Whale Mail, page 16
“Do you mean…”
“It means that it looks like you’ve been conned.”
“But who would do that?”
“That is not our problem.”
Perrin’s head reeled. It was also getting quite hot and stuffy inside the bell, despite the fresh air still bubbling in through the hose every time Ivy operated the pump. There was not enough fresh air coming in. Maybe Ivy was getting tired. He would have to get out soon.
But still, he found it very hard to believe what the whale said, and that he had really come here—and Roban’s business had been broken into—for nothing.
“What about all the old books that tell us about this treasure? They can’t be all wrong.”
“Those books were written by wizards who had an interest in people believing that there was only one device, because then, any they laid their hands on became valuable so they could sell it to gullible people.”
It all made far too much sense. After he had seen the dregs of the collection in Atreyo’s family’s house, and heard the history of it from Sabyna. Wizards tricking common people into parting with money was a very common theme running through crime cases in Tamba. Perrin could now hit himself over the head for letting himself be taken in by one such story.
But he still found it hard to believe.
“Is there not even an original Horn of Truth that is the source of the legend?”
“Legends are things of land folk. We don’t bother ourselves with silly stories and beliefs. We see the things as they are. Your trinkets have value for us when they are useful, but they do not have a value beyond their use. I cannot tell you why you land folk believe otherwise.”
All right. This was leading nowhere.
It had now gotten so stuffy inside the bell that Perrin seriously had to think about getting out.
But if the whales didn’t want the trumpet back, then what was he supposed to do with it and who had been sending these threatening messages to Roban and his family?
“Can we at least be granted passage to Solania?”
“Not while you have that creature on board. We have already told you that. The king’s decision about this is final.”
“We have a travel permit. I can show it to you.”
“You said nothing about carrying this creature across our land.”
“The dragon will stay safely on the deck of the ship.”
“You will not bring this beast across our land. We will stop you, sink your vessel, and keep your souls hostage for eternity. That is our final word.”
There was no point in discussing any further. Besides, a lot of whales had joined and were swimming around underneath the bell.
Strange sounds reverberated through the water, as if something was happening elsewhere.
He knocked on the wall of the bell. Three times, the sign that he wanted to be pulled up. A muffled ringing tone sounded through the water.
A moment later, the bell was being pulled up and not much later, it cleared the surface of the water. The air that came in was fresh and beautiful, but the sounds that drifted in worried him. Shouts and bangs.
The bell moved low over the water and then over the railing onto the desk. Perrin climbed out first, wet, shivering and blinded by the abundance of light.
But then he saw it: in the time he’d been under water, the other boat had come close and people on the deck were throwing grappling hooks to catch the railing of the Seven Seas. Some of those people were normal men, but others were pumans.
Chapter 24
There was no time for Perrin to tell Captain Anko about the bad news he had learned from the whales.
The pumans were about to come on board.
The captain himself stood at the railing brandishing a sword.
Three of the grappling hooks had caught onto the railing on the side of the deck where the dragon sat.
She was agitated, standing over the nest with her wings spread, crouching low as if to spring.
Ivy and Verbena were trying to disengage the grappling hooks from the railing with the deck’s broom, but they couldn’t quite reach.
After setting the bell down on the deck, Hix joined the captain at the railing.
Verbena pulled off one of her long socks, put a lead weight in the bottom and slung this around the rope. She yanked before the sock could unwind itself. The rope and hook fell into the water.
Ivy cheered. Hix slashed at another rope, but it proved hard to cut. Verbena tried to do the same with that rope, but it was under too much strain.
The pumans on the other deck pulled and pulled. The rope strained. When Verbena’s sock couldn’t dislodge the hook, Hix slashed at the rope with a knife. But the ships were unstoppably drifting together.
The people and pumans on board stood ready to jump. They wore leather armour and held weapons.
Perrin grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, which was a metal bucket. He was highly tempted to toss the trumpet into the bucket and fling it at the other ship, since the whales told him it had no value to them.
But on the other hand, it had value for someone even if it wasn’t the whales, and someone had considered it valuable enough to send this team of miscreants to retrieve it.
And Perrin was highly reluctant to give in before he knew what he was giving up. The possibility crossed his mind that trapping him here, out in the ocean where he could disappear without a trace, was all part of the plan.
Was Roban part of the plan?
And Mirella?
Had they tricked him into helping so that they could get rid of him? Why? They’d won their share of Atreyo’s money in the court case. What more did they want?
His mind whirled while he watched the ships come closer together.
He knew one thing: he would not give up without a fight.
As the ship came closer and closer, he became aware of a noise from behind the other ship. The ocean frothed with movement of thousands of fish and white foam.
A giant head stuck out of the water, belonging to a whale much bigger than he’d ever seen.
Someone yelled. A couple of pumans abandoned their positions facing Captain Anko and the crew of the Seven Seas.
