The Skeleton Coast Page 14

  Essie checked her shell, and shook her head.

  ‘Weird,’ Annalie said. ‘So we’ve got no idea how big this thing is or how far it goes.’

  ‘We could end up going miles out of our way if we try to go around it,’ Will said.

  ‘So, what? Are we going to climb down it?’ Pod asked, looking uneasily at the drop.

  ‘I don’t think we’ve got a choice,’ Will said.

  ‘I can’t climb down there,’ Blossom said decisively.

  ‘It’s not climbing,’ Will said. ‘It’s just very careful walking. You’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine.’

  ‘What happens when we get to the other side?’ Essie asked. ‘Without the land surfer, we’ll be walking the rest of the way.’

  The heat shivered over them. No one liked the sound of this very much.

  Will looked down at the canyon, chewing his lip, then looked at the surfer. ‘We’ll take it with us,’ he said.

  ‘That’s impossible!’ Annalie said.

  The land surfer could of course be broken down into components—that was how they’d brought it to shore—but they were big and unwieldy. To climb down the canyon and then climb up the other side, they would need to use both hands and all their strength.

  ‘No it’s not,’ Will said. ‘I’ll take the sail, that’s the heaviest part. The rest of you can take the other bits. We’ll divide it up, it won’t be that hard. Come on—we’ve got hardly any water. Do you really want to spend the next two days walking through this?’

  They were all silent for a moment, looking at each other. Then Pod said, ‘Let’s take this thing apart then.’

  ‘We’re doing this? Really?’ Blossom said.

  ‘We can’t stay here,’ Pod sighed.

  Will set to work pulling his land surfer apart, then he used what little rope they had to tie the biggest pieces onto his, Pod’s and Annalie’s backs. Essie took one of the backpacks, loaded up with the remaining bits and pieces of the land surfer, while Blossom was given the other, filled with food and water.

  ‘Okay,’ Will said, when everybody was fully loaded. ‘Let’s do this.’

  He led the way, picking a path through the rocks and down into the canyon. They discovered very quickly that the ground between the rocks was treacherous—the surface was loose and slipped easily. ‘It’s safer if you climb down over the rocks,’ Will called, after his feet nearly went out from under him for the second time. He picked his way cautiously down; Will was sure-footed and would have had no trouble descending ordinarily, but the big sail on his back kept catching on things, startling him, and it was so heavy it threw his balance off so he was constantly in fear he was going to fall.

  They inched their way down, Annalie following Will, Essie behind them, and Pod in the rear with Blossom. Blossom had no special aptitude for climbing and kept having to be told where to put her hands and feet. It made for slow going. Pod, weighed down by the land surfer’s heavy axles, grew more and more tired.

  They were almost two-thirds of the way to the bottom when Essie’s feet went out from under her. She squealed and skidded and loose rocks began to cascade down over Annalie and Will, who were downhill from her. She managed to catch herself in time, but her sudden cry had spooked everyone else; Blossom lost her grip on the rock she was climbing and began to fall. Pod grabbed for her, but missed. Blossom began to slide, finding a chute of bare scree that whisked her down the slope, past Essie, past Annalie, and then directly into Will. She smacked into him and then the two of them smacked into a rock which stopped their headlong slide with a terrifying crunch.

  For a long moment, neither of them moved. Essie, Pod and Annalie skittered down to them as quickly as they dared, terrified.

  ‘Blossom? Will? Are you all right?’ Pod said.

  As they reached them they both stirred, groaning. Blossom levered herself off Will. Will peeled himself off the rock.

  ‘Ow,’ he said, feeling his ribs, then his head. A big egg-shaped lump was already coming up through his hair.

  ‘Have you broken anything? Is it serious?’ Annalie asked.

  They’d all heard something crunch in the impact.

  Will moved his limbs, testing them out carefully. He’d fallen on one arm, and it was very tender but not agonising. ‘Nope. Nothing broken.’

  ‘Blossom,’ Pod said, ‘what about you? Can you walk?’

  Blossom examined herself, and found a long scrape down her leg and the side of her body where she’d scoured the skin away in her slide. ‘That really hurts,’ she said.

  ‘But is anything broken or sprained?’ Pod insisted.

