The Last of the Sky Pirates (4 page)

‘Thank you, Professor,’ said Rook as he scurried back across the bridge.

‘Oh, and Rook!’ the professor called after him. ‘While you’re about it, smarten your
self
up a bit, lad.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Rook called back. ‘And thank you, sir.’

He left the Storm Chamber, ducked down and darted back into the narrow pipe. As the darkness wrapped itself around him once again, his mood also darkened.

The memory of his nightmare came back to him: the snarls of woodwolves and the cries of slave-takers. And the terrible, terrible feeling of being alone …

And with Felix gone, he’d be alone again. A small, guilty thought crept into his mind.
What if Felix isn’t picked? What if he oversleeps and …

‘No!’ Rook slapped a fist to his temple. ‘No! Felix is my friend!’

ushing past the thick hammelhornskin door-hanging, Rook entered the sleeping chamber. Unlike the damp, spartan under-librarians’ dormitory, the room was warm and cosy, for Felix Lodd enjoyed all the comforts of a senior apprentice. There was a wood-burning stove in the corner, woven hangings on the wall and straw matting on the floor. The tilderhorns trumpeted the last wake-up call as Rook approached the quilted hammock with its plump pillows and warm fleece blankets.

Rook stared down at his friend. He looked so contented, so carefree and, judging by the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, as if he were having a pleasant dream. It seemed almost a shame to wake him.

‘Felix,’ said Rook urgently. He shook him by the shoulders. ‘Felix, get up.’

Felix’s eyes snapped open. ‘What? What?’ He peered up. ‘Rook, is that you?’ He smiled and stretched lazily. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s late, Felix—’ Rook began.

‘I was having the most amazing dream,’ Felix interrupted him. ‘I was flying, Rook. Flying above the Deepwoods! Just imagine! Flying up there in the clean, clear air! It was such an incredible feeling – swooping this way and that, skimming the tops of the trees … Until I hit turbulence and went into a tailspin.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘That must have been when you woke me up.’

Rook shook his head. ‘You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?’ he said.

Felix yawned. ‘Forgotten what?’ he said.

‘What day it is today! It’s the Announcement Ceremony’

Felix sprang out of the hammock, scattering pillows and cushions, and upending a small ornate lamp. ‘The Announcement Ceremony!’ he exclaimed. ‘I thought it was tomorrow.’ He looked round the sleeping chamber. ‘Curse this stupid place!’ he thundered, pulling his robes from the heavy leadwood chest beneath the hammock. ‘There’s no dawn, no dusk. How can anyone keep track of the time down here?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Rook assured him. ‘The last tilderhorn has only just sounded. If we hurry we can still make it to the Lufwood Bridge before the Professor of Darkness begins the oath – although all the best places will be taken.’

‘I don’t care if they are,’ said Felix, fumbling to unknot his formal sash. ‘The Announcement Ceremony can’t come too soon for me. I’m dying to get out of this rain-soaked sewer and feel the wind on my face, to breathe in clean, fresh air …’

‘Let me,’ said Rook, taking the sash from his friend and deftly unknotting it. He handed it back to Felix, who was now struggling into the heavy robes of a senior apprentice.

Rook smiled sadly. This was the last time he would be able to help his friend out of some scrape or other – for today, the Professor of Darkness was bound to announce that Felix Lodd would be sent off to Lake Landing to complete his studies. There, Felix would have to look after himself; making sure that his work was submitted on time, that his robes were clean and mended, and that he didn’t oversleep on important occasions. He wouldn’t have Rook to look after him.

Then again, he’d soon make friends out there in the Free Glades because, wherever he went and whatever he did, Felix couldn’t help being popular and the centre of attention. Just like his sister before him, Felix was about to set off on a great adventure and make a name for himself up there in the world of fresh air and sunlight. And he, Rook, would be left alone.

Felix tied the sash around his waist and stood back. Rook looked him up and down. It never failed to amaze him! Just a few minutes earlier, Felix had been snoring his head off. Now he stood before him
looking magnificent in his ceremonial robes, as if he had taken hours, not minutes, preparing.

‘How do I look?’ he said.

Rook smiled. ‘You’ll do,’ he said.

‘Earth and Sky be praised!’ said Felix. He picked up two lanterns, handing one to Rook. ‘Right, then. Let’s get to the Lufwood Bridge. They’ll be expecting me.’

