Zac and the Dream Stealers by Ross Mackenzie

Author:Ross Mackenzie
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2012-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

It was after one a.m. when they reached the harbor, and the snow was falling harder than ever.

Julius led them to the water, where he’d arranged for a rowboat to be moored. They climbed aboard and Julius untied the boat, setting them adrift. Cornelius picked up the oars and propelled them out toward the huge city gates. A security troll passed them without incident, and soon they were out on the vast river, so calm and black it looked like a puddle of oil.

When they’d rowed upstream a little, Julius said, “He should be waiting just over there, beside the old candy-cane lighthouse. Ah, yes — I can see a campfire.”

“That’s a start,” laughed Cornelius. “At least he turned up.”

As the boat bobbed across the great river, Zac and the others nestled into the lining of Cornelius’s coat and listened to the Knights talk about the pilot Julius had found to fly them to Port Town.

Rigby Sundown was known to be the finest sky captain anyone could ever hope to find. He’d escaped bandit skywaymen a hundred times, or so the stories went, although he’d been badly injured on more than one occasion. He’d flown farther over the Eternal Forest than anyone in history — at least, anyone who’d come back.

“Ever been on an airship?” Zac asked Tilly and Tom in a whisper.

“Never,” they both replied.

“Always wanted to, though,” said Tom.

“Imagine soaring above the clouds with the dragons and birds,” Tilly said dreamily.

“What about those bandits, though?” said Zac.

“Skywaymen?” said Tom, a faint smile creeping over his face.

“Yeah. I take it we don’t want to come across them?”

“I’ll say,” said Tilly. “They’re supposed to be ruthless.”

“They’re pretty rare now,” said Tom. “But I’d love to see them just once.”

“You must have a screw loose,” snapped Tilly. “They’re all thieves and murderers.”

“I know,” said Tom happily. “I’ve read all about them in —”

“Myth and Magic?” guessed Zac.

“Yeah!”

Zac said nothing more, but he certainly didn’t want to encounter any skywaymen. He took comfort from the fact that Rigby Sundown had escaped them so many times. And of course, Granny and the Knights would be there, too . . .

Cornelius brought the rowboat to a halt in the shallows, and the Knights ventured up the bank to a simple campsite that smelt of damp firewood. Zac peered out through the hole in the coat’s lining. There was a tent shaped like a tepee, and, less encouragingly, some dirty dishes and scattered bottles of rum.

“Hello,” Julius said. “Hello, Mr. Sundown?”

There was no answer.

A snarling blur among the snowflakes made them all jump. In a heartbeat, a huge wolf was on top of Julius, its teeth almost at his throat, its eyes glaring right into his. Julius let out a little moan.

A gruff voice thundered from the tent. “Maggie! Maggie, get down!”

The tent flap opened to reveal a man sitting in a makeshift chair with wooden wheels, his face thrown into shadow by the campfire. Dark brown eyes were just visible behind a curtain of straggly gray hair.

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