Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates Page 5

  'You all right?' asked Sebastian.

  'I'm fine but—'

  They heard a crash from the back of the caravan as something thudded heavily into the jumble of equipment. Sebastian and Cornelius exchanged horrified looks, realizing what must have happened. The panther had somehow managed to scramble up the steps at the back and get in through the open window. It was in there now, crashing around the crowded interior.

  'Right,' said Cornelius. 'I'll settle this.' He started to pull back the heavy drape that covered the doorway behind them, but as he did so, something came leaping out from within, tearing down the curtain and smashing headlong into Cornelius, tipping him backwards. The crossbow went spinning out of his grasp and he fell, crashing onto Max's swaying rump. The panther, still entangled in the curtain, came down on top of him with a terrible roar. Sebastian looked down helplessly. He desperately tried to pull Max to a halt but the buffalope was so terrified by the sensation of two figures fighting on his back, he wouldn't slow his pace, and the caravan raced on along the narrow track.

  Cornelius was in danger of slipping sideways off Max and being trampled by the wheels, but he managed to cling on somehow, gripping the harness while using his feet to try to fend off the cat, which was still struggling to escape from the curtain, its claws shredding the heavy fabric.

  At first Sebastian sat there in a sheer funk, not knowing what to do. Then, realizing he had to do something, he abandoned the reins and clambered through the doorway into the swaying, rattling interior of the caravan. He started searching frantically for a weapon.

  He saw a longbow hanging on the wall but realized that he couldn't use that for fear of hitting Cornelius or Max. Then his gaze fell on a long coil of rope and, unwilling to waste any more time, he grabbed it and clumsily fashioned the end into a noose. He stumbled back through the doorway and saw that Cornelius was still spread-eagled across Max's back. The panther was virtually free of the curtain now, and the

  Golmiran was desperately trying to fend off its teeth and claws which, had it not been for the protection of his breastplate and chain-mail jerkin, would have ripped into his flesh by now.

  Sebastian started twirling the rope above his head to try and generate some momentum. 'Get its head up!' he yelled, and Cornelius must have heard him, because he did his best to comply. He got his little legs in under the cat's chest and began to push with all his strength, raising the beast's torso and great snarling head. Sebastian flung the rope and, more by good fortune than good aim, the noose dropped around the panther's neck.

  Now Sebastian braced himself and pulled with all his might. The cat's guttural sounds turned abruptly to a shriek of alarm as it was yanked backwards, and it began to lose its grip. It made a desperate attempt to bury its claws in Max's haunches, causing bellows of pain from the buffalope. Sebastian jerked with all his strength, and the big cat slipped and fell, tumbling under the caravan. There was a terrible crunch as the wheels passed over its body, and then it was gone in a flurry of dust, the rope paying out behind it. At the last moment Sebastian remembered to let go.

  He looked towards Cornelius and was rewarded with a grim thumbs-up from the little warrior. Reassured, he took up the reins again and began to heave on them. This time, freed from the terror of having a cat's claws locked into his flesh, Max reacted and began to slow his pace. He dropped back to a canter, a trot, a walk, and then finally came to a halt, his great head lowered, his breath snorting from his nostrils in loud gasps.

  Sebastian jumped down from the caravan and ran to Cornelius, who was scratched and bloodied but seemed to have escaped serious injury.

  'Are you all right?' Sebastian asked him.

  Cornelius grimaced. 'I lost my crossbow back there,' he complained.

  'Never mind about that. The main thing is that you're not badly hurt. Max, what about you?'

  Max was still fighting to recover his breath. 'For somebody . . . who's just had a panther . . . and a Golmiran . . . fighting to the death on his backside . . . I'm in surprisingly good shape,' he panted.

  Cornelius jumped down off Max's haunches. 'What about the other cat?' he wanted to know. He and Sebastian walked round the side of the wagon to look back along the trail. A crumpled shape was lying in the dust a good distance away, but from where they were standing it didn't look anything like a panther.

  'Shadlog's beard!' muttered Cornelius. He drew his sword from its scabbard and began to walk back along the trail. Sebastian followed, drawing his own sword. First they came to the end of the long length of rope; they followed it to find that the noose was looped around the neck of a dead man. He lay face down, naked and bloodied. Cornelius knelt beside the body and turned the head round to reveal the face.

  'Adam!' whispered Sebastian. 'But . . . how can that be? It was a panther I roped – we both saw it.'

  'A changeling,' said Cornelius. 'A shape-shifter. I've heard people speak of their existence but I've never seen one till now.' He thought for a moment. 'That's how they were able to escape through that narrow gap in the cave!'

