'That was before you came up with the bit about Max being embarrassed.'
'But he is!' insisted Sebastian. 'Max is not your average, run-of-the-mill buffalope. He's . . . special.'
'Perhaps. But he won't be around for ever, my friend. And you need to remember that.'
A shout went up from behind them as the Sea Witch swung round out of the wind. The crew hauled on the ropes, furling the sails, and the ship slowed as she crossed the shallows. Sailors ran to grab the mooring ropes as she came smoothly alongside the wooden jetty to make berth in Lemora, City of Pirates.
CHAPTER 21
IN LEMORA
Max complained bitterly about being hauled out of the hold in such an undignified fashion, but he was nonetheless grateful to get his hooves back onto dry land. He stood there on the jetty, blinking uncertainly at Sebastian and Cornelius, his eyes clearly unused to the full glare of sunlight. A couple of crewmen removed the leather harness from around his shaggy body, and he shook himself, flared his nostrils and took a deep breath of sea air.
'Dry land!' he cried, almost in exultation. 'I was beginning to think I'd never see it again.' He stamped one hoof repeatedly on the wooden boards beneath him. 'Look at that,' he said, as if in amazement. 'It doesn't move under your feet. It's solid!' He stamped again and a wooden board snapped beneath him. 'Well, fairly solid,' he muttered, and moved along a few steps. He glanced around at the tumbledown dwellings that clustered along the jetty, then noticed Jenna and Lem entering what looked like a carpenter's shop. Max stared suspiciously at his friends. 'Where are we exactly?' he asked. 'This isn't the treasure island, surely?'
'No. It's the island of Lemora,' said Cornelius matter-of-factly.
'The island of—' Max's mouth dropped open in dismay. 'Lemora? Isn't that the place where all the pirates live?'
Sebastian frowned. 'Umm . . . yes, but—'
'Oh well, that's typical, isn't it! The first chance I've had to get ashore in ages and where do you bring me? A place that's infested with pirates.'
'We didn't have much choice,' Sebastian assured him. 'The ship was damaged in the battle; we had to come here.'
'Don't talk to me about that battle. The noise of it! It's a wonder I wasn't deafened. Permanently!'
'You're safe now,' Cornelius told him.
Max looked doubtfully at his surroundings. 'Think so?' he muttered.
Sebastian saw that doors were opening all along the waterfront and various people were stepping out of their homes to inspect the new ship in the harbour. Some of them looked disreputable, to say the least. Sebastian could see a profusion of long coats and cloaks, tricorn hats, eye-patches, earrings and other piratical paraphernalia. It seemed to him that many eyes were studying the Sea Witch with what looked like an unhealthy interest.
The Kid came strolling down the gangplank and approached the three friends. He was sauntering along as though he hadn't a care in the world, waving to a few of the people on the jetty as he went by. He grinned at Sebastian.
'Welcome to my home town!' he said. He looked at Max with interest. 'Who owns this old fleabag?' he asked.
Sebastian winced. 'Kid, allow me to introduce my friend, Max. He's been down in the hold for most of this voyage, so you won't have seen him. Max, this is the former pirate, Captain Kid.'
'Delighted to meet you, I'm sure,' said Max icily. 'And for your information, sonny, nobody officially owns me. My original master is dead and I choose to serve his son, Sebastian, out of the goodness of my heart.'
The Kid stared at him in amazement. 'It spoke!' he cried. He looked around at the others and pointed at Max, just in case they hadn't noticed. 'It said words.'
Sebastian chuckled. 'Haven't you ever seen a talking animal before?' he asked.
'Well . . . yeah. I saw an equine once that could say "Howdy do" . . . but this one talks like a person.'
'Yes, that's it,' said Cornelius. 'A person. A very rude person.'
Max tossed his head dismissively. 'Huh! Look who's talking! Mr Mouth Almighty from the kingdom of Golmira!' He studied the Kid for a moment. 'Did Sebastian say "former pirate"?'
The Kid nodded. 'That's right. I was pretty good at it too, till Captain Swift came along and sank my ship.'
It dawned on Max what must have happened. 'Oh my goodness!' he exclaimed. 'The battle I heard. That was you?'
The Kid nodded proudly. 'Like my father before me,' he said. 'A pirate bold and true.'
'I see . . .' Max looked at Sebastian. 'Could we have a word?' he said quietly. 'In private,' he added meaningfully.
'Er . . . yes, I suppose so.' The pair of them walked a short distance along the jetty until they were out of hearing. 'What's the matter?' asked Sebastian.
'What's the matter?' Max looked at him in sheer disbelief. 'Are you stupid or something?'
'I don't believe so . . .'
