Summer in Enchantia (4 page)

The mouse’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but then he seemed to believe them and nodded. “Sensible lads,” he grunted approvingly.

“So can we join your crew?” asked Rosa.

“We’ll work really hard,” Nutmeg promised.

“You certainly will.” The mouse chuckled nastily. “The last one who didn’t ended up pushed over the side!”

He turned to the other pirates. “We’ve got two new recruits to work for us!” he
announced over the noise.

“Oo-ar!” the other pirates growled, nodding.

“Right, put some welly into it, then!” the mouse pirate with the eye patch snapped.

Rosa and Nutmeg quickly started hauling and pulling at the chest with the others until they got it on to one of the boats. Rosa and Nutmeg jumped aboard too.

“Don’t just sit there, you little squirts!” snarled a big burly pirate, thrusting an oar into each of their hands. “Get rowing, the pair of you!”

Rosa had never rowed before. She gripped her hands around the oar and tried to copy the other pirates, pulling it back
through the water. Soon her arms were aching! Slowly the rowing boat made its way back to the ship, where King Rat was waiting.

“Aha, my lovely treasure!” he said, rubbing his paws together with glee. “Let me see it!”

The chest was hauled up and then Rosa and Nutmeg followed the pirates up the rope ladder and on to the ship. The boats were left behind, bobbing in the water.

King Rat stalked around the treasure chest. “Diamonds!” he said in glee. “Thousands of them!”

“Lucky we spotted them, Captain,” said the pirate with the eye patch. “A ship had got past us and left them on the beach.”

“And now we have them, One-Eye,” said King Rat triumphantly. “More to add to our hoard! We’re rich – rich!” He cackled and the rest of the pirates roared in delight.

Rosa glanced around the ship. There were three masts, each with big sails. The
centre mast had the skull and crossbones flag flying from the top of it. At the back of the ship, there was a door which had a wooden sign on it saying
Captain’s Quarters
and a trapdoor to the brig. In the centre of the ship there were two more trapdoors. Both were open and had steps leading down below the deck.
I wonder if the stolen goods are under there, down one of those flights of stairs,
Rosa thought.

“Oi, you! Boy! What are you doing standing around like a lazy banana!” The pirate One-Eye, snarled. “Get to work! You too, sonny Jim!” he said, grabbing hold of Nutmeg and shaking her.

“What … what should we do?” Nutmeg stammered.

“Go and clean the captain’s cabin,” said One-Eye. “The cleaning equipment’s below the deck.” He motioned towards the right-hand staircase.

Nutmeg and Rosa cautiously went down the staircase. There was a large space under the deck where the pirates slept and ate. It was dark down there and smelled of unwashed feet. Rubbish littered the floor. In one corner was a pile of mops, scrubbing brushes, buckets and dusters.

Rosa and Nutmeg took some dusters and headed back on to the deck. King Rat was still admiring his diamonds.

“I guess we’d better go and start cleaning then,” said Rosa …

King Rat’s cabin was very grand. It had a large bed, a desk, a wardrobe and pictures in gold frames around the walls of King Rat with his wig and pirate coat on. His crumpled clothes were flung on the floor. Nutmeg picked them up gingerly and started hanging them in the wardrobe.

Rosa started to dust the desk. There was a large journal lying open on the top. It seemed to be some sort of diary or log. There was an entry for every day. Rosa read the entries on the open page.

Wednesday 5th June

Weather fair, wind North-Easterly. No sails sighted. Possible sightings of sea beast – her tail seen, but disappeared fast. Pirate crew afraid.

Monster can crush ship in her mighty jaws and eat ten sailors in one mouthful. Hope we do not see her again.

Thursday 6th June

Weather fine, wind Northerly. Still no ships in view, but lookout says he saw monstrous serpent again far out West. No one else saw her. We remain at anchor here to steal more treasure.

“Listen to this!” Rosa said. She read out the log entries to Nutmeg.

The fairy shivered. “I don’t like the sound of that. It certainly sounds as if the sea serpent is around – I hope we don’t meet it.”

“Me too,” Rosa agreed. “I want to find
the stolen goods and get off this ship as quickly as possible.”

“Well, none of it is in here,” said Nutmeg, looking around the cabin. “We’ll have to explore the rest of the ship when we can later.”

They finished cleaning the cabin and went back on to the deck.

One-Eye saw them as they came through the cabin door. “No lazing around, squirts! Get mending them there sails!”

He pushed them over towards a pile of sails.

Rosa and Nutmeg found some big needles, thread and old bits of sailcloth. They started patching the sails, but it was hard work. The sailcloth was very tough
and it was hard to pull the needles through. Rosa’s fingers ached, but every time she and Nutmeg paused, one of the pirates would shout at them.

