Sebastian Darke: Prince of Explorers

by Philip Caveney

  'It's going to be quite a ride,' said Cornelius, as if he was looking forward to it. 'Everybody brace themselves!'

  The first rock reared up at them from the port side and Galt lifted his pole and fended the raft away from it. They swung wildly to starboard and Cal managed to keep clear of the next rock only by pushing with all his strength. The raft swung back to port and went over the first drop; Sebastian felt his stomach lurch. They smacked down onto the water, a great wave swamping them, and then the raft began to turn wildly to starboard as it raced along the river again. Sebastian suddenly found himself standing on the leading side and had to turn round as they hurtled towards the next obstacle, a tall grey rock with razor-sharp edges. He pushed against it as hard as he could, feeling his pole bend as he did so. But the maluba cane, though pliable, refused to snap. The raft began to spin in a dizzying circle. Now it was Cornelius who had to manoeuvre it away from a low-hanging ledge that threatened to slam into the side of them.

  Stinging spray lashed into Sebastian's face and he felt the raft shoot out over another sudden drop. It seemed to hang suspended in the air for a moment and then ploughed down into water. For an instant he was completely submerged and he realized how wise it had been to install the grab ropes. His feet came free of the planks and he had to resist the impulse to let go of the pole; but then the front of the raft was buoyed upwards and the rough wooden trunks slammed into his backside.

  He sat there for a moment, spluttering and spitting out river water; then he heard Cornelius yell something and felt a sudden impact that jarred every bone in his body. The raft spun round to port; he was now at the back again and it was Galt and Cal who were doing all the work. He glanced around quickly to make sure everybody was still aboard.

  Keera and Salah were hanging onto a very wet and frightened-looking Max. Cornelius stood just behind them, clinging to a rope and grinning like a demon.

  'Isn't this great?' he yelled over the roar of the water. 'I haven't had this much fun since I went white-water rafting in Golmira!'

  'Fun?' cried Max. 'You call this fun?'

  The raft shuddered like a kicking mule as it glanced off a rock and plunged on its way. There was a last stomach-churning drop, a mighty splash and then, surprisingly, inexplicably, everything was quiet again and they were sailing along without a care in the world. Sebastian looked around in amazement. The river was as it had been before, wide and smooth with not an obstacle in sight. Glancing back over his shoulder, he could see the hellish waters through which they had just passed. He turned back to look at Cornelius.

  'Do you think that was the last of the rapids?' he asked hopefully.

  'Perhaps,' said Cornelius.

  But of course it wasn't. The day became a bewildering mix of experiences. They would cruise along happily for a while; then there was a sudden shout of alarm and everybody scrambled for the poles, roped themselves down and the battle to stay in one piece began again.

  The sun went down and night fell quickly. Now the task became even more difficult: the two men at the front of the raft peered into the darkness ahead, looking for rocks and churning water. Luckily, a full moon soon rose, illuminating the surface of the river. At one point Salah brought a cup of river water to each person, together with a small portion of cold fish wrapped in a leaf.

  'If I eat any more of this stuff I'll turn into a ruddy fish,' complained Galt.

  'That could be useful,' said Cal, staring ahead.

  'I don't know what you're complaining about,' said Max. 'At least you've had something to eat. I don't suppose anybody thought to bring anything for me?'

  In answer, Salah reached into a pack and pulled out a couple of handfuls of succulent green leaves, which she placed in front of the buffalope like a sacrificial offering.

  Max was clearly touched by the gesture. 'Bless you, child. How kind of you to take the trouble.' He looked accusingly at the others. 'See that?' he asked them. 'At least somebody is thinking on their feet.' And then he chomped down the food in three big mouthfuls. 'Very tasty,' he said. 'Now, what's for the main course?'

  At last the sun rose in the sky again. The powerful current continued to carry them onwards, but they saw nothing that resembled the place where Joseph had finally come ashore. Sebastian was decidedly groggy after a series of very short naps. Max, on the other hand, was feeling downright uncomfortable and wanted everyone to know about it.

  'Can't we stop for a moment?' he complained. 'I need to go.'

  'Go where?' asked Cornelius unhelpfully.

  'You know perfectly well what I mean. It's been ages. I need to . . . you know . . . have a wee!'

  'We're not stopping for that,' Cornelius told him. 'You'll have to do what the rest of us have been doing. Go over the side.'

  This was true enough. Mostly under cover of darkness, the human occupants of the raft had taken the opportunity to go to the rear of the raft and empty their bladders into the river. Sebastian had only done so with great reluctance but the Jilith didn't seem to turn a hair over something they saw as perfectly natural. For Max, though, it wouldn't be quite so simple.

  'If I move to the edge, I'll tip up the raft,' protested Max.