  Blossom shook her head, still dazed.

  ‘Will,’ Annalie said. ‘The sail.’

  The mast had been smashed by the impact, and the sail itself, which had been neatly furled, now had a long jagged tear in it.

  ‘We might be able to fix it,’ Pod said, not very convincingly.

  Will looked back over his shoulder at the sail, grim-faced. ‘Maybe,’ he said.

  ‘Sorry,’ Blossom said, in a small voice.

  ‘Let’s keep going,’ Will said, his voice tight. ‘And this time, everybody be more careful.’

  They climbed down to the bottom of the canyon without further mishap. When they reached the bottom, Essie said, ‘I think we could all do with another drink and something to eat.’

  Blossom took off her backpack and handed it over.

  Essie opened it, and said, ‘Hey, why is this—?’

  Then a look of horror came over her face.

  A water bottle had broken open inside the bag. A whole litre of precious water had been wasted, spilt into the bag, and worse, it had soaked into their remaining food. She pulled the sopping wet food out in dismay.

  ‘Our food ruined, too?’ Will said furiously.

  ‘No, not ruined,’ Essie said gamely. ‘It’s just a bit wet, but that’s okay, we can eat and drink at the same time. Here, I’ll divide it up.’

  They made the best of their soggy food and ate it sitting in the rocky bottom of the canyon. Will finished first, and sat for a while with the broken pieces of the sail, trying to think of a way to fix it. But they had no tools and no spares, and the rocky canyon bottom contained nothing he could use to splint his mast or sew up the ripped sail.

  ‘Maybe we could…’ Pod began, wanting to help, but couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  Will looked at it for a few minutes longer, then said, ‘Forget it. There’s nothing to be done.’

  Annalie looked at him, then at Essie. ‘I guess we’re walking then.’

  They rested for a little longer, then began their ascent, leaving the abandoned pieces of the land surfer lying at the bottom of the canyon; there seemed no point carrying them any further, and as a result, the climb up was a lot easier than the climb down had been.

  Traversing the canyon had swallowed up most of the afternoon. They walked now with the sun behind them, casting shadows in front of them that grew longer and longer. As the sun sank, the blazing heat faded; the temperature plummeted. None of them had planned for this; no one had brought warm clothes. They began to shiver.

  ‘We won’t be so cold if we keep moving,’ Annalie said.

  It was cold and weary walking, the sand sifting into their shoes, stones turning under their feet. When, later, the moon rose it was easier to see where they were going, but all it revealed was a vast expanse of nothingness.

  ‘Maybe we should stop and make camp for the night,’ Essie suggested. ‘Blossom’s got matches. We could light a fire.’

  ‘No firewood,’ Will growled.

  ‘Oh. Good point,’ Essie said.

  They kept walking. Annalie was in front, leading them with the compass. The compass points glowed in the dark but even so it was hard to read and she began to feel that her world had narrowed to the stony ground under her feet and the wobbling green arrow that floated in front of her eyes.

  Hours passed. The stars blazed cold and beautiful in the desert sky. Th
ey stumbled on, exhausted, thirsty, hungry.

  Suddenly, a welcome sound: Essie’s shell pinged.

  ‘Signal!’ she gasped, whipping it out.

  Annalie took out her own shell. She’d written a message to Spinner as they were entering Kinle Bay; now it flew off into the night: Spinner, we’re here in Sundia. We’re coming to see you. Please wait for us. Reply as soon as you get this message. Prompted by Will, she’d added a second message: Beckett is following us. Be careful!!

  ‘If there’s signal, that must mean we’re close to a settlement,’ Will said.

  ‘Maybe it’s the Ark!’ Essie said.

  ‘I hope so,’ Annalie said.

  They waited for several minutes, but no answer to their messages came. ‘Do we keep going?’ Annalie asked finally.

  ‘I guess so,’ Will said.

  They kept walking. They walked for what seemed like a long time.

  ‘Where’s the Ark?’ Essie asked. ‘Shouldn’t we be able to see it by now?’

  Annalie said nothing. A nasty worried feeling was creeping over her. ‘Do you still have signal?’ she asked.

  They took their shells out.

  Nothing.

