Peter and the Starcatchers (40 page)

S
LANK COULD NOT STOP TALKING. He was almost giddy now, as the dory drew near the
Jolly Roger.
He felt confident that, with the power in the trunk, the crew would be his. It pleased him to have Mol y to boast to, to taunt.

“D’you fancy snakes?” he asked her. “Because King Zarboff has a big one. Don’t get too close to it, though. It fancies tender young morsels like you.” Slank laughed.

“You’l never get to Rundoon,” said Mol y, her voice even.

Slank cut his laugh short. “Who’s to stop me?” he said. “You? Your little trusting friend, back there on the rock?”

“No,” said Mol y. “My father. He’s coming, and he’l find you.”

Slank laughed again.

“And what if he does?” he said. “Even if he manages to find me, do you think he’s any match for what’s in that trunk?” Mol y tried to remain expressionless, but Slank caught a flicker in her eyes.

“Ah,” he said. “I see that
you
see my point.”

“Yes,” said Mol y, although that was not what she had seen, not at al . What she had seen, and almost betrayed, was the dark shape coming across the water from the direction of the lagoon mouth, low and fast. She saw it because she was facing the stern; Slank, facing her, did not see it.

“Yes,” she said, “I suppose you might be right. There must be a great deal of power in that trunk.”

“Oh, indeed there is,” said Slank, enjoying the fact that his prize captive was talking now. “More power than has ever fal en to Earth, at least in human times. That’s what they say. Power enough to change the world.”

“What wil you do with it?” asked Mol y, desperate to keep Slank’s attention, to keep him from turning his head toward the shape in the sky. She worried, too, about Little Richard, who was facing the stern, but his head was bent forward, his attention focused, for now, on his oarwork.

“What wil we do?” said Slank. “Why, we’l change the world, of course! We’l
command
the world, we wil . Once we kil off you Starcatchers.” The flying shape was close now.

“Do you real y think you can do that?” said Mol y. “The Starcatchers have a great deal of knowledge, you know. And power.”

“True,” said Slank. “But we’re about to…”

He stopped abruptly, staring at Mol y, and in that instant she knew that her eyes, tracking the flying shape, had betrayed her. Slank whirled and shouted as he saw it hurtling toward him. Little Richard saw it, too, and raised an oar to hit it, as Slank raised his knife to stab it.

“PETER!” shouted Mol y.

“MOLLY, JUMP!” shouted Peter.

And jump she did, launching herself off the bow of the dory, just as Peter swept overhead, his right hand stretched down and reaching for her. She, too, reached up for him, but his hand only brushed hers for an instant, and he was gone. Mol y fel into the water.

Slank roared in fury and reached overboard for Mol y, grabbing her by the hair; but then he heard Peter’s shout. The boy, having turned, was coming back around, diving toward him. Releasing Mol y, Slank spun and raised his knife, timing his lunge as the boy swooped in closer, closer, and…

Missed.

Peter swerved at the last instant, leaving Slank stabbing the air, and Little Richard swinging his oar at nothing.

Slank looked back at the water, and saw that Mol y was…

Gone.

He cursed, then checked the stern.

The trunk was still there
.

“Out of my way!” he shouted, struggling in the little dory to get past Little Richard without capsizing. With the girl gone, he would take no more chances: He would use the starstuff
now.

M
OLLY SANK, FARTHER AND FARTHER DOWN . The moon, at first bright and yelow on the rippling sea surface above her, grew dimmer, and greener. She churned her arms and legs, but made heavy by her clothes, could not swim. Her lungs burned. She was going to drown.

Her right hand tingled with warmth.

Her hand was tingling where Peter had touched her.

Mol y held her hand before her face, and, in the watery dimness, she saw the faint glow, and she understood: Peter hadn’t been trying to lift her off the boat; he’d been trying to put starstuff on her hand. But was it enough? They’d touched for only the briefest instant….

Forcing herself to ignore her aching lungs, Mol y raised her right hand over her head and closed her eyes, focusing on the tingling feeling, wil ing it to spread, and to lift her.

Please be enough, please…

She opened her eyes, but couldn’t tel if she’d sunk deeper or not; she was close to losing consciousness. Once more, she closed her eyes.

Please, please….

And then she felt it, the familiar warmth. She opened her eyes underwater and looked up to see the moon, the lovely moon, brighter and less green, much more golden, coming nearer to her now, and nearer, and then…

AAAAAHHHH
…Mol y’s head broke through the surface, and she leaned back and sucked in al the salt air she could grab with one breath, and…

“THERE SHE IS! GET HER!
”

It was Slank’s voice, coming from behind her. Mol y twisted—the starstuff had lifted her halfway out of the sea, so the water was now at her waist—and she saw the dory not twenty feet away, saw Slank hunkered over the trunk, pointing to her; saw the huge man tugging on the oars, turning the dory toward her.

