'That's, er . . . very kind of you,' said Sebastian, squirming in his seat. 'But really, there's no need.'
'You going to be in Lemora long?' she asked. 'Only it's my evening off and I'm not doing anything special. Maybe you'd like to—'
'We're only here for a short while,' Cornelius told her bluntly. 'Until our ship is repaired. And as I mentioned earlier, we are in something of a hurry, so . . .'
'Hmm? Oh . . . yes, sir! Of course, sir!' Megs turned away with visible reluctance and trudged off towards the kitchen.
The Kid grinned, enjoying Sebastian's discomfort. 'She's after you,' he taunted. 'You two are gonna get married!'
'Are not!' said Sebastian.
'Are too!' said the Kid. 'Gonna get married and have babies!'
'Are not!'
'Are too!'
'Oh, shut up!' protested Cornelius. He shook his head. 'What do women see in him?' he asked the room in general. 'We can't seem to go anywhere without some dratted female fluttering her eyelashes at him.'
'You're just jealous,' said Sebastian, and now it was Cornelius's turn to go red in the face.
'Nonsense!' he protested. 'You know I have no interest in women! They're nothing but a blasted nuisance!'
'Ah, but I bet if a Golmiran wench had brought the ale, you'd take a very different view.'
'Pah! There's no such thing as a Golmiran wench! And a Golmiran lady wouldn't lower herself to wait on tables in a dump like this!'
'Hey, this is the best tavern in Lemora!' protested the Kid.
'Number one, a boy your age shouldn't be frequenting taverns and drinking ale,' said Cornelius. 'And number two, if this is the best, I should hate to visit the worst. I mean, just look at the customers!'
The three of them studied the other drinkers. Sebastian had to agree that the ones they could see were a pretty motley crew – and that didn't include the hardened drinkers who were standing at the bar behind them, hidden behind the stall. In fact he realized it was an ideal spot to eavesdrop on their conversations, and the three friends started listening with interest when they detected a bit of a stir back there. Somebody had just entered the tavern and pushed his way straight over to the bar.
'Hey, lads!' said the newcomer, shouting above the hubbub of voices. 'You'll never guess what I've just heard!'
'What's that?' asked another voice, sounding barely interested.
'The Black Hand's been sunk and most of her crew killed!'
'What?' There were sounds of disbelief all round.
'You're making it up,' said a third voice.
'It's true, I tell you! There's a galleon in the harbour, out of Ramalat – the Sea Witch she's called, put in for repairs. I got talking to the son of Ben Thomas, the ship's carpenter. He says as how his father's patching her up. One of the crew let slip that they got the damage during a fight with a ship called the Black Hand. Ben reckons that those of her crew who weren't killed are caged below decks like animals.'
There were gasps of astonishment and anger at this news. Somebody suggested that if that was the case, they should raise a party of armed men and go and free the prisoners at once. There were several cries of agreement. Sebastian gave Cornelius a worried look and wondered if maybe it would be a good idea to forego the fish pie and make for the exit as quietly as possible. But then another voice spoke, a deep croaky voice filled with spite and arrogance; and Sebastian was aware of the Kid freezing beside him, his tankard halfway to his lips.
'What about that young brat of a captain? What happened to him?'
'Sorry, Bones,' said the newcomer. 'The man didn't say.'
Now they heard yet another voice, soft, breathy, but in its own way every bit as unpleasant as the one that had spoken before.
'With any luck he'll be inside the belly of a kelfer.'
'I'll drink to that, Sully!'
'Shame on you!' said a third voice. 'He's only a young 'un.'
'Young 'un or not,' growled Bones, 'the cheeky little rip had me and Sully put ashore only a few days ago. Said we was disputing his authority.'
'You should be glad about that. It could be you two floating around in the ocean like sprats at feeding time.'
'It would never have come to that,' whispered Sully. 'Not if we'd got control of the ship. We'd be rich men now, living in the lap of luxury. And the Sea Witch would have a new owner.'
'Whatever do you mean,' asked the newcomer, 'a new owner?'
Sebastian leaned cautiously out to peer round the end of the alcove seat. The two pirates stood at the bar amid a crowd of their cronies, grasping pints of foaming ale, both of them red-faced, their tongues doubtless loosened by the drink. They were a nasty-looking pair. The one called Bones was a tall, thin, almost cadaverous fellow, with greasy black shoulder-length hair. He wore a filthy striped tunic under a leather waistcoat and a plumed hat that had once been rather grand but now looked like it needed to be taken outside and buried. Sully was shorter and plumper. He was almost completely bald and had lost the end of his nose at some point in his career. When he grinned, he displayed the fact that he barely had a tooth left in his head.
