Voyage of the Owl (14 page)

Queen Ashana snatched the letter back and studied the signature closely.

‘You are right,’ the Queen agreed thoughtfully. ‘That is not his usual signature, or his usual handwriting. It is so neat and grown up. Caspar always wrote in a hurry, smudging the ink and making a mess of his letters.’

Marnie smiled.

‘I think he is trying to tell you that he is not quite as compliant as our gaolers would have you believe,’ Marnie whispered. ‘I think he is trying to tell you that he still has some spirit left despite what Governor Lazlac tells you. I think he is trying to tell you that he still loves you.’

Queen Ashana smiled through her tears and picked up the parchment as though it were a great treasure. She read it again and again, then tucked it away into the bodice of her dress where she could feel it next to her skin.

During the afternoon clouds started to gather on the horizon, slowly building up into a dark mass.

‘Do you think we will have another storm?’ asked Roana nervously.

‘No, not tonight. These clouds are too high. In fact, these clouds are good,’ Fox observed optimistically. ‘They’ll hide what little moon there is and make it harder for the Sedahs to see us.’

From midafternoon, the
Owl
no longer skimmed south, but bobbed in the ocean. Fox sent orders for all the sails to be dropped and folded, put away and replaced. The new sails were all black – painted with diluted pitch.

‘My invisibility wings,’ Fox joked. ‘With the moon’s face hidden, all the lanterns doused and black sails, no-one will be able to see us until it’s too late.’

Fox suggested that everyone except Jack should try to sleep, to prepare for the hoped-for arrival of the
Sea Dragon
sometime in the early morning.

When Jack came to wake them at midnight, it was chilly. Everyone dressed quickly in black silk shirts, black woollen caps and black cloaks over their usual breeches and skirts.

Ethan made hot coffee and cold beef sandwiches. Everyone was too nervous to eat much but they sipped on the coffee gratefully, as the warmth woke them up.

The sails were hoisted once more, and the
Owl
set off sailing back and forth, east to west and back again. All hands were on deck, eyes peeled to the north, searching for a sign of the
Sea Dragon
.

Fox gave orders that everyone was to be totally silent. The ocean was calm tonight and sounds would carry a great distance. Fox wanted nothing to give warning of their presence to the
Sea Dragon
.

One hour crawled by. Two hours crawled by. Eyes strained through the darkness. Many times some
one gave a quick breath, only to strangle it as they realised the flash of white was not a sail but merely a splash of foam and spume.

Slowly the waxing crescent moon started to rise over the horizon. The roiling clouds scudded across the fingernail moon’s face, making it flash from dark shadow to pale silvery light.

The excited nervous feeling turned to a sick dread. What if they had missed the
Sea Dragon
in the storm? What if their whole voyage had been a waste of time and it was already too late?

Everyone huddled into their cloaks. It was getting colder, standing still in the breezy night air.

It was Jack, with his sharp eyes, who spied it first. He cried out softly and pointed to starboard. The horizon looked just the same – dark and empty. Fox sprang over to take a closer look. In a few moments, everyone could see what Jack had spied.

There was a light. A cheery, warm fairy light that bobbed and disappeared again, then reappeared on the northern horizon.

Was it the
Sea Dragon
?

‘It’s about four nautical miles away,’ Fox whispered. ‘It should be upon us in less than an hour. Remember, absolute silence and no lights.’

Fox signalled orders to trim the sails and come
around. With her pitch black sails, and the cloud cover, the
Owl
was truly almost invisible. Everyone watched anxiously as the little light slowly bobbed closer. Soon they could pick out a pale smudge of sails against the night sky.

Half an hour later, a breath of excitement flickered around the
Owl
. In the darkness, Jack had finally recognised the distinctive figurehead on the prow of the ship – a proud carving of a sea dragon. It was the ship they had been dreaming about for days – the formidable, fully armed Sedah warship, the
Sea Dragon
.

Fox watched the approach of the ship carefully, so he could choose when to slip behind the
Sea Dragon
. He hoped to come up as close as possible without being seen, then use the rowboat to come aboard.

Fox whispered orders and everyone leapt to obey. Roana had to fetch an iron pot from the galley, filled with hot coals, and a couple of flares. Lily had to fetch a shuttered oil lamp, with the flame hidden inside, and a bundle of the fire arrows that were fitted with tufts of hemp soaked in sticky black pitch. These were stowed in the rowboat.

