Stormchaser (19 page)

‘I could finish him off now,’ Mugbutt suggested coldly.

‘No,’ said Spleethe. ‘We need him alive, not dead.’ He growled with mounting rage. ‘The meddlesome little whelpersnapper has forced my hand and that's a fact. But all is not lost, Mugbutt. Come on. Let's see if we can’t turn the situation to our advantage after all.’

As the pair of them departed, Twig felt his heart hammering harder than ever. There he was inside a Great Storm, hurtling on towards the Twilight Woods in search of stormphrax. Finally he was doing what, for so long, he had only dreamed about. And yet, because of him, the dream had become a waking nightmare.

Above him, Spleethe and Mugbutt had made it to the helm. He could hear Spleethe's voice – though not what he said. Twig swallowed nervously and hammered on the door.

‘Let me out!’ he cried. ‘Tem! Spiker! Boltjaw! Oh, why won’t you hear me? Let me…’

At that moment Cloud Wolf shouted out. ‘What?’ he bellowed. ‘But this is mutiny!’

Twig shuddered, and hung his head. ‘Oh, Father,’ he whimpered. ‘If we ever get out of this alive will you ever forgive me?’

Confronted by the captain's rage, Spleethe remained icily calm. Apart from his eyes, which glinted beadily behind the steel rims of his glasses, his face betrayed not a hint of emotion.

‘Not mutiny,’ he said, as he drew his sword from its sheath. ‘Merely a redistribution of power.’

Hubble growled ominously.

‘This is leaguesman's chatter,’ Cloud Wolf snorted. ‘Has it really come so far, Spleethe?’

Just then, the
Stormchaser
lurched to the left, and abruptly lost speed. The rear of the storm raced up to meet them. Cloud Wolf lowered the stern weight and raised both the fore and aft sails. The sky ship leapt forwards again.

He turned back to Spleethe. ‘Do you seriously imagine for a moment that you could sail the
Stormchaser
? Eh?’

Spleethe hesitated for a moment.

‘You are a fool, Spleethe!’ Cloud Wolf continued. ‘What use have the leagues for stormphrax? Tell me that! It is phraxdust they need, and no-one knows the secret of how to make it safely.’

‘On the contrary,’ Spleethe replied. ‘The League of Free Merchants is prepared to pay highly for a cargo of stormphrax. Very highly indeed. And since you are so
reluctant to deliver it to them, then
I
shall. I think you’ll find the others are behind me when they realize how much is at stake.’

Mugbutt made a move forwards. Hubble's ears fluttered. Cloud Wolf's hand gripped the hilt of his sword.

‘Sky above!’ the captain exclaimed. ‘Did you not hear me? The leagues have no use for stormphrax. They simply wish to prevent it from reaching the treasury of Sanctaphrax – for if that happened, the floating city would again become stable and their lucrative alliance with the raintasters would fall apart.’

Slyvo Spleethe tightened his grip on his flashing sword.

‘They have tricked you, Spleethe. They
want
you to fail.’

‘You’re lying!’ Spleethe screamed, and turned to Mugbutt. ‘He's lying!’

Cloud Wolf seized the opportunity. He drew his sword and threw himself at Slyvo Spleethe. ‘You mutinous bilge-cur!’ he roared.

But Mugbutt was too quick for him. As the captain lunged forwards, he raised his spear – as massive and heavy as befitted the powerful flat-head goblin – and leapt between them. The chiming sound of metal on metal filled the air as the captain and the flat-head launched themselves into deadly battle.

Clash! Crash! Clang!
The fight continued, fast and furious. Cloud Wolf howled with rage.

‘Blood and thunder!’ he roared, ‘I’ll have the pair of you sky-fired!’ He parried away the increasingly frenzied attacks from Mugbutt. ‘I’ll split your gizzards. I’ll rip out your treacherous hearts…’

‘Waah-waah!’ the banderbear shouted out, and tore at the ropes that bound him to the helm.

The
Stormchaser
dipped and rolled. If it drifted towards the outer reaches, where the storm was raging at its wildest, the sky ship would be turned to matchwood in an instant.

‘No, Hubble,’ Cloud Wolf called out urgently. ‘I … I’m all right. You must hold a steady course.’

The raised voices, the clash of metal, the pounding of feet – Twig could scarcely believe what he was hearing. Was his father fighting on his own? Where were the rest of the crew and why didn’t they come to their captain's aid?

‘
TEM BARKWATER
!’ he bellowed, and beat his fists desperately against the locked door. ‘
STOPE BOLTJAW
!’

All at once, the door burst open. Twig tumbled forwards and was immediately grasped by Slyvo Spleethe. ‘I told you to keep your mouth shut,’ he hissed as he wrenched Twig's arm up behind his back with one hand and pressed the knife to his neck with the other.

‘Wh… what's happening?’ Twig said.

‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ Spleethe spat as he frogmarched Twig across the sparking deck. ‘Do exactly what I say,’ he instructed, ‘and you won’t get hurt.’

Quaking with terror, Twig was bundled round the
skirting-deck and up the narrow flight of stairs which led to the helm. The scene which greeted him filled him with sickening dread.

Cloud Wolf and Mugbutt were locked in mortal combat. Eyes blazing, jaws set, the pair of them were fighting for their lives. Their weapons clashed together with such ferocity, that spark after dazzling yellow spark jumped up out of the fizzing blue.

