Storm of Sharks by Curtis Jobling Page B

you, is there, Kit?’
replied Gregor. Drew heard the sound of a playful smack from one boy to another.
Just what Trent and I might’ve done in happier times,
he mused with a
sigh. Perhaps these boys, too, were brothers.
    ‘You say you pulled me out of the sea.
What happened?’
    ‘Gregor found you,’ said Pearl.
‘It’s him you need to thank for saving your life.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Drew.
    ‘Don’t be so quick with your
gratitude, pal. I don’t much like you being here, right?’
    ‘How did you come across
me?’
    ‘You were
foul-hooked – found you tangled up in my nets.’
    ‘
Your
nets?
You
have
your own fishing boat? But you’re only a boy.’
    ‘Said yourself you ain’t much
older,’ said Gregor defensively. ‘Besides which, we do what we’re told
since Ghul rounded all the older folk up.’
    ‘So now I’m your
prisoner?’
    ‘Well, you certainly ain’t going
anywhere.’
    ‘Skipper says we’re to watch
over you until you get better,’ added Pearl.
    ‘Ignore Skipper,’ said Gregor.
‘I say what’s what, and I say you stay put. You go wandering off
you’ll get us all hung. I want you where I can keep an eye on you,
y’hear?’
    Drew sensed that the boy was more than happy
to harm him should the need arise. He winced as he tried to get comfortable.
    ‘Fetch a bucket of seawater,
Kit,’ said the girl as she manoeuvred round the injured lycanthrope. ‘Reckon
I need to change this bandage. Injuries ain’t been cleaned since we first dressed
’em.’
    Drew heard the creak and rattle of a rickety
door as Kit left and Pearl immediately set to work.
    ‘You said … you said the
older folk had been taken away?’ said Drew, trying to continue the conversation to
take his mind off the pain of the bandage removal.
    ‘Aye,’ replied Gregor.
‘Fathers and mothers, all gone. Ghul’s had ’em rounded up. How else do
you think he’s winning this war?’
    ‘I don’t follow,’ said
Drew, gritting his teeth as Pearl tugged the soiled cloth away from his flesh. ‘I
thought Bosa had got the better of Ghul. That’s what we heard on the mainland,
anyway.’
    ‘Things change awful fast in the
Cluster Isles,’ said Pearl. ‘The Whale had the Kraken on the run, with every
free pirate on the White Sea sailing to his side. But Ghul’s no fool. The
Squidlord knows how to break the backs of his enemies …’
    ‘How does taking your parents help him
defeat Baron Bosa?’
    ‘Just about every man who sails the
White Sea has family or loved ones in Cutter’s Cove,’ said Pearl.
‘Every pirate is somebody’s son or daughter.’
    ‘Ghul got tired of being hounded by
Bosa’s fleet and took everyone connected to Bosa’s renegades. That’s
pretty much every free man and woman in the Cluster Isles,’ Gregor explained.
    ‘Where to?’
    ‘Out to sea,’ the boy replied.
‘Dunno where, but whatever he’s done it’s had an effect on the
Whale’s ships. Whole crews have turned themselves over to Ghul, every soul aboard
getting clapped in irons.’
    ‘What’s he doing with those
he’s kidnapped?’ said Drew.
    ‘No idea,’ said Gregor.
‘Little news gets to us here in Cutter’s Cove. Ain’t no ships coming
into the harbour, onlythe military. They fly the Lion’s red and
gold, plus others – black flags from some distant land.’
    ‘Bast,’ whispered Drew.
    ‘What?’ asked the boy.
    ‘You mean, where,’ Drew replied.
‘It’s a jungle continent, south of Lyssia. That’s where the
Lion’s reinforcements have come from, shiploads of soldiers from
overseas.’
    He’d travelled to the White Sea with
the hope of finding Bosa. To hear that the Whale’s fleet was being whittled away,
just as Violca had suggested, made Drew’s heart sink. And what had become of
Whitley, he dreaded to think.
    ‘Was there any sign of the ship
I’d been on when you fished me out of the sea?’
    ‘No,’ said Gregor. ‘If it
was Ghul’s men that attacked you, then there’s a few likely