The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable Read Free Book Online

to a port they’ ve never visited. It’ s a hot place, with a smell of spices, and Mouse sees people dressed in long robes. He sees strange woolly beasts, and tall thin towers, and golden sand.
    Arram does not go ashore with the other sailors. He says he is sick with jaw-ache, and stays in his hammock with a cloth wrapped around his head. Mouse goes to visit him. Arram’ s skinny hand shoots out to grab his arm, and the old man hisses at him. ‘Be careful, boy! This is Geel. In Geel, when they find little boys who are chanters, they steal them away to the middle of the desert and eat them up! Our secret, boy. Remember!’
    Mouse shakes off his grip and goes away. On the ship, the sailors are always warning him not to do this or that, or they’ ll tan his hide, or throw him to the fishes, or chop him up for stew.
    Mouse runs up the rigging to watch the cargo being unloaded. They have big cranes and pulleys here, the biggest he’ s ever seen. The crew of Mouse’ s ship hook ropes around a heavy bale. But the man who operates the crane begins to lift the bale before the ropes are secure. The captain, Mouse’ s father, is underneath, bellowing orders; he doesn’ t notice as the bale begins to slip. The sailors shout and wave their arms, but the captain doesn’ t hear.
    Before Mouse has time to think, he is singing a chantment. He leans from the rigging and sings out as loud as he can. The bale hangs in mid-air; it dangles from one rope, impossibly suspended. The sailors and the men on the dock stare, openmouthed, faces turned upward. Mouse sings. The bale floats. The captain steps back, one step, then another, his face ashen. Mouse stops singing. The bale crashes to the deck, on the very spot where the captain had been standing.
    The sailors cheer; they don’ t understand what has happened but they are happy their captain is safe. The men on the dock seem frightened. They look up at Mouse who clings to the mast, and they make a sign with their hands to banish evil. And Mouse sees them steal glances at a man in black robes who stands in the shadows, watching the scene, watching the little boy.
    Suddenly Mouse is afraid. He scuttles down the rigging and darts across the deck toward his favourite hiding place. He scrambles out onto the bowsprit and perches there. The man in black robes steps onto the ship. The captain strides forward, frowning, his arm raised. No one comes onto the ship without the captain’ s permission. But the man in black robes sweeps the captain aside with a wave of his hand, like a fly. His eyes are fixed on Mouse.
    The little boy inches his way to the very end of the bowsprit. He is more frightened than he has ever been. Arram’ s warning comes back to him with terrible force. The man in the black robes stands in the bow. He stretches out his hand, and Mouse feels a rush of relief. The man cannot touch him, he’ s safe.
    Then the man begins to sing. Mouse is lifted by the loop of his belt. The bowsprit snaps off beneath him, and falls with a splash into the water. An invisible hand tosses Mouse roughly onto the deck, and the man in the black robes sweeps him up under one arm. The captain runs toward them, shouting. The captain’ s wife throws herself at the feet of the man in the black robes, and tears at him with her fingernails, screaming. Mouse wriggles and bites and kicks. But the man in the black robes strides swiftly on, with Mouse under his arm, off the ship and away.
    Mouse is smothered in the black robes. He will never forget their choking, dusty smell. He can’ t see where they’ re going; all he sees is the man’ s calloused, sandalled feet. The feet move rapidly, down steps, through doorways, along streets and into buildings. He can hear his mother’ s voice as she pursues them through the winding streets. Mouse wriggles and twists more than ever. The man raises his hand and clouts Mouse hard around the head. Mouse gives