'A contact of ours in Ramalat was ready to pay us a thousand gold crowns apiece for the ship,' said Sully, in that soft, honeyed voice. 'All we needed to do was get control of it. We had it all worked out. First of all we made sure that the Kid's father didn't come back from his last trip.'
'What are you saying?' asked the newcomer, who clearly wasn't all that bright. 'I heard he fell overboard.'
'You heard right,' said Bones gloatingly. 'What you didn't hear is that we gave him a helping hand over the side.'
"Twas in the heat of battle,' whispered Sully.
'That's when things get overlooked,' said Bones.
'Nobody's paying attention,' added Sully.
'Good time for accidents,' said Bones. 'And of course, that's exactly what it was. An accident.'
'Yes. We "accidentally" smacked him across the head, and he "accidentally" fell into the water. Then, when the fight was over, we "accidentally" forgot that we saw him fall in.'
There was a brief silence; and then the drinkers at the bar burst into peals of raucous laughter.
'So who is this mysterious contact in Ramalat?' asked the slow-witted man.
'Can't you guess?' said Bones. 'Trencherman, of course! He's been helping us sell our stolen goods to respectable folk for years. He's also a collector of ships and he's had his eye on the Black Hand for a long time. We figured the way was clear to sell her to him, but then Jack Donovan's brat turned up and claimed her for his own. I thought the rest of the crew would mutiny, but no, they agreed to abide by the Code of the Sea. Imbeciles! So instead of earning a fortune, we got thrown off the ship, and now she's at the bottom of the ocean where she can profit nobody. So I hope the Kid did go into the water. And I hope he was torn to pieces by hungry kelfers before he gave up the ghost. Good enough for him, I say!'
Sebastian turned to look at the Kid, his mouth open to tell him to stay quiet; but the seat beside him was empty. Looking up, he saw that the Kid was already leaving the stall.
'Wait!' he hissed, and hurried after him, closely followed by Cornelius.
CHAPTER 23
A HASTY DEPARTURE
As they stepped out from the cover of the stall, Megs appeared in the doorway carrying a tray of food. The Kid snatched up two steaming platters of fish pie and kept right on going. By the time Sebastian and Cornelius caught up with him he was standing in front of the men at the bar.
For a moment they carried on laughing and drinking. Then somebody noticed who had arrived and an abrupt silence fell over the crowd. It took a little while for Bones and Sully to take heed and then they too turned their gaze towards the Kid. Bones's surprise was so complete, he sprayed a fountain of ale out of his mouth. Sully just stood there, staring at the Kid in utter dismay.
It was Bones who found his voice first.
'K-Kid . . .' he said. 'Thank . . . thank goodness you're safe . . .'
'Oh, worried about me, were you?' said the Kid, grinning wildly.
'What . . . what are you doing here?' whispered Sully. 'We . . . we was afeared you was drownded or something.'
The Kid smiled at them. 'Oh no, I'm fine, thanks. But the Black Hand's gone, sunk in battle.'
'Sunk, you say?' Bones affected a look of complete amazement. 'Oh, that's terrible news, ain't it, Sully?'
'Yes,' whispered Sully. 'That's terrible.'
'It gets worse,' said the Kid. 'I've had to take on other work. I'm working here at the Salty Dog . . . as a waiter.'
'A waiter?' murmured Sully.
'Yes.' He indicated the two steaming bowls in his hands. 'I brought the fish pies you ordered.'
'But,' said Bones, 'we didn't ord—'
That was as far as he got. A scalding bowl of slop hit him full in the face; a moment later the other one crashed into Sully's ugly features. The men screamed and reeled back, clawing at their faces, and in that same instant the Kid nimbly grabbed the hilt of a sword from the scabbard of a bystander and slid it out. Sebastian just had time to register a sense of disappointment – he'd been looking forward to tasting that pie – and then he too was drawing his sword and he sensed, rather than heard, that Cornelius had done likewise.
There was a terrible silence at the bar. Bones and Sully stared at the Kid, their eyes malevolent in their half-scalded faces.
'You cheeky little pup,' snarled Bones, reaching for his sword. 'I'll run you through for that!'
'You can try,' the Kid told him. 'But unlike my dad, I've had a bit of warning about your cowardly ways. Now, this is just between the three of us. What say we go outside and settle this man to man?'
There was another short silence while Bones and Sully considered this. They looked at each other for a moment. Then they burst out laughing.
'You are joking, of course!' sneered Bones. He gestured to his cronies and they all began to unsheathe their swords, until the dark interior seemed to glitter with a whole forest of razor-sharp blades. Then: 'Get them!' roared Bones.
