Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates (38 page)

They lay there for a moment, catching their breath.

'Shadlog's teeth,' said Cornelius at last.

Sebastian had to agree that it summed up the situation pretty well.

Once he had got his breath back, Cornelius disentangled himself from Sebastian and turned to stare down into the crevasse, watching in fascination as a dust cloud slowly settled over the place where the tree had landed. 'That was too ruddy close for comfort,' he said. 'It's a wonder that tree trunk hung on for as long as it did.' He looked up at Sebastian. 'I'm sorry, lad, I couldn't do anything when that shape-shifter attacked you and Jenna. I didn't dare add any more weight to the trunk.'

Sebastian waved a hand in dismissal. 'It doesn't matter,' he said. 'The main thing is Leonora's gone. She's out of my head completely and my thoughts are my own again.'

Jenna came to stand beside him. 'I'm glad of that,' she said. 'But your freedom was bought at quite a price. We've lost the dagger – and your pack and everything that was in it. Even our bridge is gone.'

Cornelius moved away from the edge with a matter-of-fact shrug. 'It's not the end of the world,' he said. 'It makes things more complicated, that's all. We can mount another expedition any time we need to. Of course, we'd have to bring some equipment and a lot more people. We'd need to cut down a new tree and carry it up the ravine for a start!'

'That would get us across the chasm,' admitted Jenna. 'But the treasure will be locked away behind solid rock.'

'There are ways to blast through rock. Maybe we could get hold of some more of those thunder-sticks we had in Keladon. They'd smash their way through any obstacle.' Cornelius threw himself down on the ground and the other two joined him. 'Besides,' he said, 'I don't know what we're worrying about. The booty in the two packs we still have will provide enough wealth to last us a lifetime. I take it we'll still split it three ways?'

'Of course,' said Jenna, without hesitation.

'
Four
ways,' Sebastian reminded him. 'Don't forget, Max is still expecting his cut.' They all laughed at that.

'He'll be the richest buffalope in history,' said Jenna.

'He'll buy lots of pommers,' said Sebastian, 'and get very, very fat.'

'The important thing,' said Cornelius, 'is
we
're alive and the witch is dead.' He glanced warily at Sebastian and smiled when he didn't react. 'Did you hear what I said, Sebastian? I called Leonora a witch . . . a rotten, stinking witch!'

Sebastian shrugged. 'Why not? That's exactly what she was.'

Cornelius grinned. 'It looks as though you really are cured, my friend!'

'It's as though I've been wearing blurred glasses all this time,' Sebastian told him. 'Now I can see everything in perfect detail.' He glanced sheepishly at Jenna. 'And I can finally recognize true beauty when I see it.' He reached out a hand and put it on hers.

There was a brief, thoughtful silence. Then Cornelius spoke.

'The problem is, what are we going to do now?'

'We go back to the ship, of course,' said Sebastian brightly. He looked at the other two and noted their frowning faces. 'Don't we?'

Cornelius shook his head. 'I don't think it's quite as simple as that,' he said. 'For one thing, Leonora couldn't have got here by herself. Which means that Trencherman and his crew must be skulking around somewhere—'

'We're closer than you might think!' announced a strident voice, and they all looked up to see Trencherman and his villainous-looking first mate emerging from the opening in the rock that was the only way in or out of this place. The two men advanced slowly. They were smiling, the kind of thin smiles that were not to be trusted.

'I feel I should thank you,' Trencherman told Sebastian.

'Thank me? For what?'

'For ridding the world of that scheming witch. She worked her enchantment on me too – otherwise I would never have allowed her within a sea mile of me. And I certainly wouldn't have let her persuade me to turn round a ship that was slowly sinking to follow the
Sea Witch
to her destination. But here I am.' He pointed to the crevasse. 'I must say it was interesting watching that little drama unfold.' He flicked his gaze across to Cornelius. 'For a moment there, midgeling, I thought you were going to follow her down into those hellish depths.'

Cornelius got to his feet, drawing his sword as he did so. His companions followed his example.

'I'm no midgeling, Captain Trencherman. I'm a Golmiran. And you'd best stay where you are, or you shall have my sword to answer to.'

Trencherman looked somewhat amused by this comment. 'You speak as though you are in charge . . . when in fact it's not like that at all. Allow me to demonstrate.'

