Cal stood up suddenly and made a dismissive gesture at Keera. 'You know what? Do what you like. I wash my hands of you! You can go on this fool's errand if you wish, but me and Salah, we are heading back right now.' He glanced over towards the group of children and got to his feet. 'Salah,' he said. 'Come with me. We're leaving.'
Salah stared at him, her eyes wide. Then she shook her head.
He glared at her. 'Come along, Salah, none of that. I am responsible for your welfare. You're to come with me now.'
Salah opened her mouth and grimaced, as if trying to take a breath, then began to gesticulate. Suddenly she stopped.
'No,' she said; and everybody turned to look at her in complete amazement. Salah lifted a hand to her mouth as though she couldn't quite believe it herself. Then she laughed incredulously, and it wasn't her usual silent laugh but a loud chuckle. She looked at Cal and spoke again, with only a little hesitation. 'No, C-Cal. I'm . . . s-s-staying here . . . with Ph-Phelan.'
There were gasps and exclamations all around the room. Phelan ran over to Salah and hugged her, and Sebastian understood the look he had seen in her eyes earlier. He turned to Keera and the two of them shared a laugh of disbelief. Cal muttered an oath, turned on his heel and strode out of the room. Sebastian started to go after him, but Cornelius pulled him back.
'Let him go,' he said.
'You think he'll leave?' asked Sebastian.
'By himself? I doubt it. I imagine once he's had a chance to simmer down a bit, he'll realize that he may as well come with us. But you know, it's up to him. Tell you the truth, I almost wish he would leave. It would improve the atmosphere around here no end.'
Salah and Phelan came over, beaming delightedly. Sebastian saw that they were holding hands like sweethearts.
'What happened?' he asked Salah.
'Phelan happened,' she said. 'He told me . . . I w-w-would speak . . . when I was r-ready, and finally . . . I was!'
'It's wonderful news,' said Keera. She reached up and clasped the girl's free hand in hers. 'I only wish we had some way of telling Joseph what has happened. He would be so thrilled to learn of it.' She looked at Salah intently. 'So, you wish to go with us down river?'
Salah nodded and glanced at Phelan. 'I go . . . w-where Phelan goes.'
Phelan grinned. 'That's settled then,' he said. 'Now, you'd best finish up your food. We have some way to travel if you are to visit the ark today. And we must be back in Sanctuary before nightfall.'
CHAPTER 24
DOWN TO THE RIVER
They set off a short while later – Sebastian, Cornelius, Max, Phelan and another boy of perhaps twelve summers, a red-headed, freckled lad whose name was Olaf.
Keera and Salah would have gone with them but found themselves enlisted by a second group, leaving later that morning, who were setting out in search of some fresh meat. Sebastian wasn't surprised when Cal appeared from nowhere to announce that he too would accompany the hunting party. He hardly acknowledged Sebastian and Cornelius as they passed by.
'Still taking every chance he can to spend time with Keera,' observed Sebastian.
Cornelius gave him a wry smile. 'Anybody would think you were jealous,' he said.
'Don't be daft. It's just pathetic, that's all. Everyone knows she's not interested in him.'
They trooped down the many steps to the ground floor, where a couple of young boys sat guarding the huge metal entrance door. They nodded to Phelan, peered out through the observation slot, then started to draw back the massive metal bolts, standing on tiptoe to reach the highest.
The door swung open on oiled hinges. Phelan and Olaf leaned out and glanced quickly up and down the street before stepping through. Sebastian noticed that they held their swords out before them, ready for trouble, so he and Cornelius unsheathed their own swords as they went out. Max ambled after them and winced as the door slammed shut behind him. They stood there for a moment, gazing around.
'What are we looking for?' Sebastian asked Phelan. 'There's no danger of any Night Runners surely?'
Phelan shook his head. 'They're not the only things to fear around here,' he told him.
'Oh great,' said Max. 'There's something you haven't told us about.'
Phelan laughed. 'You're too suspicious,' he said. 'But you have to be careful. Sometimes animals come wandering out of the jungle. A friend of mine turned a corner one day and walked right into a gruntag. Last thing he ever did.'
Sebastian studied the boy thoughtfully, thinking that Phelan's outlook was way beyond his tender years. It was as if he was talking about the loss of a hat, not another human being. But he had endured such a harsh life here in this ruined city, perhaps it was no great surprise.
'You must be looking forward to leaving this place,' Sebastian said.
Phelan nodded eagerly. 'It's all I've dreamed of ever since I was old enough to think,' he said. 'But of course, Aaron can't be hurried on anything. Now I really feel that it might be about to happen.' He and Olaf glanced up and down the street again before setting off; the others followed.
