Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates (34 page)

He stepped through the gap, not knowing what to expect, and found himself suddenly bathed in brilliant sunlight. He stood there blinking, his mouth open, staring in wonder at the unexpected landscape that surrounded him.

They had emerged into a great natural basin in the heart of the mountain and were standing on a narrow stone ledge, which ran for a short distance ahead of them and then ended abruptly in a wide crevasse. This ran left and right across the expanse of smooth grey rock like a jagged scar, each end dropping away into a deep void. At one time the rock must have been all one piece, but somewhere back in ancient history a mighty movement in the earth had caused the rock to split across the middle, creating the gap.

It was far too wide to jump across but Sebastian saw that it had been bridged by the trunk of a tall but slender tree, which had been carefully positioned with its ends resting on either side of the crevasse. On the far side there was another narrow ledge, and then the mountain rose up sheer again to a dizzying height. Cascading down its face, a short distance to the left of the tree trunk, was a mighty torrent of water, which came crashing onto the far ledge in a seething fury of foam and spray and then went gushing into the crevasse to lose itself in the seemingly bottomless drop below. In the tumult of spray that filled the air, the sunlight had created a magnificent rainbow, which arced high above the mountain peaks, making the scene even more incredible.

Sebastian turned to the others and saw that they were every bit as amazed as he was. 'This place is—' He broke off, unable to find the words to do it justice. For the first time since they had set off on their journey, he was convinced that the map was genuine; and he tried to imagine how Captain Callinestra and his crew must have felt all those years ago when they'd first stumbled upon this remote spot. He could easily understand why the famous pirate had chosen it as the hiding place for his treasure. Only the most intrepid adventurer would find his way to this place; and only the boldest would dare to risk crossing on that slender, slippery tree trunk.

'They must have cut down a tree at the top of the ravine,' said Cornelius. 'Then carried it along to place it across the gap to make a bridge. It would have taken a whole crew to do it.'

Now Sebastian walked warily to the edge of the crevasse and dared to look into its depths; but what he saw down there made his stomach lurch and he stepped back quickly, bumping into Jenna, who had come up behind him. She moved round him and peered over the edge. She gave a low whistle.

'That's a long way down,' she shouted, above the roar of the waterfall.

'Maybe there's another route,' said Sebastian, licking his suddenly dry lips. They looked to left and right but it quickly became apparent that there was only one way across the chasm, and that was to walk along the tree trunk.

'It looks all right,' yelled a voice behind them, and they turned to see that Cornelius was already clambering up onto the end of the trunk, clearly with the intention of crossing over the gap.

'Hold on a moment,' said Sebastian nervously. 'Let's not rush into this. Who says we need to go across there in the first place?'

'The map,' said Cornelius calmly. '
Where footsteps venture
into space
.'

'Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're supposed to walk across that thing.'

Cornelius gazed around slowly and then looked back at Sebastian. 'How else are we supposed to get across?' he asked. 'Fly?'

Sebastian frowned, all too aware that it was his own reluctance to step out above such a terrible drop that was prompting him to delay the matter. But he just couldn't help himself. He was afraid of heights, and his desperate fight with King Septimus at the top of Keladon's highest tower hadn't done anything to help him conquer his fear.

'The tree could be completely rotten,' he argued. 'Who knows how long it's been standing here soaked by the spray from that waterfall? It could snap like a rotten twig and send us tumbling to our doom. And besides, you can see there's nothing on the other side but a sheer rock face! How are we supposed to climb up that?'

Cornelius studied the map again. 'I don't think we'll need to,' he said. 'There's just the one verse left so we must be very close now.' And he read out:

'
If the treasure you would hold,
Then let courage make you bold.
Ignore the blows that sting and hurt
And look behind the grey maid's skirt
.'

Cornelius raised his eyes from the page and looked at Sebastian. 'That's all there is,' he said. 'It's the final clue.'

Sebastian stared back at him in exasperation. 'Well, what's it supposed to mean?' he cried. '
The grey maid's skirt!
Do you see any women standing around over there, waiting to be searched?'

'No . . .' admitted Cornelius.

'Then . . . what?'

'I haven't any idea,' Cornelius assured him. 'But it's obvious we're meant to go across this crevasse – it's as simple as that. Maybe we'll find more clues on the far side.' He tested the end of the tree with one foot. It swayed a little, but seemed strong enough. 'I think it'll take the weight,' he said. 'Provided we go one at a time. Now, if you two are not up to this, you can always wait here.'

'No way!' cried Jenna. And she too clambered up onto the trunk. Sebastian stared after her for a while and then realized that he would have to follow or be for ever tortured by the thought that he'd lost his nerve in front of his two friends.

A moment later he was standing on the tree beside Jenna, staring apprehensively over her shoulder as Cornelius set off across the void.