  'He's right,' said Sebastian, looking at Cornelius. 'Perhaps we could pull in to the side and let him off for a few moments?'

  'No way!' said Cornelius. 'We're pressing on. There's no need for you to move a muscle,' he told Max. 'Just do it where you're lying and it'll trickle down into the water.'

  'Do it where I'm . . .?' Max was horrified. 'I'm not doing that – there are ladies present! Surely we could put in to the riverbank so I can find somewhere a bit more private.'

  'We're not stopping,' Cornelius insisted. 'And you're getting a bit too sensitive in your old age.'

  Salah started making her complicated hand signals and Keera supplied the translation.

  'She says if you like we will all close our eyes while you take care of business.'

  Max snorted. 'Don't worry about me,' he said. 'I'll try to hang on for a while. Surely it can't be much further.'

  Sebastian felt really sorry for the buffalope. He understood his acute embarrassment, but it was clear that Cornelius was not about to change his mind.

  The raft moved on through the rising heat of the day. Sebastian was scanning a sandbank beside the river when he noticed a series of greenish-brown tree trunks lying by the water's edge. His curiosity aroused, he asked to borrow Cornelius's spyglass, but when he turned it to the same spot, the sandbank was empty; however, the water nearby was rippling as though something large had just entered it.

  He frowned. 'Cornelius,' he said quietly.

  'Yes?'

  Sebastian leaned down to whisper. 'Don't make a big fuss about this but I think something's in the water with us.

  Something big.'

  'Really? What kind of thing?'

  'Well,' said Sebastian, 'they looked sort of like—'

  He broke off in surprise as something bumped hard against the underside of the raft, then looked down in horror as a long dark shape cut through the water a few feet below the surface. He caught a glimpse of a rough, scaly back and a long sinuous tail.

  'Sort of like that,' he finished flatly.

  'What was it?' he heard Max wail. 'Something bumped into us!'

  'Probably just a rock,' said Cornelius automatically; but Sebastian saw that he was assembling his miniature crossbow.

  'That was no rock,' said Cal flatly; Sebastian could gleefully have throttled him. 'It was some kind of water dragon.'

  'A water dragon?' Max was craning his head this way and that. 'What's a water dragon?'

  'Don't worry,' Cornelius advised him, pulling a length of bowstring from his belt. 'That's just a fanciful name for some kind of . . . amphibious lizard.'

  'Oh, and that's supposed to reassure me, is it?' said the buffalope. 'I don't like lizards. Remember those yarkle things we encountered on the pirate island? They were terrifying.'

  'Relax,' said Cornelius. 'The
re's no need to—' He broke off as another bump shook the wooden platform.

  Sebastian spotted a second creature knifing through the water; this time he saw the long pointed jaws, the huge mouth crowded with jagged teeth. An instant later, Galt thrust his wooden pole down into the water and there was a big splash as a long brown tail lashed the surface into foam.

  'They're after us!' cried Max. 'We need to put in to the bank, NOW!'

  'I don't think we can,' shouted Galt. He pointed ahead. 'More rapids.'

  Cornelius slotted a bolt into the crossbow. 'I doubt they'll follow us over those,' he reasoned. 'We just need to hold them off until we reach them.'

  Sebastian spotted a dark shape speeding towards them. 'There!' he cried.

  Cornelius nodded and lifted the crossbow to take aim. He squeezed the trigger and the bolt shot straight towards its target, but then careened off and spun uselessly away across the water. 'Ruddy things must be armour-plated!' he yelled.

  'Oh, good,' said Max. 'Armour-plated water lizards. Nothing to worry about there, then!'

  An instant later, something slammed directly into the raft, lifting the back end clear of the water. Cornelius lost his balance and started to fall, but Sebastian grabbed his arm and pulled him back. The little warrior's kicking heels hung in the air for an instant and a great set of jaws opened beneath them, then slammed shut with a dull clunk.

  The raft levelled out again and Cornelius looked at Sebastian. 'That's another one I owe you,' he said. He looked ahead but the rapids were still some distance away, and now Sebastian was aware of several dark shapes closing in on the raft. He hefted his wooden pole and went to stand at the edge of the deck.

  'Sebastian, be careful!' shouted Keera.

  Sebastian nodded. He studied the nearest of the approaching shapes and saw that its eyes were on top of its head so that it could see above the water when its body was submerged. They appeared to be the only part of the creature that wasn't swathed in thick leathery armour.

  'The eyes!' he shouted. 'Aim for the eyes!'

  Then the creature was moving within range. He braced himself, lifted the wooden pole, pointed the tip at one of the creature's eyes and, as it sped closer, drove down with all his strength. The pole struck home and there was a sudden commotion as the water dragon began to thrash and claw the water in agony.

