The Flight of the Griffin by C.M. Gray Read Free Book Online Page A

hatchway.
    ‘What are you doing?’ asked Quint, grinning. ‘Loras will chat to anything, especially a cat, but surely not you, Pardigan?’
    ‘But it spoke to me,’ objected Pardigan. ‘I was reading the book, well the first page, and it started talking to me.’ He sat down at the table. ‘It was actually quite insulting,’ he added dejectedly. ‘Only now I can’t get it to talk again.’
    Quint laughed. ‘Pardigan it’s a cat! Cats can’t talk.’
    ‘I did tell him that,’ said the cat lifting its head. ‘But he just wouldn’t listen.’
    ‘There you are, I told you,’ said Pardigan laughing in relief as Quint stared in shock at the cat.
    ‘It talked!’ spluttered Quint.
    ‘Yes, I know,’ said Pardigan. ‘Just don’t get on its bad side, it can be very rude.’ He told Quint what it had said and after carefully retrieving the book, Quint read the page while still keeping a wary eye on the cat.
    ‘Well, we’ll have to wait until we’re back at the moorings and discuss this with the others. It does sound like fun though, eh, Pardigan? Challenges, danger and gifts, I wonder what the gifts are?’ He skipped up the ladder whistling and Pardigan hurried after him.
    The cat slept, and if a cat could smile, which they can, then the cat was smiling, happily.
    ****
    Up on deck Quint was coiling rope and putting the loose objects into lockers making preparations to go to sea.
    ‘I walked round the town for the last three hours,’ he said re-tying a sail. ‘I’m telling you there’s no talk about a big theft,’ he glanced at Pardigan. ‘Nothing...maybe he doesn’t know he was robbed?’
    ‘Well maybe. I just can’t believe our luck would be that good, but if he does discover it in a few days, and we’re not even here, then we won’t be suspected at all!’
    ‘My thoughts exactly, so we’re leaving on the morning tide. I’m off to pay our dues to the Harbourmaster, then we can take another walk around town to get another feel for things.’
    They locked the hatchway and after paying the harbourmaster for their stay, they walked through the port and into the bustling town of Freya. The only gossip they heard about the merchant was close to his house, where they’d heard that he’d fired his maid that very morning and had been seen screaming at her from his window.
    ‘Maybe he thinks it was her,’ said Pardigan.
    ‘Maybe,’ Quint replied. ‘Let’s just keep moving and see what else is happening.’
    They walked and walked, and listened to all types of gossip. There was much about the merchants and about the King and his troubles in the northern realms, but nothing more about Merchant Bask or his maid. They ate fried fish and shared a drink of lemon fizz from a bottle, all bought from a stall in Market Square, then headed back down to the port.
    As they approached The Griffin, they got the impression that something wasn’t right, so sprinted the last short distance, coming to a stop in front of the boat. The hatchway was open.
    ‘We’re being robbed,’ hissed Pardigan as they crept up the gangplank. Nothing unusual could be heard from below decks, only the normal creaking of the ropes and a few groans from the old timbers - the normal sounds of The Griffin sleeping. The lock was still set but strangely the hatch was open, pushed to the side. Quint dropped down inside, quickly followed by Pardigan.
    It was a mess with things thrown everywhere - crates upturned, bottles smashed, the contents of lockers all over the floor - and the cabin doors were all open showing similar scenes within. Someone had been searching for something.
    ‘I think our secret’s out,’ hissed Pardigan. ‘They got the book and knife by the look of it,’ he muttered unhappily as he set the table back the right way round. ‘Let’s just get out of here while we still can. Whoever was here could come back.’
    They spent some time despondently clearing up the mess and set the hold back as it had been, then got