Time seemed to slow down.
Pod saw the dog hurtling towards his sister’s throat, teeth bared.
He heard Annalie cry out.
He began to swing the stick that he held, knowing it would not connect in time.
Then there was an enormous donk and the dog seemed to change direction in mid-air.
A rock had flown out of nowhere and hit it.
‘Quick!’ Annalie shouted.
And then they were running again, Pod and Blossom, and they were out of the trees, and the remaining dogs were coming after them, but Annalie and Will were already aboard a strange thing that looked part canoe, part sailing vessel, part wheelbarrow, and Essie was standing in the path, a great big rock in her hand. It was Essie who had thrown the first rock and was waiting with another in case the dogs wanted to have another try. The rest of the dogs had thought better of it and were circling beside their fallen companion, still hostile but wary, and Will was shouting, ‘Quick, get aboard!’ and Essie, Pod and Blossom all ran to jump on.
Will kicked off, angling the sail to catch the wind. The wheels began to turn, and the land surfer began to lumber forward. Not fast enough, not at all fast enough, and one dog then another began pacing toward them, sensing a meal, but then Will caught a lucky wind gust, the surfer jerked forward more quickly, and they were off, sailing out into the red desert.
The dogs could still have caught up with them, but perhaps they didn’t have the heart for a long chase through the desert. As they sailed into the sun, the dogs gave up; soon, they had vanished back into the trees once more.
‘I was kind of afraid this thing wasn’t going to work,’ Annalie said, when they could all breathe once more.
‘What do you mean?’ Will said indignantly. ‘It was always going to work!’
‘I can’t believe what you guys did,’ Essie said, turning to Pod and Blossom. ‘Taking on those dogs like that. I wouldn’t have dared.’
‘You saved us,’ Annalie said. ‘Thank you.’
Blossom looked into Annalie’s eyes, and for the first time saw something like respect there. A confused but happy feeling rose up in her; of all the crew of the Sunfish, Annalie was the one she had most wanted to impress.
‘How did you set the branches on fire?’ Essie asked curiously.
Blossom produced a box of matches from her pocket. ‘They’re from the cruise ship. And no, I didn’t steal them.’
Will laughed. ‘It’s good to be prepared.’
‘You should have seen her,’ Annalie said approvingly. ‘She was terrifying.’
Blossom basked in the sudden warm glow of their approval.
Watching her, Pod felt something relax inside himself, the tight anxious feeling he’d been carrying around since the day he brought her aboard: the fear that this was all going to go wrong; that she’d never find a place among his friends; that one day he’d have to choose between them. Because of course it wouldn’t be a choice—he’d have to go with his sister—but he’d dreaded the thought of losing the best friends he’d ever had.
Now he thought maybe it was all going to work out after all.
Surfing the desert
Surfing a desert was both like and unlike sailing the seas.
The red desert was both sandy and stony, and as they went deeper into it, they found themselves rising and falling over dunes that were a little like an ocean swell. The sun beat down on them just as it frequently did at sea. And the wind turned out to be fickle and temperamental, gusting and fading according to its own whims, so that sometimes they sailed along quite smartly, but at other times they barely moved at all.
It wasn’t long before the cool ocean breezes faded away entirely and they were in a hot country that was staggeringly dry. The temperature rose and rose and rose. There was no shade to be seen anywhere. The water they’d brought with them began to seem pitifully small.
‘I really wish we could have waited till nightfall,’ Will grumbled, as the wind dropped for the umpteenth time and the surfer slowed to a crawl. ‘The sun’s unbelievable.’
‘Maybe we should stop,’ Annalie suggested. ‘Use the sail as an awning. Try and get some rest and wait until it gets dark before we start again.’
‘It won’t give us much shade,’ Will said. ‘We’re better off trying to get there as quick as we can. Apart from anything else, we know Beckett’s still out there somewhere. We need to get to Spinner first.’
Annalie turned to Essie. ‘You got any signal yet?’
They’d both brought their shells with them in the hope that somewhere on this remote shore they might be able to send a message to Spinner. Fortunately Essie had suggested they seal them inside a waterproof bag so they’d survived their dunking in the waters of Kinle Bay. But when she checked her shell now there was no signal.
They surfed on. As they travelled, Will began to realise there was one very significant difference between sailing on water and surfing on land. The desert was both gritty and stony, and the further they went, the more the sand and stones chipped away at the wheels, worked their way into the axles and ground into the mechanism that kept them moving forward. Gradually, slowly, the wheels began to seize. The ride grew bumpier, until at last the wheels wouldn’t turn at all.
‘Everybody off,’ Will sighed.
They stood there in the blazing sun while Will tipped the surfer over for a look.
‘This might take some work,’ he said grimly.
Pod and Annalie turned the sail
