Midnight Over Sanctaphrax by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell Read Free Book Online Page A

shadows before him. He paused. Half a dozen of the great white ravens were perched on the boulder at the top, squabbling for position. Others clung to the sides. A dozen more - massive specimens, each of them - were down on the ground, wings outstretched, loping round in their strange, weightless dance. They were guarding something, that much was clear.
    The professor took a step closer. His heart thudded -not only with fear, but also with excitement. Whatever the white ravens were clustered around, it was still glowing. He took another step. And another …
    ‘Waaaaark!’ the white ravens cawed furiously as their attention was grabbed by the intruder.
    Those on the stack flapped their wings and rose up screeching into the air. Those on the ground loped forwards and thrust at him with gaping beaks and savage talons. They were angry - and hungry.
    ‘D … do you not know me?’ the professor cried. He held out the heavy gold seal of high office which hung from the chain around his neck. ‘It is I, as Most High Academe who sees to it that you are fed, who …’
    He fell still. The birds were paying no heed to his words.They were all around him now in a wildly flapping circle, and beginning to test his strength. To keep them at bay was a hopeless task. Even while the professor was lashing away at those in front of him with his heavy wooden staff, others were snapping viciously at his back.
    ‘Kraan!’ he bellowed. Surely his old friend wouldn't let any harm come to him. ‘ KRAAN !’
    From above his head came a flurry of wings as the largest and most powerful white raven of all spiralled down out of the sky. Its talons glinted. Its beak gleamed. It was Kraan. Staggering backwards, the professor watched it land on the back of an attacker and sink its beak in its neck. A loud shriek echoed round the Stone Gardens. Blood trickled down over white feathers.
    ‘ WAAAARK !’ Kraan screeched menacingly.
    The other white ravens fell back.
    ‘Dangerous here,’ Kraan croaked, spinning round to snap viciously at a bird that had ventured too close.
    ‘The shooting star … ?’ the professor stammered.
    ‘Shooting star,’ Kraan confirmed raucously, turning and cutting a swathe through the gathering of disgruntled white ravens. The professor followed him, nervous still. If the colony banded together they could overpower their leader in an instant.
    As they approached the glowing object, the professor squinted down into the dense mist. He trembled, hardly daring to believe what he was seeing. It must be his imagination. Or a trick of the light and shade. He moved closer still, crouched down and reached out. His fingers confirmed what his eyes had already told him. Thiswas no fallen star. No fireball. No blazing rock.
    It was the body of a sky pirate, lying on its front, face turned away - and glowing from head to toe more brightly than a flaming torch.
    ‘I knew I hadn't imagined seeing the sky ship,’ he muttered. ‘It must have exploded. And the shooting stars I saw, those eight balls of light…’ He looked back at the glowing sky pirate. ‘Could they have been the crew?’
    The cawing of the white ravens grew louder than ever. Now the professor understood why they had been guarding their find so jealously, and why his arrival had aroused such fury. To them, the sky pirate who had dropped into their midst was a free meal - a free meal Kraan and this gowned intruder were preventing them from enjoying.
    He reached forwards and seized the sky pirate by the shoulder. As he did so, his fingers brushed against something as sharp as needles. He pulled back and looked more closely.
    ‘Hammelhornskin fleece,’ he said thoughtfully. He noted the sky pirate's build, his youth - and the thick, matted hair. This time when he took hold of his shoulders he did so more carefully. He rolled him over and stared down at the face.
    ‘You!’ he gasped. The body pulsed with the eerie luminous glow. ‘Oh, Twig, what has happened to you?