I need to get higher,
thought Mol y, straining upward.
Come on, come on…

She felt her body rising, but slowly, slowly—too slowly, she saw, as the dory was almost upon her, the giant swinging the stern around, so that Slank, in the stern, could reach for her, and…

“Molly! Here!
”

Peter didn’t just touch her right hand, this time; he grabbed it. Joining hands, he pul ed her upward, and she burst free of the water just as…

“GOT HER!” shouted Slank, taking hold of Mol y’s ankle. He yanked down hard and Mol y screamed in pain as her arm felt as though it was coming out of its socket. Peter hung on desperately to her right hand as the far more powerful Slank slowly dragged her down by her left leg, Mol y hanging between them, suspended over the water at the stern of the dory.

“GRAB HER OTHER LEG!” Slank yel ed to Little Richard, and the big man let go the oars. Mol y knew that once the giant took hold of her, she was doomed. She realized she had one chance—just one—as she drew back her left foot and…

“UNNH!
” Slank grunted in pain as Mol y drove her left heel into his nose, blood spurting instantly, the shock weakening his grip just enough for Mol y to yank her right foot free of his grasp just as Little Richard reached for her, his huge grasping fingers just brushing her leg and…

She was free!

Released from Slank’s weight, Peter and Mol y shot upward together, stil holding hands, tumbling, tumbling in the moonlit night sky.

They let go of each other, spreading their arms, steadying themselves, both of them veteran fliers now. In a strangely calm moment, they hovered, catching their breath, about fifty feet above the water and the dory where Slank cursed, holding his bleeding nose.

“Are you al right?” said Peter.

“I’m fine,” answered Mol y, although in fact her whole body hurt from being a human tug-o’-war rope. Then, stiffly, she added, “Thank you for saving me.”

“I owed you one,” said Peter, studying her face, surprised by her tone. “What’s wrong?”

“Wrong?
Everything
is wrong,” hissed Mol y. “Peter,
you let Slank have the trunk.
I appreciate your heroics, but al we’ve done, al we’ve gone through, counts for
nothing
if that man”—she pointed down at the dory—"has the starstuff. I thought you understood that.”

“Mol y,” said Peter, “I…”

“YOU’RE BOTH GOING TO DIE!”

Peter and Mol y looked down; Slank, blood streaming down his face, was in the bow of the dory again, glaring up at them, knife in hand. His voice was choked with rage.

“ENJOY YOUR LAST MOMENTS, LOVEBIRDS!” he screamed. “I’M COMING FOR YOU NOW!”

Slank bent to the trunk lid. He’d already bashed one of the hinges off with a rock; now he slid his knife blade under the other hinge, preparing to pry it off.

“Peter!” said Mol y. “We must stop him!” She began to lean forward, into a dive, only to be stopped by Peter’s hand grabbing her arm. They floated above the sea and the dory.

“Let GO!” she shouted.

“No!” said Peter. “Just watch.”

Slank pul ed on the knife handle. The trunk hinge popped off easily, as if it had been barely attached, and clattered to the bottom of the dory. Slank looked back up at Peter and Mol y, a look of triumph on his face, then turned back to the trunk and lifted the lid.

The trunk was empty.

For two seconds, three, four, Slank remained absolutely motionless. A drop of blood fel from his nose and spattered on the rough wooden bottom of the trunk. Then with a scream of inhuman rage he stood, looked up, drew back his arm and hurled his knife skyward, straight at Peter. It was a perfectly aimed throw, and Slank knew, as he released it, that it would find its mark.

And it would have, except for the starstuff’s power flowing through Peter, enhancing his senses, slowing the world down for him. He saw the blade leave Slank’s hand, saw it turning in the moonlight, the turns perfectly timed so that the knife’s sharp point would penetrate deep into the center of his chest; and Peter saw that if he shifted his body just slightly, and brought his hand up just…
Now…

As Slank gaped in disbelief, Peter plucked his knife right out of the air.

“Thank you!” shouted Peter.

Slank, a strangling sound coming from his throat, looked around furiously for something, anything, to use as a weapon. But there was nothing in the dory, nothing but the empty trunk, mocking him.

“Mr. Slank,” said Little Richard. “We’re moving. I mean, something’s moving us.”

Slank looked at the water; it was true. Although Little Richard wasn’t touching the oars, the dory, as if acting on its own, was moving away from the island.

Slank looked at the water astern, and there he saw them: the tel tale
V
s of the mermaids. The dory was picking up speed; the island was receding.

“Good-bye!” cal ed Peter, waving.

“
Bon voyage,
Mr. Slank!” cal ed Mol y.

Slank, too stunned to answer, slumped to the bottom of the dory, his back against the empty trunk. He stared back at the boy and the girl who had somehow defeated him.

A boy and a girl.

They waved at him one last time, then, holdings hands, they turned, leaned forward, and swooped down, then up, in a graceful inverted arc, heading back to the island, as Slank and Little Richard, helpless, continued being pushed out to the open sea, in a little boat with an old trunk that had once held the greatest treasure on earth.

M
OLLY FLEW CLOSE TO PETER, SO he could hear her over the sound of the air rushing past as they swooped and soared over the sea, heading back to the island.