Twig wanted to leap forwards and fight by his father's side. He wanted to slay the wicked mutineer who dared to raise his hand against Captain Cloud Wolf.

‘Easy now, Master Twig,’ Spleethe hissed in his ear, and increased the pressure on the dagger at Twig's neck. ‘If you value your life.’

Twig swallowed anxiously. The fight continued. He couldn’t look; he couldn’t turn away. Now Mugbutt seemed to be winning, now Cloud Wolf had the upper hand. And all the while, the surrounding storm gathered strength. The lightning flashed again and again, illuminating the curdled clouds and glinting on the flashing blades.

There was no grace to the fight, no finesse. Mugbutt, as the stronger of the two, was content to hack and slash away, battering the captain into submission. Twig tensed nervously as he watched Cloud Wolf being driven back towards the far wall.

Spleethe, fearing the youth was going to cry out, clamped his hand over Twig's mouth. ‘Patience,’ he whispered. ‘It will soon be over. And then I shall take my rightful place as captain of the
Stormchaser
.
Captain
Spleethe,’ he mused. ‘It has a nice ring to it.’

Oh, Father, Twig thought desperately as Cloud Wolf battled gallantly on. What have I done to you?

‘Tem!’ he heard him crying out above the rumble of the thunder and clashing of the heavy blades. ‘Stopejaw. Spiker.’

But none of the sky pirates heard him. They were too busy keeping the increasingly unstable sky ship airborne.

‘The sails are working their way loose,’ Tem bellowed, as he heaved round on the sail-wrench. ‘Stope, realign the spinnaker bidgets while I try to secure the mainsail. Spiker, see to that tolley-rope.’

‘The flight brackets are jammed,’ Spiker shouted back, as the sky ship continued to toss and turn. ‘Stope, can you help me?’

‘I’ve only got
ah
the
ah
one pair of hands,’ Stope grumbled. ‘And if I don’t
ah
untangle this
ah
nether-fetter soon, we’ll all be goners.’

At that moment, a particularly violent gust of wind struck the port bow. Stope Boltjaw cried out as the sky ship listed, and the matted mass of rope and sail was snatched from his hand. At the other end of the sky ship,
Cloud Wolf lost his balance and staggered across the deck.

‘Waah!’ cried the banderbear. If the other crew members could not come to his captain's aid, then surely he should do something.

‘No, Hubble!’ Cloud Wolf said breathlessly, as the sky ship lurched back to starboard. ‘Keep hold of the helm, or we will all perish. That's an order.’

Tears welled up in Twig's eyes. Even now – as his father's arms grew weak – Cloud Wolf was more concerned with his crew than he was with himself. How valiant he was. How knightly. He, Twig, did not deserve such a father.

Clash! Crash! Hack and slash!
Mugbutt's spear slammed down time and again, and with such force and speed, that Cloud Wolf could do nothing but defend himself. All at once, the sky lit up with a sudden flash of blinding light, the
Stormchaser
gave another awful lurch and the whole sky ship pitched forwards.

‘The mast is cracking!’ Spiker screamed.

‘Secure the main-fetter!’ Tem roared. ‘Lower the sails!’

Cloud Wolf, with his face to the stern, stumbled back. Mugbutt was quick to seize the advantage. He leaped forwards and swung savagely with his spear.

Cloud Wolf ducked. The heavy blade missed him by a fraction. Mugbutt roared with fury and lunged again. Twig gasped – then sighed with relief – as Cloud Wolf knocked the flat-head's weapon away just in the nick of time and countered with a sudden attack. His sword thrust forwards at Mugbutt's chest.

Yes! Yes! Twig thought, urging the sword on.

But it was not to be – for at that moment a terrible sound of splintering wood ripped through the air as the mast snapped off, a third of the way up, and came tumbling down.

It crashed onto the deck and tipped over the side, where it remained, suspended in mid-air below the port side. The sky ship listed sharply to the left and threatened to roll right over.

‘Cut the ropes,’ Tem yelled, as he began slicing through the main-fetter. ‘
NOW
.’

Stope and Spiker leaped to his side and began slashing and slicing at the tangled ropes and rigging. With half the ropes cut, the rest abruptly broke as one under the heavy weight, and the mast dropped down through the sky. The
Stormchaser
rolled back to starboard.

Twig let out a muffled cry as he and Spleethe toppled backwards, and he felt the knife nick the soft skin at his throat. His father was faring even worse. Not only had the sudden jolt thrown Mugbutt out of reach of the thrusting sword, but now Cloud Wolf was staggering towards him, off-balance, sword flailing and utterly defenceless. Twig froze as the flat-head grabbed his spear again and raised it up. Another second and his father would impale himself on the great jagged blade.

‘
WAAAH
!’ Hubble roared as he too saw what was about to happen. He tore furiously at the ropes which bound him to the wheel.

Mugbutt, startled by the noise, glanced up and realized, to his horror, how close to the tethered bander bear he had ended up standing. One of his mighty arms was raised. Hubble roared again and swung out savagely. Mugbutt leaped desperately to his left – fast, but not fast enough.

The blow caught the flat-head on the arm. It sent the spear spinning off across the deck, and Mugbutt himself hurtling to the floor. Cloud Wolf was on him like a shot. Without a moment's hesitation, he brought his sword down, hard and sharp, severing the goblin's head with
a single blow. Then, bloodied sword raised, he turned murderously on Spleethe.