  'They? You mean—'

  A deep rumbling growl snapped Sebastian's gaze back up to the tree line. The second panther, a female, was crouching there, staring at him intently with her malevolent yellow eyes. Oddly familiar eyes, Sebastian thought, and a cold chill ran through him. As he watched, the panther began to change her shape. Her body reared upwards, her fur receded, her paws melted and elongated into fingers, and almost faster than his eye could follow, the cat was a naked woman and it was Leonora who stood there, glaring at him with cold hatred in her eyes.

  'You killed my brother,' she snarled.

  'It . . . it was an accident,' said Sebastian. 'Well, no, it wasn't an accident, obviously, but I thought he was a panther. Well, he was a panther! And he was attacking my friend! Er . . . look, do you know you haven't got any clothes on?'

  She said nothing for a moment, just stood there glowering at him in silent accusation. Then she raised an arm to point a finger at him. 'I curse you, Sebastian Darke,' she said.

  'Oh no, don't do that! There's really no need to—'

  'I curse you and your friends. You will find what you seek but it shall never be yours. Never! And you shall see me again. This I swear!'

  'Look, can't we just talk about this?' Sebastian spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness. 'Adam shouldn't have attacked us like that. We—'

  But now Leonora was muttering some strange, incomprehensible language and waving her hands in front of her, as though plucking invisible objects out of the air.

  'Right,' said Cornelius. 'I've had about enough of this.'

  He leaped to his feet and, lifting his sword above his head, raced towards Leonora, bellowing as he ran. But as he brought back his sword to strike her, there was a sudden flash of brilliant light, so intense that he and Sebastian had to cover their eyes with their hands. And when they could see again, Leonora was gone. She seemed to have vanished.

  Sebastian stared at Cornelius. 'What happened to her?' he gasped.

  'Who cares?' said the little warrior. 'Let's get out of here.'

  Sebastian pointed to Adam's body. 'What about him?'

  'Leave him here. Let her take care of him, since she's so upset.' Cornelius saw the look of dismay on Sebastian's face and slapped him on the hip. 'Don't torment yourself, lad – you were only doing what any of us would have done. You didn't know it was him.'

  'What about the curse?' said Sebastian as they walked back to the caravan. 'You heard what she said.'

  'Pah! I don't give any credence to that sort of codswallop.' Cornelius clambered up onto the seat of the caravan.

  'Yes, but I bet until today you wouldn't have believed that a man could turn into a panther,' argued Sebastian, climbing up beside him.

  Max looked back over his shoulder. 'A man turned into a panther?' he echoed.

  'Yes, Max,' said Cornelius. 'It was Adam, Leonora's brother.

  And she can do it too. They're shape-shifters!'


  'I knew there was something funny about that witch,' said Max.

  'Don't call her that!' Sebastian slapped a hand over his mouth. Even the ordeal he had just endured hadn't cured him of his instinctive need to defend her. 'Sorry, but . . . well, you're not being fair.'

  'Fair?' cried Cornelius. 'Not fair? Let me see now: first they put you under an enchantment. Then they try to steal our treasure map. Then they turn into bloody great panthers and try to kill us—'

  'Yes, but it was Adam who did all the bad stuff. Leonora probably did her best to talk him out of it.'

  'Oh yes? And who do you suppose found out about our mission in the first place? Who was it who sent Adam out to collect us and bring us back to the cave?'

  Sebastian looked at him blankly. 'But . . . she just wanted to help us, didn't she?'

  Cornelius made a gesture of exasperation. 'Come on, let's just leave. The sooner we're out of this infernal forest, the better.'

  'Hang on a moment!' complained Max. 'I've got great big claw marks on my bottom, my lungs are about to burst, my legs are aching and you two won't give me any time to rest!'

  Cornelius shrugged. 'Take as long as you like,' he said. 'But I should perhaps mention that Leonora is still out there: she can still change into a ravening beast and she blames us for the death of her brother.'

  Max frowned. He considered for a moment, then shrugged his massive shoulders. 'Perhaps I'll have a rest later,' he said.

  And without further argument he set off along the track.

  CHAPTER 7

  A FOLLOWER

  After the excitement of the morning, the rest of the day's journey was mercifully uneventful. The well-travelled track led onwards across rolling stretches of moor, rising occasionally to ridges and falling down again into shallow valleys. Occasionally large flocks of black birds traversed the unbroken blue vista of sky but otherwise they saw no signs of life.

  'Would somebody mind telling me what actually happened back there?' asked Max eventually.

  Cornelius glared at him. 'Which bit did you not understand?' he growled. 'We stayed the night with a pair of shape-shifters, one of them put an enchantment on Sebastian, and then they turned into panthers and we killed one of them. Simple really. Oh yes – and the female one put a curse on us. Mustn't forget that bit. Not that I believe in any such mumbo-jumbo.'