'Well, for goodness' sake, think about it! The Kid is a pirate. You've just brought him ashore to his hometown, a city full of pirates. By rights, he should be down in the hold, shackled hand and foot. All he has to do here is snap his fingers and he'll have a crowd of thugs coming to his rescue.'
Sebastian shrugged. 'That's OK,' he said. 'It's kind of what we're hoping for.'
Max glared at him. 'What are you talking about?'
'None of us want to take him back to Ramalat, because the authorities will hang him and he's basically a nice lad.'
'A nice lad? How do you arrive at that conclusion? He attacked our ship, for goodness' sake.'
'No, he didn't! He attacked the ship that was following us, and in a way he did us a service, because he threw Leonora off our trail. We attacked his ship and he just fought back.'
'You have lost me,' said Max. 'Completely.'
'Just trust us,' said Sebastian. 'We know what we're doing.'
'Really? That would be a novelty.'
Sebastian moved back to join Cornelius and the Kid, and Max trailed reluctantly after him. Just then, Jenna and Lem came out of the carpenter's shop and made their way across the jetty.
'We're in luck,' announced Jenna. 'These carpenters have agreed to undertake repairs immediately.'
'At an inflated price,' growled Lemuel. 'There are many ways to rob somebody, and maybe being a pirate is the most honest method. At least you're not pretending to be anything other than a crook.'
Jenna spread her arms in a gesture of helplessness. 'What can we do but accept their terms?' she said. 'We are in a difficult situation. And we don't have the luxury of shopping around for a better deal.' She thought for a moment. 'Have the men mount guard around the ship while the work's being done. We don't want any of the inhabitants to get any closer than they need to.' She lowered her voice. 'Remember, we've half the crew of the Black Hand chained up in the brig. If news of that gets out, we'll be scuppered.' She looked at Sebastian. 'You still intent on going into Lemora?' she asked.
'We thought we would,' said Sebastian. He glanced down at the Kid. 'If this young man will agree to accompany us and keep us out of trouble.'
The Kid grinned. 'No problem,' he said as he started off along the waterfront. 'I know all the best places. Just follow me.'
Sebastian was about to do so but Jenna put a hand on his arm.
'Be careful out there,' she said quietly. 'And don't be too long. I want to be out of this harbour the moment repairs are finished.'
'Relax,' he told her. 'We've got the Kid with us. What could go wrong?'
'How I wish you hadn't said that,' muttered Max.
Sebastian turned and strolled after the Kid. Cornelius and Max fell into step on either side of him.
'Leave him plenty of room,' whispered Cornelius. 'With any luck he'll make a run for it soon . . .'
The problem was, the Kid didn't make a run for it, though the three friends gave him every opportunity. The idea of escape didn't even seem to have occurred to him. He showed Sebastian, Cornelius and Max the sights of Lemora, and though they hung back and turned away, and at one point even suggeste
d that he go to the other side of the main square to buy some fruit, he nonetheless came straight back to them, as though he had decided that he was now a member of their gang.
Lemora turned out to be a big, sprawling place, replete with busy markets, coffee houses, taverns and dwellings of every shape and size. As they wandered around, people recognized the Kid and stopped to pass the time of day with him. Suspicious glances were thrown at his companions, but it seemed that most people were happy to accept anyone who was in the Kid's company even if they were total strangers. The hours passed as they trooped around the crowded streets until Cornelius announced that he was hungry and the Kid offered to take him to 'the best tavern in Lemora'.
As they headed towards it, Cornelius took the opportunity to give the Kid a gentle push in the right direction.
'It's certainly very crowded here,' he observed brightly.
'You know, it's a good job you're staying close to us, because it would be very easy for you to lose yourself amongst all these people.'
'I suppose,' agreed the Kid, without much enthusiasm.
'Or when we're in the tavern,' suggested Sebastian, 'it would be a breeze for you to excuse yourself for a moment, to go and use the latrine or something. And if for some reason you didn't come back, well, we wouldn't have the first idea where to look, would we, Cornelius?'
The Kid nodded. 'Well, don't worry, that's not going to happen,' he said.
Sebastian and Cornelius exchanged exasperated looks.
'I think what my friends are clumsily trying to suggest,' said Max, 'is that you should push off. That way, they don't have to take you back to a public hanging in Ramalat.'
'You're . . . trying to get rid of me?' The Kid's bottom lip began to tremble. 'But I thought you liked me!'
'We do like you!' Sebastian assured him. 'That's why we don't want to see you hang. I mean, look, I can't say it any plainer than this. Why don't you just slip away and go back to your mother?'
'My mother's dead,' said the Kid. 'She passed away when I was a baby.'
'Oh . . .' Sebastian felt decidedly awkward. 'Well then, some other relative. Brother, sister? Uncle, aunt? Grandmother, grandfather?'
