D’von nodded and Toby and Hiko picked up their barrows. Heads down, eyes on the floor, they rolled away from the officer as fast as they could.
“Is he still watching?” Toby hissed.
Ayla peered under her arm. “No, they’re legging it to the castle.”
Toby stared then a snort forced its way out of his nose. Another exploded from his chest and abruptly he was shaking with laughter. “Moving crap,” he sniggered.
Ayla giggled, D’von rumbled deep in his throat and then they were all hysterical, the carts wobbling dangerously as they broke into shambling runs which ended at the pier edge.
Toby put down his barrow and helped Oats to his feet. D’von lifted Harry and Rita groaned as she rolled on to the boards. “Idiots,” she muttered.
“Toby, is that you?” The voice came from beneath them.
Toby sobered up. “It’s us,” he hissed. “Are you ready?”
“Send them down.” Simeon’s face appeared, one of his arms held him on to the piling, the other reached up. “I’ll take Harry.”
D’von dropped the pirate into Simeon’s arm then the captain took his place. Polly still perched on his shoulder, claws wrapped in his shirt. Her eye whirred as she focused on Toby.
“Give me Rita.” The captain held up a hand and Rita crawled to him. Toby noticed that she left blood behind on the splintered planks as she rolled over the pier edge, trusting the captain to catch her.
“Which leaves me with you, Oats.” Rahul grinned. “Coming?”
Oats threw his own legs over the pier edge. Rahul just had to give him a guiding hand. There were three splashes as the pirates all hit the water.
“Now us.” Toby looked at Hiko. “Over you go.”
“I … I still can’t swim.” Hiko bit his lip.
“D’von, can you?” Toby looked up. D’von was sidling backwards, his sunny smile vanquished.
“Can I what, Toby?”
“Can you swim?”
D’von nodded. “But I’ve got to get back to the cages now. There’s a big beating waiting for me.” He shuddered.
“What do you mean?” Toby was blind-sided. “Why are you going back?”
“I helped, yes? But you don’t need me any more, so I’ll go back to my cage.”
“Don’t you dare.” Ayla trembled. “If the Phoenix won’t have you, the Banshee will.”
“She’s right.” Toby stepped towards him, hand held out. “You’re coming with us.”
D’von’s toothless mouth slackened. “You don’t want to send me back to the cage?” His lisp was more pronounced than ever.
“You’re our friend, D’von.” Toby caught his big hand and pulled, forcing the teen to step closer once more. “If you want to come, you’re welcome.”
“I can live on the ship?” D’von looked nervously at the raging battle.
“For as long as you like.” Toby smiled. “Now, can you swim?”
D’von nodded again.
“Then can you take Hiko?”
“Ha.” D’von’s back straightened as he wrapped one arm around the smaller boy. “Already I’m a better pirate than you.” And with that, D’von jumped off the pier, Hiko held firmly in his arms.
Ayla gasped and Toby looked over the side. He watched D’von bob to the surface, dragging a spluttering Hiko behind him. The other pirates were treading water, waiting for Toby.
“Our turn.” Toby held a hand out to Ayla.
“Wait.” She swung the bag from her shoulder and tried to stuff the maps inside and secure the opening one-handed. “I don’t want it to get wet.”
“Let me help.” Toby edged closer.
“Back off,” Ayla growled. Finally she wrestled the flap shut and pulled the plastic zip.
“Are you at least going to let me help you swim?”
Ayla closed her eyes. When she opened them again she looked utterly defeated. “You’ll have to. I won’t get far with this arm,” she muttered. Then she brightened. “You can catch me when you get down there.” And she turned and launched herself from the jetty.
Sunlight tangled in her hair and her pale legs flashed beneath Peel’s filthy shirt. As she hit the water she tucked in her arm, but the impact still shocked a scream from her and Toby saw her face crumple as she sank.
“Stubborn fool.” Toby jumped after her.
He splashed down almost on top of the spot she had gone in, but Ayla was still underwater when he surfaced.
