Everdark by Abi Elphinstone

Author:Abi Elphinstone [Elphinstone, Abi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471184994
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Smudge leaned against the bow of the boat and peered through the dark. The sky was still full of clouds and the air was misty with drizzle, but the storm had passed and they were one step closer to Everdark and to finding out what else lay beyond the Northswirl.

Bartholomew emerged through the trapdoor and Smudge squinted harder into the gloom. ‘It just looks like miles and miles of open sea around us . . .’

The monkey ran his paws across the stern. ‘That clanking noise we heard after The Coddiwomple transformed its sail and altered its lantern . . . I thought perhaps the boat might have had an extra weapon to help protect us, but I can’t see anything different.’

The clanking noise had, as Bartholomew had guessed, been an extra weapon, but it was too dark for either he or Smudge to see the little slits on the railings through which thousands of merscales had poured when the fanged wave dragged them down. Because, unbeknown to those aboard the dhow, there had been a final threat readying to pounce in the Northswirl, and sensing it, The Coddiwomple had hurled the one thing capable of beating an ogre eel – merscales – out into the sea when the monster drew close. Now the eel lay stunned into a trance at the bottom of the ocean but even merscales cannot hold back evil forever. And it would have helped Bartholomew and Smudge immensely if they had known that by the next moonrise there would be a rampaging monster tailing their boat. For now, though, they sailed on unawares.

Bartholomew fumbled through the trunk under the canopy, then his face dropped. ‘We forgot to take the quill and ink down into the cabin.’ He looked up at Smudge. ‘They’re gone . . . Tossed overboard by the storm.’

Smudge glanced nervously at the sail. ‘How will we direct the ship without them?’ She slumped against the side of the boat. They’d got this far – they’d achieved what no other Sunraider had – and yet now it seemed they were stuck! ‘How could we have been so careless?’ she muttered.

Bartholomew was silent for a moment, then he looked up at Smudge. ‘I wonder,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I just wonder . . .’

He beckoned her back towards the trapdoor and Smudge followed him down inside the cabin, desperately hoping the monkey’s hunch – whatever it was – was right. The obligasaurus was whizzing back and forth, straightening hydra tails and hauling up furniture. It had claws tucked under its armrests, as well as below the seat, it appeared, and these were working tirelessly to set the cabin right.

Bartholomew’s face lit up. ‘If the place is being given a spring clean, then I might well be able to find what I’m looking for.’

The obligasaurus seized a broom and began sweeping up the rogue sea-hoppers (miniature toads that could burp the alphabet backwards) that had escaped from a toppled fish tank.

Bartholomew hurried over to the desk and began rummaging through the papers the obligasaurus had stacked back on its surface.

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