,” she said, sitting down beside him.

“Hey,” he answered.

They sat for a while, enjoying the deep silence. Occasionally the ice cracked, sounding like low rumbling thunder. The sky was shockingly full of stars, wheeling slowly against the blackness of space. Finally Hamish X spoke. “I'm afraid,” he said.

“Of what? Yer the toughest, smartest, bravest kid I ever saw and that's includin' me. What could possibly scare ya?”

“I'm afraid that if I ever find out who I actually am, I'm going to wish I hadn't. Part of me wants to just leave the book and go away.”

“Yeah, I git it. But I think yer gonna go and git that book back and then yer gonna do what ya gotta do. Find yer ma. Figure it all out 'cause that's the only way ya ain't gonna be scared no more.”

“The boy who is not a boy … What does that even mean?”

“Hey, I'm the She-Wolf. How should I know? I do know one thing though …”

“What's that?”

“I'm freezin'. Get back to bed before the She-Wolf bites ya on the butt.”

Hamish X laughed and stood up. Mimi did the same. Suddenly, Hamish X crushed her in a powerful hug. “Thanks, Mimi.” Their breath puffed out and mingled, a cloud of mist in the cold night air. He released her and went back towards the ice hut. Mimi stood for a moment on the moon-drenched ice. She looked up at the stars and smiled.

Amanda suddenly snorted.

“Same to you!” Mimi scowled and followed Hamish X back into the cabin.

The next morning at dawn saw the little band climb up onto Amanda's broad back and set off across the ice for Snow Monkey Island.

Chapter 23

Mrs. Francis woke up, forgetting where she was. She reached for her robe and wrapped it around her chubby frame.

“What time is it? The porridge must be boiled. The whey must be strained. The …”

She stopped short when she realized she was no longer in the cheese factory. She was in a rough stone cell with a cot against the wall and a small wash stand in the corner. A little keyhole set low in the metal slab of a door let in a weak flicker of torchlight from the corridor outside.

She was a prisoner.

It all came flooding back. The airship had arrived two days before at Snow Monkey Island, a cone of black rock jutting out of the frozen sea. When the ship glided over the lip of a large crater she'd seen a scattering of rough buildings. After they docked above a large square structure she and the children were led down through the building, a warehouse of some kind, across the crater floor and into a system of caves. The children were led away to a separate place and Mrs. Francis locked in the cell she occupied now.

A huge, dark-skinned pirate with a high-pitched voice and a cloud of puffy black hair had locked the door. He laughed when she demanded to see the children. “Don't you worry, darlin',” he said as he turned the key in the lock, “they'll be treated as good as they deserve.” He ignored her demands to speak to the Captain, laughing harshly as he walked away. Mrs. Francis had slumped onto the little cot and exhaustion claimed her.

When she woke the next day Mr. Kipling was standing at the open door of her cell. In one hand he held some flowers, in the other a plate of steaming bacon and eggs. “You are awake,” he said. “I've brought you some breakfast.”

Mrs. Francis didn't know what to make of the aloof Mr. Kipling. All through the journey he'd been solicitous of her health, mannerly and decent where the rest of the crew were miserable, rude, loutish, and mean. Still, she had the children to look out for, so she maintained her distance from the tall man. “I can't eat until I see that the children are being properly cared for.”

“Madam, you must maintain your strength or you will be no good to anyone.”

“Nevertheless, I demand to see the children.”

Mr. Kipling sighed, placing the plate of food on a crate by the bed. “Mrs. Francis. I admire your tenacity. However, the Captain is a brutal and ruthless man. The children are beyond your power to help. You must do as you are told. That is the only way to survive. The children will work as they have always done, only now for a harsher master. If you want to have any chance of softening the harshness to come, you must co-operate. Do you understand?”

She thought for a moment.

“What are those?” she asked suddenly.

“What?” Kipling noticed the flowers he was carrying in his hand. He blushed. “What, these? Oh, I, uh … thought you might like some flowers. Brighten up your cell a bit. I grow them in a little greenhouse. Hobby of mine. Helps me through the long winter nights. You've noticed that the climate is milder here than one might expect?” Mrs. Francis had noticed: the rock itself was
faintly warm to the touch. “The whole island is a volcano. Dormant, thankfully. It provides a natural heating system and natural hot springs. Very handy for horticulture. Yes.” He stopped babbling and held out the flowers. She looked at them: forget-me-nots, a burst of tiny blue flowers, delicate and sweet.