  ‘Does that mean we’ve overshot?’ Will asked.

  ‘Are we lost?’ Pod asked, his voice wobbling.

  ‘It’ll be okay,’ Annalie said gamely. ‘When the sun comes up, I can work out where we are.’

  ‘We should go back where there’s signal,’ Essie said. ‘Tell them to come and get us.’

  ‘We don’t even know where that is. We could be walking in circles,’ Pod said.

  ‘We haven’t been walking in circles!’ Annalie said fiercely, but before anyone else could respond, Graham spoke up. ‘Something coming.’

  ‘Oh, what now?’ Essie moaned. ‘Giant man-eating desert lizards?’

  They drew closer together, afraid that Sundia was about to throw some new danger their way.

  ‘There!’ Blossom pointed.

  A wavering, sinister shape was silhouetted on the top of a dune, long-legged and impossibly tall. For a moment it seemed their worst fears had been realised; then Annalie said, ‘Is that someone on a camel?’

  The camel galloped down the dune and began coming towards them; a second and a third followed.

  ‘Should we be running towards them, or away, do you think?’ Will said warily, remembering that Sundians liked to throw foreigners in prison.

  ‘Too late now,’ Annalie said. ‘They’ve seen us.’

  None of them had the energy to run any further. Cold, exhausted, thirsty, they stood and watched in resignation as the camel train came towards them.

  The lead rider drew up in front of them. The camel knelt. A slight figure stepped lightly from the saddle and said, ‘Which one of you is Annalie?’ It was a woman’s voice.

  Hope flared in all their hearts. Annalie stepped forward. ‘I am.’

  ‘I’m Sola—Sola Prentice. How did you get out here?’

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Annalie said.

  ‘You can tell us back at the Ark,’ Sola said. ‘I’ve got someone here who’s been dying to see you.’

  As she spoke, the second camel knelt and they saw its rider step down onto the sand, his parrot’s crest of silver hair shining in the moonlight.

  ‘Spinner!’ Annalie cried. She and Will launched themselves into his arms, almost knocking him sideways.

  ‘Steady on!’ he said, laughing, hugging them to him as tight as could be, and for a few long minutes they were all hugs and laughter. Graham spiralled above them, letting out huge ripping shrieks, before he sailed down to land on Spinner’s shoulder.

  ‘Bad Spinner,’ Graham said. ‘Spinner went away.’

  ‘I know,’ Spinner said, stroking him. ‘I didn’t want to. But it had to be done.’

  ‘You’re lucky we found you,’ Sola said. ‘There’s a lot of desert out here to get lost in.’

  ‘She said we weren’t lost,’ Will said, poking Annalie.

  ‘We weren’t,’ Annalie said.

  Spinner smiled. ‘Let’s get you back to the Ark.’

  The Ark

  The rest of the journey was something of a blur. Camels were produced for all of them, and they lurched through the night, lulled into a half-doze by the animals’ rolling gait. The Ark, when they reached it, appeared little more than a huge dark shape rising out of the desert before they were whisked inside, and found drinks and food and beds, where they all collapsed into desperate slumber.

  The next morning, they were all awake within minutes of each other. They were in a bunkroom, clean, tidy, utilitarian, but windowless.

  Spinner soon appeared in the doorway.

  ‘We didn’t get a chance to do proper introductions last night,’ he said, giving a twinkly-eyed smile to Essie, Pod and Blossom. ‘I’m Spinner.’

  ‘I’m Essie Wan. Me and Annalie met at school.’

  ‘I’m Pod. These guys rescued me. This is my sister Blossom.’

  ‘I’m new,’ Blossom said.

  Spinner laughed, then turned to Will and Annalie, trying to look stern. ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you two. What are you doing in Sundia? I thought I told you to go home. You promised me you’d go home.’

  ‘We promised we’d stay safe,’ Annalie said.

  ‘Not that we’d go home,’ Will said. ‘It’s different.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound like you managed that either,’ Spinner said. ‘I get to Sundia and my shell’s full of messages about kidnappers and ransoms.’

  ‘You were the one who went to Brundisi,’ Will said. ‘We only went there because we were following you.’

  Spinner gave them a squinty-eyed look. ‘All right, well, don’t make a habit of it. From now on, you do what I say, right?’