They ran across the deck of their ship to help a mate load the cannon that pointed in the other direction.
A whale raised its head and upper body out of the water. It fell and slapped the surface so hard that the spray of water fell over both ships.
Perrin wiped the salt from his face.
The pumans shouted. One of the men had lost his footing and almost washed overboard with the water.
His mate managed to load the projectile into the cannon and another lit the fuse.
Perrin clamped his hands over his ears.
Boom.
The projectile flew over the ocean and landed in the sea.
A moment later, a deep rumble sounded, the water bulged up, exploded and sprayed all over the two boats. The whales retreated. The pumans on the deck of the other boat cheered.
Meanwhile, their mates at the ropes pulled and pulled until the two boats came together. Perrin grabbed his bucket.
The first puman jumped the distance between the boats.
“Keep off my boat, you scum!” Captain Anko yelled. He swung his shortsword, but even to Perrin, it was clear that he had little fighting experience.
But the crew had even less. Hix and Quinn made a valiant effort, armed with sticks and brooms. Ivy held a net.
But Verbena had pressed herself against the wall of the captain’s cabin, her face white.
“I don’t know what to do!” she shouted when Perrin looked in her direction. “I don’t know anything about fighting! My sister tells me to keep away if there is a fight!”
Perrin started, “Maybe you could—”
But he stopped when an almighty roar cut through the panic and noise.
Perrin turned around.
The red male dragon had returned.
He flew low over the ships. He was much bigger than the female, who still sat under the mast with the nest, holding out her wings.
She looked, for all Perrin could see, frightened. She held her head low to the deck, crouching over her eggs.
The pumans had been about to come on board, but now they fled across the deck.
The dragon went after them, landing on the other boat with a thud, making both ships rock violently. The hulls clonked against each other.
One of the pumans yelled. The dragon swiped him aside with his claw. He slid across the deck, into the water. The whales had returned there, and this time they had brought some help from black and white killer whales. Perrin wasn’t keen to watch what happened on that side of the ship.
“All attack!” the puman captain yelled.
He jumped from his boat to the deck of the Seven Seas.
The other pumans jumped, too, still looking menacing, even if it seemed to be that they were trying to get away from the dragon.
The other ship had at least ten crew members on board, pumans and men. Captain Anko and his crew were outnumbered. They did the best they could, but they were not fighters.
Captain Anko slashed with his shortsword at anyone who came within reach. Quinn hit a man overboard with his broom.
Cats hated water. He went down with a squeal. A back fin from a killer whale came into view and disappeared again.
Ivy threw the net and managed to pull a puman into the water. Even Verbena swung her sock with the lead weights inside. She knocked out an attacker in this manner.
But other pumans made it on board. They were strong and fast. One of them climbed into the mast.
“Get him down!” Hix yelled.
The male dragon hissed from the other boat.
The other pumans ran along the tiny strip of deck outside of the railing of the Seven Seas. They ran past the captain’s cabin and the remains of the dragon’s crate, onto the deck.
Perrin couldn’t see what happened there, but a loud yell and a roar gave him some indication. The female dragon objected.
Perrin yelled at Verbena, “Come on, help me!”
She abandoned her sock-swinging and stepped into his linked hands to climb onto the roof of the cabin. Then she helped him up.
From the roof, they could survey the entire scene.
The deck was a mess. The dragon had pulled everything it could get loose into the nest at the bottom of the mast. It had also clawed deep gauges into the deck and the crates of cargo that still stood there.
The male dragon perched on the railing of the other ship.
Two pumans ran past—straight at the dragon defending her nest.
The dragon sprang forward, but she was still attached to the heavy base of the crate and couldn’t quite reach the men, but they were scared enough that they ran back again.
Captain Anko waited for them with his sword at the entrance to his cabin. They avoided his sword.
The boat rocked violently as something hit it from underneath. This was followed by the splash of a massive tail on the surface.
The female dragon then turned to the male. She roared at him. Just as well that she was still attached to the base of the crate, or she would have jumped to the other boat. Now she yanked at the rope.
The boat rocked, and the mast swung like crazy.
The puman in the mast hung on for dear life. He was slowly letting himself down, no doubt afraid he would lose his grip.
Perrin had an idea. First, he swung the tip of the loading crane away from the mast and locked it into position so that not even a cat-like puman could jump the distance between the two.
Then he lowered himself from the roof onto the deck of the ship. Verbena watched with wide eyes.
He snuck along the outside of the railing, avoiding looking at the churning water down there and the large shapes that passed under the boat. He approached the dragon’s nest from behind.
While the dragon was occupied at the railing, snarling at the male dragon, he used the broom to push the cloths of nest all around the mast so that the puman who was now forced to come all the way down the mast could not avoid stepping in it. There were nineteen eggs. They were soft and rubbery and although Perrin knew they could not contain any young, he could not bring himself to damage them.