'Why exactly are we doing this?' asked Sebastian. 'Going to see the ark, I mean? Why was Aaron so keen on us looking at it before we made up our minds?'
'He wants us to inspect it,' said Cornelius, 'to see if it's strong enough to carry us all down river.'
'As if we'd know,' said Max scathingly.
'Oh, I like to think I know a thing or two about boats,' said Cornelius.
'Is there anything you don't know about?' grunted Max unkindly.
'Just one. How to get a buffalope to keep a still tongue!'
Sebastian looked around. 'Phelan, I don't know how you find your way around this city,' he said. 'Every road looks exactly the same to me.'
Phelan laughed easily and glanced back over his shoulder. 'I have been finding my way along these streets since I was old enough to walk. There is not one alleyway that I have not mapped.'
'You have maps?' Cornelius asked him.
Phelan nodded and tapped his forehead. 'In here,' he said. 'The best kind.'
'Oh, right,' said Max. 'Much better than those daft things that people draw on paper.'
They walked on through a maze of crumbling grey stone buildings. Everywhere empty windows gazed down upon them and Sebastian shivered.
'I feel like I'm being watched,' he said.
'You are,' said Olaf, in a surprisingly deep voice. 'The dead are watching us from every shadowy corner, just waiting for night to fall.'
Max looked at him. 'Who invited laughing boy?' he asked.
'Olaf has every reason to be gloomy,' said Phelan protectively. 'He saw both his parents taken by the Night Runners just a few summers back.'
'How terrible,' said Sebastian; and he nudged Max in the flank.
'Er, yes . . . tragic,' muttered Max dutifully.
In the unnatural stillness, Sebastian found that he was alert to any sudden movement. Once a tiny javralat came racing out from an open doorway, making his heart thump in his chest; a short while later, a flock of the big black birds flapped out of an alley, their shrill screeches echoing on the still air.
'What are those things?' he asked.
'Scraws,' said Phelan. 'Carrion birds. They dine on the leftovers that nobody else wants.'
'I know the feeling,' commented Max.
Phelan and Olaf never hesitated: they moved left and right through the maze, ever watchful, ever decisive; and after perhaps an hour of walking, they reached a place where the jungle had invaded the streets to such a degree that roots and vines covered the grey stone like grasping talons. A short distance further on, the last buildings had crumbled into heaps of shapeless stone. Then lush green undergrowth enfolded them and they found themselves walking along a narrow jungle trail.
Sebastian looked back and was astonished to see that after only a few steps, the city was completely lost to view. It occurred to him that a passing traveller would have no idea it even existed. How many people must have come past, unaware of its proxi
mity – and of their lucky escape? He thought about Joseph's visit all those years ago – how fortunate he had been not to linger until nightfall.
Eventually Sebastian's keen ears picked up the sounds of water up ahead. The trail widened out before them and they found themselves standing on the banks of the river. Upriver they could hear the distant sounds of the waterfall, but it was lost to sight round a bend. Sebastian surmised they were a good distance downstream from where they had first come ashore.
'Shadlog's teeth!' he heard Cornelius say, and turning his head, he saw the ark up ahead of them. He could understand Cornelius's concern. The huge craft was resting on a steep slope, its prow pointing hopefully towards the water; but it was held in position by a complex arrangement of poles and struts and braces, all of which had been made from rough timber. That was worrying enough, but even more startling was the fact that the ark looked nothing like the model in Aaron's room. That had been lovingly crafted from smooth, planed wood; the real thing was rather less appealing – a haphazard jumble of logs, branches and rough-hewn planks, all strapped together with jungle vines.
The group approached it, and the closer they got, the more anxious Sebastian became.
'I . . . I'll be honest,' he said, trying to sound diplomatic. 'It's not what I was expecting.'
Max was more blunt. 'It looks like a death trap,' he said.
Phelan scowled. 'I know it's a bit rough and ready. We tried hard to follow Aaron's plans, but . . . well, we only had simple tools and hardly anybody to use them.'
'Has Aaron seen this?' Cornelius asked.
Olaf shook his head. 'Are you kidding? He'd do his nut! But he never leaves his room now and we didn't have the heart to tell him it looks nothing like it's supposed to.'
They had moved into the shadow of the ark's hull. Sebastian could see that the gaps between the planks were plugged with an oily black substance. He pushed an index finger into it and it came away coated with a sticky layer. 'What's this stuff?' he asked.
'It's resin from the beebob tree,' said Phelan. 'Aaron's idea. He reckoned it would keep everything watertight.'
'Hmm.' Cornelius frowned. 'Good thinking, but I don't imagine he meant it to be used quite so liberally.'