Sebastian didn't have time to think after that. A big bearded man came lunging straight at him, swinging a blade that seemed to be the size and weight of a small tree trunk, and when Sebastian raised his own blade to intercept the blow, the impact nearly drove him to his knees. He lashed back and managed to slice the plume off the top of the bearded man's hat. But sword blades were lashing at him from every direction and there was simply no room to move. It quickly became evident that they couldn't hope to hold out very long against such an onslaught in these cramped conditions.
'Cornelius!' Sebastian hissed over the clanking of blades. 'There's too many of them!'
'Oh, you noticed that too, did you?' Cornelius lunged forward and drove the point of his blade through somebody's thigh; but then had to leap back as a storm of blades came hacking down at him in retaliation. 'We can still take them!'
'But we must get back to the ship and warn Jenna!'
Cornelius scowled. 'You go! I'll hold them here.'
'No! This isn't the time for heroics. We have to return to the ship!'
'OK, then I'll hold them!' yelled the Kid.
'Nobody is going to hold anybody!' yelled Sebastian, hacking desperately at the circle of blades that were jabbing relentlessly at him. 'We're simply going to tell Jenna what's happened!'
'I suppose you're right,' admitted Cornelius reluctantly. 'But I want it on record: running away was not my idea!'
Sebastian, Cornelius and the Kid began to retreat towards the door, fighting as they went. Sebastian's shoulders thudded against wood, and he pushed backwards and stepped out into the street, with Cornelius and the Kid right behind him. They immediately slammed the door on the advancing horde and put their backs against it.
'Where's my pie?' asked an indignant voice. Max was standing there, regarding them suspiciously.
'Never mind the pie!' cried Sebastian. 'We're in a spot of bother.'
Even as he spoke, the door began to move as the angry crowd within exerted their combined weight on it.
'What have you been up to in there?' said Max, rolling his eyes. 'Honestly, you've only been out of my sight for a short while.'
'Forget that,' hissed Sebastian, gritting his teeth as he struggled to hold the door shut. 'Max, old friend, we need a bit of time to make an escape. I don't suppose . . .'
Max sighed. 'Oh, right, so it's "old friend" now, is it? Funny how you only ever say that when you're in trouble.'
'Max, please! We don't have time for this.'
'I suppose I'll help,' he said. 'But I still say you could have grabbed a bit of pie for me.'
'I'll make it up to you,' Sebastian assured him. 'If it's any consolation, we didn't get any either.'
'Very well.' Max shrugged his massive shoulders and stepped closer to the door, where the three friends were rapidly losing their struggle. 'Right,' he said. 'I'm going to count to three . . . and when I do, I want you to step quickly aside, all right?'
'Whatever,' hissed Cornelius through gritted teeth.
'All right then.' Max lowered his huge horned head and pawed the ground with one hoof. 'Ready? One . . . two . . . three!' he roared; and Sebastian and the others jumped smartly to either side of him. Max threw himself at the door with all the speed and power of a gigantic battering ram. At first it looked as though he had left it too late. The door was swinging open and the crowd within were spilling through like shaken-up ale spurting from a bottle. But then Max's head connected with the door, making a sound like a thunderclap and driving it shut again. The door was wrenched straight off its hinges, slamming backwards into the crowd of pirates pressed up against it. Propelled by Max's lumbering body, the door and the people behind it were thrust back into the tavern and there was a great crash from within.
The others didn't wait to see what had happened. They turned on their heels and began to run back in the direction of the harbour. After a few moments Sebastian glanced over his shoulder and saw a rather dazed-looking Max trotting away from the inn, pursued by a few battered pirates. But they were urging other people in the street to come and help them, and several seemed to be responding.
'This way!' yelled the Kid, and he turned left into a narrow opening. 'Short cut!' Sebastian plunged after him and found himself racing along a narrow cobbled alley crisscrossed by countless washing lines, heavy with pegged-out clothes. While Cornelius and the Kid simply ran underneath them, Sebastian was obliged to keep ducking down under the washing.
'Master, wait for me,' bellowed a voice behind, and glancing back again, Sebastian saw what, in different circumstances, might have been a comical sight. Max was galloping after them, his horns snagging every line of washing that he encountered, snapping the twine and heaping the damp clothing onto his head. After a few such collisions he was virtually running blind, his head encased in what looked like a great multi-coloured turban.
Some way behind Max came a yelling mob of sword-waving pirates, and as they gave chase, they seemed to be gathering more and more members to their cause. Sebastian shouted to Max to keep going, and at that same instant he burst out of the alleyway and was shocked to find that the ground dropped away in a steep flight of stone steps. He missed the first of them, tripped and fell headlong, narrowly missing Cornelius and the Kid. Sebastian went sprawling past them, the sharp-edged stones grazing his knees and elbows. He lost his sword, which clattered away from him, but somehow managed to halt his fall. He lay for a while, dazed and breathless.
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates Page 17