Will had dismissed Doria for all these reasons, but in the present circumstances, he could see it might be exactly what they were looking for.
‘Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad choice,’ he conceded. ‘There are lots of foreigners there so we wouldn’t be so obvious, and plenty of boat traffic, too. Hopefully it’ll be easy to slip in and out unnoticed.’
And so they sailed on to Doria. As they drew close to the harbour, Essie’s shell pinged and they all came together to see what the message was.
An unidentified caller had rung, but had left no message.
‘Do you think that was them?’ Will asked.
‘It could be,’ Essie said.
‘Call them back,’ Will said.
‘I can’t,’ Essie said. ‘That’s what “No call ID” means.’
Will frowned, stymied. ‘Why wouldn’t they leave a message?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Essie said.
‘Only want to talk directly?’ Pod suggested.
Will looked at the others. ‘What do we do? What if they call again?’
‘If they call again, I’ll answer them,’ Essie said. ‘We can’t do anything until we know what they want. And we still need to find a vet for Graham.’
They sailed into Doria’s harbour and dropped anchor in a distant corner. Pod and Essie took the dinghy and went ashore with Graham while Will stayed with the boat. They promised to call him if they heard anything more from the pirates.
It was getting close to the end of the tourist season in Doria, but to Pod it seemed amazingly crowded. They walked at first through strolling, shopping throngs of Duxans and northerners, past gleaming shops and fashionable restaurants that made Essie sigh with longing; then they moved beyond the tourist areas and into the backstreets where the ordinary Gantuans lived and worked. Eventually they found their way to the vet clinic Essie’s shell had identified. The receptionist didn’t speak Duxan, or either of the other two languages Essie could get by in, but when they showed him Graham’s wing, it was clear what they needed.
The vet was summoned; she showed them into an examination room and looked at Graham’s wound. Luckily, she could speak a little Duxan. ‘Your parrot need surgery,’ she explained, reaching for the right words. ‘To fix, must be…’ She mimed asleep.
‘You can’t just sew him up?’ Pod asked, miming sewing.
The vet made a see-sawing motion with her hand, a dubious expression on her face. ‘Surgery…better,’ she said.
‘If he has the surgery, will he be able to fly again?’
‘I think,’ the vet said.
‘And if he doesn’t?’
The vet raised her eyebrows sceptically.
Pod and Essie looked at each other. ‘I guess he needs the surgery, then,’ Pod said.
Graham—who was under instructions not to speak—squawked, although it wasn’t clear if he was approving or objecting.
‘There will be cost,’ the vet warned gently. She had evidently noted the state of their clothes. Essie’s had once been expensive and fashionable, but months on the boat had taken their toll, and now they were worn and salt-stained. Pod’s clothes had never been nice. No one could have blamed her for wondering if they could pay their bill.
‘We can pay,’ Essie said confidently. ‘Can you tell us how much it’s going to be, please?’
The vet quickly totted up the costs for the surgery, the anaesthesia and the medicines. Essie choked when she saw the total.
‘Is that in Duxan creds?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ the vet said.
Essie looked at Pod anxiously, then pulled him into the corner. ‘This will use up all of our money,’ she whispered. ‘And once it’s gone, I don’t know how we’ll get any more.’
They both turned to look at Graham, who was sitting on the examination table, his damaged wing drooping. His handsome plumage was dull and ruffled; he looked miserable and frightened.
‘He needs the surgery,’ Pod said.
‘But it’s so much money,’ Essie said. ‘And what if we need it to pay the pirates?’
Pod scowled unhappily.
Essie looked at Graham, then at the vet, and came to a decision. ‘I’ve got an idea,’ she said. ‘Stay here with Graham. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
Essie was gone for nearly two hours. Pod sat in the waiting room with the grumbling, unhappy Graham. He had no idea what Essie had in mind, and he didn’t feel entirely comfortable about having let her wander off alone into yet another strange town. Admittedly, this one was less scary than some of the places they’d been, but he also knew that tourist towns were magnets for villains and thieves who knew tourists were easy pickings. He began to wish he’d gone with her so he could keep her safe, but that would have meant leaving Graham alone, and he couldn’t really do that either. Frustrated and cross with himself, he squirmed in his seat and kept hopping up to look for Essie out the window until even Graham told him to sit still. (‘Pod got ants in pants?’)
At last the door to the waiting room opened and Essie appeared. ‘I’ve got it,’ she said, looking triumphant but a little shaky.
The vet was summoned back. ‘We’ve got the money,’ Essie told her. ‘When can he have the surgery?’
Graham was whisked away and the two of them sat down to wait once again.
‘How did you get it?’ Pod asked quietly, when the receptionist was out of the room. ‘Rob a bank?’
Essie shook her head, and then pulled a shell from her pocket. Pod looked at it uncomprehendingly.
‘I