‘Quiet, Felix! I’m trying to listen.’ Rook stepped closer to the tunnel entrance he’d stopped beside and motioned Felix to be still with a flap of his hand. ‘I thought I heard something,’ he whispered. He raised his lantern and pointed down the narrow, dripping pipe to his right. ‘In there.’

Felix came closer. His eyes narrowed. ‘Do you think it’s a’ – he mouthed the word – ‘muglump?’

‘It sounded like one to me,’ Rook replied softly.

Felix nodded. That was good enough for him. Rook was second to none when it came to identifying the numerous parasites and predators that lurked in the network of sewers. He drew his sword and, pushing Rook firmly to one side, advanced into the pipe.

‘But, Felix …’ said Rook as, head down, he trotted after him. ‘What about the ceremony?’

‘It’ll just have to wait,’ Felix told him. ‘This is more important.’ He continued along the pipe, pausing at the first fork he came to and listening, before storming on.

Rook struggled to keep up. ‘Wait a moment,’ he panted, as Felix took a third turning. ‘Felix—’

‘Shut up, Rook!’ Felix hissed. ‘If a muglump
has
broken into our sewers from Screetown, then none of us are safe.’

‘Couldn’t we just report it and leave it to the sewer patrols?’ said Rook.

‘Sewer patrols?’ said Felix, and snorted. ‘That useless bunch can’t even keep the rats at bay, let alone a fully grown muglump on a blood-hunt.’

‘But—’

‘Ssh!
’ He stopped at a junction where five tunnels intersected, and crouched down. It was cold, dank. All around, the air echoed with the sound of dripping water. ‘There it is,’ Felix whispered the next moment.

Rook cocked his head to one side. Yes, he could hear it, too – the soft, whistling hiss of the creature’s breathing and the
squelch-squelch-squelch
of its paw-pads. It sounded like a large one.

Lantern raised, Felix followed the noises into the tunnel opposite and continued. Rook followed him. He was trembling nervously. What if Felix was right? What if it
was
on a blood-hunt?

Although they could be vicious when cornered, the muglumps which infested the Undertown sewers were generally less aggressive than their Mire cousins. Perhaps it was due to the lack of direct sunlight. Or perhaps, the change in their diet – the piebald rats they now feasted on were both plumper and more plentiful than the bony oozefish of the Mire. Whatever. As a rule, the sewer-muglumps kept themselves to themselves. But every once in a while, one of their number would develop an insatiable appetite for blood that would draw it into the main sewers in search of larger prey. A blood-hunt. Stories of the havoc such muglumps could wreak were legion amongst the scholars.

‘This way,’ said Felix grimly as he turned abruptly right. ‘I can
smell
it.’

‘But Felix,’ Rook protested. ‘This tunnel, it’s …’

Felix ignored him. The muglump was near, he was sure. It was time to close in. At a trot now, with his sword out in front of him like a bayonet, he charged down the tunnel. He was going to rid the sewers of this foul creature that had developed a taste for librarian blood once and for all.

Rook did his best to keep up. Raising his head, he saw that Felix had almost reached the end of the tunnel.

‘Felix, be careful!’ he shouted. ‘It’s a dead—
Aargh!’
he
cried as his foot slipped, his ankle turned and he came crashing down to the floor of the tunnel. ‘—end,’ he muttered.

He pulled himself up. ‘Felix?’ he called. Then a second time, louder, ‘Felix!’ Still nothing. ‘Felix, what’s—’

‘It must be here
some
where!’ came Felix’s voice, frustration turning to anger in his voice.

‘Felix?’ Rook shouted. ‘Hang on! I’m coming …’ Limping slightly, he hurried on as fast as he could. His breath came in puffy clouds. Water dripped down his neck. He pulled his dagger from its sheath. ‘Felix, are you all right?’ he asked anxiously. ‘Dead end,’ said Felix. His voice was flat. ‘Where did it go?’

Rook reached the end of the tunnel and looked into the cistern it had led to. Felix was standing at the far side, his back turned away.

‘FELIX! WATCH OUT!’ Rook bellowed. ‘ABOVE YOU!’

Felix spun round. He looked up into the shadows above his head and found himself staring into the yellow eyes and slavering crimson mouth of the muglump.

It was huge – with a swollen belly, a long, whiplash tail and six thick-set limbs. It was standing on the ceiling, its body tensed, its rapier claws glinting.

‘Come on, then, you hideous monstrosity,’ Felix challenged it through clenched teeth.