Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates (35 page)

Sebastian shook his head. 'No,' he whispered. 'I'll have to stay here.'

'You can't,' she told him. 'We'll all need to come back this way once we've found the treasure.'

Sebastian nodded. 'The treasure,' he murmured. 'Yes. Of course.' The thought of it gave him a little courage. He took a firm grip on the tree trunk and scooched himself forward.

Jenna moved back a little to give him more room. 'Good,' she said. 'And again . . .'

He repeated the move. Another cracking noise came from the wood and he cringed, convinced that it would splinter and break beneath them, tipping them into the void.

'It's all right,' said Jenna soothingly, pulling him upwards. He got one foot up onto the trunk and raised himself to a crouch. Then he was standing, looking directly into Jenna's brown eyes. 'Now come on, follow me,' she whispered. 'It isn't far.'

Jenna continued to move slowly backwards, never taking her eyes from his; and Sebastian had no option but to go with her, inching his way forward. And gradually, in this way, the two of them made it to the far side.

Sebastian nearly wept with relief when he got his feet back on solid rock. He hugged Jenna so tightly she had trouble drawing breath.

'I'm so sorry,' he yelled into her ear, because on this side of the crevasse the thunder of the waterfall drowned out every other noise. 'Thanks for coming back for me! I was useless out there!'

She dismissed the matter with a wave of her hand. 'Everybody is afraid of something,' she shouted back. 'I'll just have to remember not to send you up to the crow's nest when we're back aboard the
Sea Witch
.'

'
If
we ever make it back,' yelled Sebastian.

'Of course we'll make it back,' she assured him.

They turned to look for Cornelius, but he was already moving on. He was standing as close as he could to the waterfall and they noticed that he had one arm up to protect his face. They moved to join him and then they understood why. Sebastian felt something glance off his cheek and lifted his own arm to shield his eyes.

'
Ignore the blows that sting and hurt
,' yelled Cornelius. 'There must be stones coming down in that water the whole time.' As if to illustrate the point, something clunked off the top of his helmet and careened off into the falling water. 'But I think' – he pointed into the seething, pounding cascade – 'I think I can see an opening back there, behind the waterfall.'

Sebastian stared hard and realized that Cornelius was right. He could discern a kind of shadow back there. But how to get to it? The rushing water was too powerful to just step through: it would most likely sweep him off his feet and fling him headlong into the crevasse. No, there had to be another way.

'Maybe there's a gap between the water and the rock,' suggested Jenna. 'If we put our backs to the wall and move sideways . . .'

Cornelius nodded. 'That makes sense,' he agreed. 'Here, I'll go first.'

'No,' said Sebastian, who was still feeling bad about his poor showing over the crevasse. '
I
will.' He pushed past Cornelius and pressed his shoulders up against the sheer rock face. Then he started edging closer to the water. After a few steps he could see that Jenna was right. There
was
a narrow gap between water and rock, but unfortunately heavy pebbles were raining down and he had only gone a little way when the first one bounced off his tricorn hat, making him wince. He lifted his arms over his head and shouted a warning to the others over the roar of the water. He kept moving, and now it was his hands and arms that took the brunt of the stinging blows. Soon he was behind the thundering veil of water and then, in the strange bluish half-light back there, he saw what Cornelius had glimpsed – a small opening in the rock wall. He ducked gratefully inside, and the sound of the waterfall diminished in volume.

He found himself in what seemed to be a large cavern, but it was pitch dark in there and he couldn't see very far. In the dim light around the doorway he spotted a couple of old lanterns, still with tallow candles in them. He felt in his pockets for his tinderbox and, kneeling down, set about trying to light one of them. Then Jenna, backing in through the opening, nearly fell over him.

'What are you doing?' she asked him.

'Trying to get some light in here,' he told her. He struck sparks from the tinderbox, and in the sudden flashes of light he could see that the cave was much bigger than he had first imagined. He managed to get a candle alight just as Cornelius backed into the cave.

'I'm nearly knocked out!' he muttered. 'Even with my helmet on, some of those stones are big enough to—'

He broke off in surprise as Sebastian lowered the glass of the lantern and stood up, illuminating the interior. They were looking at a hideous grinning face, peering at them from the shadows to one side of the entrance. Sebastian had to bite back a gasp of astonishment, and he felt Jenna's hand tighten on his arm in silent terror. But then they realized that they were looking at a skeleton, slumped against the wall of the cave and still dressed in the ragged finery of a pirate. A plumed hat was pulled down just above the empty eye-sockets and a tattered silk shirt covered the ribcage. Sebastian let out a sigh of relief and Jenna released her grip.

'Looks like they left somebody behind to guard their treasure,' observed Cornelius. 'An old pirate custom, I believe.'