The Kid just kept shaking his head.
'There must be somebody,' insisted Cornelius.
'No,' said the Kid. 'I'm all alone in the world. The crew of the Black Hand was the closest I had to family, and you sent most of them to the bottom of the sea. Now I've only got you lot.'
'Us?' Max looked horrified. 'You think of us as family?'
'Well, maybe not you,' said the Kid bluntly. 'But Sebastian and Cornelius . . . and Captain Jenna, of course. You could have clapped me in chains and sent me back with Captain Trencherman, but instead you gave me a chance, you trusted me, and I don't think anybody ever did that before. So why would I want to run away from you? You're my mates.' He paused for a moment and studied them. 'Look, I know what you're trying to do. But we won't be heading back to Ramalat for quite some time, will we?'
'Well, no . . .' admitted Cornelius.
'So that will be the time to jump ship, not now when we're heading off on an adventure! Don't worry, I've no wish to end my days dangling from a rope. And when I decide to slip the leash, nobody in the world will be quick enough to catch me. Now come on, I'm starving!'
He indicated the doorway of a tavern just ahead of them, a low, ramshackle, thatched building with a sign over the ancient wooden door that announced it as the Salty Dog.
'This place makes the best fish pie you've ever tasted,' said the Kid enthusiastically.
'Sounds good,' said Sebastian. He glanced at Max. 'Max . . .'
'I know, I know, wait here! Don't worry, I'm used to it by now. Just make sure you bring me out a bit of this pie – I don't see why I should miss out on everything.'
'You can't eat fish pie,' said Sebastian. 'You're a buffalope.'
'He's eaten worse before now,' said Cornelius. 'Remember on the great plains that time? He tucked into—'
'Shush!' said Max. 'Do we have to go into that every time the subject of food comes up? Can I help it if I have the kind of enquiring nature that longs for new experiences? I've never tasted fish pie; I don't think a mouthful would hurt.'
'Rest assured, shaggy, we'll bring you some out,' said Cornelius. 'We'll just have to make sure we stay upwind of you.'
'I can't imagine what you mean,' said Max primly.
Everyone laughed at his disapproving expression; and then the Kid pushed open the tavern door and led the way inside.
CHAPTER 22
THE SALTY DOG
They found themselves standing in a dark, crowded interior, packed with seafaring types all drinking ale, smoking pipes and talking in a raucous babble consisting mostly of 'oohs' and 'arrs'. A rich aroma of cooking hung in the air, making Sebastian realize how hungry he was.
The three of them pushed through the crowds and found a vacant table at the far end of the room, screened from the bar by a high wooden stall which gave them a little privacy. They sat down and a serving girl came in to take their orders. She was elvish, petite and curvaceous, with big black eyes and a tangle of dark curly hair spilling over her shoulders. She noticed Sebastian's pointed ears and favoured him with a warm smile.
'Welcome to the Salty Dog, gentlemen,' she said. 'What's your pleasure?'
They each ordered the fish pie and a tankard of ale.
'You'll like the pie,' she told Sebastian. 'Made it with my own fair hands, I did. The recipe's an old family secret.'
Sebastian smiled back at her. 'I'm sure it's delicious,' he said.
'You could do with putting a little fat on your bones,' added the wench. 'I like a man to be slim, but you'd blow away in a strong wind. Maybe I'll get you an extra-large portion.'
Cornelius coughed impatiently. 'If you wouldn't mind getting a move on,' he said. 'We're in a bit of a hurry.'
'At once, sir,' she said and turned away, but not before directing another admiring look in Sebastian's direction.
'I think Megs is sweet on you,' observed the Kid as the girl made her way to the bar. 'You want to watch out for her – she's a man-eater.'
'What, you mean she's a cannibal?' gasped Sebastian.
'No, you twit! I mean she's already had three husbands.'
'Well, she won't be making me the fourth,' Sebastian assured him.
'We'd best not tarry too long,' Cornelius reminded them. 'Jenna thought those repairs would only take a short while and she'll be anxious to get away from here.'
'There's always enough time to eat,' Sebastian assured him. 'Besides, it will make a welcome change from Thaddeus's lumpy porridge.'
The Kid pulled a face. 'I don't know how you eat that stuff,' he said. 'I got him to make me some pancakes instead.'
'Yes, how did you manage that exactly?' asked Sebastian.
'I've got big appealing eyes,' said the Kid. 'Like a puppy dog. Works every time.'
Megs returned with three frothing tankards and set them down on the tabletop. As she leaned forward, she directed a wink in Sebastian's direction and he immediately felt his face colouring.
'I found an extra large bowl, just for you,' she told Sebastian. 'And I'm going to pick out the nicest, juiciest pieces of fish I can find.'
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