When it was done, he ran away again to the safe side of the deck.
Captain Anko was still fighting at the rear deck. Quinn and Ivy had joined in. Hix had located an ancient pistol and was trying to get a clean shot of two men hiding behind a crate.
With a roar, the male dragon jumped to the ship. Verbena gave a squeal. She rolled aside and dropped from the roof of the cabin just before the creature landed there. The ship rocked. A gush of water came over the deck. The wooden cabin creaked in protest under the sheer weight of the creature. It was huge. The claws of a foot curved over the edge of the roof. Those claws would rip a person apart.
A puman with a crossbow ran from the fight at the rear deck. He loosed an arrow which simply bounced off the armoured plates on the dragon’s chest. The dragon lashed out with its tail and knocked the man off his feet.
While he fell over the edge of the roof onto the deck, another puman put an arrow to his bow, but when the arrow hit the dragon straight in the head, it glanced off and fell into the water.
The dragon jumped onto the deck and advanced slowly to the female, swinging his tail.
The female retreated, just as the remaining puman had come down the mast and stood in the nest.
She let out a roar and, in one massive jump, crossed to the mast. She grabbed the puman in her jaws and shook him like a dog.
The puman squealed.
The dragon threw the puman onto the deck with a heavy thud. He did not get up. The male dragon arched his neck. Perrin had heard the rumbling sound it made before.
The hiss of spewing fire rent the air as he ran and ducked behind the cabin. He found Quinn, Ivy and Verbena already there.
Then the boat rocked violently again.
“They’ve jumped to the pirate ship,” Captain Anko said.
Perrin peeked around the corner of the cabin. The rope that had restrained the female dragon lay burned and broken on the deck. Both dragons were on the deck of the puman ship. They hissed flames, they hit overboard anyone who came out on the deck.
“What are they doing?” Ivy asked.
“They’re killing all the pumans,” her brother said.
“We better make sure we’re not next,” Perrin said.
“No,” Captain Anko said. He still held his sword. His shirt was torn and one of his sleeves was wet with blood.
“Those beasts!” He panted. “They’re helping us.”
It was true.
The fire on board had spread. Two more pirates jumped from the deck into the reach of the killer whales.
Captain Anko yelled, “Now!”
The crew ran forward to disengage the grappling hooks from the railing.
They stood on the deck and watched. They watched as the distance between the ships became larger. As the two dragons tore the ship apart and set fire to the cabin and then, as the female lifted her tail and doused the deck with a backwards spray of stinking urine. This was clearly a sign to the male. He tried to approach her, his male tackle ready for action, but she was having none of it. She sprang at him, grabbing him by the throat, scratching and hissing fire. He pushed her flat on her belly onto the deck. Blood ran from several scratches on his neck and front paws. Her head lay flat on the deck, her nostrils breathing smoke and her eyes wide open. The expression of anger in them shocked Perrin.
Just as the male dragon was shuffling to get into position, she raised herself, and tipped him off the side into the water. A dragon in the water was like a bat on the land: awkward and vulnerable. After a struggle where Perrin wondered if he’d get out at all, the dragon managed to get the wind in his wings, and flew off.
By this time, the pirate ship was clearly sinking. The female dragon flew low over the water, landed at her nest, and started licking the scratches she had sustained in the process. She looked exhausted.
The puman ship drifted away, burning, sinking, floating helplessly through the waves.
The male dragon circled high overhead.
Then Quinn yelled, “look!”
A huge whale had appeared at the surface, an ancient animal that looked older than time itself.
Perrin was almost certain that this was the whale king.
Oh no, would they now have to fight the whales. He had no energy left. He didn’t think the crew was in a better shape.
But the whale just watched.
After a while, the whale jerked his head ever so slightly upwards and made a long wailing sound.
“What does that mean?” Verbena asked.
“He wants us to follow him,” Captain Anko said.
Follow a whale into a watery grave?
Chapter 25
The crew debated briefly amongst themselves about what to do now. Both Captain Anko and Hix remained adamant that the whale’s behaviour meant that they were to follow. They’d travelled to Gaminia before. They brushed aside Quinn’s fears. Yes, whales were big and they could be angry, but the best way to avoid angry whales was to do as they asked.
Yes, they still had the dragon, but she was spent and bleeding and had curled up under the mast.
So they followed.
The whales came from everywhere to the waters surrounding the boat. Their bodies all pointed in the direction of the channel that led into Gaminia.
A few smooth black killer whales lined up next to the ship. One of them even nudged the hull.
It was true, the whales were guiding the ship through the passage.
In the distance the puman ship still floated, now a burnt-out husk of its former incarnation. Those bandits were not going to be an issue anymore.
More and more whales accompanied the ship, their puffs of breath rising up everywhere. The giant whale Perrin judged to be the whale king continued to swim next to the Seven Seas. Captain Anko made sure that the crew kept the ship at a distance.
