The King's Key. Cameron Stelzer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the jolt of a passing wave, they sprang apart and the collision was over. Whisker staggered backwards through the doorway, pulling the door shut behind him. With the click of the latch, there was silence.

      He cautiously pressed his nose against the glass. Outside, six hundred beady eyes stared transfixed at Horace. Whisker reached for a scissor sword, expecting the crabs to hurl themselves aboard at any moment, but not one of them twitched. The uncanny silence continued until a small voice broke the stillness.

      ‘Stupid kid,’ piped a crab. ‘You nearly killed us all!’

      ‘You’re sailing on the wrong side of the sea,’ scolded another.

      ‘That’s a week of detention,’ cried a third.

      ‘The repairs are coming out of your pocket money!’ snapped a fourth.

      Horace responded with a string of apologies: ‘Whoops … terribly sorry … it’s entirely my fault … yes, we’re insured … no, it won’t happen again … of course I’m not sailing under the influence … I know, I know. I should never let a history teacher behind the wheel – it’s all theory with them …’

      The crabs appeared convinced that Horace was in fact an inexperienced schoolboy and the mice were preschoolers in fancy dress, and let them off with a stern warning. It didn’t stop the crabs hurling a claw-full of school insults as the Apple Pie drifted past.

      ‘Oakbridge Smokebridge,’ they chanted. ‘Crab Valley High rules!’

      ‘You’ve all got head lice!’

      ‘Hey smarty pants. What’s four minus four?’

      ‘I dunno …?’

      ‘A mouse with no legs.’

      ‘Ha, ha, that’s a good one …’

      The chuckling voices drifted away in the wind and the Pie Rats sailed right through the blockade. Soon nothing lay between the bow of the Apple Pie and the open sea. Four rats and a blowfly let out a collective sigh of relief.

      ‘Well, that went well,’ Pete muttered sarcastically. ‘So much for laying low in the Shipwreck Sea, enjoying a relaxing day off. Three close encounters and it’s not even midday. Call me paranoid but I swear something’s amiss.’

      ‘You may be right, Pete,’ the Captain added gravely. ‘The Cat Fish have found us twice in as many days, which leads me to believe they know more about our quest than we first realised.’

      ‘Rat Bait,’ Pete hissed, stamping his pencil leg. ‘I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: the dirty scoundrel’s double-crossed us. He’s ratted us out, I tell you.’

      ‘But Rat Bait despises the Cat Fish as much as we do,’ Whisker piped up. ‘I saw how he acted on Sea Shanty Island when Sabre demanded the map. There’s no way he’d cut a deal with a bloodthirsty cat.’

      Pete let out a condescending snort. ‘Don’t underestimate the power of riches, young Whisker – especially when it comes to a bounty of Cat Fish silver. Rat Bait wouldn’t be the first Pie Rat captain to do the dirty on his fellow rats–’ He stopped.

      The Captain shot him a look of pure disgust. ‘My father has nothing to do with this, Pete.’

      ‘Sorry, Captain,’ Pete muttered, shrinking into the shadows. ‘I won’t mention him again.’

      ‘Good,’ the Captain snapped. ‘Because right now we have more to worry about than a couple of rotten rats.’ He pointed a shaky finger through the doorway. ‘If you hadn’t noticed, that wasn’t just a routine blockade we passed through. It was nothing short of a fully-armed battle formation. Every ship was equipped with extra cannons and additional troops. At an estimate, three quarters of the entire Aladryan navy was assembled out there. I have no doubt that something big is brewing – something that goes beyond the raids, beyond the arrests and beyond the attempts to stop the Pirate Cup.’

      ‘Oh dear,’ Fred gasped, his enormous eye spinning in manic circles. ‘Oh double dear.’

      ‘B-but what are they preparing for?’ Whisker asked fearfully.

      ‘I’m not sure,’ the Captain said, walking towards the door. ‘But there’s more to this than meets the eye and I, for one, have no intention of sticking around to find out.’ He burst onto the deck, closely followed by Whisker and the rest of the anxious crew.

      ‘Is it lunch time yet, Captain?’ Horace moaned from the helm. ‘We couldn’t possibly fit any more danger into one morning.’

      The Captain clambered up the stairs without a response, his brow deeply furrowed.

      ‘Oh, come on,’ Horace pleaded. ‘We’re in the clear and I’m famished.’

      Whisker was about to agree that even Horace deserved a large slice of pie, following their narrow escape, when he remembered a piece of advice passed down from his great-grandfather Anso: If it appears too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.’ Whisker took this to mean: Stop. Take a careful look around – and prepare to panic.

      Whisker stopped and looked around. Mr Tribble did the panicking.

      ‘Th-Th-Thunderclaw,’ he stuttered. ‘D-D-Dreadnaught. B-b-behind us.’

      Whisker’s eyes grew wide. The blockade of ships lay far to the east. One ship, however, had broken from the fleet and was charging through the water towards them. Its colossal size made the other warships look like matchstick models. It was a four-masted monstrosity and it needed no introduction.

      Every teacher, student, pirate, blowfly and circus rat on the Isle of Aladrya knew what it was. It was the blue jewel of the navy. It was the pride of the fleet. It was the pirate crusher, the smuggler smasher. Captained by the General of the navy himself, it was a destroyer in a class of its own. It was the mighty Dreadnaught.

      The sight of the terrifying ship told Whisker one thing: General Thunderclaw, the most feared officer on the seas, wanted them dead. He was rarely outsmarted and he never made arrests.

      The Captain removed his hat like a mourner at a funeral.

      ‘Well, that spoils everything,’ he sighed. ‘We’ve bitten off more than we can chew this time. Thunderclaw’s no fool. If he’s after us, he’s on to us.’

      Whisker’s tail dropped to the deck.

      ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, pointing at the jib sail. ‘I should have removed the red underpants.’

      ‘It’s no one’s fault, Whisker,’ the Captain assured him. ‘Your plan was exceptional.’ He raised his telescope and assessed the situation.

      ‘Can we fight them?’ Ruby asked, hopefully.

      ‘Suicide,’ the Captain said coldly. ‘The Dreadnaught, like the rest of the fleet, is carrying reinforced troop numbers – four hundred crabs, at least. She’s sitting low in the water, which tells me she’s armed with enough volcanic rocks to sink us six times over. She’ll either ram us from behind or blast us to СКАЧАТЬ