The Pirates and the Nightmaker by James Norcliffe Read Free Book Online Page B

another glance at Mr Wicker, I leapt into the air and rose higher and higher and as I did so the horizons of the world beneath me grew wider and wider.
    I then descended and made my way back to the
Medusa
. Apparently, her interview with her mother was over, for as I approached the vessel I could see the lone figure of Sophie Blade again on the poop deck as if she were waiting for me.
    ‘Well?’ she said.
    ‘I have made my report to Mr Wicker.’
    ‘And?’
    I looked at her carefully. ‘I did not tell him everything,’ I confessed.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I did not tell him of you, Sophie. I was about to, when something begged me not to. I mean, he is a strange and mysterious man possessed of unearthly powers.’ I heldup my hands. ‘See, this is what he has made of me. He has made me invisible. I know not how he might react to discover some people can see me.’
    ‘I see,’ she said, wrinkling her nose once more.
    ‘If it’s possible,’ I said, ‘we should hide this from him. He may well be able to tell … who knows? But he may not. It would be better for you, perhaps for me, if he did not know.’
    ‘So I must pretend that I cannot see you?’
    ‘It would be best,’ I said. ‘And there is something else. I thought he had made me this way to save me from a horrible fate, that it was out of the goodness of his heart, but …’
    ‘But …?’
    ‘But I am beginning to think there is no goodness in his heart and that there was some other reason, some other purpose he has in mind.’
    ‘A secret purpose?’
    I nodded. ‘It is just a feeling. But it is a feeling that I can’t escape and lies heavy on me.’
    ‘So, Loblolly Boy,’ said Sophie, ‘what is happening then?’
    ‘Mr Wicker has set the men a-rowing,’ I told her. ‘They will be heading this way.’
    ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I anticipated this, so here is my plan. Presently I will climb the mast. When they come into view, I will sound
Boat ahoy
! Then matters must take their course.’
    ‘Climb the mast?’
    ‘Well I will have to, won’t I? That’s where the crow’s nest is!’
    I looked at her disbelievingly. How could this young girl, in a cap and a red skirt, even contemplate the terrors ofthat stomach-churning climb to the crow’s nest, let alone actually do it.
    ‘Wait,’ she said, and then hurried away. Sometime later she reappeared and I saw that this time she had a telescope tucked into the top of her waistband. She stood at the top of the companionway, and said, ‘Shall I see you aloft? You can help me spy the boat.’
    Clearly she had been serious. I went to the poop rail, curious, as she dropped to the top deck and ran towards the main mast. Without pause Sophie seized the rope ladder and began to climb. Lost in admiration, I watched for some time as she clambered higher and higher without pause, passing each spar until she had cleared the topgallant and the final platform was in sight. Before she reached that final goal, I had leapt into the air myself and flew up towards her, just in time to meet her as she reached the crow’s nest.
    Despite the heat, she was scarcely more puffed than I.
    ‘You have done that before,’ I laughed.
    ‘Of course,’ she said airily.
    ‘Your mother …?’
    I meant how was her mother able to countenance the dangers of her climbing the mast, when grown men would quail at the prospect.
    Sophie turned to me and smiled. ‘In truth,’ she said, ‘my mother encourages me aloft, especially in times of action. She considers me safer up here and out of harm’s way.’
    I saw what she meant. At the same time, she had just let slip another clue as to the nature of Jenny Blade’s activities on the high sea.
    At that point, Sophie withdrew her telescope from her waistband and trained it on the horizon, swinging it from left to right. I flew higher than the mast, then, and scanned the ocean as well. When I saw the jolly-boat, I dropped to the crow’s nest and pointed Sophie in the right