Larklight by Philip Reeve

Author:Philip Reeve [Reeve, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Humour, Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Childrens
ISBN: 9780747582403
Publisher: B. Wahlström
Published: 2006-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

‘A hundred pound,’ he said, when Jack told him we were hoping to pay a call on Thunderhead. ‘That’ll get you there, but I can’t promise he’ll talk to you. He’s a strange old cove. There’s them as he likes, and them as he don’t, and if he don’t then you might as well talk to the wind.’

Grindle grumbled at the asking price, but Jack hushed him with a stern look. Mr Munkulus leaned in close to mutter, ‘You sure about this, Jack? I know this Gruel by reputation. You’re letting your heart do the thinking –’

Jack cut him short. ‘I don’t pay no heed to rumours, Munk, and nor should you,’ he said, and lobbed a bag of gold across the table. ‘I believe Captain Gruel’s honest as the day is long.’

None of us liked to remind him the days on Io are not very long at all.

We settled our arrangements with the captain, then went back outside into the blue mud and the curious, seaweedy smell of the Ionian air. We stopped to eat at a pavement café, and then Jack sent everyone but me back to the Sophronia. Before they went he threw a few silver coins to Mr Munkulus and said, ‘Pick up a flock of hoverhogs at the market behind McCallum’s place.’

‘Hoverhogs, Captain?’ asked Mr Munkulus, his broad face creasing in a frown as he tried to divine Jack’s purpose. ‘We never bothered with hoverhogs aboard Sophronia before.’

‘That’s why she looks like a sty,’ Jack shot back. ‘I mean to keep her good and tidy from now on. Art and me are going to ask old Thunderhead about these spiders, and if he can tell us which world they hail from we’ll be flying there to fetch Miss Mumby. I want the Sophronia looking clean and shipshape for her when she comes back aboard.’

The crew just stood and gaped at him. They probably thought he had inhaled some advertising spores, but I guessed that he was simply plotting to annoy my sister by showing her that he could be just as neat as she. It was encouraging to see that he was so confident of finding her again.

Ssilissa seemed worried about his plan of entering the wind-race with none but me for company. ‘I should come with you, Jack,’ she said. ‘I don’t trussst that Gruel fellow. If sssomething goes wrong down in those cloudsss there will be nothing we can do to help.’

Jack shook his head. ‘I’ll need you here, Ssil,’ he said. ‘If we don’t come back it’ll be up to you to get the Sophronia safe away, and look out for the others. But we will come back, of course,’ he went on hastily, glancing at me as if he was afraid he had alarmed me (which he had). ‘Back by nightfall, with word of those spiders. So the rest of you head home to the ship, and make sure McCallum’s people aren’t stealing all her fittings.’

Our friends wished us fare-thee-well and

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