Saxon found the other specially made arrows that were designed to tow a thin, lightweight rope. The
heads of these arrows were barbed to make it difficult for them to be pulled free. They were engineered to bury themselves in the timber of the ship and stay there. Fox was hoping that this embedded arrow and rope would be strong enough to tow a very light craft.

Jack, Ethan and Carl gingerly lowered the stowed rowboat and coracle down from the deck into the water, trying not to cause any splashing. Everyone went to their appointed positions and waited, breathing deeply, eyes wide.

Carl let Otto out of the hold with a stern warning, as they would need him to help crew the boat. Otto, Jack and Carl were to sail the darkened
Owl
no more than half a nautical mile behind the
Sea Dragon
and watch for their signal to be picked up.

‘Come about,’ whispered Fox when he judged the
Sea Dragon
had sailed past them in the distance.

The
Owl
surged forward, eager to be flying once more. She sped across the ocean on a tangent to the
Sea Dragon
, aiming to come up behind the other ship.

Fox was steering, his brow furrowed in concentration. Otto, Jack and Carl adjusted the sails as required to keep the
Owl
at racing speed. Ethan
stood on the bowsprit, his arrow nocked and his bow aimed. Fox had told him to aim slightly higher than usual to allow for the drag of the rope. Ethan had practised this new angle time and time again on the floating keg, trailing behind the
Owl
.

The stern of the
Sea Dragon
came rushing closer and closer. By the light of the lanterns in the rigging, they could see the outlines of a dozen men on watch.

‘Fire,’ whispered Fox. Carl signalled to Ethan.

Ethan took a deep breath, checked his calculation, and fired. The arrow whistled through the air and buried itself deep in the timber stern of the
Sea Dragon
. The coiled rope unfurled at great speed.

Down beside the
Owl
, Lily, the lightest, knelt on the small coracle, clutching the other end of the rope in her hands. On her shoulder was Mia. When the arrow embedded itself, the coracle, with Lily and Mia in it, began surfing behind the
Sea Dragon
.

The rounded coracle was a shallow boat, extremely light, built of wicker and goat skin. It bumped and swayed wildly in the wake of the huge ship. Lily hauled hand over hand, to pull herself closer to the
Sea Dragon
. Soon it was towering over her head. She had to balance carefully, spray flying
in her face. Mia clung on nervously, chattering in Lily’s ear. Lily’s stomach lurched and danced.

Another, heavier rope continued to pay out behind her, back to the rowboat, where Saxon and Roana waited anxiously. Ethan and Fox ran to join them.

In a matter of moments Lily bumped gently into the back of the
Sea Dragon
. Now was the most difficult part of the operation. Mia chattered anxiously. Lily had to quieten her with a few soft strokes on her tiny head.

Lily hitched her skirts high, with the thicker rope tied around her waist, and clambered up the steep planks of the stern, her bare toes and fingers searching for holds. The timber was slick with seaspray and the grooves were narrow.

Once she slipped, banging her hip painfully, but she regained her handhold and kept climbing. Lily had to climb past two rows of darkened windows, carefully avoiding the delicate glass. Her fingers were sore and clumsy when at last she reached the taffrail, the upper part of the stern railing with its ornate timber fretwork.

Here she found a suitable strut to securely tie the thickest rope, using the knots that she had practised over and over again with Fox. She prayed her knots
would hold, as this rope would need to hold the weight of four people in the rowboat.

When Lily was sure everything was secure, she tugged strongly three times.

Immediately Fox cast off from the
Owl
. The
Owl
tacked and raced away out of sight, back into the swirling darkness of the vast ocean. Aisha stood on the side of the
Owl
, whining softly. She hated being separated from Lily and Ethan, but orders were orders.

Now it was the turn of the rowboat to surf and coast behind the huge ship. Saxon and Ethan pulled the rope in, until the rowboat was just under the ship’s stern. Now Roana, Saxon, Ethan and Fox took it in turns to climb up the slippery stern, though they all had the benefit of Lily’s secured rope.

At last, puffing and panting, the group reached just below the taffrail. Everyone peered through the black windows they passed, hoping to identify the captain’s cabin.

‘This looks like it here,’ whispered Fox. One of the windows was open a crack to let in the night breeze.

‘We need to get in there and have a good look around,’ Fox murmured. ‘Time for a little diversion.’