He clapped his hands, and at his signal a dozen men appeared on the high rocks that ringed the plateau. Sebastian looked slowly around at them. Each man held a bow and every bow had an arrow nocked and pulled back ready to fire. There was a long silence while the three friends assessed the situation. There was nothing they could do. If they tried to resist, they would be dead in moments. If they turned to run, there was only the deep and terrible chasm behind them and no way of crossing it.

'I trust your treasure-hunting expedition was successful,' purred Trencherman, who couldn't seem to stop smiling now that he was back in control. 'I must say, I'm looking forward to inspecting the booty. It will be doubly sweet when I know that somebody else has done all the hard work for me. Captain Swift, I'll trouble you to throw your sword and your pack over to me.'

'Go to hell!' snapped Jenna. 'You'll take them only from my dead body.'

Trencherman shrugged. 'If that's what you'd prefer,' he said. 'It's really all the same to me.' He lifted a hand to signal to his archers, but Cornelius stepped over to Jenna.

'Do as he says,' he told her. 'No treasure is worth losing your life over.'

'But—'

'Do it!' insisted Cornelius. And he threw over his own pack and sword.

Jenna glared at him for a moment, then nodded as she acknowledged the impossibility of their situation. She followed suit with great reluctance, and Trencherman signalled to his mate to collect the packs.

'We'll take those nice bronze helmets you're wearing too,' prompted Trencherman. 'And, elfling – what about the jewelled sword you have at your waist? I'd say it's far too fancy for a breed like you to wear.'

'Why, you—' Cornelius took a step forward but Sebastian put out a hand to hold him back.

'It's all right,' he said. 'Of course he can have it.' It had suddenly come into Sebastian's mind to try and play the hero. Perhaps it was an attempt to make up for his poor performance crossing that tree trunk. Perhaps he had momentarily taken leave of his senses. Whatever the reason, it had occurred to him that if he could just cover the short distance between himself and Trencherman, he might be able to take the captain hostage and use him to barter a way out of there. So he pretended to be having trouble with the ancient brass catch on his sword belt while he began to edge forward.

'I found this in the treasure cave,' he said as he walked. 'The precious stones in it must be worth a small fortune—'

'Stay where you are!' Trencherman warned him.

'No, really, you must look at this one big stone at the end of it. I'm not sure if it's a diamond or an emerald. What do you think?'

'I told you to stand still!' snapped Trencherman.

'Sebastian, do as he says,' said Jenna anxiously.

Sebastian was very close now. A few more steps and he'd be able to make his move. Meanwhile he carried on talking.

'You know, Captain, we should sit down, the two of us, and discuss a deal. You see, there's a lot more treasure. We weren't able to carry it all and—'

Trencherman made the slightest of gestures to his first mate and the big man stepped forward to intercept Sebastian, pulling something from his belt as he did so. Sebastian lifted an arm to throw a punch into the man's ugly face, but in the same instant the mate lashed out at Sebastian's head. A bright light seemed to explode in the middle of his skull and his limbs lost all their strength. He was only dimly aware that the ground was rushing up towards him, but before it could thud into him, everything turned black.

He woke for an instant and thought that he was back on the
Sea Witch
, because whatever he was lying on was swaying and lurching rhythmically beneath him. But then he became aware of thick, springy hair under the palms of his hands and, opening his eyes, he realized that he was slumped face down across Max's back. He vainly tried to sit up. His wrists were tied with thick ropes that passed under the buffalope's belly.

He groaned, managed to turn his head to one side and saw Jenna's concerned face looking at him. She was walking alongside Max and he saw that her hands were tied behind her back.

'He's awake,' he heard her say, but he couldn't see who she was talking to and he presumed it must be Cornelius.

'Young master!' Max's voice seemed to boom because Sebastian's ear was flat against the buffalope's back. 'Speak to me! Are you all right? Or have those villains dashed out your brains?'

'What . . . what happened?' groaned Sebastian. His mouth was horribly dry and there was a buzzing sound in his ears, as though clouds of angry insects were swarming inside his skull.

'You were hit with a belaying pin,' Jenna told him. 'It's a wonder your skull wasn't smashed in.' She glanced around quickly. 'They're taking us back to the
Marauder
. Trencherman said that he's prepared a special welcome for us.'

'We . . . we have to bargain with him,' muttered Sebastian. He was barely holding onto consciousness. 'He doesn't know . . . where the rest of the treasure is . . . maybe we can use that . . .'