  Will and Annalie looked at each other and giggled.

  ‘You think I’m kidding?’ Spinner said, but didn’t follow through on the threat. ‘Who wants some breakfast?’

  Spinner took them to the Ark canteen, which had an extensive breakfast menu. Sola soon joined them and encouraged them to order whatever they liked. Will ordered everything.

  ‘Are we allowed to be here?’ Annalie asked, looking nervously at the other people in the canteen. They were the first Sundians they’d seen; the ones in the canteen had bronze-brown skin, dark hair and eyes, and, like their gods, were mostly built on a monumental scale. Some of them had nodded and smiled at the children when they came in; none of them seemed particularly troubled that they were there.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Sola said. ‘They know you’re with me.’ She paused, then added, ‘The Ark isn’t like the rest of Sundia. Anywhere else, you’d probably be arrested—there are big rewards for anyone who catches a foreigner. But this is still an international research station, at least in theory. We don’t mind the odd foreigner here.’

  ‘So are you Sundian?’ Annalie asked.

  ‘Half Sundian,’ Sola said. She was slight and smiley, with big dark eyes and a sweep of long straight dark hair. ‘I was born and raised in Dux, but my mother was born here, and I still have family here. When we all went on the run, this seemed like the obvious place to come. My cousin works here and she got me a job—first as a gardener, which was fun, actually. But then they found out what I could actually do—’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Advanced computer system engineering. So now I work in operations keeping the Ark going.’

  ‘What is the Ark anyway?’ Essie asked.

  ‘After breakfast, I’ll give you the tour,’ Spinner said.

  Their food arrived, and for a while, no one said anything. When the eating finally slowed, Spinner said, ‘So tell me, what’s this about an Admiralty ship following you?’

  ‘It’s the same one that came after you in Dio,’ Will said. ‘I recognised it straight away.’

  ‘An Admiralty ship can’t be here,’ Sola said. ‘They wouldn’t dare enter Sundian waters.’

  ‘This one did,’ Will said.

 
‘And you think they’re following you?’ Spinner asked.

  ‘It sure looked like it,’ Annalie said.

  Spinner turned to Sola. ‘Then we need an exit strategy.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Sola said, and got to her feet.

  ‘Will we get to go on a pirate submarine?’ Will asked hopefully.

  ‘You don’t want to go on a pirate submarine,’ Spinner said. ‘Trust me.’

  ‘Why not?’ asked Will.

  ‘Imagine climbing inside a noisy hot tin can with a bunch of smelly pirates, then going to the bottom of the ocean and staying down there for weeks.’

  ‘Right,’ Will said, deciding that perhaps submarines were not so cool after all.

  ‘Where are we going to go?’ Annalie asked. ‘After this?’

  Spinner sighed. ‘That’s a very good question. We can’t go home—even if Beckett’s guys hadn’t wrecked it, I’m sure they’re still watching the place.’

  ‘We could find a new home, couldn’t we?’ Will suggested. ‘I mean for all of us.’

  ‘I have a home,’ Essie said quickly. ‘But Pod and Blossom don’t.’

  ‘Well, you’re very welcome to stick with me,’ Spinner said kindly, ‘if that’s what you want to do. But I can’t promise you it’s going to be very comfortable. I’ve been on the run for months now, and there’s no sign that that’s going to change any time soon.’

  ‘We’ve got a place,’ Will said eagerly. ‘We found it. There’s an island, back in the Moon Islands. Me and Essie got marooned there, which kind of sucked, but it has this castle on it! And it’s deserted! And it would make an awesome hideout!’

  ‘It wouldn’t take much work to fix it up,’ Essie added. ‘You’d need to bring in some power—and some food—’

  ‘But there’s loads of space for everyone, and it’s quiet and secluded. It’d be a red-hot hideout,’ Will said.

  Spinner raised his eyebrows. ‘Sounds intriguing. There are worse places to hide than the Moon Islands—as you know. But first we’ve got to get away from Sundia. And that might take some doing.’

  ‘The Sunfish is anchored in Kinle Bay,’ Will said. ‘We can just go. Right now.’

  ‘We might need some help chasing off that whale,’ Pod said.