Pod and Essie spoke over each other.
‘Either she’s escaped, or the pirates have her,’ Will said. ‘Either way, we can’t stick around here and let the Admiralty work out who we really are. Right now, they think we’re just stupid civilians. But that’s the same boat that was here looking for Spinner—for all we know, Beckett himself could be aboard. As soon as those marines get back to their own vessel and make their report, someone might begin to figure it out. We’ve got to get away from here before they come back for us.’
‘But if Annalie really has been kidnapped, wouldn’t the Admiralty have a better chance of finding her than we will?’ Essie asked.
‘Do you want us all to get arrested?’ Will said.
‘I want her not to be dead!’ Essie shot back.
‘We’ll think of a way to get her back,’ Will said. ‘But we can’t do anything if Beckett’s got us locked up.’
‘What if she did escape?’ Essie persisted. ‘How will she know how to find us?’
‘Do you really think she escaped?’ Will asked.
Essie shrugged unhappily. ‘She might have…’
‘More likely someone saw their chance, grabbed a hostage and ran,’ Pod said gloomily.
‘Either way,’ Will said, ‘we can’t hang round here any longer. I don’t want either of them finding us again—pirates or Admiralty.’
Pod nodded his agreement and so, reluctantly, did Essie.
‘I’ll get the sails up,’ Pod said. ‘Essie, you should go and check on Graham.’
‘Wait,’ Will said, ‘what happened to Graham?’
Graham
‘Graham?’ Essie called. ‘Are you okay?’
She crunched over the broken glass, looking around. There was no sign of him. ‘The pirates are gone now,’ she called, ‘and so are the Admiralty. We’re safe. There’s no one here but us.’
She heard a caw from one of the cabins.
A cupboard door creaked open as she walked in. She hurried over; Graham had pushed it open with his beak but could manage no more. The pirate’s knife had sliced into his wing, which was hanging at an odd angle, dark with blood.
‘Oh, you poor thing!’ she said, reaching for him, but Graham snapped at her. Essie quickly pulled her hand away. ‘Tell you what, I’ll go and fetch the first aid kit and send Pod down,’ she said.
Pod came soon enough, and picked Graham up tenderly. ‘You’ve been in the wars,’ he murmured. ‘How’s that wing? Does it hurt?’
‘Course it hurts!’ Graham rasped.
‘Think you can fly?’
Graham shook his head no.
Pod looked at the wound and didn’t like what he saw. It was deep, and if it had cut through vital muscles or ligaments, Graham might never fly again. ‘Let’s bandage this up, for starters,’ he said.
Pod, assisted by Essie, bandaged the wing, while Graham winced and swore at them. When he was done, Pod found him a biscuit. ‘You’re a brave old bird,’ he said, ‘taking on that pirate. He was one scary guy.’
‘Graham not scared,’ Graham said. ‘Pod fight, Graham fight, too.’
‘Next time, pick on someone your own size,’ Pod said.
‘Next time, pick fight with bird,’ Graham said, nibbling on his biscuit, his eyes drooping with fatigue.
‘We’ll let you get some rest,’ Pod said.
‘He doesn’t look too good,’ Essie said quietly, as they left the cabin.
‘I know,’ Pod said. ‘I wish we could find him a bird doctor.’
‘You mean a vet?’ Essie said. ‘Where would we find one around here?’
Pod shrugged.
Will had set a course for the east, across the Sea of Brundisi, away from the pirates who’d attacked them and also, he hoped, away from the Admiralty ship. ‘Well?’ he asked, as Pod and Essie reappeared on deck. ‘How’s he doing?’
‘Knife wound,’ Pod said. ‘It’s bad.’
‘Going-to-die bad?’
‘Hopefully not,’ Pod said. ‘But possibly notable-to-fly bad if we don’t get him looked at.’
‘Looked at?’ Will echoed. ‘Around here?’ He gestured back towards the Brundisi shore. ‘I don’t reckon there’s a lot of neighbourhood vets in Dio. Not a lot of cats and dogs needing their claws clipped.’
‘You asked,’ Pod said stubbornly. ‘I’m telling you.’
‘You do remember that’s not our only problem, don’t you?’ Will said. ‘We still have to find Annalie.’
‘I thought you had a plan,’ Pod said.
‘Of course I don’t have a plan,’ Will said crossly. ‘I just knew we had to get out of the last mess before we work out how to get ourselves out of the next one!’
They all turned to look back at the vast, sprawling, hostile cityscape, veiled by a smoky haze. Annalie was in there somewhere, but so were the pirates, and so were the Admiralty.
‘Maybe we can try and get in contact with Spinner’s friend’s people,’ Pod said. ‘They might know what to do—who to ask—’
‘Vesh’s place just got blown up by the Admiralty, remember?’ Will said. ‘I saw it burn to the ground. Maybe Vesh had friends here, I assume he did, but I wouldn’t have a clue how to get in touch with them now. We’ll just have to think of some other way to find Annalie.’
‘Did she have her shell on her?’ Pod asked.
‘I’ll check,’ Essie said, and ran down to the cabin to check. Bad news—she returned, holding it.
‘We can’t find her that way,’ Will said. ‘And she can’t contact us either.’
For a moment, they were all sunk in gloom. Then Essie said, ‘Hang on, we don’t have to work out how to find her. They’ll contact us. They want a ransom, right? As soon as they start looking for money, she’ll tell them to call us.’
‘Yeah, but then what?’ said Pod.
‘Well, then we just try and get her back,’ Essie said.
‘How?’ Will said.
‘Maybe we just have to give them some money.’
‘We’ve got almost no money left,’ Will said. ‘Your dad’s creditstream’s been blocked and they’re monitoring his communications. If you go to him for money, they’ll be able to track us.’
‘I know,’ Essie admitted, and frowned. ‘But there’s got to be a way. Here’s another problem, though.’ She held up her shell. ‘No signal. The kidnappers can’t get in touch with us while we’re out at sea.’
‘I’m not in a hurry