“Damn it.” Toby dived and forced his eyes open. Ayla struggled, trying to reach the surface with only one arm, but the water that pulled at her broken wrist caused her to twist in agony. Toby closed his fists around her billowing shirt and kicked towards the sky. Spikes in his shoulder made him wince – Polly had hold of his shirt and was pulling, hard. They broke the surface together. Ayla’s arm floated in front of her.
“Gods, it hurts,” she choked.
Toby caught her shoulders as she kicked weakly. He held her close, squashing the bag between them and forcing Polly to climb to the front of his shoulder. Ayla panted desperately, trying to breathe through the pain her crash into the sea had caused.
“I’ve got you.” Toby’s legs were tiring, but he forced Ayla’s chin above water.
“Toby.” The captain swam to them, one arm around an unresisting Rita. “We’ll have to swim around the Phoenix.”
“There’s only one problem.” Rahul kicked closer. “How in all the hells do we get back on board?”
TWENTY-TWO
“Can’t your parrot-thing fly up and tell them to lower the ropes?” Ayla gasped.
“Of course she can.” Toby nudged her but Polly gripped his shirt harder. “Go and tell Marcus we’re here, Polly.”
Polly hung her head. “My pinions were burned off, Toby. I’m broken. I can only glide from a height – I can’t fly up.”
“Oh,” he said tiredly.
“We’ll have to get to the other side and yell.” The captain was tiring, too, fighting the tow of his own heavy clothing and boots.
“They won’t hear us over the noise of battle.” Rahul was pulling Oats behind him. Like Ayla, the pirate was trying to swim with one arm; the other was tucked beneath his shirt, hiding from the fish that already crowded around his stump.
“We have to try.” Toby tugged Ayla flat, and started to swim out from under the pier. Ayla kicked and they moved quickly together towards the Phoenix.
D’von and Hiko drew level. D’von faced forwards and panted like a dog as he pulled Hiko.
As they reached the ice-breaker hull, the shade of the Phoenix fell on the group and the water noticeably cooled.
“Watch out.” Ayla jerked in Toby’s arms as an arrow splashed into the water a bare finger-width from her leg.
“Have they seen us?” Toby squinted up, but no further arrows came. Polly’s eye swivelled outwards and she shook her head as she zoomed in on the dock.
“Just a bad shot, I think,” Barnaby huffed as he dragged Rita closer to Toby. “Keep swimming.”
Slowly the pirates made their way around the Phoenix. As soon as the pier was out of sight, they started to yell.
Toby kept their heads above water as Ayla waved her good arm. “Phoenix!” she shouted. But there was no response.
“They’re all port side, holding off the soldiers.” Rahul kicked more vigorously, forcing his shoulders above the water, as though the extra lift would raise his voice. “Nisha … Nisha!” Still no answer from the deck high above them.
“What now?” Hiko’s voice was small and shivery.
“We keep shouting. Ho, Phoenix!” Toby waved.
“Look, there’s someone.” Ayla pointed with her good hand and Toby squinted up. The sun haloed a figure leaning over the gunwale, then he moved, his gait a familiar limping roll.
“It’s Crocker,” Toby said.
“Crocker! Crocker!” The pirates yelled his name as loud as they could and Toby saw him hesitate. He knew then and there that they had been spotted.
<
br /> Then Crocker walked away.
The pirates were silent.
“Did he just…?” Ayla murmured.
“He’s an evil-minded, vicious son of a toad,” Rita spat. “If he leaves us down here to drown or be picked off by arrows, I’ll … I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Die.” Simeon shook his head. “I didn’t come this far to drown in reach of the Phoenix.” He made a fist and started to bang on the hull. “Come on,” he yelled.
“It won’t work.” Toby shook his head. He tensed as he began to tingle, the sea’s poison finally starting to irritate his skin. How long did they have?
“Can we climb the paddle cage?” Rahul looked doubtfully at the razor-sharp wire designed to catch and dice any junk that might block the paddle, then at the injured pirates that they dragged behind them.
The captain shook his head. “No. Crocker saw us – someone else will, too. I don’t know why he isn’t lowering Birdie, but there’ll be a good reason. Maybe he’s in real trouble up there. Keep shouting.”