  'Well, I hope you're right,' said Max. 'We've had enough bad luck on this trip; a curse would be the last straw. Shape-shifters, you say! Mind you, I can't say I'm surprised. I knew there was something funny about that Adam the minute I saw him. His eyes were too close together.'

  'Hmm . . . funny you didn't mention it at the time,' muttered Sebastian.

  'Well, I could hardly say anything with him standing there, could I? I could hardly say, "Ooer, look at him, don't you think his eyes are too close together?" That would have gone down very well, wouldn't it? But I knew he was a wrong 'un. And as for Leonora . . . well!' He rolled his eyes. 'You wouldn't want to trust her any further than you could butt her.' He glanced slyly at Sebastian who, for the moment at least, wasn't going to be drawn on the subject.

  They moved on in silence for a while and then Max lifted his head, looked around and made a big show of sniffing the air.

  'You know, this landscape is beginning to look vaguely familiar,' he said. 'We can't be all that far from the Darke homestead. Maybe we should make a little detour – drop by and see if your mother's all right. We could spend a night or two resting up before we continued on our—'

  'Mother will be fine,' Sebastian assured him. 'She'll have received those gold crowns by now, so she'll be living in the lap of luxury.'

  'Yes, well, I wouldn't mind experiencing a bit of that myself,' said Max wistfully. 'There've been very few luxuries on this trip. When I think of that lovely warm stall in the stables of Keladon—'

  'What's the matter, shaggy?' asked Cornelius. 'Getting too old to rough it, are we?'

  'It's nothing to do with age! It would just be polite to drop round and make sure everything is all right. Not that a Golmiran would know anything about manners.'

  'At least I know that passing wind in front of others is rude,' snapped Cornelius.

  'In Golmiran society, perhaps,' said Max. 'But in buffalope society it's considered the height of good manners to let out the occasional trump. Why, back on the plains of Neruvia there was one buffalope who—'

  '– could play tunes!' finished Cornelius. 'Yes, we've heard about him, time and time again, and I'm sure he was a very talented fellow. But rude or not, the fact remains that we're not going to call in at Sebastian's place.' He glanced at Sebastian. 'Unless, of course, you really want to.'

  Sebastian shook his head. 'A detour would cost us a couple of extra days' travel,' he said.

  Max snorted. 'So what's the big hurry?' he wanted to know. 'If this blooming treasure has been lying around for so long, a few more days isn't going to make a lot of difference, is it?'

  'Maybe we'll visit on the way back,' said Sebastian; and the tone of his voice made it clear that as far as he was concerned, that was the end of the matter. He wasn't sure why he was so reluctant to visit the home where he'd grown up. Perhaps it was that he'd only been gone a relatively short while. Or perhaps it was simply that he didn't want to have to go through the ordeal of leaving his mother a second time.

  The truth was, he was feeling decidedly strange. Ever since leaving the forest he had been experiencing a powerful aching sensation deep inside; and whenever he closed his eyes, his head filled with the vision of a pair of tawny eyes gazing intently at him. He realized that he was still under Leonora's spell, but try as he might, he could not seem to shake off the longing that filled his heart and soul.

  Max, meanwhile, was incapable of remaining silent for long. 'So we're really going through with this madcap idea?' he said.

  Cornelius smiled. 'It would appear so,' he said calmly.

  'And you actually think that this treasure – the treasure of Captain Aspidistra – is genuine?'

  'That's Captain Callinestra,' Cornelius corrected him. 'And of course I don't know for sure. But that's the gamble we're taking; that's the excitement of the thing!'

  'Huh!' Max shook his huge head. 'You'll forgive me if I don't get too excited. The only thing that would fire me up right now is a barrel of fresh pommers. And to be honest, it sounds like a load of old mulch to me. I've never heard of this legendary Captain Alan Extra.'

  'Callinestra!' barked Cornelius. 'And his exploits are legendary. Why, my father used to tell me tales of his adventures when I was only little.'

  'So quite recently then,' said Max.

  'You watch it, shaggy – there's a limit to my patience!'

  'My father told me the same stories,' said Sebastian, making an effort to join in the conversation. 'When I was disobedient, I was told that if I didn't shape up, the ghost of Captain Callinestra would come sneaking up in the night and take me off to work as a slave aboard his pirate ship. I tell you, I soon got my act together once I'd been threatened with that.'

  'Yes, but you see, they're only fanciful stories,' argued Max. 'He's like the Snipper, something made up to keep youngsters in line.'

  Sebastian and Cornelius were looking baffled.

  'The Snipper?' echoed Sebastian.

  'Yes, a legendary beast supposed to haunt the plains of Neruvia. If a young buffalope had been misbehaving, the Snipper would come in the night, lop off his tail and take it home to use as a skipping rope.'