Ice Breaker by Lian Tanner

Author:Lian Tanner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV000000, book
ISBN: 9781743431870
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2013-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

YOUR DA WAS A TRAITOR . . .

The Head Cook’s cabin had an enormous hammock slung across the middle of it, and a sea chest on the floor beneath the porthole. Krill laid Fin in the hammock. Then, with a nod to his daughter and a deeply suspicious glare at Petrel, he left, locking the door behind him.

Blizzards, I’m glad he’s gone, thought Petrel, and she sank down onto the sea chest, still clutching her outdoor clothes and wondering if maybe she was witless after all. She couldn’t think of any other reason why she would’ve let herself be trapped in a cabin with no way out.

But then Squid laughed. ‘I think Da likes you.’

Petrel shook her head and mumbled, ‘He prob’ly thinks I’m a murderer too.’

‘You wait,’ said Squid.

Five minutes later, Krill was back with a second hammock, and five minutes after that he was back again, with a cup of water and a plate of toothies cooked to perfection.

He frowned at Petrel. ‘How old are you, bratling?’ he growled.

Petrel, who had no idea how old she was, merely shrugged. But she watched that plate with a hungry eye.

‘She’s twelve, Da,’ said Squid. ‘You know that as well as I do.’

‘She doesn’t look twelve,’ grumbled Krill. ‘She’s too small, never been fed properly.’

And he thrust the plate at Petrel, who grabbed it and began to eat before he could change his mind.

Krill turned back to his daughter. ‘Try to get some water into the boy,’ he said. He passed her the cup, then took a key from his pocket and held it between finger and thumb. ‘And keep this close. I wouldn’t be surprised if she—’ he nodded at Petrel ‘—tried to slit your throat and make a run for it, like her killer friend.’

Petrel stopped eating and narrowed her eyes at the Head Cook. She was beginning to suspect that all his gruffness was on the surface. There was none of the bone-deep nastiness that made Albie so dangerous.

I don’t trust him all the same, she thought. And she mumbled through a mouthful of fish, ‘If I want to leave, nothing’ll stop me.’

Krill reared back in mock surprise. ‘Scrawny and fierce,’ he said, and suddenly Petrel could see the similarity between him and his daughter.

She ducked her head and kept eating, but her mind was following odd pathways. She didn’t look up when Krill left, saying, ‘That boy utters another word, I want to know about it.’ Or when Squid wrestled Fin’s outdoor clothes off him, sponged his face and arms to bring his temperature down, and persuaded him to drink a little water.

Petrel was thinking about her own da, of whom she knew nothing, not even his name. She had thought about him many times before, but he had always seemed impossibly distant, like sunlight on a far-off berg, and she had never been able to imagine what he looked like.

Now she found herself wondering if he had been big and gruff like Krill. Maybe Squid knew him, she thought.

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