Ethan nodded, and nocked an arrow to his bow, peeking it over the railing above. Ethan could see lanterns flaming and a jumble of soldiers on the poop deck. He heard the low murmur of gossiping voices and smelt a whiff of pipe tobacco. Saxon struck the tinderbox. He touched the spark to the tuft of pitch-soaked hemp, just behind the arrow tip.

Ethan fired and the arrow whizzed forward, hitting the foredeck and smouldering into a small spot fire. Another fire arrow followed the first, piercing the forward sail, which caught on fire.

A shout sounded from the foredeck. Ethan fired a third arrow, which started another spot fire. He ducked back again, out of sight. There was the sound of running feet.

‘What is it? Where’s it coming from?’ shouted a sailor.

‘Fetch the cap’n,’ shouted another.

‘Get buckets. Form a chain!’ came the sound of panicked voices. Fire on board ship was every sailor’s worst nightmare.

A pounding sounded on the door of the cabin Fox had identified as the captain’s.

‘Fire, sir.’

A candle was lit hurriedly. The captain pulled on
a jacket and breeches over his nightshirt and hurried out of his cabin.

As fast as lightning, Mia shot through the tiny crack of the window. Following Fox’s gestures and whispers, Mia unlatched the window from the inside.

Lily pulled the window open wider and slithered in. She tiptoed across the cabin, found the door and locked it. Mia ran across the floor and leapt to the security of Lily’s shoulder.

Ethan clambered in after Lily. Groping in the dark, he found a lantern on the desk and lit it. Roana, Saxon and Fox all climbed in afterwards, blinking in the sudden bright light.

The captain’s cabin was lavishly furnished, but not overly large. Across the back of the cabin, under the multi-paned stern window was a long window seat, covered in plum-coloured velvet, with plump cushions and brocade bolsters. Thick velvet curtains in the same rich colour framed the windows, tied back with wide gold braid.

To the left was the captain’s bunk, over a metre wide and curtained off with more velvet drapes. There were deep storage drawers under the bunk, and a tall wardrobe against the wall. Ornate brass lanterns hung from the ceiling on chains that allowed them to swing with the motion of the ship.
Fox lit these with his tinderbox so the cabin blazed with light.

To the right, on the starboard side of the ship, a cluttered mahogany desk and a well-padded armchair sat under a small square window. Next to these was a capacious sea trunk, with bands of iron and a huge lock, fortunately fitted with a key.

The cabin wall was dominated by an oil painting, framed in ornate gilt, of a raging sea battle between the
Sea Dragon
and an unfortunate enemy ship, which was being blasted to smithereens. The
Sea Dragon
dominated the foreground with pennants fluttering, victorious.

The centre of the room was clear, with a beautiful fringed rug on the floor, depicting a tree filled with exotic birds, monkeys and a peacock, woven with crimson, blue, green and cream silks.

Everyone paused near the window seat, taking in the colourful details of the captain’s cabin. Mia scampered up the curtains of the bunk and swung from them merrily.

‘It surely makes my cabin look like a hovel,’ whispered Fox. The others grinned nervously. ‘All right, everyone, set to work.’

Silently, each person took a section of the cabin and began to search it carefully and methodically.

Ethan searched the desk, which was littered with papers, charts, quills, instruments, the logbook, a pipe, tobacco pouch, the captain’s fob chain, a decanter of rich brown liquor and a crystal tumbler. The drawers were crammed with more papers, a length of string, some sweetmeats and what looked like drafts of very bad love poems.

Roana searched the drawers under the bunk, through the bedclothes, behind the curtains and under the mattress. She found nothing but some smelly socks wedged down the end of the bunk.

Fox searched the captain’s trunk, full of clothes and books. He found only a small pouch of silver coins, which he pocketed immediately, and a bottle of perfume. Fox sniffed the perfume experimentally. It smelt sickly sweet and floral. The reek pervaded the cabin, making everyone feel sick with nerves.

Saxon searched the cupboards thoroughly, dragging out armfuls of books, papers and clothes. The only thing that he found of any interest was a map of Tiregian, which the Sedahs had obviously brought with them when they were planning their invasion. Saxon folded the map up carefully and tucked it away in his pocket.

Lily searched the walls and the panelling, knocking and pressing, looking for a secret cavity
like the one hidden in the nursery of the Palace of Tira.

Hearts pounded. Stomachs clenched. Mouths were dry. They all knew they only had a few minutes before the fires would be extinguished and the captain, finding no apparent source of the conflagration, could well return to his cabin.