Simeon hammered harder on the hull and Rahul joined him.
The crash of their fists on metal rang through the water and reverberated on and on. The water sloshed beneath Toby and a current started to pull at his legs. Suddenly he thought he heard a new sound.
“What’s that? Stop,” he shouted.
Simeon stopped hammering and Rahul raised his fist from the hull. But another noise – a tortured metallic scraping sound – continued.
Toby felt the pull as he and Ayla were dragged back towards the ice-breaker in front of the ship.
“Brilliant!” the captain yelled suddenly. “Back to the prow. Crocker’s opening the hull. We can swim straight into the wreck room.”
As the Phoenix continued to crack, and water poured past him, Toby half swam, half floated on the current. He reached the splitting ice-breaker as it stopped moving, leaving a gap just wide enough for them to enter. He grabbed the hull with one hand, and pulled Ayla into the wreck room beside him.
The other pirates followed and flopped, exhausted, on to the salvage platforms.
The water continued to pour in.
“We have to close her before she sinks low enough for the soldiers to climb on board.” The captain was already on his feet. “Toby, you have to get to the boiler room as quick as you can. Simeon, wait by the pump and when Toby powers her up, empty this water out. Harry, Rita and Ayla will stay here, everyone else on deck. We’ll sail as soon as we can.”
Toby nodded and released Ayla, then rose wearily to his feet. Ayla used her good hand to drag herself on to a ledge. Her hair hung in front of her face, a dark curtain that closed her off from the world. She tucked her broken arm into her shirt then puffed loudly and stood up.
“What’re you doing?” Toby stared. “You heard the captain. Stay there.”
“I’m going on deck.” Ayla settled the bag on her shoulder and hefted her blade with her good hand.
“You can’t be serious.” Toby appealed to his father, “You told her to stay there. She should stay, right?”
The captain wrung water from his shirt as he regarded his rival’s daughter.
“I have no authority over the girl,” he said eventually. “I don’t think she should fight, but I can’t stop her. You don’t have to fight for the Phoenix, you’ve done enough – rest.”
“Until you’re safe, my mission isn’t complete.” Ayla’s voice was a weak imitation of her earlier bluster. “I can’t stay down here while you fight up there.”
The captain sighed. “What mission?”
“I have to make sure you’re safe.” Ayla swung her sword wearily. “Nell has plans for you, Captain Ford.”
“Of course she does,” Barnaby replied. “Come, then.”
“We need weapons,” Rahul growled.
“Take whatever you can use.” The captain gestured around the wreck room and the pirates split up, digging through lingering piles of unsorted salvage from the plane.
Armed with broken wing pieces, curves of metal from seat sides and shards of propeller, the pirates climbed out of the water and up the ladders towards the hatch. Toby followed Ayla with Polly on his shoulder. Hiko and D’von were right behind him. When Toby reached the hatch he looked down. Rita and Harry lay on the highest salvage platforms; the rising water already submerged their feet.
“How fast can we get powered up?” the captain asked.
“Depends how quickly the combustion chamber can heat the feed water.” Toby drew Nix. “It’ll be faster with Hiko’s help.”
“All right, then. Hiko, you’re with Toby. Oats, take D’von and show him how to operate the winches, together you can get that hull closed. Ayla, Rahul, you’re with me. Let’s go.”
Toby climbed out of the hatch and Hiko stayed so close to his legs that he bumped the younger boy with every movement. Toby’s face was almost pressed into the bag on Ayla’s back, but that gave little protection from the battle that roared from prow to stern.
“They’ve boarded,” Toby breathed.
Ahead of him the captain thudded on to the gangway with a roar.
“The captain’s back! He’s not dead.” Word spread around the deck and Toby took advantage of the brief lull to sprint around his father’s legs and duck towards the Phoenix’s second hatch. D’von and Oats were right behind him, heading for the winches.
“Toby,” Hiko shrieked. Toby turned just in time to see a hubcap whip across his vision, slamming aside the arrow that was headed for his face.
“Thanks, Theo!” he wheezed.
“Welcome home.” The big man knocked a soldier across the deck with a backhander that made Toby’s muscles shiver. “Just in time – we’re about to be overwhelmed.”