“What are you doing here, Mr. Kipling?”

“Bringing you breakfast. Please eat.”

“No, I mean, what are you doing in this place with these awful pirates? You don't seem to fit in somehow.”

Mr. Kipling shrugged. He looked down at the flowers he still held in his hand. “I have nowhere else to go,” he said finally. “I owe Cheesebeard my life. Ten years ago, in another life, I was Captain of a ship in the Royal Navy, the destroyer
Duke of Wellington:
lovely ship, excellent crew. We were on a tour in the North Atlantic watching for submarines and what have you. Routine, except for one small thing: my daughter Sarah was on board. She had decided to follow in my footsteps, join the navy, and make me proud. You know how children can be. She was a navigation officer.”

He slowly turned the flowers this way and that, studying them minutely.

“To make a long story short, a storm came up, as happens often in those seas. We were sore pressed with fifteen-metre waves sweeping over the bow. I decided we would ride into the storm in hopes of coming out the other side. I could have tried to run before it, head for port, but I chose not to do so. The ship lost power and we were left at the mercy of the sea. We took water and capsized. The ship went down with all hands. I searched frantically for Sarah but eventually succumbed to the icy cold of the water.

“Next thing I knew I was dangling at the end of a rope, being winched up into the pirate ship. They'd found me bobbing in the water, barely alive.

“That day, I became a new person. I am one of the pirates, loathsome and cruel. I owe them my life, such as it is.”

He looked up and smiled his sad smile. “Do you want these? I'm fifty-two years old but I feel like a nervous schoolboy.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “Please take them. I shall have to throw them out otherwise.” He held them out to her again.

Mrs. Francis looked at the tall man with his sad eyes, so lonely and broken. She reached out and took them from his pale, elegant hand.

“They're lovely,” she said.

“Yes, they are,” he answered, looking her straight in the eye, “Now, eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”

He turned on his heel and left.

SNOW MONKEY ISLAND
first appeared on the horizon as a shimmering black speck. As Amanda's huge, swaying strides ate up the distance, the speck resolved itself into a black finger of rock jutting up from the plain of ice.

“How long until we get there?” Hamish X asked Aglucark.

“We should arrive in the late afternoon, which is just as well. I am sorry, but when we reach the base of the cliffs that is where we shall part ways, Hamish X. There is no road for Amanda to climb and we must get home to our families.”

“You've done more than enough already, Aglucark. We'll have to do the last bit on our own.”

Mimi punched Aglucark on the shoulder. “Yer all right, Aggie!”

Aglucark smiled and rubbed his shoulder.

Over the next three hours the island loomed larger and larger. The swinging motion of Amanda's walk lulled the children into some much-needed sleep. When the hunters roused them, the island was much closer. The cliffs soared up into the sky, towering over the little party in an awe-inspiring shimmer of black basalt.
⁶⁰
White smoke rose lazily from the crown of the island, drifting away on the breeze.

“It's a volcano,” Parveen said. “The entire island is the cone of a semi-active volcano!”

The sun was just dipping below the horizon when Amanda finally stopped at the base of the sheer black cliff that was Snow Monkey Island. The fading sun shimmered like oil on the glassy rock. Amanda ponderously lowered her vast bulk until the riders could safely clamber down from her massive back. Hamish X, Mimi, and Parveen caught their packs from the hunters who tossed them down. With majestic slowness, Amanda raised herself back up to her feet.

Aglucark and his companions waved to the children. “Be careful,” the Innu hunter said, his black eyes crinkled in his leathery face. “She-Wolf! Guard your pack! Beaver! Trust to your clever brain! And Black Boots! Be true to your friends and to your own heart!” With a final wave, the great mammoth and her riders turned away from the black cliff and set off across the ice. The three children watched them go.

“I'd still rather be something other than a giant rodent,” Parveen said, polishing his glasses.

“Don't worry, little beaver!” Mimi smacked Parveen on the back. He stumbled under the force of the blow. “You got the She-Wolf watchin' yer back!”

“Breaking it, more like!” Parveen grumbled. “Enough, you guys,” Hamish X interrupted. “We've got a long way to go and it's all in a vertical direction. I suggest we start looking for the easiest way up this thing.” They stood back and looked up at the cliff. Three hundred metres of sheer rock face stared back down on them.

“Where do we start?” Mimi asked.