They turned to survey the interior of the hideaway. They were in a huge high-roofed cavern, extending deep within the rock. Great multi-coloured stalactites hung from the ceiling, looking like the remains of giant wax candles that had been allowed to melt; and further back, in the shadowy hollows of the roof, they could see hundreds of tiny glittering eyes staring balefully down at them.

'The bats we saw!' exclaimed Cornelius with an expression of disgust. 'Filthy things – this must be their home.'

'Never mind
them
,' said Sebastian impatiently. 'Where's the treasure? Are you sure the map doesn't give any more clues?'

'Of course I'm sure. But it has to be here somewhere.'

'Look,' said Jenna. She was pointing across the uneven floor to the very centre of the cave, where a flat-topped stalagmite jutted up to waist height. Lying on top of it was a small wooden chest.

They moved closer and Sebastian held out his lantern to get a better look.

'That can't be the treasure,' he muttered. 'It's too small.'

'Perhaps there's another clue inside the chest,' suggested Jenna.

'Maybe.' Sebastian reached out a hand for the box but Cornelius grabbed his arm.

'Not so fast!' he said. 'Don't you think it's a bit obvious, just sitting there like that? It's as though somebody
wants
you to pick it up.'

'Well, of course,' said Sebastian. 'What else?'

'Let me find a stick or something. It could be booby-trapped.'

'Oh, come on,' said Sebastian. 'How likely is that?' He pushed Cornelius's hand away and picked up the box.

They all heard the loud click from the top of the stalagmite.

Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, but in that same instant Cornelius dived at his legs and threw him to the ground. A second later, something big and heavy came hurtling out of the darkness and scythed the air above their heads. Sebastian felt the wind of its passing and the shadow seemed to take an age to pass over him. He saw with a feeling of relief that Jenna was standing far enough back to be safe from the booby trap. He started to sit up but Cornelius put a hand on his head and pressed him to the ground.

'Stay still, you idiot!' he snapped.

Immediately the big shape came swinging back again and only now did Sebastian realize what it was. A heavy tree trunk, suspended from the ceiling on ropes and somehow set to hit whoever picked up the wooden chest. As it swung backwards and forwards overhead in a series of gradually diminishing arcs, he saw that some charmer had fixed a series of metal spikes to the leading end of the trunk, and he shuddered to think what would have happened to him if they had met their target. He glanced at Cornelius, who was glowering at him in the light of the lantern, which by some miracle hadn't been broken.

'How likely indeed!' hissed Cornelius.

'Sorry.' Sebastian picked up the lantern and they crept out from beneath the tree trunk. Sebastian set the wooden chest on the ground and they all crouched down to examine it. They could see that it was secured with a stout padlock. There was no evidence of a key anywhere, so Cornelius found a large stone and pounded the clasp until it broke open. The others watched in silent expectation as he opened the chest, stared at its contents in silence for a moment, then placed it carefully on the floor at their feet.

The chest held nothing more surprising than a dagger. Not a fabulous golden dagger with a jewel-encrusted hilt; just a rusty old thing with an odd metal handle fashioned in the shape of an X. Sebastian stared at it in disbelief. He couldn't believe they had risked so much and come so far for this.

'Is that it?' he cried incredulously. 'The famous treasure of Captain Callinestra?' He reached into the chest and lifted out the dagger. 'This old thing?'

Cornelius spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. 'I don't understand,' he said. 'How
could
that be it? Who'd go to so much trouble to hide something like that?'

'Look at it!' cried Sebastian. 'It hasn't even got a proper blade! You couldn't cut butter with it!'

'Let me see that,' said Jenna calmly. She took the dagger from him and studied it for a moment.

Sebastian didn't even notice. He was intent on giving Cornelius a piece of his mind. 'I knew there was something wrong with that map!' he cried. 'The instant you told me that man in the hospital sold it to you, I knew it had to be some kind of confidence trick. Five gold crowns you paid for it!'

'But . . . the map was genuine enough. It led us to this place, didn't it? And whoever put the dagger here had to brave so much. The yarkles . . . the sheer climb . . . that walk across the void. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to place that dagger here. But why?'

'Why? How do I know why? Perhaps somebody was stark staring bonkers!'

'Or perhaps it's not just a dagger,' said Jenna. She picked up the lantern and walked across the cave to a section of wall opposite them, where somebody had scratched a short sentence deep into the grey stone.

X marks the spot
, it said.

'It has a very distinctive shape, the handle,' observed Jenna.

'So?' snarled Sebastian. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

Jenna didn't reply. She was examining the wall closely now, outlining the deeply etched words with her fingertip. She traced the whole sentence before returning to the X at the start of it, which seemed to be incised much more deeply than the rest of the words. She looked at the handle of the knife for a moment, then back at the hole in the wall again.