Sebastian Darke: Prince of Explorers (22 page)

'Rope yourselves down!' shouted Cornelius.

The roar rose to an ear-splitting din and they began to gather speed. Sebastian watched in silent terror as the front of the raft shot out into empty space and then began to lose its fight with gravity. It tipped forward and tumbled headlong into the abyss.

After that everything was confusion. Sebastian was falling, and people and things were falling into him and around him. He had a brief glimpse of a huge, hairy shape tumbling past and he thought he heard Max yelling, 'I told you this would happeeeeeeeeeeeen!'

Then, abruptly, there was nothing. The deepest calm that he had ever experienced settled over him; he felt like a dry leaf plucked from a tree branch by the wind and borne down, down . . .

He struck the water with an impact that drove the breath from his lungs and sank into icy depths. Panic came over him like a chilly cloak, snapping him out of his reverie and galvanizing him into action. He kicked his legs in a desperate attempt to head for the surface, but he didn't seem to be going anywhere. Then it occurred to him that the rope was still looped around his waist and that the end of it was attached to the logs which, driven down by their own impetus, were still sinking. He shrugged himself free of the loop, and began to power his way up towards the light.

But then a long hard shape came up from below and struck him a glancing blow on the back, knocking the air out of him in a stream of bubbles; he realized it was a tree trunk that had broken free from the raft and was now rising back to the surface. It pushed past him, flipping him over. He twisted and kicked his legs, and now he could see the ripples on the surface of the water, but it seemed such a long way off and his chest was aching because he hadn't thought to snatch a breath before he hit the water. A dizziness welled in his head and he felt as though his lungs were about to burst . . .

He broke the surface and floundered for a moment, gulping in air as he looked frantically around him. At first he saw nothing but empty water and he began to panic. Then somebody surfaced beside him with a loud gasp; he recognized Keera and saw that she had her arms wrapped around Salah, who appeared to be unconscious. Sebastian swam up to them, still looking this way and that for something to cling to. The tree trunk that had struck him was floating a short distance further on; he thrashed his way over, flung his arms across it and pushed it back towards the two women, urging Keera to cling on. He kept an arm around it himself and turned to stare down into the depths.

He felt a jolt of terror as he saw a huge dark shape rising steadily beneath him, but the feeling turned to relief when he saw that the shape was covered in shaggy hair. An instant later, Max's huge head emerged; he spluttered loudly and shook himself to get the water out of his eyes. He headed towards Sebastian in an ungainly doggy paddle.

'Well, at least there's one thing,' he said mournfully.

'What's that?' Sebastian asked him.

'I don't need to do a wee any more!'

Sebastian almost laughed but realized this was neither the time nor the place. He looked around again and saw that the waterfall had deposited them in a wide, slow-moving pool, one side of which was bordered by a steep bank of shingle. He kicked his legs to steer the tree trunk towards land, and Keera did likewise. Halfway across, Salah coughed, threw up a mouthful of water and looked around with fearful eyes.

'It's all right,' Keera assured her. 'You're safe – just hang on.'

A few moments later, Sebastian felt his boots crunching against gravel and, pushing aside the tree trunk, he helped Keera drag the girl up onto dry land. They lay her on her back. She was shivering and her face looked pale, but as far as Sebastian could tell, she was uninjured.

Max lumbered out of the water and up the bank, shaking the water out of his coat. Sebastian turned back, anxiously scanning the pool for other survivors. He saw Cal emerging on the far side of the pool and shouted to him. The warrior waved a hand and began to swim towards him. Soon Sebastian spotted Cornelius too, clinging onto another chunk of wood and kicking with his little legs. Sebastian hurried down to the water's edge and helped Cal out of the water.

'Where's Galt?' the warrior asked anxiously. 'Did you see him?'

Sebastian shook his head. 'Not yet,' he said. 'But I'm sure he'll turn up.'

Cal stumbled a short distance up the bank and collapsed onto the shingle, gasping for breath. Now Cornelius came within reach and Sebastian extended a hand to help him ashore. Something bumped against his foot as he did so and, looking down, he saw a piece of maluba cane, snapped to half its length during the fall. He picked it up and examined it.

'I thought this stuff was unbreakable,' he murmured, showing it to Cornelius. 'Must have been quite an impact when we hit the water.'

But the little warrior was gazing about excitedly. 'I think this is it!' he said.

'What are you talking about?' cried Sebastian.

'I think it's the place where Joseph found the city.

Remember, he mentioned a big pool and a bank of shingle?' Sebastian stared at Cornelius, amazed that he could think of such a thing at a time like this. 'Yes, he did mention a shingle bank,' he agreed. 'A pity he didn't think to mention the waterfall.'

'Hmm.' Cornelius stared back as though he had forgotten about that part of it. From here they could see just how far they had fallen – Sebastian realized they had been extremely lucky to survive such a drop.

Cornelius looked at the others. 'Everyone accounted for?' he asked.

'Everyone except Galt,' Sebastian told him. They turned to survey the pool, where pieces of flotsam were still bobbing up from the deep. 'Do you think he's all right?'