“Finished!” Rosa said in relief as she patched the last hole and cut off the thread.

One of the pirates, a big mouse with a torn ear and a long scar on his forehead, overheard. “If you’ve finished the sails, get scrubbing the decks.”

“Can’t we have a rest and maybe something to eat, please?” Nutmeg protested.

The mouse stared at her and then laughed unpleasantly. “Did you hear that, One-Eye?” he called. “These boys want a rest.”

“Throw ’em into the sea, Scarface,” yelled One-Eye.

Scarface’s eyes gleamed. “My pleasure!” He took a step towards the girls.

“No! No!” Nutmeg gasped. “We’ll scrub the decks!”

Scarface laughed, a low grating sound. “See that you do!” He swaggered off.

Rosa and Nutmeg found some brushes, mops and buckets under the deck in the living area where the crew slept. After filling the two buckets from a pump on deck, they then found a quiet corner where they began to scrub at the decks. It was hard work and the summer sun was beating down. “I’m really hot,” puffed Nutmeg.

“Me too,” said Rosa, wiping her arm across her forehead.

“No one else seems to be doing much work,” said Nutmeg.

Rosa nodded. As far as she could tell, the pirates seemed to spend most of their time shouting and arguing with each other and
occasionally hauling at the sails or moving barrels of bilberry wine and ship’s biscuits up from the hold.

To pass the time, Rosa started to tell Nutmeg about the ballet she was performing in,
Shim Chung.
“It’s outdoors and there are loads of people watching it each night. I’m a mermaid and I have to do two dances, one where we’re entertaining Shim Chung, and one where we dance a lullaby to send her to sleep.”

“Which is your favourite dance?” asked Nutmeg.

“The lullaby one,” answered Rosa. “Do you know it? It goes like this.”

She started to show it to Nutmeg, humming the music as she danced. It began
with the dancers swaying on the spot, moving their arms from side to side in a floating movement, and then beginning to move in a circle, arms at chest height sweeping round them as they turned graceful slow pirouettes. Finally the dancers all stopped, their arms up, spun round and took three steps forward. They ended the dance with their knees bent and hands down, fingertips touching, in front of them.

“That’s lovely!” said Nutmeg, joining in. Getting carried away, Rosa took hold of a mop and spun round gracefully with it in a circle, while Nutmeg did a pirouette with a duster, moving it around as if it were a piece of delicate seaweed floating in the water.

She started to hum too.

“Oi!” came a roar. “Stop that right now, you two!” Scarface had heard the humming and was glaring at them. “King Rat won’t stand for dancing on this ship. He hates it, he does.”

“Sorry,” muttered the girls hastily, getting on with cleaning the decks again.

They had just finished when there was a cry of, “Supper time!”

All the pirates cheered loudly.

Rosa felt her spirits lift. She was starving after all the work they had been doing. “Should we put the buckets and mops away first?” she said to Nutmeg.

“No, let’s just leave them here,” said Nutmeg. “No one will notice. I’m really hungry!”

They went over to the steps that led down to the living quarters. The treasure chest was still in the centre of the ship by the main mast. Every time King Rat came out of his cabin he opened the lid and ran
his paws through the diamonds, chortling to himself.

Rosa and Nutmeg followed the other pirates down the steps. They were all queuing around a table where the food was being served.

“Oh,” said Rosa when it was her turn. She was given a hard ship’s biscuit and a bowl of watery fish stew that looked completely revolting. Rosa was sure she could see a fish’s head floating in her bowl.

“Yuck!” she said, pulling a face.

One-Eye looked round.

“I … I mean, yum!” said Rosa, hastily pretending to eat a mouthful. The pirate grunted and looked away. Rosa put her bowl down.

Nutmeg shoved her bowl away too. “Come on, let’s go back on deck. It’s horrid down here.”

They took their biscuits and found a quiet spot on the deck where the ropes were kept near the stern – the back of the ship.

Nutmeg looked at her biscuit. It was the size of a dinner plate. “These biscuits don’t look very tasty,” she said doubtfully.

Rosa tried a cautious nibble, but her teeth couldn’t break off any of the biscuit. It was like biting into a rock!

She looked further up the deck. The mice were managing all right with their sharp teeth, and the human pirates were hacking off bits with their daggers and then
chewing hard with their mouths open. But there was no way Rosa or Nutmeg could eat the biscuits at all.

Rosa’s tummy rumbled as the delicious smell of sausages and chips wafted up from King Rat’s cabin. It was obvious that he wasn’t eating ship’s biscuits for
his
supper!

“I know,” said Nutmeg suddenly. “I’ve had an idea.” She checked no one was looking and then quickly tapped her wand on the floor. There was a small silver flash and two large currant buns appeared, smelling sweetly of nutmeg and cinnamon.