Peter and the Sword of Mercy (44 page)

Nibs stopped. “We don’t have to,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

Nibs pointed ahead. Shining Pearl peered through the leaves and the torrential downpour. They had reached a clearing. Fifty feet ahead was the mouth of a cave, illuminated by torches burning inside. A man stood guard outside.

“How many lumps do you have left?” he whispered.

“One,” she said.

“Me, too,” he said. “All we have to do is get them close to the cave. Mister Grin will do the rest. Come on.”

He started forward.

“Wait!” said Shining Pearl, grabbing his shirt.

“What?”

“Look,” said Shining Pearl, pointing. “Just past the guard.”

Nibs squinted through the rain and, by the flickering light of the torches inside the cave, saw Little Scallop and the other children, huddled together, heads down, next to a tree.

“They’re tied up!” said Little Scallop.

“Oh no,” said Nibs.

Behind them a tree crashed to the ground.

“Listen,” said Shining Pearl, handing her dung lump to Nibs. “You sneak up that way and put all the dung near the cave. I’ll go the other way and come up behind Little Scallop and the boys. When I signal you, make sure the guard sees you, then run back this way.”

“You want me to run
toward
Mister Grin?”

“Make sure you get off the path in time.”

“Thanks for the advice,” he said.

Ignoring his sarcasm, Shining Pearl said, “When Mister Grin has gone past, circle back and meet us down the hill from here. All right?”

“I don’t know,” said Nibs. “What if—”

“Good,” said Shining Pearl. And she was gone.

T
HE
G
LOWING
P
OOL

N
EREZZA SHOUTED ACROSS THE
glowing pool, his voice echoing in the cave: “Tell them to hurry! it’s taking too long!”

Cheeky O’Neal only grunted. There was nothing he could do to speed the process. The men were working underwater in gold suits and breathing through tubes, which was hard enough; on top of that they had to do everything by feel, the brilliant light underwater forcing them to keep their eyes closed. They had to feel around blindly for the starstuff, then use gold buckets to scoop it up and pour it into the gold-lined chest that had been lowered to the bottom. From time to time they surfaced to rest and report their progress. Despite Nerezza’s fretting, they were doing well. They believed they’d gotten most of the starstuff off the bottom; the chest was three-quarters full.

And the divers felt wonderful. So did Cheeky, and the other men in the cave, except for Nerezza. The starstuff-laced water lifted their spirits, erased their aches, filled them with energy. O’Neal marveled at its powers. Nerezza had warned him, however, that any man who was exposed directly to the starstuff without the protection of a gold suit would die within seconds. The men were to make absolutely certain that the chest was securely shut before they hauled it up from the bottom of the pool.

From the looks of things, that time would be soon. The underwater glow had dimmed considerably. O’Neal looked across at Nerezza. The captain—and the people who’d hired him—had gone to enormous effort and expense to get this starstuff. The chest alone must have cost a fortune. O’Neal wondered what the starstuff would be worth, and how a man like him might use it. It was something to keep in mind.

A
N
A
WFUL
S
CREAM

N
IBS CREPT THROUGH THE JUNGLE
, approaching the cave from the side opposite from that where the children were tied up. He waited until the guard was facing away, then placed one of the foul-smelling dung lumps just outside the cave mouth. He gently tossed the other into the cave itself.

He crouched behind some rocks and peered out. By the light of the torch in the cave, he could just make out the guard. He was staring out into the rain, looking bored.

Then, just past the guard, Nibs saw a slim brown arm rise out of a bush and wave.

Nibs took a breath.

“Hey!” he shouted.

The guard spun and looked at him.

“Hey!” Nibs shouted again, starting down the path.

The guard looked over at the children tied to the tree. Seeing they were all there, he shouted into the cave, “There’s another boy out here! He’s loose!” Then he took off running after Nibs.

The instant the guard was gone, Shining Pearl emerged from behind the bush and ran to the other children. They started to call out, but she shushed them with a finger to the lips, pointing toward the cave. She ran to Little Scallop, who was tied like the others, with her hands behind her back. Shining Pearl fumbled with the knot but the wet rope felt glued in place.

“I have a knife!” Slightly whispered. “My pocket.”

Shining Pearl reached into his pocket and pulled out a stick with a sharpened shell lashed to it. She began sawing the part of the rope attached to the tree.

She heard shouts from inside the cave.

And then, from just below in the jungle, the sound of trees going down.

She sawed frantically with the knife. The rope parted. The children were still tied together, but at least they were free of the tree.

“Hurry,” she said, pushing them, stumbling, toward the jungle. The twins had just disappeared into the foliage and Shining Pearl was about to follow them when she realized she had dropped the starfish. She turned and saw it lying near the cave mouth. She ran over, picked it up, and turned to race back into the jungle.

A huge hand grabbed her neck from behind.

“What are you doing here?” said Cheeky O’Neal.

Before she could answer, a thunderous roar filled the clearing. They looked downhill and saw the guard emerge from the jungle, running full-speed toward them, a look of utter terror on his face.

Three seconds later they saw why.

The monster crocodile burst into the clearing, his glowing yellow eyes impossibly far apart, his massive maw open to reveal a jagged row of needle-sharp teeth the size of spears. On open ground he moved with amazing speed; he was gaining on the guard, now in a race for his life.

O’Neal didn’t wait to see who won. Lifting Shining Pearl easily off her feet, he turned and ran for the cave.

From behind them came an awful scream.

T
RAPPED

T
HE COLUMN OF WARRIORS
loped up the steep trail, single file, Fighting Prawn in the lead. The old chief gripped his spear in his right hand; a bow and a quiver of arrows were slung across his back. He ran with a steady, efficient stride; the younger warriors knew that he would not tire or stop to rest. Not with his children in danger.

Movement ahead on the trail. Without a word, the warriors melted into the jungle on either side, waiting, spears poised.

Then they heard voices. Children’s voices.

Fighting Prawn burst from the jungle and ran forward. Ahead on the trail were Little Scallop and the Lost Boys. The chief dropped to his knees in the mud and embraced his daughter. She was sobbing, her words incoherent. Fighting Prawn saw that, except for Nibs, the children were tied together, their hands behind their backs. He pulled his knife and quickly cut them free, counting them as he did.

“Where is Shining Pearl?” he said.

Little Scallop only sobbed harder.

“The men got her,” said Nibs. “She’s in the cave.” He told the chief what he had seen from his hiding place in the jungle: Shining Pearl cutting the other children loose from the tree, then being grabbed by Cheeky O’Neal; Mister Grin catching one of the men as O’Neal ran back into the cave.

“O’Neal?” said Fighting Prawn. “Are you sure?”

The children assured him that it was indeed O’Neal, as well as the other three men who’d been with him on the island, and some other men as well.

“They brought big boxes,” said Slightly.

“And golden suits,” added Tootles.

“So they were never shipwrecked at all,” said Fighting Prawn. “They were after the starstuff all along. Now we know why that ship is patrolling off the village. They want to draw our attention away while the raiding party removes the starstuff.”

He ordered two of his men to take the children back to the village. Then he and the other warriors hurried up the path. When they neared the clearing by the cave, they were met by Bold Abalone.

“They’re in the cave,” he told his father. “We can see torches. But we can’t get any closer, because Mister Grin is waiting outside. I think he got one of their men—we heard a scream—and now he wants more.”

“So they’re trapped in the cave,” said Fighting Prawn.

“Yes,” said Bold Abalone. “They can’t escape. When Mister Grin leaves, we can go in after them.”

“I wish it were that simple,” said Fighting Prawn.

“What do you mean?”

“They have Shining Pearl.”