Cornelius was about to answer when a familiar figure came thrashing to the surface, gasping for air and holding a dagger in his right hand. Galt looked around in bewilderment; but then he spotted his comrades on the bank and began to splash towards them.

'You all right?' Sebastian asked him, wading into the shallows to help him ashore. 'You were a long time down there.'

'Got tangled up in some weeds,' Galt told him. He waved the dagger. 'Had to cut myself free.'

'Thought you'd decided you preferred it down there,' shouted Cal, from further up the bank.

'Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay,' said Galt with a grin. He stood up in the shallows, slicked his long hair back out of his eyes and began to wade towards the bank. 'I tell you what, though: I thought I saw—'

His words were cut short as a huge greenish shape suddenly lunged up out of the water beside him. He froze in mute terror, staring into the water dragon's open jaws as they closed on him. Sebastian acted on pure instinct. He threw himself forward and thrust the maluba cane he was holding vertically into the creature's jaws. They attempted to snap shut but were stopped by the length of cane. Sebastian grabbed Galt's arm and pulled him away. They fell heavily into the shallows, while the water dragon, issuing strange choking sounds, thrashed wildly to and fro and crashed back into the deeper water, its jaws wedged open. There was just a flick of its tail to mark its passing.

Sebastian lay there, staring at the diminishing ripples on the surface of the pool. Behind him, he heard Keera cry out in disbelief and Cal uttered an oath. Then there was a silence so deep, the smallest noise would have sounded like a thunder-stick.

Galt turned his head and looked at Sebastian. He swallowed. 'You saved my life,' he said.

Sebastian could only nod. It was true enough, he decided, but it had been sheer luck that he had been holding the maluba cane. The only other thing he could have put into those open jaws was his own body. He let out a long exhalation of air.

'Well done, lad!' said Cornelius, slapping him on the shoulder. 'Now that's what I call reflexes.'

Cal came running down the bank and helped Galt to his feet. The big warrior looked at his friend and they embraced.

'I thought you were gone,' he said.

'So did I.' Galt pulled away. 'It was the Elf Lord. He—'

'I saw,' said Cal. He turned and extended a hand to help Sebastian back to his feet. 'You did good,' he said grudgingly and Sebastian smiled, thinking that this was high praise indeed, coming from Cal.

'It was . . . I just happened to be . . .' He gave up and shrugged his shoulders.

'I owe you one,' said Cal and threw an arm around Galt's shoulders.

Sebastian and Cornelius exchanged looks.

'Young master, that was positively heroic.' Max had observed the scene from a distance. 'It happened so quickly, otherwise I would have been there to back you up.'

Sebastian smiled. 'I know,' he said.

The three of them turned and followed the others up the shingle. Keera was sitting with her arms around Salah. They were both gazing at Sebastian so reverently that he began to feel a little uncomfortable.

'Now who can say you weren't sent to save us?' asked Keera. 'Okrin sent you to us, and once again we are in your debt.'

'Oh, please,' Sebastian insisted. 'I just did what anyone would have done.'

'Forgive me,' said Keera, 'but I know better.' She glanced at Cal, who was sitting with Galt a short distance away. 'Now do you accept that he is the Chosen One?' she asked him.

Cal grimaced. 'I accept that he's brave,' he said. 'I accept that he saved Galt's life. But that doesn't mean he's the one written about in the old stories.'

Keera was exasperated. 'I don't know what it would take to convince you!' she cried.

'Listen,' said Sebastian. 'It really doesn't matter. Let's just forget the whole thing, shall we?'

'Yes, let's,' said Max. 'We don't want the young master getting a big head, do we?'

'It was a brave thing he did though,' said Cornelius. 'And courage should be acknowledged.' He seemed to remember something and lifted his head to stare thoughtfully up into the trees beyond the shingle. 'Now, I was just saying before that water dragon popped up . . . this looks very much like the place that Joseph described.' He continued up the bank and Sebastian followed, his boots clunking on the loose stones.

Max trailed along in their wake. 'But the waterfall,' he reasoned. 'He would have mentioned that surely?'

'It was a long time ago,' said Cornelius. 'An old man's memories can play tricks on him. And I seem to remember that he was unconscious for the last part of his time in the water.'

'Yes, that's true,' said Sebastian. 'But he would only have had to glance upstream to see it.'

Cornelius shrugged. 'Nevertheless, it feels like the right place.' He came to the edge of the jungle and reached up on tiptoe to pull aside a screen of ferns. Beyond were more ferns, so he took out his sword and began to hack them aside.

'Oh, so now we're trusting everything to your instinct, are we?' asked Max. 'I said from the beginning, I wasn't even convinced we had the right river. What are we supposed to do now?'

'That rather depends,' said Cornelius, swinging the sword from side to side.

'On what?'

'On what we find in the next few moments.' Cornelius gave a particularly fierce swipe and a huge fern crashed to the ground in front of him. There was a long silence. 'There now,' he said quietly.

Sebastian stared. Rearing above the dense vegetation some distance ahead was the top of a gigantic stone building. It soared some thirty or forty storeys into the air, its many windows staring sightlessly down at the desolation around it.

'Is that what I think it is?' muttered Max, overcome with awe.