'The trick is not to look down,' announced Cornelius calmly, as though he was about to take a gentle stroll across a meadow. 'Just keep your gaze fixed firmly on the way ahead and then you won't— Oops!'

He tripped on the broken-off nub of a branch and fell face down on the huge log, which sagged visibly beneath him. Sebastian winced and watched, hardly daring to breathe, as Cornelius wrapped his arms around the slender trunk and waited a moment for it to stop quivering. 'On second thoughts,' he said, 'maybe it's not a bad idea to look down
occasionally
.'

He got himself back onto his knees and then, very carefully, his feet. He straightened up, spreading out his arms to keep his balance, and began to move slowly forward again. As he reached the very middle of the trunk, the spray from the waterfall began to soak him and he suddenly stopped walking.

'Shadlog's beard!' he cried.

'What's wrong?' gasped Sebastian nervously.

'
The grey maid's skirt!
It's the waterfall, isn't it? We're to look behind the waterfall!' He began to move again, placing his feet carefully on the wet, slippery wood, edging slowly forward step by step until, after what seemed like an age, he reached the far side and the safety of the stone ledge. Sebastian let out a long relieved breath, but then, almost instantly, Jenna started forward.

'Wait!' Sebastian grabbed her arm. 'Maybe there's no need for you to go over there,' he said. 'Why don't you leave the rest to Cornelius?'

She flashed him a disbelieving look. 'Are you kidding? I didn't come this far to give up at the last hurdle. I'll be fine. You've got to remember, I've been shinning up masts since I was a little girl.' She studied him sympathetically for a moment and lowered her voice. 'But look, if
you
can't handle heights, nobody will think any the worse of you if you wait here.'

'Me?' Sebastian gave what he hoped was a devil-may-care laugh. 'Oh,
I'm
all right. I was just worried about you . . .'

'So maybe you do care about me a little?' she said.

'Oh, er . . . I didn't mean . . .'

Jenna laughed at his embarrassment. 'Relax, Sebastian,' she said. 'I'm only pulling your leg.' She glanced briefly down into the abyss. 'Maybe not a good idea, right now.'

She turned back towards the trunk, extended her arms and started moving forward as though she did this kind of thing every day. She was heavier than Cornelius and the supple trunk bowed alarmingly when she got to the midway point, but she didn't slow her pace, even when the spray began to hit her, and in a matter of moments she had made it to the far side. She turned, smiling, to look back at Sebastian; and he realized with a cold sense of dread that he was going to have to try and make it across.

A thick sweat of terror broke out all over him but he made himself move forward, placing one foot carefully in front of the other. He tried to keep his attention fixed on Jenna's face, but remembering how Cornelius had tripped, he kept glancing down. As he moved out over the edge of the crevasse, he couldn't help but catch a glimpse of the dizzying depths that waited below. He gritted his teeth and kept going, hoping that his terror didn't show on his face – though Jenna's serious expression suggested that it did.

'Are you all right?' he heard her shout.

He tried to give her a reassuring grin but it must have come out wrong, because now she looked really concerned.

'Sebastian, maybe you'd better go back.'

'I'm fine!' he assured her.

But he wasn't fine. He was terrified. In his mind's eye he kept seeing himself falling from the trunk into the dark depths below; in vain he tried to shake off the image.

He took another step forward and the trunk sagged beneath him with a crack. His blood seemed to turn to ice in his veins, but perspiration was running into his eyes and he could hardly see where he was going. He stood there in an agony of indecision for a long time and then decided to take another halting step forward. The midpoint of the log was slippery with the constant soaking from the spray that billowed out across the cavern, and finding a secure footing was difficult.

'Just keep moving forward!' Jenna shouted to him. He nodded and took another step. Then his foot slipped sideways off the wood, and for a terrible moment he thought he was going to fall. But instead, he came down heavily astride the trunk and grunted with the pain of it. He was in danger of tilting sideways, but he managed to wrap his arms around the tree and hang on for dear life. He crouched there, trying not to think about what lay directly beneath him. He was shaking from head to foot, soaked by the icy spray from the waterfall, and he doubted that he had the strength to move from where he was. In the ensuing silence, the roar of the falling water seemed to rise to an ear-splitting crescendo.

Then the trunk sagged even more and, glancing up in alarm, he saw that Jenna was coming back, one hand held out to him.

'Jenna,' he hissed, 'it's too dangerous – go back.'

'Not without you,' she said firmly. She was beside him now, right in the middle of the trunk, and the wood was bending beneath their combined weight.

'Be careful, Jenna,' called Cornelius from the far side. 'I don't think it will take both of you!'

'It's all right,' said Jenna, without looking back at him. She held out her hand to Sebastian, gazing at him all the while. 'Now,' she said. 'Forget about trying to stand up again. Just move yourself forward any way you can.'