“I’ll get us moving.” Toby dropped beneath a sword swipe, grabbed Hiko and slid the last metre to the hatch. “Just a few more minutes, Theo.” He grabbed the mechanism, turned the wheel and tore the hatch open. “Hold on,” he yelled and leaped feet first into the darkness.
Toby and Hiko clattered along the corridor and skidded into the boiler room. Toby was tossing Nix aside and dragging on his goggles before his feet had finished sliding.
Inside, the room was dark and quiet. He was home.
The pirates had made a mess of his ‘things that might be useful one day’ pile. It looked as if a storm had wrecked the room. But there was no time to take it in – he had to get the ship moving.
“Hiko…”
“I know – the boiler needs fuel.” Hiko was already hauling an armful from the compressor and staggering towards the combustion chamber. Polly jumped from Toby’s shoulder on to the steam drum and he relit the burner, cursing as the flame guttered before taking. Then he ran to check the water-level gauge and the feed-water control valve. A flick of his wrist and the boiler drum was filling.
Toby pulled levers, making sure power would go straight to the paddles. They could pump the wreck room once they were away from the jetty and out of range of the Tarifan’s missiles.
Agonizingly slowly, steam began to build, whistling as it entered the delivery lines. “Come on, come on,” he urged it.
Hiko danced from one foot to the other and even Polly bobbed up and down on her perch. Toby kneeled by the combustion chamber, glaring through the grille, as if the heat of his gaze would make it burn hotter and faster.
The whine of turbines drilled into his ears, a drone that almost masked the clang of the closing hull. At least D’von and Oats had made sure that the Phoenix would not sink any lower in the water.
“How long?” Hiko fidgeted at his side, twisting his hands in his ragged shirt.
“Soon.” Toby glanced at the delivery lines, which were beginning to shudder. With every minute that passed he imagined another pirate dying on the deck.
“Now.” Toby leaped to his feet and pulled the lever that would throw the ship into reverse. Steam howled and the paddles began to turn, jerking the Phoenix like a fish on a line. Normally the process of undocking w
as slow and delicate, but this time Toby wanted to rip the pier out from under her. He threw all the power he could into the paddles and whooped as the Phoenix shuddered and a bone-deep grinding sound came through the hull.
“I’m going up there.” He looked at Hiko. “Stay here and watch the boiler. Make sure the paddles don’t stop working and keep feeding her fuel.”
The boy nodded and ran to the fuel compressor. He picked up Nix from where Toby had abandoned her. “Good luck.” Hiko offered him the sword, pommel first.
Polly edged along the drum, half spreading her near-useless metal wings, as though to glide on to his shoulder again.
“You stay here, too, Polly.” Toby threw off his goggles.
Toby wanted to see the Phoenix rip apart Tarifa’s jetty. He was ready to fight.
The sun was low in the sky and the evening light bathed the deck with a baleful glow. Outside, the tenor of the sound had escalated – the Phoenix was screaming as she strained away from the dock.
Half of the soldiers were trying to get off the ship, running for their makeshift gangplanks, which were already tilting dangerously. The other half were fighting even harder, trying to prevent the Phoenix from leaving.
Officers on land couldn’t decide whether to cut the ropes and save the jetty, or hope it would hold out and keep their prize trapped in place. So the lines stayed and the Phoenix shuddered as tension tightened her ropes. Metal groaned as the ship battled the dock.
Toby ducked as a soldier swiped for him. Already it was instinct for him to whip Nix from his shoulder in a strong arc. He used one foot to push the Tarifan off the end of his sword and jumped over his falling body.
There he came face to face with Peel, panting and drenched with sweat. His shoulder remained bloody and a long gash now split his eyebrows. He had tied his sun gauze over the cut so that it didn’t blind him, and the blood had soaked through, leaving the scarf crackling and brown at the edges.
Peel looked in surprise at the groaning soldier, then at the blood dripping from Toby’s sword. “Well, then,” he murmured. He reached down and finished the Tarifan off with his kitchen knife.
Phoenix Rising Page 20