  Meanwhile Cornelius had trained his crossbow on a second beast. He fired and the bolt shot out and buried itself in its eye. It burst up from beneath the surface with a nerve-shattering shriek and then crashed down again, smashing the water to foam as it went into its death throes. As the raft moved on, Sebastian looked back and saw that the other creatures were homing in on the stricken beasts. In a few moments they had seized their dying comrades and were dragging them below the surface.

  'That should hold them off for a while,' he said.

  But Cornelius wasn't listening to him. He was staring ahead, a grim expression on his face. Sebastian turned round and only then became aware of the rising roar of the water. He saw to his horror that a short distance away, the river ended in a straight line, then plunged over a sheer drop. The spray rising from below was so dense that it was impossible to tell how far down it was to the next level, but it was evidently a lot further than the rapids they had experienced so far.

  'Joseph didn't said anything about a waterfall!' he gasped.

  Galt and Cal were desperately trying to steer the raft out of the current and Sebastian took up his own pole, but to no avail. The raft was gripped as if by an invisible hand and wasn't about to be pushed off course. They could only stand and stare as disaster approached.

  'Rope yourselves down!' shouted Cornelius.

  The roar rose to an ear-splitting din and they began to gather speed. Sebastian watched in silent terror as the front of the raft shot out into empty space and then began to lose its fight with gravity. It tipped forward and tumbled headlong into the abyss.

  CHAPTER 16

  ALL WASHED UP

  After that everything was confusion. Sebastian was falling, and people and things were falling into him and around him. He had a brief glimpse of a huge, hairy shape tumbling past and he thought he heard Max yelling, 'I told you this would happeeeeeeeeeeeen!'

  Then, abruptly, there was nothing. The deepest calm that he had ever experienced settled over him; he felt like a dry leaf plucked from a tree branch by the wind and borne down, down . . .

  He struck the water with an impact that drove the breath from his lungs and sank into icy depths. Panic came over him like a chilly cloak, snapping him out of his reverie and galvanizing him into action. He kicked his legs in a desperate attempt to head for the surface, but he didn't seem to be going anywhere. Then it occurred to him that the rope was still looped around his waist and that the end of it was attached to the logs which, driven down by their own impetus, were still sinking. He shrugged himself free of the loop, and began to power his way up towards the light.

  But then a long hard shape came up from below and struck him a glancing blow on the back, knocking the air out of him in a stream of bubbles; he realized it was a tree trunk that had broken free from the raft and was now rising back to the surface. It pushed past him, flipping him over. He twisted and kicked his legs, and now he could see the ripples on the surface of the water, but it seemed such a long way off and his chest was aching because he hadn't thought to snatch a breath before he hit the water. A dizziness welled in his head and he felt as though his lungs were about to burst . . .

  He broke the surface and floundered for a moment, gulping in air as he looked frantically around him. At first he saw nothing but empty water and he began to panic. Then somebody surfaced beside him with a loud gasp; he recognized Keera and saw that she had her arms wrapped around Salah, who appeared to be unconscious. Sebastian swam up to them, still looking this way and that for something to cling to. The tree trunk that had struck him was floating a short distance further on; he thrashed his way over, flung his arms across it and pushed it back towards the two women, urging Keera to cling on. He kept an arm around it himself and turned to stare down into the depths.

  He felt a jolt of terror as he saw a huge dark shape rising steadily beneath him, but the feeling turned to relief when he saw that the shape was covered in shaggy hair. An instant later, Max's huge head emerged; he spluttered loudly and shook himself to get the water out of his eyes. He headed towards Sebastian in an ungainly doggy paddle.

  'Well, at least there's one thing,' he said mournfully.

  'What's that?' Sebastian asked him.

  'I don't need to do a wee any more!'

  Sebastian almost laughed but realized this was neither the time nor the place. He looked around again and saw that the waterfall had deposited them in a wide, slow-moving pool, one side of which was bordered by a steep bank of shingle. He kicked his legs to steer the tree trunk towards land, and Keera did likewise. Halfway across, Salah coughed, threw up a mouthful of water and looked around with fearful eyes.

  'It's all right,' Keera assured her. 'You're safe – just hang on.'

  A few moments later, Sebastian felt his boots crunching against gravel and, pushing aside the tree trunk, he helped Keera drag the girl up onto dry land. They lay her on her back. She was shivering and her face looked pale, but as far as Sebastian could tell, she was uninjured.

  Max lumbered out of the water and up the bank, shaking the water out of his coat. Sebastian turned back, anxiously scanning the pool for other survivors. He saw Cal emerging on the far side of the pool and shouted to him. The warrior waved a hand and began to swim towards him. Soon Sebastian spotted Cornelius too, clinging onto another chunk of wood and kicking with his little legs. Sebastian hurried down to the water's edge and helped Cal out of the water.