'We had to do it that way,' said Olaf defensively. 'It's all right for Aaron, making a scale model with proper tools and everything. It's a bit different when you're hacking away at a tree trunk with a stone axe.'
'I can see that it would be,' admitted Cornelius. 'You've done a brilliant job under the circumstances.'
There was an uncomfortable silence and then Max asked the question they'd all been too polite to ask:
'Do you think this heap will actually float?'
'Well . . .'
said Phelan.
'Because it looks to me like it'll just go straight to the bottom of the river.'
'No, it won't,' said Olaf. 'At least, we don't think it will.'
'I kind of expected it to be in the water already,' said Sebastian. 'I mean, how do we actually get it into the river?'
'Ah, that's the clever bit,' said Phelan. He led them down the bank to the prow and pointed to the jumble of props beneath the hull. 'We just cut through this one branch here' – he indicated a central prop – 'then the whole lot collapses under it and the ark slides down the bank into the water.'
'That Aaron's idea too?' asked Cornelius.
'Yeah. He says it can't fail.'
'That's right,' agreed Olaf. 'Mind you, it did last time, didn't it?'
Phelan threw the boy an angry glare but it was too late.
'Last time?' cried Sebastian. 'What do you mean, last time?'
Phelan looked uncomfortable. 'Well, it's just that this isn't the first ark we've built. There were . . . earlier versions.
What Aaron calls . . . prototypes?'
Sebastian and Cornelius exchanged worried looks.
'How many of them?' asked Cornelius.
'This is the third,' said Olaf. 'You know what they say.
Third time lucky!'
'Yes,' said Max. 'I believe I've heard several idiots saying that. Would it be too much to enquire what happened to versions one and two?'
Phelan frowned. 'Well, version one . . . we decided to float that one straight away, didn't we, Olaf? And it did float really well . . . for a few days.'
'Luckily we hadn't loaded the treasure into it when it sank,' said Olaf.
'Yes, very fortunate,' said Sebastian. 'And . . . version two?'
'Ah, well, that's when Aaron came up with the idea of this launch down the riverbank,' Phelan told him. 'Only we must have lifted the prow up too high, see? We got all the treasure loaded into it – took us weeks, it did. We said goodbye to Aaron and everything. Then everyone climbed aboard and I chopped the supporting log away and . . .'
'And what?' growled Cornelius.
'It came down too hard,' said Olaf. 'The whole thing split across the middle. It didn't even slide down towards the river.'
'So then we had to unload all the treasure and take it back to Sanctuary piece by piece,' said Phelan glumly. 'Aaron was very surprised to see us.'
'Still,' said Olaf, 'this time he's sure he's got it all worked out properly. The angles and everything. He says it's now or never, because he hasn't got the strength to give it another go.'
There was another long silence while everyone digested this piece of information.
'Tell me,' said Cornelius at last. 'What did Aaron do before he set off on that expedition to find the lost city? I mean . . . I'm guessing here, but I suppose he was some kind of a teacher – a scholar, something like that.'
Phelan looked at him in surprise. 'Oh no, nothing like that. He was one of those people who go around telling jokes for a living. What do they call them? Oh yes, a jester!'
Sebastian stared at him. 'You are joking?' he said.
'Oh no, I leave the jokes to him – he's a killer when he gets going! Next time you see him you must ask him to tell you the one about the merchant and the pigs. It's a riot!'
Cornelius started to chuckle; a chuckle that quickly developed into a full-blooded roar of laughter. 'A fool!' he cried. 'Sebastian, it looks as though you missed your vocation. You could have turned your hand to designing boats.' He looked at Phelan's puzzled expression. 'Excuse our amusement,' he said, 'but Sebastian here used to be in the same line of work as Aaron.'
'I don't know what you're laughing at,' sighed Max. 'Maybe I'm being picky but I don't much like the idea of trusting my life to a boat designed by a jester.'
'What's wrong with that?' asked Sebastian. 'Just because a man tells jokes for a living it doesn't mean he can't think big thoughts.'
'You've told me some of your thoughts,' said Max. 'None of them are going to give the great philosophers any sleepless nights.'
Cornelius walked back along the ark's hull. 'Let's go and take a look inside this thing,' he suggested. Max started to follow him, but the little warrior turned back and held up a hand. 'Maybe you'd better wait here,' he said. 'If that support snaps, this thing could wind up in the river before it's time to leave.'
'What are you trying to say?' muttered Max indignantly, but he obeyed the order and stayed where he was, watching the others with a gloomy expression. 'If you feel any creaking below you, get out of there fast,' he advised them.
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Explorers Page 22